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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Message from

DR HUSSEIN A. GEZAIRY REGIONAL DIRECTOR

WHO EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION to the

THE FIRST REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON ARAB AND ISLAMIC MEDICINE Amman, Jordan, 8–10 August 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It gives me great pleasure to have the honour of inaugurating this meeting, which should have been held long ago.

Since the dawn of history, people have sought recourse, for alleviating their pains and treating their diseases, in what God created around them of trees and herbs, seeking cures from their God-given properties.

Our Nation has known this since its existence, and has passed on this proven knowledge from one generation to another. Urwa, son of Alzubair, asked his maternal aunt, Aisha, mother of believers, about her knowledge of that kind of medicine: how was it practised and where was it from? She answered: “The Messenger of God, peace be upon him, had spells of sickness late in his life. He received Arab delegations from everywhere. They would make him some prescriptions which I applied to him. That was the source from which I had my knowledge of medicine.”

The well-known scholar Ibn Khaldoun said “The medicine reported in religious texts is of that sort (i.e. derived from the heritage of experience by Arabs) and has

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nothing to do with divine revelation; it was an ordinary thing mentioned with regard to the health status of the Prophet, peace be upon him. It is not reported as something legally binding. The fact of the matter is that the Prophet, peace be upon him, was sent to teach us law, not to teach us medicine or other common things.” But the Prophet, peace be upon him, approved the principle of applying that medicine. He said: “O servants of god, have yourselves treated medically, for every disease that God created, He created a remedy, known by some, unknown by others.” This statement urges us explicitly to undertake research so that we can develop scientific knowledge of the remedies created by God.

Unfortunately, despite this urging, our Nation did not undertake the task of developing knowledge about the secrets of remedies. Instead such work was carried out by others who successfully identified the structure of many medical substances. Scientists then made derivatives from these chemical structures, and chemical remedies have since abounded to an unimaginable extent. Against this excess in chemical remedies, which diverted attention from harmful side-effects of these substances, people are now coming back to nature. They are seeking from its herbs and substances, and from the inherited practices proven through experience, safeguards against the adverse side-effects of chemical remedies. Across the world, especially in industrialized countries, different types of inherited medicine have prospered, and have been alternatively referred to as

“folk medicine”, “traditional medicine”, “complementary medicine”, “integrative medicine”, “alternative medicine” or “unfamiliar medicine”. Mention is also made of

“Chinese medicine”, “Indian or ayurvedic medicine” and “Unani or Arab Islamic medicine”. Folk medicine is being extensively and increasingly practised in both developing and developed countries. Specific types of complementary/alternative medicine remedies are being promoted in many developed countries, but herbal remedies and acupuncture continue to be the most widespread forms of folk medicine in the world.

The World Health Organization, representing global health concerns, has since its inception taken an interest in folk or traditional medicine, as part of its quest for equity in health care delivery and ready access to remedies for all people of the world at the lowest cost possible and in the manner most culturally and socially acceptable. The Organization

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found what it was looking for in the different types of medicines based on the cultures and experiences of people throughout the world over the years. WHO has seen to it that criteria are established ensuring their good use and appropriate utilization, avoiding their exploitation or abuse. It has also seen to it that guarantees are made to ensure adherence of workers in those fields of medicine to medical ethics.

The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) has worked closely with the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences (IOMS) since the latter’s establishment in the early 1980s, and with its Centre for Islamic Medicine established in Kuwait in 1985. EMRO collaborated with IOMS in the formulation of the Herbal Remedies Act promulgated in Kuwait in 1986, and in holding several meetings, conferences and symposia where many issues of common interest were discussed. As well, EMRO has supported similar activities in the United Arab Emirates and other countries of the Region. It has collaborated also with the Hamdard Institute in Pakistan.

In order to help Member States in developing and promoting traditional medicine, WHO prepared a strategy which firstly integrates appropriately traditional complementary/alternative medicine into national health care systems. Secondly, it promotes the safety, efficacy and good quality of traditional remedies, and provides guidance on the criteria for their regulation and quality assurance. Thirdly, it promotes the availability of traditional medicine services, ensuring affordable access to them.

Finally, it promotes the proper use of traditional medicine by both practitioners and users.

Among the most important achievements of the traditional medicine programme at EMRO was the issuance of guidelines on the formulation of national policies on traditional medicine, as well as a number of other publications with basic information regarding commonly used medical plants, and the building of consensus among regional experts on a provisional basic list of medical plants in the Region, containing 50 plants widely used in the countries of the Region.

The Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, the WHO governing body in the Region comprising ministers of health of all countries of the Region, adopted in its Forty-ninth Session a resolution urging Member States to adopt the WHO traditional

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medicine strategy as a framework for the development of national traditional medicine programmes; to develop and implement national policies and regulations on traditional/complementary/alternative medicine to ensure the proper use of traditional medicine and to ensure its utilization to increase primary health coverage; and to take steps to protect and preserve traditional medicine knowledge and national flora and other national resources.

This last point is perhaps the consummating message of my address; in an authentic tradition, the Prophet, peace be upon him, says: “People are partners in three things:

water, fire and herbage”. These three national resources, namely water resources, energy resources and flora, constitute a legal collective property for the people of every country;

not an iota of them may be given up to others. It is an absolute duty to take all legitimate measures to protect them against any form of seizure or abuse. Medical flora constitute a basic and integral part of those collective resources; it is our duty to do all we can to maintain them as our own property, and as a precious heritage for our children and grandchildren, and to protect them against exploitation, seizure or misuse.

Finally, I would like to reiterate my pleasure in this initiative. I wish you every success in your good endeavours, and I pray that God may lead your steps on the right path.

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