doctor....... i'm a....

The Role of a Muslim Doctor

By Prof. Mahmoud Abu-Saud

The Muslim 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 God, 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 to seek treatment in response to the Prophet's (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)'s order. By accepting the Prophet's (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)'s statement 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

The Muslim doctor shares with the Muslim patient the two main characteristics:

the faith in God and 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 of healing.

Being an agent, he believes that the act of healing is not entirely his, but it depends on God's will. It seems to me that medical doctors are more aware than others of the divine power and God's will. They meet every day with cases where destiny plays the major pan and they encounter the most unexpected results.

Our Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam), on the authority of Yasir, said: "For each disease there is a cure; and when the (fight) 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 an was closely correlated with religious leadership and quite often confluent 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 marriage 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.

I earnestly believe 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. I am sure, 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 Islamic directives issuing from his belief.

In fact, the Muslim doctor - and I mean by this that doctor who tries to live his Islam by following its teachings all through - such a doctor is expected behave differently in some occasions and to meet greater responsibilities than other non-Muslim doctors.

1. 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. "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..." [3: 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.

Almost all Christian missionaries depend on medical doctors when approaching alien masses, taking advantage of the humanistic service doctors render to poor diseased people. In a country like this where we live, the best missionary service to be rendered by a medical doctor is to behave at 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.

2. Faith and healing

By accepting the fact that Allah is Ash-Shifa' - 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.

I think 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. In my opinion, a Muslim doctor must make of faith the backbone of his entire healing procedure.

3. Reprehensible, Prohibited and 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 be guided 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 background 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. There is no difficulty nowadays to obtain a few reference books about our Shari'ah and to find out the answers to most - if not all - our medical queries.

The most preliminary study to the Islamic science of "Usul" would give the doctors the main principles of analogy (Qias), preferential application Istihsan) and jurisdictic initiation (Istihsan).

The importance of such knowledge becomes conspicuous when the subject of the issue is purely technical and thus lies beyond the reach of the normal religious scholar. Besides, there are many secondary questions that arise in, the course of dealing with patients where the personal judgement of the doctor is the only arbiter. There, as always, the doctor needs a criterion 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 his religion. To this end, he must know both: medicine and Islam.

By Prof. Mahmoud Abu-Saud

Courtesy: www.everymuslim.com

yeah, being a muslim doctor is not only to cure the diseases but also help the patient to be a loyal slave to Allah.. doing dakwah.. everytime everywhere..

Sesat???

bayangkan jika kereta yang dipandu kehilangan arah dari hala tuju yang sebenar.. mungkin hanya terlajak sedikit, terlepas masuk lorong yang sepatutnya walau plan ade di tangan,.. cuai. bagaimana tragis pula lorong yang tersalah masuk tu jalannya berliku semak samun, sunyi, tapi ade pembahagi jalan yang konkrit, lagi pula jalan tu panjang sangat, tak kelihatan pula signboard u-turn dipamerkan, tak tahu macam mana nak berpatah balik.. itupun sedar tersilap lorong apabila kereta yang dipandu tersengguk-sengguk macam kehabisan minyak,.. baru sedar dah tersesat.. sedih pula lagi kereta ni macam dah tak mampu nak terus kan perjalanan, minuman petrolnya dah hampir kering, tak ade pula lemak2 tersimpan atau protein untuk dijadikan sumber tenaga alternatif.. runsing2 dah tak lama ni.. sangat mengharukan lagi hari dah malam.. perjalanan makin sukar.. boleh saja tersadai di jalanan ni tak berapa lama lagi, perjalanan solo pulak tu.. kenapa tidak ade orang lalu-lalang?? akhirnya, enjin kereta senyap je... roda-roda mula bergerak perlahan.. makin tersengguk kereta, dasyatnya mengalahkan orang yang mengantuk dalam kelas.. akhirnya berhenti..HENTI.. enjin dah x hidup..malam gelap.. jalan sunyi.. akhirnya isytihar sebagai "pemandu yang terkandas".. hanya kerana tersesat....

bayangkan pula ye, bagaimana keadaan kita jika terkandas daripada hala tuju yang sebenar dalam kehidupan kita, sedangkan pada tangan kita dah ada petunjuk yang benar.. Al-Quran dan as-sunnah yang lengkap dengan panduan, namun kita masih tersasar. Betapa tragisnya lagi dalam haluan yang kita lalui itu kelihatan begitu indah bagi kita dan kita sangat meyakini dengan pilihan kita..namun akhirnya kita tersedar kita tersalah langkah saat perjalanan sudah terlalu jauh dan seolah-olah kita tak nak nampak jalan untuk berpatah balik..tambah sedih dan malang sekiranya kita langsung tak ketemui jalan berpatah balik itu sebelum hidup kita berakhir.. sebelum nyawa berada di halkum.. sebelum ajal datang menjemput...

sekadar peringatan untuk diri dan diri anda agar tidak termasuk dalam kalangan orang yang tersesat, atau yang tidak ketemui jalan kembali saat telah merasakan diri jauh dari pasak yang sebenar atau yang langsung tidak menyedari ke'sesat'annya...

Firman Allah swt: “Bagi tiap-tiap ummat itu ada ajalnya, apabila datang ajal mereka itu, mereka tidak akan dapat melambatkannya dan tidak pula dapat mempercepatkannya walau sesaat jua pun”
(Al-A’raf: 34)

“Dan mohon ampunlah (beristighfar) kamu kepada tuhanmu kemudian bertaubatlah kamu kepadaNya, nescaya Dia akan memberi kamu kesenangan yang baik sehingga sampai ajalmu”
(Hud: 3).

Firman Allah swt: “ Katakanlah, wahai hamba-hambaKu yang berlebih-lebihan terhadap dirinya (dengan memperbuat dosa), janganlah kamu berputus asa dari rahmat Allah swt. Sesungguhnya Allah mengampuni dosa semuanya. Sesungguhnya Dialah yang Maha Pengampun lagi Maha Penyayang. Kembalilah (bertaubatlah) kamu kepada tuhanmu, dan patuhlah kamu kepadaNya sebelum tiba siksaan kepadamu, kemudian kamu tidak mendapat pertolongan” (Az-Zumar: 53,54).

CinTa PerTama?

kata orang cinta pertama itu yang paling sukar dilupakan.walau diri telah bertemu cinta baru yang menawarkan kebahagiaan dan keselesaan yang lebih namun cinta pertama tidak pernah lupus dari ingatan. kadangkala bayangannya sentiasa menjadi igauan harian.perlukah cinta yang kedua,ketiga keempat mencemburui cinta pertama? salahkah jika cinta pertama terus mengungguli carta kehidupan?Sungguh, dalam menyusuri kehidupan kerlipan cinta pertama tidak pernah sirna walau realitinya tidak mungkin dapat mengulang detik-detik manis tika itu.. Ya Allah moga CINTA PERTAMA ku ini terus mekar mewangi...

dalam kelapangan masa yang Allah bagi ni, menyempatkan diri menyelak album2 lama.Mengembali nostalgia di zaman kanak2( aiseyh.. sek men knk2 lg ke?). Lantas mata tertancap pada kepingan gambar yang meggetarkan jiwa.. rindu lama kembali mencengkam. tambahan pula dengan suasana hati yang dah lama x disuburkan dengan liqa' cinta (memandangkan tgh bercuti)..terasa ingin berkongsi saat diri dilamar cinta pertama...

duhai sahabat,
satu ketika dulu kita pernah sama2 menongkah arus deras di lautan sekolah. bukan hnya ancaman exam, study, beruk sahaja namun pada saat cinta kita berputik, Allah telah meninitipkan secangkir hidayahNya untuk kita lebih mengenali arRabb, lebih menginsafi hakikat penciptaan yang bukan hanya sekadar suka2.. Sebagaimana Allah menyatakan dalam firmannya : ' telah aku ciptakan jin dan manusia untuk mengabdikan diri kepadaKu'..saat usia yang masih muda (bg kite la), kita sudah mampu memikirkan masalah-masalah ummah.. memberi refleksi atas kepincangan yang berlaku dalam dunia remaja hari ini.. teringat pengisian pertama.. iman.. iman adalah tonggak dalam kehidupan, jika hidup laksana pokok, iman adlah akarnya. jika hidup laksana tubuh, iman adalah tulangnya.. ( cikgu pesan kalo nk didik anak, terapkan iman dulu..ngee). Saat itu kite diperjelas matlamat kehidupan kita, dari mana kita datang, untuk apa kita diciptakan dan ke mana akan kita kembali.. kesemua itu telah mula mewarnai kehidupan kita. lebih memantapkan fikrah yang selama ini goyah dengan ancaman sekularisme..Bukannya x tahu semua itu, tapi mata hati buta, telinga jiwa tuli untuk melihat dan mendengar ayat2 Allah.. dan pada masa itu lahirlah istilah2 ghaflah, lagha, futur yg rupa2nya dah hampir2 menjadi pakaian hidup kita(astaghfirullah..)....
jika dinilai dengan minda berat sebelah ni, kita akan merasakan pengorbanan masa di medan ini sebagai suatu yang membebankan dan kadangkala terasa masa yang ada lebih baik dislurkan utk hal duniawi..( study?.. x itu ibadah jika niat kerana Allah..hehe).
Alhamdulillah.. dalam kepayahan mendaki tanggga kehidupan ni Allah menguatkan kita semua dengan ikatan ukhwah ini.. Dalam hati ini terasa sangat rindu pada hubungan yang didasarkan kerana Allah.. kita saling menegur, saling memberi semangat, tika bersuka sama gembira, tika berduka sama bersedih..membenarkan definisi sahabat iaitu cermin kepada sahabat.. REFLEKSI!!(wink2)dan dari situ lahirnya cinta... Cinta PerTama!!

cinta.. cinta yang mengangkat lagi keagungan cintaIlahi
cinta..cinta yang lebih merapatkan hamba dengan penciptanya
cinta..cinta yang mengikat hati yang bertemu dan berpisah keranaAllah

Ya, Allah aku rindu cinta ini..

duhai sahabat, hari ini kita telah terpisah. untuk mengejar cita2 masing..bertebaranlah kamu di muka bumi ini untuk melihat kekuasaan Allah.. dan sahabat, diri ini sngat menyayangi anda semua, mungkin malu nak menuturkan secara lisan..(hehe), tapi ketahuilah betapa ingin melihat anda semua berjaya di dunia ini, menjadi doktor,dkter gigi ahli farmasi, ahli biotek, cikgu fzk,engineer,layer,etc dan di akhirat pastinya..betapa ingin melihat anda sentiasa berada dalam tarbiyah..betapa gembira ingin mendengar hujah2 anda dlm menegakkan agama Allah.betapa ingin melihat anda masih terhijab daripada anasir2 hedonisme melampau.betapa masih ingin mengagumi anda yang tegas mempertahan maruah diri.dan semestinya sahabat agar Allah menempatkan kita dalam kalangan orang yang bertakwa.. sebab

'teman-teman karib pada hari itu (hari kiamat), saling bermusuhan satu sama lain, kecuali mereka yang bertakwa..' az-zukhruf ,43.

mungkin post ini ditujukan untuk sahabt cinta pertamaku itu khasnya dan sahabat2 sekalian amnya.. Moga Allah tempatkan kita bersama hamba2 yang dicintaiNya dan mengikat hati kita di atas siratNya...

HEBAT atau dipandang HEBAT

aku ingin..
aku ingin menggapai bintang
aku ingin mendasari lautan
aku ingin menongkah awan
aku ingin membongkar rusuk tubuh
aku ingin melebarkan sayap dakwah
aku ingin menjadi seperti dia...
kenapa aku?
adakah aku ingin.. kerana aku ingin?
aku ingin dinobatkan angkasawan tersohor?
atau aku ingin menjulang gelaran penyelam terbaik?
atau aku ingin disanjungi laksana avicenna?
atau aku ingin menempa ketokohan al-Banna?
kenapa aku?
tidak menundukkan hati hanya pada al-Khaliq
kenapa aku?
masih memikirkan keuntungan dunia
tidakkah nyata betapa hinanya menggarap laba dunia dengan memperdagang akhirat
kualiti ini yang menjadikan ummah laksana buih lautan
banyak tetapi lemah..
mampu berfikir tetapi enggan zikir..
ingin dipandang hebat bukan menjadi hebat...

"Itulah orang-orang yang membeli
kehidupan dunia dengan (kehidupan) akhirat ". 
Q.S.Al-Ba qarah:86.

"Hai kaumku, sesungguhnya kehidupan
dunia ini hanyalah kesenangan (sementara) dan
sesungguhnya akhirat itulah negeri yang kekal ... 
Q.S.Al-Mukmin:39. 

I was revising my anatomy to strengthen my clinical skills. I did read a few books about anatomy including the Netter’s Atlas of anatomy before. However, few things come out in my mind. How can I sustain in memorizing all the parts of the body in details? Am I required to memorize all the parts of the body to become a good doctor? My school back in Ireland is not a very well-known University for its anatomy and Medical lectures.

However, things are changing when i read Clinical Anatomy written by Prof Stanley Monkhouse. In the few pages earlier, he explained the way he write the books. He is one of the senior lecturer in Anatomy. I would like to quote few sentences from the manual and philosophy of his book;

“It is impossible to learn anatomy in great detail. This has 2 disadvantages. First, it is mind-numblingly boring, and secondly you may be lulled into false sense of security, there is much variation from person to person, and from birth to death. So a choice has to be made; it has to be recognized that some items of information are important, and some are not; lines has to be drawn between what is ‘need to know’ and what is ‘nice to know’.”

Wow, this is amazing. This is the philosophy of the key of knowledge. Many medical students nowadays, when they go to the lecture hall, they are not ready to learn. Many of them simply write and elaborate what the lecturer has been saying without further thinking on classification, dividing, defining the terms, and searching to differentiate between what is need to know and what is nice to know.

The consequences is, they might fall asleep or they go to the library and read Kumar and Clark without proper understanding and becoming more confused. As a student, now we should be able to understand the lecture, get the definition, classify and harvest the important part of the lecture and becoming Adil.

So what is Adil? Adil is putting the right things in the right place. For example, you always put your car key on the refrigerator. And because it is always there, you will know and you won’t have to recall your memory. It is just your habit without you realize it. You will only realize that if you misplace it and of course, your best friend drives your car without asking any permission.

This is the same thing apply to the knowledge. You must have the ilmu (knowledge) and also the right place to put it ( the heart). The learned scholars of Islam knows about this and they are Adil on learning. For example, we know that the opinion of the students of Imam Abu Hanifah is different from their teacher. They appreciate the knowledge given, but at the same time, they are not a spoon-fed generation. They will argue the ilmu, classify, try to understand in the proper context and put it properly inside the heart. They might argue with their teacher, but they argue in the best way. Even among the students, they have the value of agree of their disagreement as the they see differences is variation, which good for the ummah.

The second thing is the place to put the knowledge which is the heart. That is why the previous scholars are very particular of taking care of their action so that they have the best place to put their knowledge. If we can be Adil to the knowledge, that we can be a good student, who can memorize and even better, practise the knowledge into life.

As I was reading a surah from Quran, Allah talks to us about his verses that is you need to know and also the verses that is nice to know. This is what we call the clear verse (muhkamat) that is clear in terms of the meaning and also required to understand, and also the verses of Mutasyabihat, the verses that has vague meaning that can only be fully understood by Allah SWT, which is nice for us just to know it.

Furthermore, the lines of demarcation between verse muhkamat and verse mutasyabihat is relative and has different spectrum in different people. Some scholar that study Islamic sciences such as Ulum Quran and Hadith might have plenty verses that is muhkamat to him, while a lay person who has basic knowledge of Arabic language, might have more verses of mutasyabihat.

It is the duty of every muslim to try to understand the verses of Al-quran according to their level of understanding. Muslim must learn the quran, but at the same time try to reach and make ijtihad only limited to themselves. Without proper understanding and limited ijtihad, how can we expect the muslim to practise the Quran as their habits?

Anyway, thanks to Prof Monkhouse. After teaching and serving his time in medical teaching field, he now devoted fully his life as a good Christian in the monastery. Wow, he has the same appearance of Imam Ghazali, but in the medical version ;-)

Now, I can continue my study! So, guys remember, classify between what is nice to know, and what is need to know!
- imported post.. to win the world with knowledge, to win the hereafter with knowledge, to win both with knowledge too.. Knowledge is not just an information that you have to accept without process it, knowledge covers more than that... fikr.. zikr

Refleksi....

“Rugilah orang yang hari ini sama sahaja dengan hari semalam. Celakalah orang yang hari ini lebih teruk daripada semalam. Beruntunglah orang yang hari ini lebih baik daripada semalam.”.. saidina Ali k.w.j

.. hadirnya refleksi untuk muhasabah diri bagi menjadikan diri termasuk golongan yang beruntung..menyingkap pengalaman hidup seharian menggerakkan minda untuk beroperasi untuk mencari respons. sungguh, kehidupan yang dilalui tanpa dihitung nilaiannya akan meletakkan kita dalam golongan yang rugi...tidak ada matlamat lain melainkan mardhatillah..itulah perlunya Refleksi diri...