Application of Quran and Nahj al-Balagha in Persian Scientific Articles Published by Medical Sciences Universities

Background and Although Quran and Nahj al-Balagha are not related to medicine and health sciences fields, these resources have some features that make them appropriate to be used in developing guidelines related to health and disease. Therefore, we sought to determine the rate of application of Quran and Nahj al-Balagha as references in preparing medical articles.
In this cross-sectional study, the Persian-language scientific articles published by universities of medical sciences were selected based on the census sampling method. The data were garnered by using a researcher-made checklist aligned with research objectives and through the analysis of all the related articles and their reference lists. To analyze the data, descriptive statistical indexes were employed.
The data obtained from reviewing 186735 citations in 6907 articles published in 696 journals of 47 medical universities showed that the Holy Quran and Nahj al-Balagha were cited as references 404 and 20 times (less than 1%), respectively. The highest citation rates pertained to Al-Baqurah, Al- Anaam, An-Nisa, and Al-Isra surahs, respectively.
Quran and Nahj al-Balagha were cited in a limited number of medical articles.