Baha’i
Writings
3. Material / Physical
3.3
Health & Healing
(Spiritual & Material)
3.3.1
Health & Healing – Competent physicians
Whatever competent physicians or surgeons prescribe for a patient should be
accepted and complied with, provided that they are adorned with the ornament of
justice. If they were to be endued
with divine understanding, that would certainly be preferable and more
desirable. Well is it with the physician who cureth ailments in My hallowed and
dearly-cherished Name.
Baha'u'llah: Health and Healing
Pages 459
3.3.2
Health & Healing – Medical treatment & Nutrition
Do not neglect medical treatment when it is necessary, but leave it off
when health has been restored....
Treat disease through diet, by preference, refraining from the use of drugs; and
if you find what is required in a single herb, do not resort to a compounded
medicament. Abstain from drugs when
the health is good, but administer them when necessary.
Verily the most necessary thing is contentment under all circumstances; by this
one is preserved from morbid conditions and from lassitude.
Yield not to grief and sorrow:
they cause the greatest misery. Jealousy consumeth the body and anger
doth burn the liver: avoid these
two as you would a lion.
Baha'u'llah: Health and Healing
Pages 460
3.3.3
Health & Healing - Moderation
In all circumstances they should conduct themselves with moderation; if the meal
be only one course this is more pleasing in the sight of God; however, according
to their means, they should seek to have this single dish be of good quality.
(Baha'u'llah: Health and Healing
Pages 459)
3.3.4
Health & Healing - Prayer
Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy.
Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion.
Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the
world to come. Thou, verily, art
the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
(Baha'u'llah: Prayers and
Meditations Pages
262-263)
3.3.5
Health & Healing - Alcohol
Alcohol consumeth the mind and causeth man to commit acts of absurdity,
but this opium, this foul fruit of the infernal tree, and this wicked hashish
extinguish the mind, freeze the spirit, petrify the soul, waste the body and
leave man frustrated and lost.
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 239)
3.3.6
Health & Healing – Material and spiritual means
There are two ways of healing sickness, material means and spiritual
means. The first is by the use of
remedies, of medicines; the second consists in praying to God and in turning to
Him. Both means should be used and practiced.
Illness caused
by physical accident should be treated with medical remedies; those which are
due to spiritual causes disappear through spiritual means.
Thus an illness caused by affliction, fear, nervous impressions, will be
healed by spiritual rather than by physical treatment.
Hence, both kinds of remedies should be considered.
(`Abdu'l-Baha:
Baha'i World Faith*
Pages 375-376)
3.3.7
Health & Healing – Material healing and the science of medicine
Now let us speak of material healing.
The science of medicine is still in a condition of infancy; it has not
reached maturity. But when it has
reached this point, cures will be performed by things which are not repulsive to
the smell and taste of man - that is to say, by aliments, fruits and vegetables
which are agreeable to the taste and have an agreeable smell.
For the provoking cause of disease - that is to say, the cause of the
entrance of disease into the human body - is either a physical one or is the
effect of excitement of the nerves.
But the
principal causes of disease are physical, for the
human body is composed of numerous elements, but in the measure of an especial
equilibrium. As long as this
equilibrium is maintained, man is preserved from disease; but if this essential
balance, which is the pivot of the constitution, is disturbed, the constitution
is disordered, and disease will supervene.
`Abdu'l-Baha: Some Answered Questions
Page 257
3.3.8
Health & Healing – Cure by foods, ailments and fruits
It is, therefore, evident that it is possible to cure by foods, aliments
and fruits; but as today the science of medicine is imperfect, this fact is not
yet fully grasped.
When the science of medicine reaches perfection, treatment will be given by
foods, aliments, fragrant fruits and vegetables, and by various waters, hot and
cold in temperature.
`Abdu'l-Baha: Some Answered Questions
Pages 258-259
3.3.9
Health & Healing – Healing of illnesses by means of food
At whatever time highly-skilled physicians shall have developed the
healing of illnesses by means of foods, and shall make provision for simple
foods, and shall prohibit humankind from living as slaves to their lustful
appetites, it is certain that the incidence of chronic and diversified illnesses
will abate, and the general health of all mankind will be much improved.
This is destined to come about.
`Abdu'l-Baha: Selections ...
Pages 156-157
3.3.10
Health & Healing - Children
Let them also study whatever will nurture the health of the body and its
physical soundness, and how to guard their children from disease.
`Abdu'l-Baha: Selections ...
`Abdu'l-Baha
Pages 124-125
3.3.11
Health & Healing – Proper food for human beings
Regarding the eating of animal flesh and abstinence therefrom, know thou
of a certainty that, in the beginning of creation, God determined the food of
every living being, and to eat contrary to that determination is not approved.
For instance, beasts of prey, such as the wolf, lion and leopard, are
endowed with ferocious, tearing instruments, such as hooked talons and claws.
From this it is evident that the food of such beasts is meat.
If they were to attempt to graze, their teeth would not cut the grass,
neither could they chew the cud, for they do not have molars.
Likewise, God hath given to the four-footed grazing animals such teeth as
reap the grass like a sickle, and from this we understand that the food of these
species of animal is vegetable.
They cannot chase and hunt down other animals.
The falcon hath a hooked beak and sharp talons; the hooked beak
preventeth him from grazing, therefore his food also is meat.
But now coming to man,
we see he hath neither hooked teeth nor sharp nails or claws, nor teeth like
iron sickles. From this it becometh
evident and manifest that the food of man is cereals and fruit.
Some of the teeth of man are like millstones to grind the grain, and some
are sharp to cut the fruit.
Therefore he is not in need of meat, nor is he obliged to eat it.
Even without eating meat he would live with the utmost vigour and energy.
`Abdu'l-Baha: Health and Healing
Page 462
3.3.12
Health & Healing – Smoking and addiction
But there are other forbidden things which do not cause immediate harm,
and the injurious effects of which are only gradually produced: such acts are
also repugnant to the Lord, and blameworthy in His sight, and repellent. The
absolute unlawfulness of these, however, hath not been expressly set forth in
the Text, but their avoidance is necessary to purity, cleanliness, the
preservation of health, and freedom from addiction.
Among these latter is smoking tobacco, which is dirty, smelly, offensive -- an
evil habit, and one the harmfulness of which gradually becometh apparent to all.
Every qualified physician hath ruled -- and this hath also been proven by tests
-- that one of the components of tobacco is a deadly poison, and that the smoker
is vulnerable to many and various diseases. This is why smoking hath been
plainly set forth as repugnant from the standpoint of hygiene.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 147)
3.3.13
Health & Healing – Tobacco, wine and opium
Experience hath shown how much the renouncing of tobacco, wine and opium,
giveth health, strength and intellectual enjoyments, penetration of judgment and
physical vigor.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 336)