Module 4 Tibb Principle: Qualities
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand that everything in the universe is made-up of the four elements with respective qualities.
- Be aware that the effect of qualities in health and disease is an important consideration in Tibb.
- Appreciate how the four qualities in nature, provide the basis of interpreting health promotion, causes of disease, how diseases develop, diagnosis and treatment in Tibb.
In this video, Professor Bhikha discusses the effect of qualities on human beings and all living organisms.
Introduction
As previously mentioned in the Tibb principle of ‘Creation’ – everything in the universe is made-up from elements, with corresponding qualities: Earth (Cold & Dry), Water (Cold & Moist), Air (Hot & Moist) and Fire (Hot & Dry). The effect of qualities on human beings, as well as on all living organisms, is an important consideration in the philosophy of Tibb.
According to Tibb philosophy the qualities of heat and coldness are active qualities whereas moistness and dryness have passive qualities. To understand the influence that these qualities have on us it is necessary to understand the interaction of qualities in nature.
Interaction of qualities in nature
The interaction of qualities in nature is shown below, where the quality of heat is opposite to the quality of coldness and moistness opposite to the quality of dryness:
Opposing qualities cannot exist simultaneously.
Nothing can be Hot & Cold at the same time, nor Moist & Dry at the same time.There is always a gradual transition between opposing qualities – there is no rapid change from one extreme to another. For example, the cold of winter is never followed by the heat of summer. Nature ensures a gradual transition between opposite qualities, so minimising the negative effects of sudden change to plants, animal, and man.
This results in intermediate states of Hot & Moist, Cold & Moist, Cold & Dry, Hot & Dry.
Qualities makes Tibb principles easy to understand
Without the technology of today Tibb philosophers devised imaginative ways of interpreting information in a rational, logical, and systematic way. The four qualities are used to describe the Tibb principles of Creation, Temperament, Humours, Lifestyle Factors and Illness Conditions and they enabled Tibb philosophers to understand and interpret health and disease in a simple and effective manner for thousands of years. In Tibb philosophy qualities form the basis of interpreting aetiology (the causes of illnesses), pathology (how illnesses develop), diagnosis and treatment.
This concept of qualities relating to everything in the universe, and its effects thereof, is elaborated on in the other Tibb principles of Temperament, Humours, Lifestyle Factors, and Illness Conditions.
References
- Bhikha, R. (2018). Theoretical Principles of Tibb. Published by Ibn Sina Institute of Tibb, Roodepoort, South Africa.
- Gruner, O.C. (1929). A Treatise on the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna. Anon. London.
- Bhikha, R. and Saville, J. (2014). Healing with Tibb. Ibn Sina Institute of Tibb, Roodepoort, South Africa