Hawzah News Agency (Qom, Iran) - In a meeting with Dr. Irani-Khah the president of Qom University of Medical Sciences, Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani said, "It is wrong to assume that modern medicine is an American or foreign science. Medical science existed before Islam, then Muslim physicians completed it and the West improved it some more, later."

The revered source of emulation stressed, "The modern medical science cannot be denied, it is an experimental science. Of course we shouldn’t just trust others, we should do scientific work ourselves and try to discover new methods."

The Shia cleric referred to the discussions on Islamic and Iranian medical sciences and said, "In Islamic sayings there are some advice on how to live a healthy life. But there are also narrations that are solely meant for a local area and cannot be generalized for the whole world."

Ayatollah Sobhani referred to people who claim in the name of Islam that vaccination is forbidden and stated, "Vaccination is an obligatory act in Islam because our (health and) lives depend on it. I have noted in my books that Islamic jurisprudence approves the matters on which the wise of the world have a consensus. Vaccination is one of the examples I have mentioned in my books for this rule."