By Dr Umer Ahmad Ganaie

Kashmir's journey toward healing has never belonged to science alone. For centuries, people have turned to peers - spiritual healers who offer amulets, prayers, and guidance to ease pain and restore balance. Alongside them stand doctors, armed with years of study, research, and evidence-based medicine. Both figures hold authority - one rooted in faith and tradition, the other in science and technology. The question, therefore, is not which to choose, but how to let both coexist without endangering health or life.

Many families in Kashmir find comfort in walking with both worlds. They seek the blessings of a peer while consulting a physician. In such cases, prayer and medicine work together - faith provides spiritual reassurance that no medication can replace, while medicine offers tangible treatment that faith alone cannot deliver. It calms the mind, strengthens the will, and brings hope. Yet, when faith attempts to replace medicine rather than stand beside it, the line between belief and danger becomes perilously thin.

In the hospital where I work, I have seen patients suffer simply because they refused medical care. One colleague shared the story of a man bitten by a snake who insisted on seeking muether - the Kashmiri practice of chanting over a wound - instead of antivenom. He returned the next day, but by then, the venom had spread beyond control. His story is not rare. Across the Valley, similar tragedies unfold: a young mother in prolonged labour brought to the emergency room too late because her family believed spiritual healing would suffice; a man with kidney failure who trusted only amulets until dialysis could no longer save him.

The same pattern repeated during vaccination drives. During the COVID-19 pandemic - and even earlier during polio campaigns - misinformation led some families to believe that prayers or amulets offered enough protection. But viruses and infections do not respect belief, even though faith can strengthen the spirit. The refusal of vaccines has left children and the elderly vulnerable to preventable suffering and sometimes irreversible consequences.

This is not an argument against peers. They remain an integral part of Kashmiri life - symbols of faith, comfort, and resilience, especially in rural areas where doctors are scarce and hospitals distant. Spiritual healing provides psychological relief that medicine sometimes cannot. During my posting in dermatology, I once treated a patient with severe herpes who had first turned to a peer for spiritual therapy. By the time he returned, the infection had worsened into herpetic neuralgia - a painful and often fatal condition.

The real danger arises when spiritual authority is used to dissuade people from essential medical care. The Qur'an itself upholds the preservation of life as a sacred duty. Modern medicines, surgeries, and vaccines - born from human knowledge and discovery - are also tools of divine mercy. Seeking blessings and seeking treatment are not opposites; they are complementary acts of faith. Medicine cannot replace belief, but faith can strengthen medicine.

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