My Experience at a Hijama Therapist’s Clinic
By Ahmed Idris
During a recent visit to my former workmate in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa, I realized he had small scars on his body. When I inquired, he told me he had gone for Hijama also known as cupping, a therapy where suctions (pulling up the skin) are created on troubled areas around the skin with the help of cups. Sounds painful, I imagined, but he assured me that it is not.
I wished to go for it too but since I was on a short visit to Mombasa, I couldn’t, unfortunately, since I had to catch the next bus.
From my basic Islamic knowledge, I knew too well that cupping is one of the therapies recommended that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) recommended. Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet said: “I did not pass by an angel from the angels on the night journey except that they all said to me: Upon you is cupping (Hijama), O Muhammad.” [Saheeh, Sunan ibn Majah]. “The best medicine with which you treat yourselves is cupping, or it is one of the best of your medicines.” Or “The treatment you can use is cupping.” [Bukhari].
There are a host of other narrations on the same issue which explains why cupping is common in Muslim communities.
According to verywellhealth.com, cupping techniques vary by suction methods, suction power, the area treated, and the material used. They include among others dry cupping, massage cupping, flash cupping, needle cupping, and wet cupping. Cupping, according to various online sites, helps among others to ease pain, rid the body of toxins and excess fluids, promote the flow of blood to muscles and tissues, regulate cholesterol levels, and stimulate the nervous system.
Following my return home, I wanted to do cupping but didn’t know where to go. About three weeks ago, I saw a short clip of a Ugandan hijama therapist in Kampala. I immediately picked up my phone and contacted the Sheikh (the therapist in the video clip) to inquire about the service and at the back of my mind were issues of skill, safety, costs, and the kind of hijama offered.
The sheikh whom I later came to know as Abdullah Wankudu explained to me in detail how he got into the Hijama business and the numerous trainings he had undergone including those by medical personnel. I also wanted to know the tools he used since I wouldn’t want razor cuts on my body. The sheikh assured me he uses needles and a modern pump.
His explanation gave me the courage to go for the procedure. We agreed on the date since he explained that he only conducts Hijama on appointment because it requires sufficient preparations. It was not long before the day came. It didn’t take long for me to trace the clinic Nyanama, a Kampala city suburb.
In about five minutes, the sheikh had embarked on the therapy. He first sanitized my back and then carefully placed the seven glass cups on different areas and used the pressure pump to create the suctions.
He later removed one cup after another and started piercing the skin with a needle to create a passage for the blood. There was mild pain as he pierced the skin severally to create a sufficient passage for the blood. The sheikh replaced each cup twice, and the entire process took around 40 minutes.
I later asked to see the photographs of my back and couldn’t imagine that thick blood that filled up the glass cup had come from my back. While leaving the clinic, the Sheikh instructed me to suspend sex for at least 24 hours and bathe with warm water. The needle pricks didn’t take over a week to heal. This is a process I would repeat.
