Black seed is in
the list of natural drugs of al-Tibb al-Nabawi, and according to tradition,
“Hold onto the use of the black
seed for in it is healing for all illnesses except death” (Sahih Bukhari VOL 7
BK 71 #592). This prophetic reference in describing black seed as “ having a
healing for all illnesses” is not exaggerated as it at first appears. Recent
research has provided evidence that most illnesses arise because of an
imbalanced or dysfunctional immune system which cannot perform its primary function
of defending the body optimally. Research also indicates that black seed
contains an ability to significantly boost the human immune-system – if taken
over time. The prophetic phrase, “hold onto the use of the seed, “also
emphasizes consistent usage of the seed.
Black Cumin (Nigella sativa)
was discovered in Tutankhamen`s tomb, implying that it played an important role
in ancient Egyptian practices. Although its exact role in Egyptian culture is
not known, we do know that items entombed with a king were carefully selected to assist him
in the afterlife.
The earliest written reference to black seed is found in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. Isaiah contrasts the reaping of black cumin with wheat : For the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over the cumin, but the black cumin is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod. (Isaisah 28:25,27 NKJV).
Easton's Bible Dictionary
clarifies that the Hebrew word for black cumin, “ketsah,” refers to
“without doubt the Nigella sativa, a small annual of the order Ranunculaceae
which grows wild in the Mediterranean countries, and is cultivated in Egypt and
Syria milk production.
Dioscoredes, a Greek physician
of the 1st century, recorded that black seeds were taken to treat
headaches, nasal congestion, toothache, and intestinal worms. They were also
used, he reported, as a diuretic to promote menstruation and increase milk
production.
The Muslim scholar al-Biruni
(973-1048), who composed a treatise on the early origins of Indian and Chinese drugs, mentions that the black seed is a kind of grain called alwanak in the
Sigzi dialect. Later, this was confirmed by Suhar Bakht who explained it to be
habb-I-sajzi (viz. Sigzi grains). This reference to black seed as “grains”
points to the seed's possible nutritional use during the tenth and eleventh
centuries.
In the greco-arab/unani system
of medicine, which originated from Hippo crates, his contemporary Galen and ibn
sina, black seed has been regarded as a valuable remedy in hepatic and digestive
disorders and has beed described as a stimulant in a variety of conditions,
ascribed to an imbalance of cold humors.
Ibn sina (980-1037), most
famous for his volumes called “the canon of medicine,” regarded by many as
the most famous book in the history of medicine, east or west, refers to black
seed as the seed “ that stimulates the body's energy and helps recovery from
fatigue or dispiritedness.”
Black seed has been
traditionally used in the middle and far east centuries to treat ailments
including bronchial asthma and bronchitis, rheumatism and inflammatory diseases,
to increase milk production in nursing mothers, to treat digestive disturbances,
to support the body's immune system, to promote digestion and elimination, and
to fight parasitic infestation. Its oil has been used to treat skin conditions
such as eczema and boils and is used topically to treat cold symptoms.
The many uses of black seed has
earned for this ancient herb the Arabic approbation habbatul barakah,