Tahiyah
05-12-06, 03:19 PM
A possible cure for AIDS has been extracted from Prophetic tradition and tested with impressive results, claimed Dr. Husni Al-Goshae. This came in the first session of the Eighth International Conference on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah which started on November 26, in Kuwait. The Deputy Executive Director of the University of Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, said he has been working along with eight other researchers for the past three years to produce the drug.
The team did not disclose the composition of the drug, arguing that they must wait until it can be further tested and registered. They did, however, say that it is a herbal extract that was prescribed in the Prophetic Sunnah for the treatment of other ailments.
Research papers presented in the previous conference held in 2004 in Dubai, UAE, drew criticism over their poor quality. There was much anticipation over how solid the research presented this year would be. Dr. Abdallah Amr Nasif, the previous head of the Committee of the Islamic World, commented on how the conference hosts took special care this year in choosing the research studies to be presented. He explained that they worked hard to evade the negative opinions that arose in 2004. "However, enthusiasm may sometimes push some researchers to present their findings before registering and appropriately verifying them," he admitted to IslamOnline.net's Arabic correspondent.
On the other side, Dr. Mohammad Aly Al-Bar, consultant to the Islamic Medicine Department in Al-Malik Fahd Center for Health Research, said that the conference is much better than its predecessor.
Al-Goshae explained the scientific methodology used in his research. The first group of subjects on which the treatment was tested consisted of 13 patients. In order to assure the validity of test results, three blood samples were taken from each patient. These were then sent off for analysis in test labs in Yemen, Jordan, and Germany at every stage of the study. By the end of the study, 10 out of the 13 patients had no detectable traces of the virus in their blood. Testing continued for a year after they stopped receiving the treatment and the test results continued to be negative for presence of HIV.
A second group of AIDS patients who started treatment eight months ago are also showing promise, he said, with 15 out of 25 already tested negative for traces of the virus in their blood.
Although finding a cure for AIDS seems highly unlikely to many, Al-Goshae insisted on the validity of his results. He explained to IslamOnline.net how they came to discover the treatment.
"Some of the brothers found some hadiths mentioning that the Prophet used [these herbs]. They started to test it on different viruses especially on herpes simplex virus outside the body in experimental dishes and in animals. They found that on the dishes, the virus died completely. We took the formula and tried it on HIV, while a research team from Egypt experimented with it on the hepatitis C virus."
Claim Not Really New
When asked if the treatment would work for all AIDS patients, he said, "Cure has a better chance to take place in the first and second stage of infection as [those stages are] defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), while in the third and fourth stage the infection might be accompanied by other diseases such as tuberculosis and lung cancer and these cancers are hard to treat."
These results, however, have not been published in peer-reviewed medical journals, which is how research studies are normally validated. Al-Goushae said that they were still waiting for further tests and to secure registration of the formula before publication. "These journals won't publish a paper unless the active ingredients of the drug being tested are mentioned. We can't do that until we have further tested and registered the formula to protect the rights of the researchers."
Dr. Atef Bakhoum, senior registrar of hepatology and tropical medicine at the National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute in Kasr El-Eini School of Medicine in Egypt, however, was unimpressed.
IslamOnline.net asked him about the study and what it can possibly mean to AIDS patients. He said that he was not surprised with such an announcement since in the Arab world many people seem to be coming up with such treatments and stir bouts of propaganda but eventually they disappear unheard of again.
"This reminds me of an imminent professor from Kasr El-Eini who went to Africa and said that he had discovered a cure for AIDS a couple of decades ago. We later didn't hear much about this treatment."
As for the scientific aspect of the study, he was unable to validate its authenticity because of the lack of information.
"Thirteen patients in the first group and 25 in the second is not enough to make a clinical study. It is too little a number for statistical reasons. And what is the nature of the sample age, gender, function, past history, associated diseases, and accompanying habits like alcohol, drugs, intravenous drug use … and so on? What about transfer of blood samples to other labs in Yemen, Jordan, and Germany? Did he make sure that storage was under zero temperature and that thawing (melting after freezing) was [done] only once and complete [since] freezing and thawing more than once spoils samples?"
Funding a Major Hurdle
Al-Goushae said they were getting ready to continue testing the herbal mixture in order to get it registered.
But without receiving external funding for the project, they won't have a chance to go much further. During his presentation he complained that "among the negative aspects of the program is that it is very expensive and the financial aspect is challenging us constantly while doing the research. … Most of the patients are very poor and we give them the treatment for free. They come a long distance and if these studies are to continue we will also need to support them … by providing them with housing as well as food and drink, which are also very expensive."
He further clarified to IslamOnline.net that some of the wealthier researchers in the team have been funding the project from their own pockets, something they can't sustain for long.
"Testing in Jordan costs US$100 a patient, while in Germany it costs US$200." During the sessions, Al-Ghoushae was not alone in his complaints about a lack of funding.
"We are always criticized that we wait until the West makes a [scientific] discovery before we start talking about it. No, I say that we could become pioneers and present the world with a new model [for scientific discovery,]" said Dr. Megahed Abu El-Magd, professor of Internal Medicine at Mansoura University, Egypt.
"[But] there should also be parties to sponsor these researches. This is a must. The medical research team coming from Mansoura has more than one research project stemming from the Qur'an and Sunnah different from the one we just presented."
Abu El-Magd presented the results of his study for the treatment of hepatitis C virus in adults using a formula similar to the one used by Al-Goushae. The pilot study tested the formula on 20 adults and 10 children for one year. His research team claimed that even though the results were modest, they are scientifically significant.
Encyclopedia on Scientific Signs
More than 1000 verses and 800 hadiths are covered in the Scientific Signs Encyclopedia, said Al-Muslih.
Although some of these medical studies are being declared as miraculous in such conferences, skepticism remains that some researchers might exaggerate by bypassing proper scientific methodology.
Dr. Ahmed Omar Hashim, the ex-head of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, commented saying, "We are against exaggerations and overloading religions. However, what is scientifically proven and also found in the Qur'an and Sunnah is a miracle."
Dr. Abdullah Al-Muslih, secretary general of the International Commission on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah, announced the debut of an Encyclopedia on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah.
IslamOnline.net asked Dr. Abdelilah Al-Haify, vice secretary general of the commission, what steps were taken to ensure the validity of the scientific content of this encyclopedia. He explained that it went through an exhaustive process.
"It passed by four stages," he said. "The first stage involved [a review by] the internal scientific committee of the commission. After that it passed by a higher scientific committee that included [scientists from] most universities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Then it moved to a third sifting process which involved all scientists present who specialize in all fields. In the fourth stage it passed by a jurisprudence committee headed by Dr. Abdullah [Al-Muslih] and with membership of Dr. Saud Al-Shuraim [imam of the holy shrine in Makkah] as well as other brothers to see if these scientific understandings of the different verses are compatible with the Shari`ah understanding of them."
Al-Haify insisted that only those papers abiding by scientific standards make it into the conferences and into the encyclopedia. He stated that this year only 87 proposed studies out of a total of 426 presented made it through.
The encyclopedia, currently printed out into 14 volumes, has been partially translated into English, with 18 other languages still being targeted. It is divided into three main sections. The first section deals with scientific signs in the Qur'an. This is followed by a section focusing on the signs in the Hadith. The final part includes papers presented in conferences and forums organized by the commission.
The encyclopedia should also be available electronically on DVD as well as online.
[I]By Tamer El-Maghraby
Editor - IslamOnline.net
The team did not disclose the composition of the drug, arguing that they must wait until it can be further tested and registered. They did, however, say that it is a herbal extract that was prescribed in the Prophetic Sunnah for the treatment of other ailments.
Research papers presented in the previous conference held in 2004 in Dubai, UAE, drew criticism over their poor quality. There was much anticipation over how solid the research presented this year would be. Dr. Abdallah Amr Nasif, the previous head of the Committee of the Islamic World, commented on how the conference hosts took special care this year in choosing the research studies to be presented. He explained that they worked hard to evade the negative opinions that arose in 2004. "However, enthusiasm may sometimes push some researchers to present their findings before registering and appropriately verifying them," he admitted to IslamOnline.net's Arabic correspondent.
On the other side, Dr. Mohammad Aly Al-Bar, consultant to the Islamic Medicine Department in Al-Malik Fahd Center for Health Research, said that the conference is much better than its predecessor.
Al-Goshae explained the scientific methodology used in his research. The first group of subjects on which the treatment was tested consisted of 13 patients. In order to assure the validity of test results, three blood samples were taken from each patient. These were then sent off for analysis in test labs in Yemen, Jordan, and Germany at every stage of the study. By the end of the study, 10 out of the 13 patients had no detectable traces of the virus in their blood. Testing continued for a year after they stopped receiving the treatment and the test results continued to be negative for presence of HIV.
A second group of AIDS patients who started treatment eight months ago are also showing promise, he said, with 15 out of 25 already tested negative for traces of the virus in their blood.
Although finding a cure for AIDS seems highly unlikely to many, Al-Goshae insisted on the validity of his results. He explained to IslamOnline.net how they came to discover the treatment.
"Some of the brothers found some hadiths mentioning that the Prophet used [these herbs]. They started to test it on different viruses especially on herpes simplex virus outside the body in experimental dishes and in animals. They found that on the dishes, the virus died completely. We took the formula and tried it on HIV, while a research team from Egypt experimented with it on the hepatitis C virus."
Claim Not Really New
When asked if the treatment would work for all AIDS patients, he said, "Cure has a better chance to take place in the first and second stage of infection as [those stages are] defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), while in the third and fourth stage the infection might be accompanied by other diseases such as tuberculosis and lung cancer and these cancers are hard to treat."
These results, however, have not been published in peer-reviewed medical journals, which is how research studies are normally validated. Al-Goushae said that they were still waiting for further tests and to secure registration of the formula before publication. "These journals won't publish a paper unless the active ingredients of the drug being tested are mentioned. We can't do that until we have further tested and registered the formula to protect the rights of the researchers."
Dr. Atef Bakhoum, senior registrar of hepatology and tropical medicine at the National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute in Kasr El-Eini School of Medicine in Egypt, however, was unimpressed.
IslamOnline.net asked him about the study and what it can possibly mean to AIDS patients. He said that he was not surprised with such an announcement since in the Arab world many people seem to be coming up with such treatments and stir bouts of propaganda but eventually they disappear unheard of again.
"This reminds me of an imminent professor from Kasr El-Eini who went to Africa and said that he had discovered a cure for AIDS a couple of decades ago. We later didn't hear much about this treatment."
As for the scientific aspect of the study, he was unable to validate its authenticity because of the lack of information.
"Thirteen patients in the first group and 25 in the second is not enough to make a clinical study. It is too little a number for statistical reasons. And what is the nature of the sample age, gender, function, past history, associated diseases, and accompanying habits like alcohol, drugs, intravenous drug use … and so on? What about transfer of blood samples to other labs in Yemen, Jordan, and Germany? Did he make sure that storage was under zero temperature and that thawing (melting after freezing) was [done] only once and complete [since] freezing and thawing more than once spoils samples?"
Funding a Major Hurdle
Al-Goushae said they were getting ready to continue testing the herbal mixture in order to get it registered.
But without receiving external funding for the project, they won't have a chance to go much further. During his presentation he complained that "among the negative aspects of the program is that it is very expensive and the financial aspect is challenging us constantly while doing the research. … Most of the patients are very poor and we give them the treatment for free. They come a long distance and if these studies are to continue we will also need to support them … by providing them with housing as well as food and drink, which are also very expensive."
He further clarified to IslamOnline.net that some of the wealthier researchers in the team have been funding the project from their own pockets, something they can't sustain for long.
"Testing in Jordan costs US$100 a patient, while in Germany it costs US$200." During the sessions, Al-Ghoushae was not alone in his complaints about a lack of funding.
"We are always criticized that we wait until the West makes a [scientific] discovery before we start talking about it. No, I say that we could become pioneers and present the world with a new model [for scientific discovery,]" said Dr. Megahed Abu El-Magd, professor of Internal Medicine at Mansoura University, Egypt.
"[But] there should also be parties to sponsor these researches. This is a must. The medical research team coming from Mansoura has more than one research project stemming from the Qur'an and Sunnah different from the one we just presented."
Abu El-Magd presented the results of his study for the treatment of hepatitis C virus in adults using a formula similar to the one used by Al-Goushae. The pilot study tested the formula on 20 adults and 10 children for one year. His research team claimed that even though the results were modest, they are scientifically significant.
Encyclopedia on Scientific Signs
More than 1000 verses and 800 hadiths are covered in the Scientific Signs Encyclopedia, said Al-Muslih.
Although some of these medical studies are being declared as miraculous in such conferences, skepticism remains that some researchers might exaggerate by bypassing proper scientific methodology.
Dr. Ahmed Omar Hashim, the ex-head of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, commented saying, "We are against exaggerations and overloading religions. However, what is scientifically proven and also found in the Qur'an and Sunnah is a miracle."
Dr. Abdullah Al-Muslih, secretary general of the International Commission on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah, announced the debut of an Encyclopedia on the Scientific Signs in the Qur'an and Sunnah.
IslamOnline.net asked Dr. Abdelilah Al-Haify, vice secretary general of the commission, what steps were taken to ensure the validity of the scientific content of this encyclopedia. He explained that it went through an exhaustive process.
"It passed by four stages," he said. "The first stage involved [a review by] the internal scientific committee of the commission. After that it passed by a higher scientific committee that included [scientists from] most universities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Then it moved to a third sifting process which involved all scientists present who specialize in all fields. In the fourth stage it passed by a jurisprudence committee headed by Dr. Abdullah [Al-Muslih] and with membership of Dr. Saud Al-Shuraim [imam of the holy shrine in Makkah] as well as other brothers to see if these scientific understandings of the different verses are compatible with the Shari`ah understanding of them."
Al-Haify insisted that only those papers abiding by scientific standards make it into the conferences and into the encyclopedia. He stated that this year only 87 proposed studies out of a total of 426 presented made it through.
The encyclopedia, currently printed out into 14 volumes, has been partially translated into English, with 18 other languages still being targeted. It is divided into three main sections. The first section deals with scientific signs in the Qur'an. This is followed by a section focusing on the signs in the Hadith. The final part includes papers presented in conferences and forums organized by the commission.
The encyclopedia should also be available electronically on DVD as well as online.
[I]By Tamer El-Maghraby
Editor - IslamOnline.net