الحجامة
A therapy drawing blood to the skin's surface via suction cups, historically performed at specific points on the head and back, and recommended especially in hot weather.
الشِّفَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثَةٍ: شَرْطَةِ مِحْجَمٍ، أَوْ شَرْبَةِ عَسَلٍ، أَوْ كَيَّةٍ بِنَارٍ، وَأَنْهَى أُمَّتِي عَنِ الْكَيِّ
“Healing is found in three things: a cupping incision, a draught of honey, or cauterization by fire — though I discourage my community from cauterization.” (meaning, not a literal translation)
The Prophet ﷺ was reported to have been cupped both while fasting and while in the state of ihram during pilgrimage, and other reports describe cupping performed at specific points — the top of the head and either side of the neck are among the locations most frequently mentioned across the hadith corpus. Notably, this same hadith explicitly discourages cauterization even while listing it as one of the three traditional treatments — an early example of the Prophet ﷺ ranking treatment options rather than endorsing all listed methods equally.
Ibn al-Qayyim discusses cupping within the humoral framework of releasing 'corrupted blood,' recommending it particularly in the second half of the lunar month and in warm climates when the blood is thought most active. He distinguishes between "dry" cupping (suction only, no incision) and "wet" cupping (with a small skin incision, drawing blood), and discusses specific body points — the back of the neck, between the shoulder blades — associated with particular complaints in the classical medical literature.
Modern research on cupping (both wet and dry variants) has produced mixed results across small clinical studies, with some evidence for short-term pain relief in specific conditions and ongoing debate over the mechanism and quality of available trials. Noted here as separate modern context reflecting an active, unsettled area of research — not a validation of the classical humoral explanation.