Hijama is used for both spiritual and physical health in our part of the world. 

I started reading up on alternative medicine a while ago and came across certain practices which were meant to purify the body and help with certain health issues as well. The entire realm of alternative medicine practices came into the international spotlight when the Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps showed up to his competitions sporting bruises from cupping all over his body.

But was not the first time I had been exposed to those big round bruises on a person. A friend of mine showed up to a get together once with the back of his neck covered with them. He then told us he had had hijama done, I had vaguely heard of the practice before but then I started to read up on it.

Apparently, Hijama is very popular amongst Muslims since they help to get rid of a person’s impure blood

It is said that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) used to encourage the practice and even had it done.

And the practice is supposed to help you with chronic pain as well, related to your back or even with migraines. And a friend of mine told me, he got it to improve his blood circulation since his hair was thinning and it helped him quite a bit! So clearly, Hijama is pretty popular and I decided to talk to more people about it.

My colleague even got the procedure done recently.

Ya’ll know him right?

Well, according to him, it helped him both get rid of some chronic pain in his back. And according to him, it didn’t hurt at all and didn’t freak him out either… until he saw his pictures of the procedure later on.

A female friend of mine had Hijama done also, except hers was for religious reasons

Someone told her it would be beneficial for her to have it done. Her experience was the scariest since she even had a cup placed on her skull which requires them to cut quite a lot of her hair. And afterward, she fainted which can be expected since you do lose quite a bit of blood.

I don’t know, no matter how much people try to convince me that this procedure does not even hurt a little bit, I just cannot seem to believe it. How can having hot cups placed directly on your skin and then having your skin cut not hurt?

I DON’T BUY IT.

For someone who feels faint when I get a paper cut, the idea of having several cuts made on my body and then my blood drained out of me, makes me want to scream. Maybe I would consider it if there was any scientific data proving that this is indeed a process which has some health benefits but there really isn’t much out there.

It is supposed to help with muscle pain and has very few side effects, but honestly, unless I was competing in an Olympic sport, I wouldn’t want to get this done.

Have you gotten hijama done? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

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Cover Image Source: Ali Gul (personal)