Hikmat Nama

Walk into any Unani dawakhana and the consultation begins the same way it has for a thousand years: the hakeem takes your wrist and reads your nabz نبض — your pulse. He isn't only counting beats. He is reading your mizaj مزاج, your temperament: the particular balance of heat, cold, moisture and dryness that makes your body yours.

Classical Unani describes four broad temperaments — damwi (warm and moist), balghami (cold and moist), safrawi (hot and dry) and saudawi (cold and dry). No one is purely one type, but one usually leads. Two patients with the same complaint — say, acidity — may leave with entirely different prescriptions, because the same disease sits differently in different temperaments.

This is the quiet difference between Unani and a one-pill-for-all approach: the medicine is matched to the person, not just the disease. It is also why your first sitting takes time. The hakeem asks about your sleep, your appetite, your moods, the seasons that trouble you — all of it is data about your mizaj.

Curious about your own? Try the mizaj quiz on our home page — then let the hakeem confirm it properly at a sitting.

Hijama حجامہ — cupping therapy — is probably the most asked-about treatment at our clinic, and the most misunderstood. Here is exactly what happens, so there are no surprises.

First, a consultation. Hijama is not given on demand — the hakeem checks your condition, your mizaj and your history, and decides whether cupping suits you at all, and at which classical points. Then the skin is cleaned, cups are placed to create gentle suction, and after a few minutes fine, shallow scratches are made so the cups can draw a small amount of stagnant blood. It looks more dramatic than it feels — most patients describe a pulling sensation, not pain.

Hygiene is not negotiable. Cups and blades are sterile and single-use, opened in front of you, and disposed of after. The marks fade in a few days to a week.

For women, we provide specialised female doctors, and hijama home visits are available so the therapy can be taken in complete privacy. Patients commonly take hijama for chronic pain, headaches and general heaviness — and it is given by appointment, so message us on WhatsApp before you come.

Every patient of a dawakhana knows the word parhez پرہیز — the foods to avoid, and the ones to favour, while treatment runs its course. In Unani, parhez is not an afterthought to the medicine. It is medicine.

The logic follows the mizaj: a condition of excess heat is not helped by daily fried and spicy food, however good the formulation; a cold, heavy temperament sinks deeper under ice water and midnight meals. The hakeem's prescription and your plate must pull in the same direction — that is why chronic diseases, especially, respond so much better when parhez is taken seriously.

We have prepared free sample parhez charts below for three common areas — digestion, joints and skin. They are general guides: at your sitting, the hakeem will personalise one for your condition and temperament. Print one, put it on the fridge, and bring your questions to the clinic.