Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
The Question — 0:00
What is the ruling on availing ourselves to medicine and medicinal procedures? Is every single medicine or procedure obligatory? Can a person choose not to undertake a procedure — and if it is obligatory, to what extent must one go?
The Quranic and Prophetic Foundation — 0:00
Allah mentions in the Quran, on the tongue of Ibrahim (AS): "When I fall sick, Allah cures me." The Quran also mentions honey as a cure. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "Allah has not sent any disease except that He has also sent with it a cure — whoever knows it knows it, whoever does not know it does not know it" — except for death, which has no cure.
When a Bedouin asked: "O Messenger of Allah, should we take medicine?" the Prophet replied: "Yes, O servants of Allah, take medicine — for Allah has not revealed any disease except that He has revealed its cure." (Abu Dawud)
The Misconception That Medicine Is Wajib — 3:01
The common perception is: if there is a medicine, I am obligated to take it. If doctors say I need surgery, I must do it. This is not the position of any mainstream school of law in Islamic history. One or two scholars said it is wajib, but none of the famous four madhabs held this position.
- Shafi'i: medicine is mustahab (recommended) but not wajib
- Maliki: medicine is ja'iz (permissible); it may become advisable in some circumstances
- Hanafi: ambivalent — leaning toward mustahab
- Hanbali: the standard position is that it is permissible but preferable not to take medicine and instead practice tawakkul. Ibn Qudama is explicit on this.
When Medicine Can Become Wajib — 5:12
Scholars said medicine becomes wajib only when:
The example given: you have a wound gushing blood and all you need is to tie a tourniquet. In this case, even the Hanafis and Shafi'is say you must do it. Not doing so would be approaching a type of suicide.
But for the bulk of medications and procedures, there is no certainty of outcome. It is percentage-based. Because of this, our scholars did not go down the route of making medicine wajib.
Quality of Life — 10:43
This is a key factor that secular medical culture often ignores: the quality of life. Western medicine is obsessed with prolonging life regardless of cost, but Islam acknowledges that sometimes letting a person go with dignity is the more humane choice.
Yasir Qadhi gives the example: a person with cancer has a 50/50 chance with chemotherapy, but the side effects are severe — nausea, hair loss, multiple layers of medication for side effects of medication. They say: "I don't want to go through all of this." To say it is wajib for them to undergo all of this is untenable.
His own teacher, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymin, was diagnosed with stomach cancer. When he came to America for treatment, the king sent him to Boston. He asked the doctors about the percentage of survival and the side effects. He said: "I don't want the treatment." The chemo would cause hair loss, vomiting, and severe suffering. He said: "I have lived a good life, alhamdulillah." He went back to Saudi Arabia without treatment and passed away within two months. He had the right to make that choice. Saying it was wajib would mean he had to spend all of his savings on a 50/50 procedure — that is not the Sharia.
The Default Ruling — 12:55
The position of Ibn Taymiyya — and the one that best synthesizes all the evidences — is:
- The default is that medicine is mustahab — you should do it if you can
- There are times where it may even be makruh (discouraged) — e.g., if side effects make life as miserable as the illness itself
- It only becomes wajib when the narrow conditions above are met