FIMA Year Book 2009 - Federation of Islamic Medical Associations

EditorialDear FIMA membersAssalamu AlaykumBismillah al-Rahman al-RahimPraise be to Allah the Most Merciful, the Most beneficent. May Allah showerHis blessings and peace on His Prophet and Messenger Muhammad (PBUH)I begin by thanking the FIMA Executive Committee for honoring me with theresponsibility to be the Editor-in Chief again for this yearbook. I thank Allahfor giving me this opportunity and enabling me to accomplish this task. Ipray to Allah (SWT) to accept my effort in His way and to reward all whoparticipated in this effort.The term Islamic medicine was introduced few decades ago. Severalconferences have been held to address it, the first of which was The firstInternational Islamic Medical Conference held in Kuwait in 1980. The termhas been understood in several ways including Prophetic medicine (1-3) . Nowit is generally agreed to use the term Islamic medicine to identify medicinethat incorporates the Islamic philosophy of medicine and that it is distinctfrom the term Prophetic medicine. Islamic medicine can only materialize fromprovision of Islamic medical education. Because of the growing interest inthis important topic, the Consortium of Islamic Medical Colleges (CIMCO)proposed Islamic Medical education to be the theme this yearbook. TheExecutive Committee of FIMA approved this proposal and decided tospecifically outline CIMCO activities. Hence the theme of this issue is MedicalEducation and Professional Ethics: Islamic Insights.We at the Editorial Board invited several distinguished FIMA members, someof whom are also members of (CIMCO), to write on the different aspects ofthis topic. The result is a comprehensive collection of articles that I hopeyou will enjoy and motivate all of us to pursue the development of Islamicmedicine, a worthwhile goal.Dr Omar Kasule believes that there is a dichotomy in the current medicalschools’ curriculum. There are two systems; traditional Islamic and importedFIMA YearBook 2009IX