A similar effort of immunization of children against six major childhood diseases is going on, with the eradication of one of them, polio, being clearly in sight. As efforts of monitoring the effects of the program show, incidence of these diseases have dropped with increased coverage of children with immunization. Since most of these diseases could kill their victims, the fall in occurrence has meant a commensurate drop in child mortality as a result of these illnesses. You have only to look at facts and figures to realize that in a certain country, the number of children dying with, say, measles, is half what it was ten years ago after the rate of coverage with vaccination against measles has reached 50 percent of the children of that country. Are we not required by Islam to relate these facts to each other and draw the appropriate conclusions which will tell us that a 100 percent coverage of children with immunization will inevitably mean that the occurrence of the disease will be minimal if not stopped completely.
Human beings fall ill and then they do recover.
When a person falls ill, he is required by Islam to seek medical treatment if it is available. This is a good example of cause and effect. When you take a medicine, you are cured by Allah's will, because He has put into that particular medicine the qualities which enable the human body to overcome a certain disease. He also advises us that if we want to eat our fill, let us divide our tummy into three portions, one for food, one for drink and one for breathing. By giving us this valued advice, the Prophet is certainly showing us one way to avoid disease.