ISLAMIC APPROACH TO TREAT PATIENT

Every human being is bound to feel ill sometime and somehow. A Muslim does not panic when afflicted with any sickness because his belief in the mercy of Allah, his faith in destiny and his faith enjoining forbearance and patience, all these elements give him strength to stand fast and endure his ordeal. However, he is supposed t o seek treatment in response to the orders of Prophet (SallAllaho Alaihe Wasallam). By knowing the Tradition of Prophet (SallAllaho Alaihe Wasallam) that there is a cure to every disease, the Muslim patient builds up a strong hopeful attitude that helps him and his doctor to resist the disease and overcome it.

The Muslim doctor shares With the Muslim patient the two main characteristics: the faith in Allah and the destiny, and the conviction that there is a cure for every disease. But the doctor must have something more; he is supposed to know, or at least try to know, the proper diagnosis and the proper cure. He must be aware of his mission or commission entrusted to him in his capacity as the agent for healing. Being an agent, he believes that the act of healing is not entirely his, but it depends on Allah’s will. It seems to me that medical doctors are more aware than others of the divine power and Allah’s will. They meet every day with cases where destiny plays the major part and they encounter the most unexpected results. Our Prophet (SallAllaho Alaihe Wasallam), on the authority of Hadhrat Yaasir, says:
“For each disease there is a cure; and when the (right) treatment is given, the disease is cured by the Will of Allah”. (Ahmad and Muslim)

The art of healing, which is called the medical profession in modern language, has been highly respected all through the ages. For a long period in human history, this art was closely correlated with religious leadership and quite often confused with magic and miracles. Since the advent of Islam 1400 years ago, medicine has become a science subject to human intelligence and discovery. Nevertheless, the medical doctor has persistently captured the appreciation and respect of his contemporaries, especially as medicine was usually associated with other philosophical and social knowledge. In fact, this close relation between philosophy and medicine distinguished the medical history of Islam. The gist here is that doctor’s prognosis included the spiritual, psychological and social sides of the patient over and above the pathological aspects. This is earnestly expected that in an Islamic state, all Muslim doctors in course of their every day practice, and when dealing with Muslim patients in particular, should keep this traditional prognostic attitude in mind. It is indeed sure that if they do, they will never regret the act.

But what is it that makes a Muslim doctor different from other non-Muslim doctors? From the technological and scientific points of view, all doctors fall in one category. However, when it comes to practice, the Muslim doctor finds himself bound by particular professional ethics plus his or her Islamic directives is suing from his belief. In fact, the Muslim doctor - the doctor who tries to live his Islam by following its teachings all through - is expected to behave differently in some occasions and to meet greater responsibilities than other non-Muslim doctors.

The Public Responsibility:
A Muslim doctor is supposed to belong to a Muslim community where there is some common cause, common feelings and mutual solidarity. As declared in Holy Quraan:
“Believers are brethren”. (IXL, 10)

Allah also says:
“And hold fast all of you together to the Rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves: and remember Allah’s favor on you, for you were enemies and He joined your hearts together, so that by His Grace you became brethern..” (111, 103)

The implication is the Muslim doctor is a member in a Muslim community where the same body of the individual is crucial for its survival and development. The doctor has a big say and great weight in influencing his patients and in righteously guiding their orientation. Besides, he should be actively involved in propagating true Islam among Muslims and non-Muslims.

Because of its importance we see other missionaries depend on medical doctors when approaching alien masses, taking advantage of the humanistic service doctors render to poor diseased people. In today’s world, the best missionary service to be rendered by a medical doctor is to behave all the time in accordance with his Islamic teachings, to declare his conviction, and to feel proud of it. Then he serves a good model that would convince others and gain their hearts.

Faith & Healing:
By believing the fact that Allah is the healer and that the doctor is only an agent, both - patients, irrespective of their creeds, and their doctors - fight their battle of treatment with less agony and tension. It is an established fact that such spiritual conviction would improve the psychological state of the patient and boost his morale, and thus help him overcome his physical weakness and sickness. There are many examples where faith played a miraculous part in the process of healing. A Muslim doctor, therefore, must make of faith the backbone of his entire healing procedure.

Reprehensible, Prohibited & Permissible Acts:

More than any other professional, the Muslim medical doctor is confronted more frequently with questions regarding the Islamic legitimacy of his activities. There are almost daily controversial problematic issues on which he is supposed to decide: e.g., birth control, abortions, opposite sex hormonal injections, trans-sexual operations, brain operations affecting human personality, plastic surgery changing physionomy, extra-uterine conception, etc. The Muslim doctor should not only know and act in such issues merely by the law of the country. He must also find the Islamic answer and rather adopt it as much as he can. To find the answer is not an easy matter, especially if the doctor himself has no reasonably solid back ground in the field of Islamic teachings. Yet, to gain such knowledge is very simple and would not consume much time as generally presumed.

In general, every Muslim must have a preliminary knowledge of what is reprehensible and what is prohibited. One has to admit that our early education as individuals is very deficient in this regard. But this does not justify our ignorance of the essentials of our religion and our indifference towards its injunctions. It is not difficult nowadays to obtain addresses of “really learned and truly pious” Ulamaa (Scholars) irrespective of their location in this world of latest communication technology. Inform your problem in minute details and ask them the solution that Islam prescribes for that particular situation. They, surely, will respond either with the exact answer or give reference of any authentic source, written or personal, for guidance one should keep in touch with.

The importance of this attitude becomes conspicuous when the subject of the issue is highly technical and thus lies beyond the reach of the ordinary religious scholar, whom you can meet in your mosques throughout the Muslim world.

Besides, there are many secondary questions that arise in the course of dealing with patients where the personal judgment of the doctor is the only arbiter. There, the doctor needs to develop a criterion, with the consultation of learned and pious Ulamaa, on which he can build his code of behavior and the ethics of his medical procedure.

To conclude, the role of the Muslim doctor is briefly to put his profession in service of humanity in the name of Allah the Creator and Master of universe. To this end, he must know: his profession, the medicine, Allah’s commands related to medicine and Prophet (SallAllaho Alaihe Wasallam)’s teachings for doctors.

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