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I am writing a story wherein a pill to increase empathy and awareness of your fellow human being is invented. I was wondering if there were any views on this type of artificial self-enhancement (one that alters your body chemistry) expressed in the Qur'an or the Hadiths

I mentioned the Koran in my question, because it's the religious text I am most familiar with, having read half of it.

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  • good question,You may not get the complete answers from Quran alone, The hadith here would also help in answering your question:sunnah.com
    – Islam
    Sep 20, 2013 at 13:45
  • you can put the relevant keywords and come up with some basic research in your question, eg: keyword: artificial sunnah.com/search/artificial
    – Islam
    Sep 20, 2013 at 13:50
  • Thank you for your suggestion of resources. I will do some basic research and then consult the community on my results.
    – Seanny123
    Sep 22, 2013 at 0:18
  • @Seanny123 Do you mean like psychiatric drugs?
    – itsols
    Sep 22, 2013 at 13:39
  • @itsols I would imagine that they fall somewhat under the same category, so yes.
    – Seanny123
    Sep 23, 2013 at 2:58

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The term drug can be used broadly. Some may refer to

  1. Harmful substances like cocaine

  2. Drugs for treating certain ailments

  3. Drugs for changing ordinary behaviour.

There may be a similarity between each of them. For example, a drug that calms the nerves of a person may be also used to 'drug' a person so he/she is in a 'modified' state of mind.

Now to the answer. For a person to believe in Islam and sumbit his/herself, that person must be in a right state of mind. If a person is drunk for example, he may not be in a clear thought about what he is uttering. In a similar manner, I think that using a drug to enhance a person's behaviour has the same effect.

It is drugging the person and 'forcing' him to think and behave differently.

So, as a story, you may be able to say that the community where such 'drugged' people live is a calm and peaceful environment. However, this would be unreal and when the drug dies off the bodies turn back to their normal states.

As such, I think from an Islamic point of view, this sort of behavioural modification wouldn't be valid.

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