What is Health

                                                     What Is Health

"Everything good that happens to you (O Man) is from God, everything bad that happens to you is from your own actions". (Quran 4:79).

The Quran is not a book of medicine or of health sciences,but in it there are hints which leads to guidelines in health and diseases. Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him) has been sent as an example to mankind so his traditions in matters of health and personal hygiene are also a guide for his followers. Being healthy is vital in that it enables us to undergo our daily life with ease but also to carry out our responsibility as a khalifah of Allah. Surely a happy and healthy muslim can do a much better job compared to that done by a sickly one! Hence, being healthy is not only beneficial to our ownselves but also to others as well.

Health is something of an enigma. Like the proverbial elephant, it is difficult

to define but easy to spot when we see it. ‘You look well’ stands

as a common greeting to a friend or a relative who appears relaxed,

happy and buoyant – ‘feeling good’. Any reflection on the term, however,

immediately reveals its complexity. The idea of health is capable of wide

and narrow application, and can be negatively as well as positively

defined. We can be in good health and poor health. Moreover, health is

not just a feature of our daily life, it also appears frequently on the political

landscape.

Health scares such as BSE/CJD, SARS and even the

prospect of bio-terrorism have all exercised politicians and their medical

advisers in recent times, and have all provided a steady stream of media

stories.

Health risks seem to proliferate, even if, for most of us most of

the time, these are less than urgent concerns.

In all such instances, and in our more mundane experience, health is

also related to other complex ideas such as illness and disease. This constellation

of terms: health, disease and illness, and the experiences and

forms of knowledge to which they relate, are the subjects of this opening

chapter. In order to structure the discussion, the chapter is organized

round four themes:

• The medical model of health and illness

• Lay concepts of health

• Health as attribute and health as relation

• Health and illness – physical and mental

These themes comprise substantive topics in their own right, but the discussion

of them will also act as a lead into the subsequent chapters of

the book. Many of the wider dimensions of health and illness – including

their cultural and political features – will figure throughout the book.

Examples of the most recent controversies in health are dealt with particularly

in the latter stages. In this opening chapter, however, we need

to begin with the basics and establish a conceptual map of the field.