| In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh counsels his followers to ‘consult competent physicians when ill'. |
| ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, in a discussion about healing in 1904—6, said: ‘The science of medicine is still in a condition of infancy; it has not reached maturity; but when it has reached this point, cures will be performed by things which are not repulsive to the smell and taste of man . . . it is possible to cure by foods, aliments, and fruits; but as today the science of medicine is imperfect, this fact is not yet fully grasped. When the science of medicine reaches perfection, treatment will be given by foods, aliments, fragrant fruits, and vegetables, and by various waters, hot and cold in temperature.'11 |
| Healing is possible through physical medicine, pyschological treatment and spiritual means, through prayer. Of healing through prayer, ‘Abdu'l-Bahá wrote: ‘The prayers which were revealed to ask for healing apply both to physical and spiritual healing. Recite them, then, to heal both the soul and the body. If healing is right for the patient, it will certainly be granted; but for some ailing persons, healing would only be the cause of other ills, and therefore wisdom doth not permit an affirmative answer to the prayer.'12 |
| Bahá'ís are encouraged to apply the appropriate treatment, physical or spiritual, for their illnesses: ‘Disease is of two kinds: material and spiritual. Take for instance a cut hand; if you pray for the cut to be healed and do not stop its bleeding, you will not do much good; a material remedy is needed.'13 However, ‘Physical healing cannot be complete and lasting unless it is reinforced by spiritual healing. And this last one can be best obtained through obedience to the laws and commandments of God as revealed to us through His Manifestations.'14 ‘Healing through purely spiritual forces is undoubtedly as inadequate as that which materialist physicians and thinkers vainly seek to obtain by resorting entirely to mechanical devices and methods. The best result can be obtained by combining the two processes, spiritual and physical.'15 |
| [BD 100-101] |
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