"Who knew hijaamah was such a great way to detox?" - By Farah Anwarullah

"Who knew hijaamah was such a great way to detox?" -
A hijama experience from Alexandria, Egypt by Farah Anwarullah

This is a guest-post in the form of a written interview with Farah Anwarullah, a hijama patient from Michigan, USA who had hijama done in Alexandria, Egypt.

- What condition did you suffer from?
Neck pain, severe lower back pain, upper back pain, and very prone to headaches.

- Where do you live and where did you go for the hijama therapy?
I live in Michigan, USA but currently am in Alexandria, Egypt studying abroad.

- What did the treatment involve?
I was cupped in about 10 different spots which included: temples, middle of forehead, neck, scapula (shoulder blades) area, mid and lower back and lower abdomen

- What was the result?
The hijama experience itself was not painful, the therapist was very gentle with her incisions and took her time. The suctioning felt a bit uncomfortable on my lower back as she had done dry cupping in that area. Immediately after I felt pretty positive and energetic. More details on the after effects below...

- What was your overall impression of the therapist and her practice?
Mashallah she was amazing. She took all the time she needed, did not rush at all. Very clean, and sterile. The incisions were done very well, and healed within a week. And most importantly she asked every so often how I was feeling. She made things very comfortable.

- How did the therapist get to learn hijama therapy (was it a course she attended or was it something handed down from generation to generation in her family)?
She did a hijama course here in Alexandria, Egypt. It is not an uncommon practice.

- How long has the therapist been practicing this therapy, and is it a service she provides to all who need it or is it only for family and friends?
I know she has been practicing for some time, not exactly sure of how long. Her gentleness during the procedure and precision shows that she has been doing it for some time. She provides the service for any females in need of hijama.

- How long did the treatment last and how much did it cost?
It took about 2.5 hours. She told me that she would take whatever I thought was appropriate. My friend had asked around before the procedure and 80 L.E (Egyptian Pounds) was a pretty normal price for the amount of areas she cupped.

- Overall impression of the therapy?
It was an amazing experience, I had total trust in the treatment since its benefits are recorded through the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

-In depth description of hijama treatment.

The therapist started the procedure on my back, placing several cups in different areas. She first suctioned them to my back and let them sit for three to four minutes. Then she removed them and made small incisions in the area where the skin was suctioned. Pretty much the suctioning of the skin is supposed to bring bad/toxic blood, if there is any, to the surface. Bad blood remains stagnant in your system and effects your overall well-being. Removal of this bad blood improves circulation of your blood.

Next, she placed the cups back to the spots they were originally at and she re-suctioned them to my back. After that I waited patiently to see if any bad blood would come out. To my surprise the suctioning of the cup and the incisions didn’t really hurt. After about five to six minutes she removed the cups one by one. I kept asking her whether or not there was any bad blood, for the first few cups there was none, then she showed me what bad blood looked like…let’s just say gross! When the good blood came out it came out fairly quickly and was bright red in color. But you knew when bad blood was bad when it would come out in big, slow droplets. When she wiped the bad blood off of me and show it to me it was a jelly consistency and was dark maroon, yuck!

She did about 10 cups in total. Many were done on my back and a few on my neck and shoulders. When I looked at the places she cupped me I noticed I had bright red circles everywhere, which is totally normal. I felt instant relief of tension in some areas of my back. After the procedure she rubbed some ointment on me and gave my friend and I after procedure instructions.

The after procedure instructions were as follows: rest for three days (she was quite serious about this), she had instructed us to really take it easy for three days, not doing much housework and heavy lifting. The she told us to keep warm and told us we may feel really cold soon after the hijaamah. And she also told us to stay away from dairy products. It was late at night by the time we were done with the hijaamah. I felt very excited that I was able to experience this sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh), alhumdulilah. That night I wasn’t feeling too bad, just very tired and a bit cold.

The morning after on the other hand was a whole different story! I had woken up in the middle of the night with a extremely bad headache. It was so throbbing of a headache that I couldn’t move or even get up to pray Fajr salah. I tried to be patient with it, hoping it would go away…it didn’t. Few hours after Fajr I felt so sick inside, I went to the bathroom and ending up throwing up very bitter, very green, very nasty stuff! I threw up about five times. Still had a pounding headache and was extremely tired. My husband then told me that my breath smelled radioactive! That evening I pretty much closed the door to my room and slept it out. We found out that all these symptoms I was having was my body excreting the toxins it had been holding on to for god knows how long! She said it was totally normal and should pass in a few days. After the three day rest period I felt better than ever. I felt less tense, had less craving for sweets and snacks and was in a great mood.

Subhanallah who knew hijaamah was such a great way to detox!


Farah Anwarullah
www.themuslimhousewife.com
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Our thanks to Farah Anwarullah, a hijama patient from Alexandria, Egypt for sharing the above post. If you have a question for Farah or if you have also had experience of hijama therapy in Egypt, then please share it via a comment* below.

If you are a hijama therapist or patient and are happy to share your knowledge or experience via a guest blog-post like the one above, please send me an email to: hijama.mail@gmail.com.

*Comments are moderated to prevent spamming so may take some time to appear