Journal - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

ISLAMIC MEDICAL ETHICS IN ASSISTED CONCEPTION
alongside, a thirst for knowledge. Both the Qur’an
and the Sunna of the Prophet espoused the acquiring
of knowledge.
There was therefore, enthusiasm among the ruling
hierarchy to contribute towards this noble project.
Caliphs, Grand Viziers and others all vying for a
place, showering their wealth towards furthering education.
An important subsidiary source of wealth was
the waqf, a trust fund bequeathed for charitable purposes,
be it a mosque, learning institution, hospice,
Sufi lodge or for the needy. This new zeal and clamour
and sponsorship of knowledge reached its zenith
at the time of Caliph Ma’mun (son of Harun al-
Rashid), who was notable for inaugurating the Bayt
ul hikma (house of wisdom). Following on his
father’s and predecessors’ footsteps, he encouraged
and sponsored the acquisition of knowledge from
Greek, Persian, Indian and Chinese sources. A large
contingent of scholars, engineers, philosophers, doctors
and other scientists from the Academy in
Jundishapur (near present-day Isfahan in Iran), mainly
Nestorian Christians, who fled from Edessa and
Antioch to escape the persecution of Emperor
Justinian, were enticed and wooed to migrate to
Baghdad. Institutions of higher learning, libraries,
medical schools, hospitals were built, almost with a
frenzy, in all Islamic lands, in Baghdad, Damascus
and later in Egypt and Andalusia, Samarkand,
Moghul India and the Ottoman states.
Evolution of Islamic Jurisprudence
This article deals with Sunni Islam and does not
include the Shias’, who differ in some respects from
mainstream Islam. Sunni Muslims form one-fifth of
the population, totalling almost a billion people.
Islamic law or Sharia is mainly derived from the
Qur’an (containing the divine revelations) and also
ahadith, a narrative of the Prophet’s sayings (Sunna
al-Qawliyaa), acts (al-Sunna al-Fi’liyaa) and express
or tacit approval (al-Sunna al-Taqririyya) referred to
as the Sunna and constitute the primary sources. Ijma
(consensus) of Islamic jurists, analogical reasoning
(Qiyas), Istihsan (juristic preference), istislah (public
interest or community welfare) and customs (urf)
form the secondary sources of the Sharia.
Kufa (Iraq), Medina (Hijaz) and Damascus
JISHIM 2004, 3
Farouk MAHMOUD
(Syria) were the major centres in the early years. Out
of many, four schools of Islamic thought survived.
The Kufians under Imam Haniffa preferred to use
their personal opinion (ahl al-ray) while the
Medinites under Imam Malik tended to adhere closely
to the Sunna (ahl al-Sunna); the former evolving
into the Hanafi and the latter the Maliki school (madhab)
of Islamic jurisprudence. Imam Shafi, was successful
in synthesising and systematising the law and
was acclaimed as the architect of Islamic jurisprudence
and the Shafie school was named after him
while the fourth madhab was named after Imam
Hanbal. Islamic scholars and jurists continued to
flourish but since the early 13th century, the gates of
ijtihad was closed and the scholars were denied the
privilege of conducting Ijtihad. Their intellectual
contributions, shackled and fettered, they were
restricted to providing commentaries and supra-commentaries
on the work of their predecessors.
However, since the 19/20th centuries, Ijtihad has
re-emerged as the vehicle of expression by jurists and
provide rulings (akham) on matters not explicitly or
clearly stated in the Qur’an or Sunnah. The Jurists
(Mujtahids) accomplish their task reaching an agreement
(consensus or ijma) on issues not clearly
defined by the primary sources by extracting legal
precepts from the Qur’an or Sunnah or by resorting
to Qiyas, Istihsan, Istislah or Urf.
In Islam, all actions are categorised into obligatory,
recommended, permitted, disapproved and forbidden.
In Islam, under special circumstances, even the
forbidden may be permissible.
Evolution of Islamic Medicine
Medicine had always taken pride of place,
espoused both in the Qur’an and by the Prophet, but
the blossoming period of Islamic medicine was in the
era of the Abbassids, particularly Caliph Harun al
Rashid and his son, Ma’mun. The doctors from
Jundishapur who formed the core of the medical profession,
complemented by the local Muslim, Persian
and Indian physicians, were responsible for the inauguration
of the most extra-ordinary advances in medicine
and hospital architecture. The next few centuries
produced some of the finest physicians, translation
of medical literature from Greek, Persian and
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