He added...

He added: “Our prophet (SAW) has said: ‘The stomach is the house of every ailment, and diet is the best cure.

Give to each body what you have accustomed it with.” The Christian physician said: “Your Book and Prophet have left no medicine for Galen.” The Messenger of Allah (SAW) has been reported as saying: “Whoever eats little, will have a sound body and a pure heart, and whoever eats too much will get sick and will become hardhearted.”[^4] Ar-Rabee’, the doorkeeper of al-Mansoor ad-Dawaniqi (the Abbasid caliph) has been reported as saying: “One day, Imam Sadiq (AS) was present in the court of Mansoor.

There was an Indian, well-versed in medicine. He was reading from medical books and the Imam (AS) was listening. When the Indian man finished reading, he said: “O Abu Abdullah! Do you want me to say anything to you? The Imam (AS) said: “No, for what is with me is better than what is with you.” The Indian man said: “What is it?” The Imam (AS) said: “I can cure cold with hot and hot with cold, humidity with dryness and dryness with humidity and will entrust the affairs to God.

I will also apply what the Messenger of Allah (SAW) has said. I know that the stomach is the house of all ailments and abstinence is a cure which restores health.” The Indian man said: “And is medicine anything other than this?[^5] Now, tell me where have you obtained this knowledge from?” The Imam (AS) said: “I have obtained it from my grandfather, from the Messenger of Allah, from Gabriel, and above all from the Lord of the universe, the Creator of souls and bodies.” The Indian man said: “You said the truth.

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Mohammad is the Messenger of Allah and His servant and that you are the most learned man of your time.” Perhaps it is for the same reason that Sheikh Mofeed, in elaborating the beliefs of Sheikh Sadooq, said: “Medicine is a sound science, the knowledge about it is proved, and its way is the revelation.” He further says: “Scholars have learnt medicine from the prophets, and there is no way for the fact of ailment except through hearing, and there is no way for knowing the cure, except by the grace coming from God.

So it is true that through hearing it from the scholars, who are aware of secrets and who relate from the infallible imams (a.s.) that this saying of Ameerol Mo'minin (a.s.) “‘The stomach is the house of every ailment, and diet is the best cure. Give to each body what you have accustomed it with” has been interpreted.