Medical Benefits of the Sunnah
By Abdal Hakim Murad | 2026-01-13T22:44:13.31436+00:00 | Topic: Seerah
Medical Benefits of the Sunnah
Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad
Cambridge Muslim College
Opening Greetings
Introduction
Welcome to Cambridge Muslim College's discussion on the medical benefits of the Sunnah. In recent years, there has been increasing research on the benefits of intermittent fasting and other spiritual practices on physical health. This raises important questions about the intrinsic link between acts of worship (ibadah) such as prayer (salah) and fasting (sawm), and physical health.
The Interface Between Science and Religion
Cambridge Muslim College maintains a research focus on the interface between science and religion. Our academic programs incorporate significant teaching modules on science and how this impacts Muslim doctrinal and legal thinking. We also host the Centre of Islam and Medicine and research fellows who specialize in Islam and science.
The science-Islam relation cannot be treated as individual firefighting exercises dealing with challenges one by one. Common to all these theological, ethical, and fiqh puzzles is the much deeper theological issue of how Islam views matter and its processes and the nature of divine agency in the world.
The Second Shahada and Natural Theology
Drawing from our Kalam heritage, we challenge popular understandings of the religion-science relation, which are often based on Christianity's different view of matter and divine power. We seek something distinctively Islamic.
If our theologians agree that the world of manifestation we inhabit - the created world, the Kaun of time and space - is not split into sacred and profane under the erratic guidance of a god who runs some aspects of the cosmic totality but not others, then we resolutely reject any kind of dualism. The second shahada must loyally follow the totalizing and uncompromising metaphysics of the first.
Where many Christians see Jesus entering and redeeming a natural world made dark and broken by Adam's sin, Muslims have always developed a vision of the final prophet who reminds mankind of the world's complete surrender to God, emphasizing man's full belongingness to it.
The Prophetic Example
Hence, unlike the Christ of the Gospels, our founder is part of his people's economic, political and marital life. His example, the sunnah, is all-embracing.
The centrality of following the sunnah hardly needs emphasizing to a Muslim audience, because Allah has said:
"There has ever been for you in Allah's Messenger an excellent exemplar."
The hasanah here recalls the usual Arabic combination of husn - the good and the beautiful. So he is a worker of what is right but also of what is beautiful. In copying him, in his emulation, there is the restoration in the human order of beauty to the world.
This is the meaning of the hadith that says:
(Sahih Muslim)
"God has prescribed ihsan (doing the beautiful) in all things."
The hadith then goes on to enjoin us to do certain specific things beautifully:
(Sahih Muslim)
"And when you slaughter, let him do so well and beautifully."
The Perfect Human Being
Our perfect man, our insan kamil, (صلى الله عليه وسلم) balances in his soul the balance (mizan) which we see in nature. Just as nature contains the jalal as well as the jamal - the divine qualities of rigor as well as beauty - his own nature necessarily manifests that combination in due and spectacular balance.
His sunnah inwardly mirrors the sunnah of God himself in the world. Hence a human being who lives the sunnah inwardly and outwardly, uniting and balancing these qualities, inevitably recalls the closeness of the divine.
Islam as Din al-Fitr
Our religion calls itself the din al-fitr, the religion of primordial human nature. The Quran recalls this:
"Stay your face towards the religion as a Hanif, God's nature (fitrah) upon which he created humanity."
The commentator Tabari adds that this verse refers to our humanity back to the time of Adam himself. Truly ours is presented as the religion which recalls the normality of ancient times.
The Prophet and Nature
The Holy Prophet points to nature as he himself reminds us of God. Human time began with a garden and ends, further blessed, with a garden. Luxuriant, exquisite nature is thus our natural abode where we are most profoundly at home.
There is evident symbolism in his domicile in the oasis of Medina, surrounded by verdure, indicated perhaps symbolically by the very greenness of his dome.
First Medical Benefit: Beauty and Nature
The first medical benefit of the sunnah is the prophetic and Quranic direction that we should look to nature. To see beauty, particularly the beauty of virgin nature, nourishes the soul with spiritual and measurable physiological consequences.
Professor Samir Zaki at UCL, whose research focuses on demonstrating the brain's identification of and response to beauty, concludes that beauty is not perceived primarily as the result of cultural conditioning but is something we are designed to perceive.
The Four Pillars and Health
The specifically Muhammadan way of relating to the fullness of la ilaha illallah is founded in the four ritual pillars of the deen, which all enact truly ancient and timeless sacred ways of being human.
Water and Purification
All living things come from water. We connect with the principle of movement, cyclicality, purity, and life itself by engaging personally and intimately with water in istinja, wudu, and ghusl.
Water is from heaven, and by connection with heaven we wipe away our sins and evil inclinations. The Quran tells us that Allah loves the penitent and loves those who purify themselves.
A hadith surprises us by saying:
(Sahih Muslim)
"Purity (purification) is half of iman."
Imam Muslim puts this hadith in the book of wudu, showing that for hadith scholars this refers to formal ritual washing.
The Macbeth Effect
Psychologists are aware of important aspects of what's happening with ritual washing, calling it the "Macbeth effect." Scientific research confirms the immense impact of ritual washing practices.
Experiments by Katie Lilienquist and Chen Bozhong of Northwestern and Toronto universities, reported in the journal Science, show that volunteers who wash are more likely to act ethically or selflessly, while those who do not are more willing to engage in profane or egotistic practices.
Circumcision and Health
One hygienic practice the hadith specifically identifies as one of the customs of the fitrah is circumcision. The World Health Organization officially urges countries to adopt mass circumcision programs because their trials in Africa show that circumcised men are 60% less likely to be infected by HIV than others.
It's estimated that universal circumcision in Africa could save 3 million lives over the next 20 years. The ten most heavily infected countries in Africa are all Christian, and the ten least infected are all Muslim.
Prayer and Ritual
Having cleansed ourselves outwardly and inwardly, we embark on the deepest and most ancient act in all human culture: worship. Down the ages, holy ritual has been the central affirming act of human life.
EEG and magnetic resonance imaging show clearly how beneficial rituals are to us. There's evidence of permanent changes to the brain thanks to neuroplasticity. Studies of meditation practitioners regularly show that long-term meditators have larger than normal regions of the prefrontal cortex.
Connection to Natural Rhythms
Islam, as the Deen al-Fitr, recalls us to ancient aspects of the normality of our species. As Muslims, we use a lunar, not solar, calendar, refusing to fight the geometry of the solar system. We are part of it.
The Muslim life is shaped by the rolling of the planet beneath our feet and by the moon's stately procession through its phases. When we look up and see sun and moon, we see what our most distant ancestors saw, with no change at all.
Sleep and Natural Rhythms
The human daily biorhythm is adapted to the light-dark cycle, with the release of melatonin at the end of the day preparing the body to sleep. A lifestyle which recommends sleep right after the night prayer and getting up early for dawn is helpful support to our mental and physical well-being.
Humans are evidently biphasic creatures - programmed to function with two episodes of sleep in every 24-hour cycle. This is confirmed in the Sunnah through many hadiths about the merits of the early afternoon nap, the Qaylullah:
(Sahih al-Bukhari)
"The companions of the Messenger of Allah used to take a nap after Jumu'ah prayer."
Diet: The Consumption of Meat
Our species is naturally omnivorous, and the way our teeth and digestion are designed indicates that meat is part of our mixed ancient diet. The Abrahamic principle is strongly represented by Eid al-Adha.
It is true that to produce one pound of protein requires at least 10 pounds of plant matter to support the grazing animal. However, mass conversion of the world's grazing lands to arable cultivation would be catastrophic for animals and biodiversity. Grazing is much less damaging to native ecosystems than arable farming.
Alcohol and Health
One of the easiest and most acute cases regarding health is Islam's straightforward policy of temperance and prohibition regarding alcohol. The scientific evidence has been piling up for decades - all significant consequences are negative.
According to NHS statistics:
- 9% of men and 4% of women are classified as alcohol-dependent
- 50% of physical assaults in the UK are alcohol-related
- 58% of rapes, 30% of suicides, 22% of accidental deaths, 21% of A&E admissions
Even one glass of wine a day significantly increases a woman's risk of breast, liver, and rectal cancer. The NHS calculates that alcohol is the third largest cause of disease burden not only in the UK but across the developing world.
Conclusion
The sunnah, the life form of the hakim (sage) of Medina, conserves for us a natural way of being whose absence is likely to hurt us. Despite our modern love of high-tech lives, we actually need many ancient things: faith, ritual, and a body-soul synergy that shapes our lives to retain connection with nature and our natural selves.
If we pray according to the Blessed Founder's counsel, see the world with awe and wonder, avoid alcohol and other narcotics, sleep at natural times, and maintain close relationships with others, we are considerably extending our life expectancy and reducing the risk of many ailments, particularly those related to anxiety and stress.
Perhaps we could propose this as a new form of da'wah - "sunnah therapy." It has many advantages: it actually works, seeks to turn us into interesting, spiritual, healthy, active and beautiful people, and the entire course of treatment is absolutely free.