Hijama

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Hijama (Arabic حجامة lit. "sucking") is the name in Arab traditional medicine for wet cupping, where blood is drawn by vacuum from a small skin incision for therapeutic purposes. Traditional Medicine Among Gulf Arabs Part II - Blood Letting, Albinali, H. A. Hâyar, Heart Views, Volume 5, No.2, June-August 2004 Hijama is generally performed by Muslims as it is a form of medicine specifically mentioned and encouraged by the prophet Muhammad. Among other hadith, it is mentioned in that recorded by Imam Bukhari (5263) and Imam Muslim (2952), saying "Hijama is among your best remedies" (خير ما تداويتم به الحجامة).

Procedure

Hijama is normally performed on the head, but can be performed anywhere on the body, often at the site of an ache or pain in order to ease or alleviate it. A more conservative approached outlined at the Broken Earth Cupping Site site warns against over use of cupping and suggests only that six optimal points on the body are all that is required to clean the entire cardiovascular system (The back of the head, two shoulders corresponding to the acupuncture heart position, the tail or small of the back, and the two inner ankles). The location is first shaved, if necessary, to ensure a tight seal with the cup. The mouth of a cup (metal, glass and plastic cups are generally used, although traditionally horns were used) is placed on the skin at the site chosen for cupping (alternatively leeches can be used). Then a tight seal is created. The old method was to burn a small piece of paper or cotton inside the vessel, so that the mouth of the cup clings to the skin. The new procedure is to use a machine instead. The cup is left to cling to the skin for a few minutes, then it is lifted off and a couple of very small incisions are made in the skin. The cup is then put back as it was before until it is filled with blood.

Muhammad and hijama

According to various hadith in the Islamic tradition, Muhammad supported hijama.Andrew Rippin and Jan Knappert, Textual Sources for the Study of Islam, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. 78. They include:
  • Abu Kabsha al-Anmairi gave an eyewitness testimony that Muhammad cupped himself on the head and between his shoulders and then said "Whoever sheds some of this blood will experience no pain in not being treated for a certain (disease) with a certain (cure)".
  • Anas's account is more anatomically precise, explaining that Muhammad cupped on two different neck veins and on the upper back.
  • According to Jabir, Muhammad also cupped his hip to relieve some pain there.
  • According to Abu Hurayra, Muhammad said "If there is good in one thing which cures you it is cupping".
  • Also on Abu Hurarya's authority, Muhammad said that "Whoever is cupped on the seventeenth, nineteenth, or twenty-first (of the lunar month) will be healed of every disease".


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