By Karimah bint Dawoud,muslim chaplain & well being writer.

ISLAMIC MEDCINE- THE ADAB OF ISLAMIC MEDICINE
There is an adab, an etiquette, a manners in Islamic medicine.

It is narrated from Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri and Abu Hurairah [RA]:
The Messenger of Allah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, “No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that.”
[Reported by Imam Bukhari and Muslim]

There is an adab, an etiquette, a manners in Islamic medicine.
Firstly we should put trust in Allah and know that this illness has come for a reason and inshallah to purify us of sins so we must be patient. Also as a means of purifying our lives should we choose to purify our diet of the foods that will aggravate these plant allergies and do not help.

Secondly in Islamic adab/manners we should use a simple medicine, that means something from nature, plants, herbs, fruits, oils, water, natural therapies like hijaama(wet cupping), acupuncture, massage, reflexology. These remedies take time, they do not offer the quick fix. If they do not work then on to the third stage.
Thirdly compound medicine, this is where pharmaceutical tablets, ointments, mixtures come into play.
The last resort should be an operation.

The father of Islamic medicine , Avi Sina, who inspired westernized scientific medicine to this day said “food is medicine”.
If we want to live a live more in line with Quran and Sunnah we need to change the way we eat, our diet is urbanized, even though we make our own bread at home, many of us still use white flour which all the goodness has been taken out and artificial vitamins and minerals put back in, is not of the Sunnah, but that a story for another day.

Quran Sura ‘Abasa : 24-32
Then let man look at his food, (and how We provide it); For that We pour forth water in undance; And We split the earth in fragments; And produce therein corn; And Grapes and nutritious plants; And Olives and Dates; And enclosed Gardens, dense with lofty trees; And fruits and fodder; For use and convenience to you and your cattle.

Allah has provided an abundance of medical plants in nature, there are in fact an estimated 50,000-70,000 plant species are used in traditional and modern medicine throughout the world. And what do we know of them?