In sickness and in health: Disease, healing, and Muslim religious identity according to Ibn 'Asim al-Gharnati (d. 857/1453)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the narratives of illness and healing in Ibn 'Asim al-Gharnati's belles-lettristic compendium, Junnat al-rida, which he dedicated to his patron, the deposed Nasrid sultan, Muhammad IX, al-Ghalib bi-Llah, treating them as an example of the body as a site of ideological production. I shall argue that healing is not religiously neutral, and that Ibn 'Asim's representations of bith bodily disease and healine are oart of his larger ideological discourse that defines orthodox Sunni (and Sufi) Muslim identity in terms of absolute trust in and contentment and satisfaction with God. Against the evidence of the pragmatism with which Muslims sought all sorts of medical remedies, crossing sectarian and religious lines in the process, Ibn 'Asim attempts to portray illness as providinp Muslims with the opportunity to shape their identity as being virtuous and carrying out God's will by resorting preferably to prophetic medicine. This pro-active approach to healing challenges the thesis of Islamic fatalism which would supposedly advocate an attitude of resignation in the face of disease-regarding it as the will of God, and disdain for the recourse to medical treatment.