Farhat Moazam, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. 264 pages.

Modern secular-oriented medicine is fragmented by organ as well as disease process and is not holistic. It lacks a sense of balance, mizaan. It is atomistic and not synthetic because it does not have an underlying integrative paradigm. It is disease and not health-oriented. It has a uniformly negative view of illness and does not acknowledge the positive aspects. It ascribes cure of disease to human effort and does not recognize divine intervention. It focuses on quantity of life and not on quality. Islamic medical education can overcome the limitations mentioned above. Islam can provide an integrative tauhidi paradigm to replace the non-tauhid world-view in medicine. The Qur’anic concepts of wasatiyyat, mizaan, i’itidaal, and tadafu’u provide a conceptual framework for balanced medical teaching and medical practice. The aim of Islamic medical education is producing physicians whose practice fulfills the 5 purposes of the Law within a holistic tauhidi context. Further reform of medical education will involve using a wide range of admission criteria and not relying on academic grades, reforming the curriculum to have more apprenticeship, and research-based education and training.

Dr Omar Hasan Kasule

The paper uses the theory of Purposes of the Law, maqasid al shari’at, to discuss contemporary ethico-legal issues in medicine relating to reproductive technology (assisted reproduction, contraception, abortion, sex selection, and genetic testing), end of life issues (artificial life support, euthanasia), transplantation (stem cells and solid organs), cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, post-mortem issues (embalming, cryopreservation, and autopsy), and research (human and animals). Ethical procedures conform to and do not violate the 5 maqasid al shari’at which are: preservation of diin, hifdh al ddiin; preservation of life, hifdh an nafs; preservation of progeny, hifdh al nasl; preservation of the intellect, hifdh al ‘aql; and preservation of resources, hifdh al maal. Also used in the discussion are legal axioms, qawa’id al shari’at, that assist in ethico-legal reasoning.

Ganim, Helen Elizabeth, Psy D. California School of Professional Psychology, 2001. 122 pages. Adviser: Tori, Christopher. Publication Number: 3009221.

The purpose of this integrative literature review is to examine adolescent development in Arab society, with particular focus on the Lebanese, in order to convey to American clinicians useful information around the social concerns of Arab American adolescent girls who may struggle between two cultures: Arab and American. I examined several areas of Arab culture and adolescent development. First, an overview of Lebanon’s history provides a glimpse not only into Phoenicia’s contributions to civilization and their contact with the West. I noted that this multiculturalism has been maintained in present-day Lebanon. Additionally, I described the numerous invasions and the resulting animosity between Christians and Muslims. In Arab culture, religion has a pervasive influence on daily life.