Mental health in Islamic medical tradition

Abstract

Tibb al-Ruhani or Tibb al-Qalb. Although Al-Tibb al-Ruhani concerns mainly with spiritual and psychological health, however, spiritual medicine cannot be separated completely with physical medicine (al-tibb al-jismani) since man’s construction is from both soul and body. In other words, there is a symbiotic relationship between the two kinds of medical knowledge, as one would find it impossible to achieve one form of medical science without the other. For this reason, Muslims should be fully aware of spiritual and physical medicine because, in Islam, the spirit and the body, the soul and matter, the faith and the world have been accorded equal importance. One is able to obtain the happiness in this world and in the hereafter as long as he is physically and spiritually healthy, and it can be achieved by the art of medicine, which preserves and restores the health.