Although Islamic Medicine was born from embracing and distilling the best medicine from world cultures, many people believe that the development of Islamic Medicine ended with the death of the Prophet (saws). In fact, Islamic Medicine developed deeply in the years following the birth of Islam. The trend, in modern times, however, has been to stall the development of Islamic Medicine and label it as a "finished product". In fact, this is not what was intended when the Prophet (saws) first shared his wisdom on healing.

Usamah bin Shareek reports that the Prophet (saws) said, "Allah never inflicts a disease without providing a cure; only those who were aware of it knew it, whereas those who were not aware, were ignorant of it" and, "Rasulallah (saws) said "He who travels in search of knowledge, to him Allah shows the way to Paradise."

Certainly the healers that worked after the birth of Islam took this to heart. Muslim physicians and scientists were famous for their translations, compilations and improvements on medical knowledge from other cultures. In fact, it was the Muslims, that first bridged the gap between Chinese and Western medicine, over 1000 years ago.

History shows that Islamic medicine has passed through three significant stages. In the first stage, during the seventh and eighth centuries, scholars translated many important foreign sources into Arabic. During the first stage, Syrian and Persian scholars did a tremendous job by translating honestly the ancient literature from Greek and Syriac in Arabic. They translated different branches of science including philosophy astrology, and medicine. The works of Hippocrates (460-370 BC), Aristototle (384-322 BC), and Galen (131-210 A.D.) were among those translated. These works would have been lost to the Western world forever if they had not been adopted and nurtured by Arab scholars.

In the second stage, during the ninth through the thirteenth centuries, Islamic physicians took on a role of leadership in the world of healing and made many valuable and original contributions to the field of healing. Jabir Ibn Haiyan, known by the name of the alchemist Geber of the Middle Ages, is generally known as the Father of Chemistry. He is famous for writing more than one hundred treatises, of which twenty-two deal with chemistry and alchemy. Abu ar-Rayhan al-Biruni (362-442/973-1051 ) wrote a famous book on pharmacy and materia medica, also entitled as-Saydanah fit-Tibb. In it Arabic pharmacy was adequately and technically defined. Although he wrote almost 130 books, this book was the last and most famous. It still remains the main source of our pharmaceutical knowledge during the Middle Ages.

Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna, was one of the most famous physicians of this time. His Canon of Medicine was the most widely studied work of medicine in Europe from the 12th to the 17th century. The Canon of Medicine was famous because it not only included his original works but also contained all medical knowledge up to the 1Oth century.

In the third stage, starting after the thirteenth century and extending to modern times, there was a decline in original medical research and exploration as well as other branches of science in the Islamic world. One of the last significant scholars that lived around this time was Ibn Al-Nafis (1213-1288 AD). He was a renowned expert on Shafi'i School of Jurisprudence as well as a reputed physician. After acquiring his expertise in medicine and jurisprudence, he moved to Cairo where he was appointed as the Principal at the famous Nasri Hospital. He spent his years there compiling early works and then commenting and evaluating them. In fact, he wrote several volumes on Ibn Sina's Qanun. However, his major contribution to the study of medicine was his discovery of the blood’s circulatory system. He was the first to realize the blood circulated and document the path that it took.

The practice of acupuncture gained the interest of Muslim physician Rashid al-Din Fadlallah around the same time (1247-1318).

Acupuncture is an ancient technique in which a skilled practitioner inserts hair-thin needles into specific points on the body to prevent or treat illness. Practiced for over 2,500 years in China, where it originated, acupuncture is part of the holistic system of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which views health as a constantly changing flow of energy, or Chi (pronounced "chee"). In TCM, imbalances in this natural flow of energy are thought to result in disease. Acupuncture aims to restore health by improving the flow of Chi. The point of this article is not to prove if Acupuncture works or not, but to simply explain its role in Islamic Medicine. However, due to a recent surge in interest on the topic there are hundreds of scientific studies that have been performed in the past five years proving the effectiveness of Acupuncture.

In one study, researchers using brain scans discovered that acupuncture can alter blood circulation within the brain, increasing the blood flow to the thalamus, the area of the brain that relays pain and other sensory messages.

Part of the reason acupuncture is being subjected to so many scientific studies is because it Western medicine does not understand how it can work. Acupuncture is misunderstood by Western medicine is because it involves this mechanism of the human energy field, Chi, which is largely unfamiliar in Western medicine. Additionally, Western medicine does not document the existence of these energy channels and acupuncture points on the body. Islamic medicine, however, does. In Islam, the word Chi, is translated as qudra, and should be a familiar concept to Muslim healers. In a paper presented at Harvard Medical School, "Spiritual Healing in the Islamic Tradition," Shaykh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, MD, states that,

Energy channels and acupuncture points are also familiar to the Islamic world through the process of cupping.

Cupping, or hijamah in Arabic, is just another method of applying acupressure to the pressure points, however, it achieves this goal, not with needles, but with cups. These cups can be glass, plastic or bamboo and they create a vacuum on the skin over the pressure point. Cupping is used in Chinese medicine as well as Islamic medicine and has been used to treat a wide number of complaints such as bronchitis, pneumonia, back pain and much more.

The Prophet Mohamed was an advocate of cupping and often used the method himself. Bukhari and Abu Dawood report that:

The Prophet (saw) also advised cupping for a number of other complaints.

Cupping is also well documented in Islamic Medical history. Abu Qasim Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 AD), an Arab Andaulsian surgeon known to the west as Albucasis, was the greatest Arab surgeon of his time. He authored a 30-volume medical encyclopedia which mentions cupping, its technique and tools, along with more than 200 illustrations of other medical instruments used during his time. Al-Zahrawi also listed several points at which cupping is performed. Although the points he mentioned are much fewer than the thousands of acupressure points the Chinese document, the principal of healing using pressure points and meridians is still the same. According to TCM there are 14 primary meridians or channels in the body. Cupping utilizes these meridians, while acupressure and acupuncture utilize the more than a thousand points located on these meridians.

Another interesting connection between the Chinese and the Muslim world is in the area of self-defense. To understand how this relates to healing you first need to know that in China, self-defense also utilizes the concepts of meridians and Chi. One of the most familiar representations of this today is Tai Chi, which has evolved into a form of meditation rather than a method of self defense.

In their varied interactions with the Chinese, Muslims were often placed in the dangerous position of bodyguard because of their relatively non-affiliated status with other Chinese citizens. Rising to this occasion they developed the beautiful and powerful style known throughout the world as Pa Chi (eight extremes). The Chinese emperor, Chien Lung, stated in the 19th century, "For health we have Tai Chi, for protection Pa Chi." Or as Sheikh Kabbani notes, "This unknown spiritual energy (Chi) is behind the life of every drop of blood in animate beings, the motion behind every living cell, and the driving force of constellations and galaxies. It carries unlimited perfect and complete powers which are real, active and continuous. The action of this force is genuine because nothing can grow or live in the entire universe without its influence."