Question:
Assalam Alaikum beloved Mawlana, I am in need of some heavenly advice regarding the eyesight. I love all your opinions and I would like some advice regarding laser eye surgery, as I am not aware about it. Please can you tell me a natural cure/medicine for making my eyesight better and please pray for me and for my eyesight. Thank you Ya Sayidiee.
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Laser surgery to treat a disease is absolutely legitimate, in the sense you use light energy to treat conditions of eye like:
1. glaucoma (to reduce eye pressure and prevent loss of vision)
2. secondary cataract (to remove the secondary opacification of capsule after cataract surgery,) to remove the blurring and clouding of vision after cataract surgery ,
3. Diabetic retinopathy (bleeding in retina, the screen of the eyeball)
4. or any other vascular complications in eye, including macular degeneration, vein occlusion etc. in retina.
We are using the tools that Allah has opened for us to help treat diseases of the eyes.
On the other hand, Lasik surgery is used generally to get rid of eyeglasses or contacts (which are not diseases of the eye). It is more of a cosmetic procedure. It changes the structure of the cornea, the clear glassy covering in the eyeball externally). A flap is made in the center like a cookie cutter, and the stromal layer of cornea is thinned out to a precalculated amount, and the flap put back. Since it changes the structure of the cornea, and the flap breaks the corneal nerve connections, there is a small percentage of risks associated with the surgery ( like with any surgery, including cataract surgery).
The big difference is that it is worth taking the 2 to 5 % risks for a disease of the eye, but probably not on a healthy eye, for cosmetic purposes. This is a personal decision, like any cosmetic surgery is!
As for as improving eyesight, it depends on what the reason for the decreased vision is. It could be as simple as Dry Eye Syndrome, where there is uneven tear film on the cornea, which is a very common condition affecting 20 to 50 % of people, natural treatment for this is proper sleeping, blinking frequently, using humidifier in dry conditions or using tear drops.
Dr. Tasneem
