Islam

Revelation and the early community

An encyclopedia entry on the religion states that Muslims regard the Quran as God's revelation, delivered through the angel Gabriel to Muhammad over about 23 years. The same entry says the revelations were first preserved orally and in writing, and that an official standard text was compiled some 15 to 20 years after his death. Reports of his sayings and deeds, called hadith, are described as a source for his life and for Islamic law.

A Pew Research Center demographic report dates the death of the Prophet Muhammad to 632 and states that the later division of Muslims into two main groups began as a dispute over leadership succession. The report adds that this dispute later grew to include theological and practical differences.

Sunni and Shia branches

Pew estimated in 2009 that Muslims numbered about 1.57 billion, with Sunnis making up 87 to 90 percent and Shias 10 to 13 percent. The report presents the Sunni and Shia shares as approximate ranges and says most Shias live in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq. It also mentions Kharijites in Oman, a group it treats as hard to classify as either Sunni or Shia. A 2025 note on the page says newer Pew estimates revise the 2010 figures.

A clinician-oriented review of Islamic bioethics explains that Sunni jurisprudence developed four major schools, shaped by consensus (ijma) and analogy (qiyas), while the Shia branch has in some cases developed its own interpretations and authority systems. The authors add that overall Shia bioethical rulings do not differ fundamentally from Sunni positions. The sources reviewed do not detail Shia sub-branches.

Sufism and the orders

A reference entry by the religious studies scholar Carl Ernst states that Sufi writers traced their roots to the Quran, the example of Muhammad and early ascetics such as al-Hasan al-Basri, who died in 728. Groups in Iran and Iraq were developing a vocabulary for inner experience by the late eighth century. From the eleventh century, Sufism became institutional through orders (tariqa) led by teachers whose authority was traced back to the Prophet, and dynastic patronage helped them spread from the Middle East to South and Central Asia, North Africa, Spain and southeastern Europe.

The entry says most Sufi scholars aligned with Sunni legal schools, while many Sufi lineages trace back to Ali or later imams and some orders had Twelver Shia orientations. Pew likewise describes Sufism as a spiritual and mystical practice followed by both Sunnis and Shias, and gives no separate estimate of how many Muslims follow it.

Medical writing in Muslim societies

The US National Library of Medicine describes al-tibb al-nabawi, or prophetic medicine, as a genre of medical writing produced by clerics rather than physicians. Its treatises were especially popular from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, with the earliest in the library's collection by al-Dhahabi, who died in 1348. The library notes that it coexisted with Greek-based humoral medicine for centuries.

Names for the religion and its adherents

Pew and the encyclopedia sources reviewed use Muslim for an adherent of Islam and treat Sunni and Shia as the two main sects. Self-description varies by region. In Pew's 2012 survey of Muslims in many countries, 56 percent of Muslims in Indonesia said they were just a Muslim and 26 percent called themselves Sunni, and medians of at least 50 percent in Central Asia and in Southern and Eastern Europe described themselves as just a Muslim. These labels are survey categories and do not settle how any individual identifies.

Terms for core practices and sources

The encyclopedia entry lists the five pillars as shahadah (declaration of faith), salat (prayer), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (the Ramadan fast) and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Dua refers to personal prayer offered after the formal prayer. The Quran is the scripture, hadith are reports of the Prophet's sayings and deeds, and sunnah is his example. Daar and Khitamy add that shariah rests on the Quran and sunnah, with consensus, analogy, public interest (maslaha) and local custom (urf) also considered in Sunni reasoning.

Terms where religion and healing meet

Several terms link devotion to illness. Dhikr is remembrance of God, usually by reciting divine names, and ziyara is pilgrimage to the tombs of saints, according to the Ernst entry. Walaya is the Shia concept of divine authority and intimacy, which the same entry relates to early Sufi ideas of sainthood. A review of Eastern Mediterranean mental health describes jinn possession, the evil eye and black magic as supernatural explanations that some communities in the region attach to illness.

Islam, Sufism and Islamic medicine are not interchangeable

Sufism is described by the sources as a mystical dimension present among both Sunnis and Shias, and not as a separate religion. Prophetic medicine is a genre of medical writing, and the library describes it as distinct from the Greek-based medicine practiced by physicians such as al-Razi and Ibn Sina. The sources reviewed do not cover every term used for Islamic healing in different languages, so this page does not list them.

Worship and the five pillars

The encyclopedia entry describes the five pillars as the core of observance. Salat is performed five times daily, at daybreak, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and evening, facing Mecca, preceded by ablutions and conducted in Arabic. It involves standing, bowing, kneeling, touching the forehead to the ground and sitting while reciting Quranic passages. It may be done alone or in a group, and group prayer is considered more meritorious. Prayer has its own page on Machipedia, which covers prayer as a general practice across traditions.

The same entry says Muslims who are able abstain from food, drink and sexual activity from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, and that the sick, pregnant, elderly and travelers are exempt or may postpone the fast. Zakat is described as an obligatory annual contribution of 2.5 percent of total wealth.

Law, scholars and authority

Daar and Khitamy state that Islam has no organized clergy, and that qualified scholars of religious law rule on whether an action is forbidden, discouraged, neutral, recommended or obligatory. They report that most communities defer to their own recognized scholars, and that jurists hold conferences informed by technical experts to address new technologies. Authority to speak on a practice therefore differs between communities and legal traditions.

Devotional and shrine practices

Ernst describes dhikr as the central Sufi practice and says saints' tombs drew pilgrimage, with lodges often offering food to visitors. He adds that from the 1800s Wahhabi and Salafi reformers condemned saint veneration and tomb pilgrimage, so attitudes to these practices differ within Islam. In Pew's 2012 survey, 98 percent of Sunnis in Lebanon and 65 percent in Iraq considered visiting saints' shrines acceptable in Islam, and only in Turkey did a majority accept devotional dancing as acceptable worship.

Regional and communal variation

The same Pew survey found wide regional differences in how often Muslims pray: Azerbaijan was the only country in Central Asia and Southern and Eastern Europe where a majority (70 percent) prayed more than once a day, while at least three-quarters did so in Southeast Asia. It also found that in most surveyed Middle Eastern and North African countries at least 40 percent of Sunnis did not accept Shias as fellow Muslims. These are survey findings from 2012 and may not describe current attitudes.

Prayer, purification and community

The encyclopedia entry describes salat as the second pillar, with ablutions beforehand to purify body and mind. A field study of a congregational prayer describes it as a collective ritual involving synchronous movement. The study frames the ritual as one that may foster interpersonal connection among worshippers, which is a researchers' interpretation of wearable-sensor data, not a claim made by the tradition.

Machipedia also has pages on forgiveness and gratitude. The sources reviewed for this page do not address how Islamic teaching frames either practice, so this page makes no claim about them.

Illness, treatment and divine agency

Daar and Khitamy report that in Islamic teaching illness may be a trial or a cleansing and not a curse, that patients are obliged to seek treatment and avoid fatalism, and that physicians have a duty to strive for recovery, with God regarded as the ultimate source of recovery. They also report that life is sacred and that saving life is a duty. The Quran and sunnah are cited as the foundation for these positions.

Prophetic medicine and protective invocations

The National Library of Medicine lists the contents of prophetic medicine treatises as diet, simple drugs (especially honey), bloodletting and cautery, with prayers, pious invocations and occasionally amulets and talismans. Topics included fevers, plague, poisonous bites and protection from the evil eye. The library notes that surgery was excluded and that wine and soporific drugs were forbidden as medicines. Whether any of these measures were effective is outside what the library page addresses.

Fasting

The tradition presents Ramadan fasting as a religious obligation for those who are able, with exemptions for the sick, pregnant, elderly and travelers. Health claims for fasting are separate from the tradition's own aims and are discussed under research.

Scholarship on the tradition

Pew's demographic reports and Ernst's reference entry are the main scholarly descriptions reviewed here. Pew states that its Sunni and Shia figures are less precise than the overall population count. A 2024 review on religion and mental health in the Eastern Mediterranean notes that the spiritual beliefs within Islam and their effect on mental well-being have not been studied sufficiently, and that research on intercultural aspects of the region is limited.

Research on prayer

A PubMed search for Islamic prayer (salat) combined with health and systematic review terms returned no systematic reviews. A broader search for salat returned 22 records, mostly small observational studies of posture, the eye or ritual, and none of the sources reviewed here tests whether salat changes a health condition. One field study of congregational prayer used wearable devices and reported that postural alignment was local, with worshippers synchronizing with nearest neighbors, while physiological arousal aligned more broadly and was driven largely by the prayer leader.

Ramadan fasting reviews

A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of 34 clinical studies in 11,925 adults with type 2 diabetes found that Ramadan fasting was associated on average with lower fasting glucose, glycated hemoglobin, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, but not with significant changes in total or HDL cholesterol. Heterogeneity was very high, with I-squared of 91 to 97 percent, and the authors describe the results as context-dependent associations and not a uniform effect.

A narrative systematic review of psychological effects of fasting, including Ramadan, found modest reductions in depressive symptoms and perceived stress in metabolically healthy adults, mostly in small samples with limited follow-up. It also reported possible mood destabilization and anxiety in vulnerable individuals. Methodological differences between studies limited comparison.

Islamically adapted psychological interventions

A randomized trial of Islamic Trauma Healing enrolled 101 Somali refugees in the United States. The mosque-based program was led by lay leaders trained over two 4-hour sessions, and it combined psychoeducation, accounts of prophets who experienced trauma and informal prayer with cognitive restructuring and imaginal exposure. Compared with a waiting list, it was associated with lower PTSD severity (effect size -0.67) and depression, with gains maintained at 12 weeks. The comparator was delayed intervention, and the trial did not test other populations or longer follow-up.

A smaller trial in Iran randomized 45 women hospitalized with breast cancer to a manualized religious-spiritual psychotherapy based on Twelver Shia Islam, an attention control or no treatment. The therapy group improved on illness perception and inner strength, with results maintained at four months. The authors call the results promising and warrant further investigation, and the small groups of 15 limit what can be inferred.

Delayed professional care

The Eastern Mediterranean review reports that traditional and faith healers remain very popular there, with reported use ranging from 34.1 percent in Tunisia to 70.5 percent in Saudi Arabia, and that 28 percent of patients in one UAE study visited a traditional healer before consulting mental health providers. It states that families sometimes interpret worsening illness as weakness of faith, which delays professional help, and that patients may prioritize religious rituals over medication or therapy. The review stresses these figures come from specific samples and cannot be generalized, and it also notes that integrating religious beliefs into treatment may improve engagement.

Fasting and medical conditions

The type 2 diabetes meta-analysis pooled hypoglycemia at 6 percent and hyperglycemia at 7 percent of participants during Ramadan, with very high heterogeneity, and concluded that individualized monitoring and therapeutic adjustment are essential. A meta-analysis in adults with epilepsy, based on four studies with 564 patients, found that 61.1 percent remained seizure-free during Ramadan, and that seizure risk was higher with poor baseline control, polytherapy and longer fasting hours. The psychological review reported symptom exacerbation in at-risk groups and greater food preoccupation in people with eating disorder phenotypes.

Per the tradition, exemptions exist for the sick, pregnant, elderly and travelers. A person with a medical condition, a medication schedule or a history of an eating disorder would need individual advice from a clinician, and nothing on this page replaces it. Care should not be delayed or replaced by religious practice alone.

Authority, restricted material and cultural care

Because Islam has no organized clergy, practice and rulings differ by community, legal school and scholar, and Pew found substantial disagreement among Muslims about Shias and Sufi practices. A description of one group's practice should not be read as speaking for all Muslims. This page describes practices only at the level published in the sources reviewed.

What the reviewed sources do not report

None of the sources reviewed reports harms from performing salat, and none of them evaluates spiritual abuse, coercive teachers or financial exploitation within Muslim communities, so this page makes no claim about them. Searches of PubMed on Quran recitation trials returned few relevant results, and no review of ruqya or exorcism practices was found. Ramadan fasting and healer-first help-seeking are the two risk areas for which the sources provide data.