» | Sudanow Magazine

KHARTOUM (SUDANOW)—Cupping, hijamah in Arabic, is a practice of incising the skin with a sharp tool to let out the decomposed blood as a cure from diseases. It was recommended by Mohammad the Prophet (PBUH) who reportedly said that the best remedies are: drinking honey, cupping and cauterization, though he warned against the latter. The Prophet remembered that during his ascension to the Seven Heavens, he was advised by the angels he met to use the cupping as a remedy.
The Prophetic medicine, including the cupping, has long been practiced in Sudan. One of the most renowned centers for cupping treatment in Sudan is that of Sheikhah Asma'a Ahmed Hamid Abdul Gadir, nicknamed Um Ahmed, in Khartoum. Sheikhah Um Ahmed treated a large number of patients and has therefore gained fame all over the country.
SUDANOW paid a visit to the center, had an idea about the practice and met with a number of patients. The Sheikhah inherited the practice from her grandfather in her home village Abu Saleem, west of Ed Damer, in the River Nile State. She has memorized the Holy Koran by heart and is well versed in a large number of Prophet Mohammad's sayings. She is assisted by her daughter and two sons. Male patients are treated in separate places from the female patients, using sterilized instruments.
The beginning was in 1998 when Sheikhah Um Ahmed applied the cupping to treat herself from a disease from which she had suffered for more than five years and undergone fruitless numerous tests and medications.
"Then I considered the incantation method (reciting certain verses from the Holy Koran) and it worked. A niece of mine alerted me that the Satan runs through the blood which must be purified by cupping. I was told at a place where cupping is practiced that cupping lets out black blood from a bewitched person. Then I cupped myself with assistance by my niece and, thank God, I have recovered, and have since then decided to treat patients by cupping so that everyone will benefit," the Sheikhah said of her first experience.
Explaining the method, Sheikhah Um Ahmed said she places, with force, a certain cup in a specific spot of the body, according to the case of the patient. Then she pulls it and cut the spot with a special scalpel to let the blood come out. There is a cup for each patient and the cupping times are determined in accordance with the disease, with the sessions held once a week, twice a week, once a month or each 80 days.
The Sheikhah explained that there are certain spots for the cup, usually at the seventh vertebra of the backbone. This spot is useful for most diseases, adding that another spot is the lower part of the skull, for headaches, blood pressure, lapse of memory, eyesight problems and head diseases. There are other spots for the cup including the middle and lower part of the back, the shoulder, the sides of the neck, the bottom of the skull and above the ears according to Sheikhah Um Ahmed.

She stated that she had treated many diseases such as some types of cancer, epilepsy, nervous intestines, lack of oxygen for newborns, all kinds of rheumatism, malaria, typhoid, hepatitis A,B,C,..... etc. The treatment of hepatitis was supervised by doctors of the Ministry of Health she said.

Citing an example, the Sheikhah said once she treated a lady in Dongola who was in full four-month coma she had in a traffic accident. She said she cupped in three sessions, with the first one in the head and she awoke after 12 hours. In the second session she cupped in the back and repeated cupping on the head and in three hours she full recovered and exercised normal life and she is now in Dongola, Um Ahmed said.
SUDANOW talked to a number of frequenters of the Center. One of those was Fathiyah Omar who had a breast cancer which she was unaware of but came for treatment from sterility and Shiekha Um Ahmed, by touching, decided that the tumor was a breast cancer.
Sheikhah Um Ahmed managed to make the glands around the tumor inactive to prevent the spread of the disease, said Fathiyah. The tumor itself became about the size of an orange, inactive and ready to be removed. Still, she went to Jordan and after examination the doctors were surprised and ensured her that all the glands were inactive and no cancer existed.
"I have recovered fully and I am now extremely happy, thanks to God, and advice everyone to revive the cupping tradition as it is helpful," she said.
Another case was that of Hajjah Norah Mohamed Ahmed of Atbara who said she was suffering from back pains which developed in swellings that after a month began to bleed. She said she set out on the journey of treatment and had seven surgical operations in Khartoum, Khartoum North and Atbara hospitals but all were in vain and could not move out of her house.
"My daughter in Khartoum told me about Sheikhah Um Ahmed. I went and I found her very generous, dignified and very nice to patients," said Hajjah Norah.
She said the treatment began a year ago and "only in six months I returned to normalcy and resumed my previous activity as the swellings have now disappeared altogether…thanks to God and to Sheikhah Um Ahmed."
The third case was Osman al-Sherif, a researcher and journalist, who lives in Shajarah neighborhood of Khartoum. He said he had suffered three years of constant dizziness and blood concentration which in many times reached 53. Sherif added that he had also suffered from a difficulty of movement and imbalance to the point he was unable to continue working. He said a number of doctors he visited told him that he was suffering from Malaria which did not respond to the medicine. Sherif said he then saw a cardiologist and went through all sorts of examination but in vain. He then tried incantation in addition to donation with blood every two months to check its increase but after a number of donations, he found it difficult. Then a number of friends told him about Um Ahmed's Center in addition to an experience by a niece who had a migraine from which she was treated at the Center, recovered and resumed her university studies.
"When I went there, I found out that the Center operates in a healthy, sterilized environment, something which convinced me and I began undergoing the cupping treatment and had four sessions, two each month. After the very first session, I felt fit, psychologically, mentally and physically and the blood concentration became normal, down from 53 to 43 and the hemoglobin was 91% after the decomposed blood was sucked out," said Sherif.

The fourth experience was one of a child named Khabab who suffered meningitis when he was six months old in addition a calcium shortage causing emaciation in the limbs and other parts of the body, including the tongue, rendering him incapable of movement, speaking and chewing and the legs were knotted together in a way that they could not be parted; and his body was too slim, like a skeleton, and at 9 he seemed five years old. This was his case as related by his mother who upon hearing Um Ahmed's Center, she took her son for cupping treatment. And after three months of cupping, four sessions each month, on the back and head, Khabab began to recover, with his legs parted, his health returned to normal and began to eat, the mother said. She added that Khabab has now recovered by 70%, thanks to God for the blessing.
However, there are some people who do not believe in cupping regarding it as an outdated method of treatment which is not supported by a scientific research but many Muslim scholars responded by pointing to modern medical studies which they argued have confirmed the scientific credibility of the cupping practice. Those responses included a long thesis refuting those suspicions and affirming that the modern studies have proven the effectiveness of cupping in curing diseases by removing impurities from the blood circle so that the body would benefit from the purified blood. The method has proved efficiency in the treatment of asthma, virus live infection, rheumatoid, returning the blood pressures to normalcy, raising the number of the white blood corpuscles. They also pointed out the cupping has proved useful for the treatment of skin, bone and spinal cord diseases beside protection against cancer and other diseases by enhancing the body's immunity.
The Muslim scholars described as false allegations that there is no scientific research that proves the benefits of cupping treatment, saying that they possess Masters Dissertations on cupping treatment in the faculties of medicine of Al-Azhar and Ein Shams universities in Cairo, Egypt, in addition to research studies by two Russian scientists published in the Russian scientific encyclopedia. They also made reference to a Syrian study that was conducted by 15 teachers of the University of Damascus in addition to numerous research studies published in English in a famous medical website (PubMed) on cupping research which demonstrates the medical miracles of Prophet Mohammad's pieces of advice to his followers for treatment with cupping and prohibiting them from some other methods.
In conclusion, we can say that the existence of rogue practitioners in the alternative medicine, especially the Prophet's medicine, does not impair the credibility of the guidance but one should seek the well trained practitioners.

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MAS/ AS

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