Internationally renowned thinker, especially known for his work in Applied Islamics, and the Head of the Chair in Islamic Studies & Research, Yenepoya University, Dr. Javed Jamil has called for incorporation of the principles of “Dynamic Paradigm of Health” based on Islamic principles in the world health policy. He was delivering keynote address on “21st Century Healthcare – Trendsetters or Followers?” in the annual conference organised by Millat Foundation for Health, Research and Development (MFHRD) at Bangaloru. He lambasted the international health institutions for their inability to establish “life and healthiness of the life” as the leader in the international system which is ruled by “economic fundamentalism”. He said that “while in an Islamic system, health is supreme with all its laws safeguarding the life and health, the current world order is controlled by economics.
Dr. Jamil said Islam fixes the responsibility of maintaining health not just on the individuals the way it is done in the modern health management but also on the System. “Islam establishes a health-protective and promoting family system and a health-protective and promoting socio-political system,” he said.
He opined that Islam prefers primary prevention with the people not allowed or exposed to life-threatening items and practices, while the current system stresses only secondary prevention through vaccines, etc. and treatment. “They first commercialise problems and then they commercialise solution,” he argued. He said while life-threatening practices like alcohol, gambling and commercial and immoral sexual practices have all become industries on one hand, on the other Health Industry has become huge.
Dr. Jamil described how, in his MBBS Second year, he came across the anatomical details of the Postcentral gyrus in brain and found that the sequence of organs on that map is exactly the same as followed in Wudu (ablution). He then went on to present Islamic models of Family Welfare and Control of AIDS.
He gave world statistics, saying that the practices declared Haram (Prohibited) by Islam kill more than 70 million human beings every year and they form a significant portion in the international as well as national burden of diseases. “Alcohol, smoking, gambling and immoral sexual practices have become the major killers,” he said. He also called upon Ulama to declare smoking Haram as a big killer like smoking cannot be Halal in Islam, which only allows Tayyab things.
Dr. Jamil asked Muslim doctors to play a proactive role in the fight against the social vices and immoralities, which have become the order of the day and launch a movement to change the governmental policies for the health of the people. He also stressed that social solutions to the health issues created by social problems should be the mainstay of Community Medicine, which should be restructured as what he called “Therapeutic Sociology.”
The conference was attended by around 500 medical specialists in different fields from all over the country, including Kashmir, Hyderabad, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra. Earlier, introducing Dr. Jamil, Dr Mushtaq, the Chairman of the Foundation, said, “Dr Javed Jamil’s coming to South will give a new impetus to social and ideological movements in the region, which will hopefully change not only the national but also the international systems.” He also praised Yenepoya University for appointing a truly innovative scholar as the Head of Chair in Islamic Studies and Research.