Hijama

Hijama is the practice of "wet cupping," a form of therapy in which small cups are applied to the skin to create suction and, in the wet form, in which shallow scratches are then made so that a small quantity of blood is drawn out into the cups. In the Islamic context hijama is valued as a sunnah practice, part of the "prophetic medicine" derived from reports that the Prophet Muhammad underwent cupping and commended it, and particular days of the lunar month are traditionally held to be especially beneficial for it. It is undertaken by many Muslims both as a remedy for various ailments and as a devotional act of following the Prophet's example, and it has seen a marked revival in recent decades. Cupping itself is far older and more widespread than its Islamic form, practised in ancient Egyptian, Greek and especially Chinese medicine, in which it remains a well-established traditional therapy.

The standing of hijama illustrates the meeting of religious tradition and modern medical evaluation. As a traditional and devotional practice it carries real meaning for its practitioners, and dry cupping is used in some physiotherapeutic settings; but the broad therapeutic claims made for wet cupping, that it removes toxins or "bad blood" and treats a wide range of diseases, are not supported by robust scientific evidence, and reviews of the research generally find the studies to be of low quality and the benefits unproven beyond non-specific effects. There are also real if usually minor safety considerations, since the practice involves breaking the skin and drawing blood, requiring proper hygiene to avoid infection. Hijama thus exemplifies a traditional healing practice sustained by religious sanction and long custom, whose devotional and cultural significance for its practitioners is distinct from the question of its demonstrated medical efficacy.

Hijama has undergone a marked revival over the past two decades, moving from a marginal folk practice in many Muslim-majority countries into a licensed and increasingly regulated therapeutic service, a shift driven partly by renewed interest in prophetic medicine and partly by broader global interest in traditional and complementary therapies.

Countries including the United Kingdom, Malaysia and several Gulf states have developed licensing frameworks specifically for cupping practitioners, requiring training in hygiene, sterile equipment and safe technique, a regulatory response to real documented risks: unregulated wet cupping using unsterilised blades or shared equipment has been linked to transmission of bloodborne infections, and health authorities in multiple countries have issued specific warnings about practitioners operating outside licensed or hygienic conditions. Reports attributing specific preferred days of the lunar month, the seventeenth, nineteenth and twenty-first are commonly cited, to the practice have generated their own internal debate among hadith scholars over the reliability and interpretation of the relevant narrations, with some scholars treating the timing as a recommended but non-binding preference and others questioning the strength of the specific reports involved. The revival has also drawn renewed scientific attention, with a growing number of clinical trials attempting to test cupping for pain conditions such as lower back pain, though systematic reviews of this research have generally found the existing trials too small or methodologically weak to establish clear therapeutic benefit, leaving the practice's traditional standing considerably stronger than its current clinical evidence base.