Deenport Interview with Sidi Hakim

An excerpt from the interview. The full transcript can be accessed at www.deenport.com


How does Islam's concept and application of medicine differ from other methods?

Islam and being Muslim should color all we do whether it be carpentry, medicine or politics. This was true in China. They say that the Muslim traders going there in the early days spread Islam by their scruples in business, it was recognized, the honesty and integrity.
We are very off balance and very asleep to what we have done to the world and our people. All people are our people and the animals, our animals as well. It is so, so out of balance it's become hard to see what is really important. Hard to have a sensible, objective, if you will, picture of what is needed .

Health is wholeness and this means integrity from the innermost spiritual to the outermost physical and that extends right on out to our greater body of family community, the whole world. All must have integrity and so Islamic medicine means, as it does in politics or any other profession that all parts of our being must have this wholeness and connectedness with integrity. Islam itself is nothing other than holistic medicine.The medicine of the Prophet, sallalahu alayhi wa salam, was Islam.


What then is health in a holistic sense and how do we attain it?

Honesty is not a minor thing. Not always an easy thing to achieve but a core piece in wholeness. 'True to thine own self and the rest follows' is a universal wisdom. From this, maybe more than anything, health can proceed.

Being connected to God allows for a sense of well being , fullness, safety and being OK. This informs the body and our organs, our dealings with others and whatever the circumstances Allah places us in. This doesn't mean we avoid the pain and grief of life, nor the joy, but we are OK with it and... thankful.

After many years of practice in medicine I have seen so clearly that attitude lies embedded in so much physical, chronic and even fatal illness. What a thing it is to see someone on their death bed and for them to finally see and speak this and still hold to the lie in themselves that takes them finally to their death! This is a hard truth to see and also must not be confused or twisted into a puritanical "it's my fault I'm sick, I've been bad " or any other shortsighted understanding of this, it's all opportunity by Allah's Rahmah. And Allah says in His Qur'an that He wants for us purification.

What is trauma therapy and what makes modern life so traumatic?

There are numerous methods emerging for dealing with trauma that are somatic or body based, that, along with the spiritual or psychological aspects, work primarily through the body or nervous system. These new therapies are seriously changing the current way of dealing with trauma. The method I find most valuable was developed greatly by the study of animals in nature and how they release trauma. We have the same capabilities but these have been sorely debilitated by modern life with its disconnection from nature and each other.

Life has always had trauma, big trauma. In modern times it becomes different as we are disconnected from the very bodies that enable natural release: our senses, our families, physically, neighbors and community. These are all natural connections that enable our own nervous system to function and release in the same way that animals in nature can release severe trauma and be perfectly OK. This disconnection disables function.

The trauma of modern times is insidious, in past times a war, or a city being torn apart by battle or nature, the trauma of it was clear, we knew we had gone through a terrible experience . Today trauma lurks in so many things that we do not see as such. Birthing by caesarian section without the physical experience of struggle through the birth canal, bottle feeding, absent moms, anesthesia, and more dramatic maybe, the avoidance and disassociation strategies built into our lifestyle in so much of our technology, television, abstract, so called virtual life, which disables the natural nervous system function and we have a spiraling situation of trauma upon unresolved trauma. More attempts to release unsuccessfully through violence and more and more disassociation to deal with the charge that we cannot manage.

We become walking zombies (not even walking), hiding our heads and bodies as if it will go away or, not really caring, but posturing caring, in our state of shut-down.


What are your views regarding our responsibilities as Muslims towards our environment?

We have been placed uniquely in Allah's Creation and have the great trust of being able to mess up or care for the creation in all its aspects from our own selves to the trees, animals, even the stones and all the beauty that Allah has given it all. We talk of pollution if we're aware, or if we've been raised with some environmental awareness but it's more than that - it's desecration!
If we are not fully present we don't really see it, we will not really feel what we should about it and even though we may say it's wrong, real feeling initiates action. When actions are unfulfilled, we then additionally live with the yoke of these actions being suppressed and have more trauma. It also seems too much for us and we don't feel its possible to change, another natural strategy to manage it all. We're doing nothing, nothing even with what we know.

Thank you for allowing us to benefit from your knowledge. We pray Allah increase you in it and bless your work with success in this life and the hereafter. Ameen. As we conclude now, could you give us some nasiha insha'Allah. Jazakum Allah Khayrun.

Knowledge from the cradle to the grave does not mean more info. Knowledge means growth, change. The biggest nasihaa I can give is to keep good company!

One shaykh said the flood in the time of Nuh was one of water and in our times it is the flood of separation between each other. Make it a jihad to battle against the forces that conspire to keep you separate, to isolate, and these forces are pervasive, recognize this and however difficult. Eat together, travel together, talk, TALK!, read poetry to each other, laugh, cry, pray together remember Allah with enthusiasm together. Share your pain and your joy with each other while you can. Drink in your differences! When your red flag goes up with the stranger you've met, give it some time, some patience, don't tune out or walk out, see who he is. Give and take from each other and be with each other. Listen to your wives and your children, just listen to them! This is medicine, insha'Allah.

Thank you. I ask for Blessings and peace upon our Noble Prophet, his family, companions and all those who aspire to be as he was, ameen.