Interplay between The African Traditional and Islamic Medicine as Practice Among The Yoruba Jalabi Practitioners
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Date
2022-07
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Department of Religious Studies, University of Kashere, Gombe State, Nigeria
Abstract
The practice of Medicine is as old as man himself. This is because man is created to experience different phases of life as he lives; sickness is one of them. He gets healed through medicaments. The medical system depends on belief, culture, orientations and configurations of the people. African Traditional Medicine is one of the systems of medications. Another is Islamic method. With the contacts between Islam and Yoruba people, there had been interference between the two with noticeable areas of interplay which are responsible for some misconceptions in the society. In fact, many Yoruba Muslims could not differentiate between the two forms of medications. This paper therefore examined those areas of interplay with a view to separating the grain from the chaff. These include the case of sacrifice, herbs, incantation (ruqyah) among others. Analytical method of research was adopted to drive home the objectives of this paper. It was discovered that there is high level of interplay between the two systems, with negative effects on Islamic system. It is also discovered that Jalabi practitioners are the major actors in this regard. Also, the paper revealed that inadequate knowledge of Islam by the practitioners is responsible for the interlace. The paper therefore concluded that since Islam has its own medical system, Yoruba Muslim scholars should take up the challenge to engage in the medical practice and write to explain the permissibility status of the items and methods used by the Jalabi practitioners. This will help in sanitizing the system and eliminate unwholesomeness.
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Medicine, Jalabi, African, Misconceptions, Yoruba