01| Preventive Medicine and Maqasid Al-Shari’ah: The case of COVID-19

Abstract

The application of the preventive medicine model is instrumental in promoting health within society. It can help practitioners and health scientists to understand different health issues, monitor improvements in health status indicators and reduce the financial cost of diseases. All these goals are entirely consistent with the philosophy of Islam through general purposes, which emphasises the protection of life and wealth. These cannot be arrived at except through rationalisation of public health behaviour and the provision of distinctive medical services, to preserve the human element and intellect, and maintain their existence. Moreover, it can reduce public expenditure that often burdens countries and weakens the fabric of society. This paper offers an understanding of preventive medicine from an Islamic perspective. In particular, the implications of Maqasid al-Shari’ah and their application to COVID-19 are discussed here in detail to highlight how Maqasid al-Shari’ah takes into consideration the reality of pandemic diseases and ever-changing situations. Therefore, this study tries to apply the Maqasid framework to identify the variables of preventive measures in community health towards the current pandemic of COVID-19. Furthermore, this paper suggests that preventive medicine from an Islamic perspective must be based on the five principle objectives of Maqasid al-Shari'ah, which represent the five purposes of preventive medicine to overcome COVID-19. Identifying variables can provide a better frame for organisations, individuals and governments to use during plagues, pandemics and arising diseases. This paper adopts the analytical method that was based on a descriptive approach.