Message to the Muslim doctor

Message to the Muslim Doctor Al-Abykan Group Mohammad Saleh Al-Munajjid In Arabic and English Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and prayers and peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and companions all. Introduction O brothers: Our talk -God willing- is about the Muslim doctor. And we will address through our words on this topic the stance of the Muslim doctor towards the patient and the dying, some important points that sometimes occur in hospitals and operating rooms, and some surgical operations, issues related to the resuscitation device, and some matters related to the relationship between women and men inside the hospital. Talking about the qualities of the Muslim doctor is a long speech, but we will not go into detail in this lecture; it is a general lecture, similar to gathering some points that the brothers doctors and female doctors encounter in the hospital. Definition of the doctor First and foremost, I tell you -brothers-: The Muslim doctor is not the person who took the certificate, or studied a specific set of courses in medical science in any of its fields until he obtained that paper that informs and proves that he has reached a certain level in the field of medicine. Rather, the Muslim doctor is truly a caller to Allah, the Most High, primarily, and the field in which the Muslim doctor works qualifies him to play a significant role in calling to Allah, enjoining good and forbidding evil, and correcting the reality of many people. And the caller to Allah in general in society may face great resistance, fierce opposition, and many factors that prevent him from delivering the correct Islamic ideas to people. But the doctor has a golden opportunity that is hardly available to others, and this opportunity is that he is now dealing with a person in a state of weakness. When a person is sick or on the verge of death, he is in a state of acceptance to strengthen his connection with Allah more than anyone else. Here, the positive aspect that many doctors enjoy becomes apparent, which others among Muslims who call to Allah in other places do not have. The stance of the Muslim doctor towards the patient Initially -brothers- we will talk about the stance of the Muslim doctor towards the patient. The truth is that when you have a patient in front of you, this is a great opportunity to teach this patient many things. And of course, you will encounter, as you see in the real-life chaos, more than I or others do. You will see wrongdoings or opportunities for correction that should be exploited. Reminding the patient to be content with Allah and His decree For example, the Muslim doctor should remind the patient to be content with Allah and His decree, like the hadith: "How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for all his affairs are good." Because the patient might be in a state of despair and hopelessness, feeling with increasing pain and the heaviness of illness that he might not recover, and he might despair of Allah’s mercy. A person in a normal state might not feel this despair, but in the state of illness and under its weight, this feeling might exist. And you, as a brother doctor or sister doctor, must take advantage of this opportunity to apply the successful Islamic medicine, to clarify the issue of contentment with Allah’s decree, and to help the patient with kind words that console him for what he is experiencing of hardship and psychological and physical fatigue. Some patients may become angry or curse the illness or symptoms of the disease, but when we see this authentic hadith in Sahih Muslim about Jabir, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered upon Umm Sulaib and said: "What makes you shiver?" She said: "Fever, may Allah not bless it." He said: "Do not curse the fever, for it removes the sins of the children of Adam as the blacksmith’s fire removes the impurities of iron." As this very hot furnace and intense fire remove impurities or dross from iron until a pure, clean metal emerges, similarly, these illnesses purify the patient from sins. So, you open for him the door of hope, and the door of Allah’s mercy, and say to him: "Perhaps harm is beneficial," and "It may be that you dislike something and it is good for you" [Surah Al-Baqarah: 216]. This is an opportunity to erase many sins and mistakes that might only be erased through illness, because many people's repentance and seeking forgiveness contain errors that are not erased otherwise. But when illness comes, Allah may erase from the bad deeds what He does not erase through repentance and seeking forgiveness. The patient may wish for death at some point, crying out in the room, praying for death for himself, or asking Allah to take his life under the pressure of pain. At that moment, you should explain to him the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: "Let none of you wish for death because of a calamity that has befallen him. But if he must wish for it, he should say: 'O Allah, keep me alive as long as life is better for me, and take my life if death is better for me.'" [Muslim] These are basic principles. These hadiths - brothers - perhaps an ordinary person might not find practical application for them as a doctor does, but you, in your reality, can implement these hadiths and act upon them frequently. Sometimes, the patient’s disease is malignant, such as cancer, and is discovered. What should you do in this case? Many doctors tend to hide the bad reality from the patient and not tell him the true condition at all. This matter, with its positives of not worsening the patient’s psychological state, also requires informing him of his condition so he can prepare for death if he has not yet made a will. He might have many sins he wishes to repent from. You must strike a balance between fully revealing his condition so he does not despair or become hopeless, and also warning him of the seriousness of what awaits him. You might say: "Brother, life and death are in Allah’s hands. This disease might be fatal, or you might recover, God willing. We do not know. But you must prepare to meet Allah, the Most High, at any moment." Words that make the patient feel he can meet Allah at any moment and prepare himself. The negative aspect of not informing the patient fully about his illness is that he cannot perform certain acts, like repentance or writing a will. You avoid this negativity by moderating your approach, warning him gently about the possibility of death, and reassuring him completely that he is in good health, so he might think he will recover in days, only to be surprised by death. The patient may reveal secrets or give instructions at the moment of death, and may entrust you with instructions that no one else should know, such as: "Tell my father this," or "Tell my mother that," or "Tell my brothers this," or "Make sure my estate is distributed like this," or "I have wronged certain workers; make sure my family pays their rights or salaries." In such cases, it is the duty of the Muslim doctor to faithfully convey to the heirs of the deceased everything the patient told him at the moment of death. You may hear from the man instructions that others do not hear because you were present at that moment. Intention of the doctor in visiting the patient Here is a reminder during the doctors’ rounds in the rooms: that the doctor intends in his visit to the patient to seek reward. Some doctors might pass by the patients because it is their duty, and they must do this round in certain rooms or beds, and forget in the rush of this work that they should intend in their heart that they are not only treating and checking on them, but also seeking the great reward from Allah. Because in visiting the patient there is a great reward, as the hadith of Thawir from his father, who said: "Ali took my hand and said: 'Let us go to visit Al-Hasan ibn Ali.' We found at his house Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari." Ali said to Abu Musa: "Are you visiting or just calling on him?" He said: "Visiting." Ali said: "I heard the Prophet ﷺ say: 'There is no Muslim who visits his brother for the morning, except that seventy thousand angels pray for him until evening, and if he visits him in the evening, seventy thousand angels pray for him until morning, and he will have a harvest in Paradise.'" The harvest is the ripe fruits gathered in Paradise, the long journey of walking to and from, and walking in the lush gardens of Paradise among the gathered fruits that will be his in Paradise. So, do not forget to seek this reward. That is why some doctors have a good spirit during their visits, and if they pass by a patient who is not their patient or not responsible for him, they still greet him: "Peace be upon you, brother. How are you? Do you need anything?" These are not just words of treatment; they are words of seeking reward. They are words with the intention of visiting for the sake of Allah, and they will not lose anything because they are passing by a bed or another, and they will gain a great reward. These are opportunities for reward that you can seize, unlike other visitors who only come for a short time each day or not daily at all, and you can earn this reward daily.