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Health (al-sihha)

الصحة

The first book of the Canon, citing Galen, divides the states of the body into three: health, disease, and an intermediate state between them 1. Health is a condition in which the body, in its temperament and composition, performs all its actions correctly and soundly 1. The aim of medicine is to keep health when it is present and to restore it when it is lost 2.

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Overview

The first books of the Canon divide the body's states, after Galen, into three: health, disease, and a state between them 1. Health is a state in which the human body is so constituted in temperament and composition that all its acts issue sound and whole 1. Medicine's aim: to preserve health present and restore it lost 2.

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Medicine

People and things also explored

Anatomy· Disease (al-marad)· The four elements (al-arkan)· Humours (al-akhlat)· Medical treatment (al-mu'alaja)· Powers and actions (al-quwa wal-af'al)· Regimen of health (al-tadbir)· Symptoms and signs (al-a'rad wal-dala'il)

Sources

  1. The Canon of Medicine, vol. 1 (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 1999) , p.104
  2. The Canon of Medicine, vol. 1 (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 1999) , p.13
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islam.museum contributors. “Health (al-sihha)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/health/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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Related

Anatomy

In his commentary on the Canon's anatomy, Ibn al-Nafis says that religious restraint and compassion kept him from dissecting himself. He therefore relied on earlier practitioners, chiefly Galen, for the shapes of the inner organs, and on reasoned inquiry for their functions.