Epilepsy and the Quran Recitation as a Meditation

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is one of the various approaches intended to improve or maintain human health that are not part of standardmedical care, also known as conventional or Western medicine.1 Meditation, one of the techniques of CAM, is a practice in which an individual uses a technique—such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity—to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. In Islam, there are different meditative techniques such as salah, dhikr, fikr, muraqabah, tafakkur, tadabbur, and whirling.2 Recently, the use of various CAMs such as meditation, yoga, relaxation techniques, biofeedback, nutritional and herbal supplements, dietary measures, chiropractic care, acupuncture, Reiki, and homeopathy has increased in patients with epilepsy.3 The Quran is the instructor, true wisdom, guide, and leader of the world of humanity; it is both a book of wisdom and law, a book of prayer and worship, a book of command and summons, and a book of invocation and divine knowledge—it is a book for all spiritual needs, and it is a sacred library offering books appropriate to theways of all the saints and veracious, the purified and the scholars, whoseways and paths are all different.4 So, listening, reading, and recitation of the Quran is also a kind of meditation. Herein, we discussed using the Quran as a cure and remedy in patients with epilepsy to emphasize that the Quran recitation is a meditation modality. Meditation is commonly used in patients with epilepsy. In the series of McConnell et al,5 overall CAM usewas 70%, with the use of prayer/spirituality in 31% and meditation in 19%. Of the patients, 44% reported improved seizure control with CAM. Stress management accounted for perceived seizure reduction in 74%, followed by marijuana (54%), prayer (49%), and yoga (42%).5 Asadi-Pooya et al6 found that 72.3% of physicians believed that CAM might be helpful in patients with epilepsy. They also noted that 22.3% of participants used/prescribed CAM to patients with epilepsy; among them, 46.5% of people found CAM to be safer than conventional antiseizure medications. The most common endorsed CAM includedmeditation (41%), and the ratio of prayers was 15%.6 Aburahma et al7 reported that 56% of parents had used CAM for their child’s neurological illness (28% of patients had epilepsy). The most common modality (77%) was prayer/reciting the Quran.7 In another series, the prevalence of CAM usage was 42% among pediatric neurology patients (40% of patients had epilepsy), and the most common (66%) type of CAM was the Quran recitation.8 Triki et al9 studied people’s knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy, of whom 43.6% had a personal or familial history of epilepsy. The two most popular therapeutic modalities were drug treatment alone (85.3%) and associated with the Quran (35.3%).9 In a large series, 31.5% of individuals believed that epilepsy could be treated by the recitation of the Quran.10 Hijazeen et al11 noted that the most common (71.4%) reported treatment method in epilepsy was the Quran among university students. In another study, 34.6% of medical students thought the Quran as an appropriate treatment for epilepsy.12 The Quran included a total of 114 surahs and 6,236 ayats, some of which are directly related to shifa (cure), such as Surah Al-Fatihah and ayat 82 in Surah Al-Isra.13,14 The prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said that Surah Al-Fatihah is a ruqyah.15 Ruqyah refers to the healing method based on the Quran and hadith through the recitation of the Quran, seeking of refuge, remembrance, and supplication that are used as means of treating sickness and other problems by reading verses of the Quran, the names and attributes of Allah, or by using the prayers in Arabic or in a language themeaning of which is understood.16Aside from