TEHRAN – The 11th International Congress on Quran, Itrat, and Health will be held from February 14-17 in Tehran with the participation of 20 countries.

Reviewing the position of the Holy Quran and Itrat (the household of the prophet of Islam) on health is the main topic of the four-day event, IRNA reported.

Some 55 participants from 20 countries will deliver speeches at the congress, some of them are from Germany, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, and England, the report added.

“Quran heals” is the theme of the congress, which will discuss the issues of health, a healthy body, a healthy diet, as well as hijab and dignity as defined and recommended by the Holy Quran and the prophet’s household.

The congress will also discuss the role of hijab and dignity in social health.

Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine

The concept of Iranian traditional medicine has mingled with the Islamic doctrine originated from both the Holy Quran and Ahl-ul-Bayt (the successors of prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) education and great ancient Iranian physicians such as Avicenna.

In Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine, an ancient paradigm for personalized medicine has been described based on the excess or lack of body fluids (called "humors") including blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm defining four temperaments of "sanguine", "choleric", "melancholic" and "phlegmatic" respectively.

It is believed that an even combination of the four aforesaid bodily fluids would result in a person’s health and an imbalance would lead to different health conditions.

Although such an attitude toward medicine and its individualization has been also attributed to Hippocrates, an ancient medical scientist about 2400 years ago, apparently there has been an ancient comprehensive paradigm of personalized medicine in Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine.

Healthy lifestyle

Experts of Iranian traditional medicine recommend that people should maintain health by adopting appropriate habits on diet, sleeping hours, mood, and other health-related issues, IRNA quoted Nafiseh Hosseini Yekta, the director of the health ministry’s office for Iranian traditional medicine, as saying.

Accordingly, traditional medicine practitioners offer lifestyle consultations to individuals based on his or her special conditions, she added.

For the time being, 48 government-owned and 19 privately-owned traditional medicine centers are offering services, she noted, saying that more than 32,300 individuals referred to the centers last year (March 2022-March 2023).

More than 100 research and technology projects on the development of traditional medicine have been implemented in the country.

In this line, the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology has supported the printing and publishing of books and encyclopedias on Iranian traditional medicine, IRNA reported.

Previously, Hosseini Yekta said Iran ranks fourth worldwide in the production of science in the field of traditional medicine, and the remarkable achievement will improve in the coming years.

Over 17,000 books have so far been published about Persian traditional medicine, which has been recognized by the World Health Organization, she noted.

Iranian traditional medicine strongly focuses on prioritizing health maintenance and disease prevention over treatment.

MG