Revelation and Science Vol. 07, No. 01 (1438H/2017) 32-41 Healing with Sound: Exploring Possible Applications of Qur’anic Recitation in Cell Culture 1Rosyafirah Hashim, 2Munirah Sha’ban, 3Zainul Ibrahim Zainuddin* 1Department of Biomedical Science, Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences, 2Department of Physical Rehabilitation Sciences, 3Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiotherapy, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, Bandar Indera Mahkota, 25200 Kuantan, Pahang Darul Makmur, Malaysia Abstract There are evidences of research done in relation to sound healing in dealing with various health problems. Brain, auditory cells and other cells in the human body have been shown to react to sound. The use of Qur’anic recitation for therapeutic purposes can be traced back to the times of Prophet Muhammad (s. a. w.). Listening to the Qur’anic recitation can have therapeutic effects even on individuals who do not understand the meaning of the verses. However, there is little to suggest the effect of Qur’anic recitation on cell cultures. The Scopus database was examined for scientific writings that involve the effect of sound, with higher emphasis on “Healing with Qur’anic recitation”. The positive effects of sound identified from the literatures support future studies to examine the effects of Qur’anic recitation on cell cultures. However, this paper adopted a cautious approach to associating Qur’anic recitation to sound healing. Keyword: The Qur’an; Qur’anic Recitation; Sound Healing; Cell Culture Abstrak Terdapat bukti penyelidikan yang dilakukan berhubung dengan penyembuhan bunyi dalam menangani pelbagai masalah kesihatan. Otak, sel pendengaran dan sel-sel lain dalam tubuh manusia mempunyai tindak balas terhadap bunyi. Penggunaan pembacaan al-Qur’an untuk tujuan terapeutik telah digunapakai semasa zaman Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w). Memperdengarkan pembacaan al-Qur’an boleh memberi kesan terapeutik walaupun pada individu yang tidak memahami makna ayat-ayat tersebut. Walau bagaimanapun, hanya segelintir memberi cadangan terhadap kesan pembacaan al-Qur’an terhadap sel kultur. Pangkalan data Scopus telah diteliti bagi pencarian kajian saintifik yang melibatkan kesan bunyi, dengan penekanan lebih tinggi pada "Penyembuhan dengan pembacaan al-Qur’an". Kesan positif bunyi yang dikenal pasti dari literatur menyokong kajian masa depan untuk mengkaji kesan pembacaan al-Qur'an terhadap sel kultur. Walau bagaimanapun, kajian ini mengamalkan pendekatan waspada untuk mengaitkan pembacaan al-Qur’an terhadap penyembuhan kesan bunyi. Kata kunci: Qur’an, Pembacaan Qur’an, Penyembuhan Kesan Bunyi, Sel Kultur 1. Introduction compression of a waveform at a certain frequency Sound can be defined as a mechanical wave that will (Kamal, Mahmood, & Zakaria, 2013) or a repeated cause agitation in a medium when it passes through it pressure wave that travels through air or materials (Dos Reis Lestard, Valente, Lopes, & Capella, 2013). (Sarvaiya & Kothari, 2015). According to Dos Reis It is a form of energy that can be explained as a Lestard et al. (2013) sound can be divided into three groups which are infrasound (below 20 Hz), audible *Corresponding author: sound (20 Hz – 20, 000 Hz) and ultrasound (above 20 Zainul Ibrahim Zainuddin, kHz). The use of ultrasound in the field of medicine Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences, International has been well known in detecting, locating and Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Ahmad characterising medical anomalies and monitoring Shah, Bandar Indera pregnancies. Sound can also be described as a Mahkota, 25200 Kuantan, Pahang Darul mechanical vibration that can create mechanical stress Makmur, Malaysia Email: [email protected] and will cause direct effect on cells (Lestard & Capella, 2016). This is because, sound acts as Healing with Sound: Exploring Possible Applications of Qur’anic Recitation in Cell Culture/ Rosyafirah Hashim disturbance that will be transported through a medium with Qur’anic recitation. The review presents via the mechanism of particle interaction (Sarvaiya & scientific findings that relate the effects of Qur’anic Kothari, 2015). recitation upon certain biological processes and Dos Reis Lestard et al. (2013) reported that sound functions. A major gap in the review is the lack of has been used to increase cell growth in plants. On the studies that can relate Qur’anic recitation and its other hand, (Fauzan, 2014) acknowledged that there healing properties on human cell at cellular level. had been studies that denote the positive effects of This paper proposes that it would be worthwhile to sound on humans. Human cells have responded well to determine the effect of sound, in the form of Qur’anic sound (Sadeghi, 2011) and sound can permeate and recitation, in influencing the cell growth in cell resonate through human auditory cells as well as other culture. It is hopeful that the review will be able to human somatic cells (Harris, 2011). The approach in shed some light of the effects of Qur’anic recitation on using sound for healing might be able to enhance cell cultures. This is to facilitate for the future work further the possibility of a non-invasive treatment to involving the hypothesis that Qur’anic recitation is patients. able to enhance growth progression in cell cultures Cell cultures are widely used in tissue engineering used in TE. For the purpose of this paper, unless (TE). TE is a specialised interdisciplinary field that otherwise indicated, the translations of Qur’anic has shown various potentials to overcome certain verses are based on the works Abdullah Yusuf Ali health problems related to tissues/organs injury (2013). (Ramirez-Vick, 2013). The major aim of TE is to form or reconstruct 3-D biomimicry tissues using 2. Methodology combination of cells, biomaterial scaffolds and The online database of Elsevier’s SCOPUS was signalling cues that can be used for tissues/organs accessed. Using appropriate search tabs for the restoration (Srivastava, Chandel, Rai, Rastogi, & database, publications related to the subject matter Srivastava, 2013). An important consideration to the from 2010 till 2017 were identified. The searches were success of tissue formation in cell culture is the quality conducted between April to May, 2017. of cells source. Numerous attempts have been made to Zainuddin and Halimatussa’diah (2013) quoted the enhance the quality of the cells in the cultures. These work of Trevelyan, Cook and Fisher that estimated include manipulation of cells using genetic ninety-nine percent of the audience will limit their engineering technique and inclusion of exogenous only search only to the title and abstract of an article. growth factors in vitro. Evidences show that these Thus, the search was carried out by using five (5) techniques could harm the cells, affect their viability keywords; “sound healing on cell”, “music therapy on and disrupt their survival rate (Ab-Rahim, cell”, “Qur’an healing”, “Qur’anic recitation”, and Selvaratnam, Raghavendran, & Kamarul, 2013). It is “Islamic healing” appearing in the title or abstract of postulated that exposing the cell cultures to sound may the publications. help to overcome these disruptions and further For this review, the inclusive criteria for the selected enhance the proliferation rate. However, the use of papers are limited to publications related to human and sound as the method of treatment on cell cultures has animal cells. The papers included the scholarly yet to be fully explored. journals as well as those from reputable organizations. In Islam, Qur’anic recitation has already been used as The criteria also include the conference papers, article a method for treatment since the times of Prophet in press and review papers. This review excludes Muhammad (Pbuh). According to one hadith narrated papers that were published in languages other than in by Aisyah (RA), “during the Prophet Muhammad English and papers with no abstract. Besides, this (Pbuh) serious illness, he used to recite the review eliminates papers that were not in the PDF Mu’auwidhat (Surah an-Nas and Surah Al-Falaq) and format. then blow his breath over his body. When his pain The identified publications were then categorized to became intense, I used to recite those two Suras and enable them to be discussed accordingly in various blow my breath over him and make him rub his body sub-sections. The sections include all the keywords with his own hand for its blessings.” (Sahih al- used during the search. The results provide an initial Bukhari, hadith no. 631) (Khan, 1997). reference to initiate further research on the subject A review of published articles in Elsevier’s matter. SCOPUS (Scopus) related to the topic was conducted to examine the current literatures pertaining to the use 3. Results of sound in managing illnesses. The review begins Based on the keywords used, Scopus database showed with a description of sound and its properties, effect of 342 hits on the journal article publications (Table 1). sound healing on cells, and culminating to healing 33 | Revelation and Science / Vol. 07, No. 01 (1438H/2017) Healing with Sound: Exploring Possible Applications of Qur’anic Recitation in Cell Culture/ Rosyafirah Hashim The abstract of the papers were analysed to relate the Therapy”, “Effect of Sound on Cells” and “Healing presented textual content to the title of this study. The with Qur’anic Recitation”. Figure 1 below shows the identified publications were then categorized to number of publications retrieved while the column for enable them to be discussed accordingly in various ‘related papers” refer to those publications that are sub-sections. The sub-sections were “Sound Healing / relevant to the title of this study. Table 1: Number of hits based on keywords search Keywords Used Scopus Database Related Papers Sound healing on cell 55 5 Music therapy on cell 134 56 Qur’an healing 24 13 Qur’anic recitation 47 24 Islamic healing 82 22 Total 342 120 4. Discussion The process of healing with sound is as old as the existence of the sound itself. Different cultures have 4.1 Sound Healing / Therapy various methods for sound healing.