Prescription 4: You Are God’s Secret Agent
من ستر مسلما ستره الله عز وجل في الدنيا والآخرة
A doctor is not only responsible to struggle in curing his patient, but also to preserve his patient’s respect and dignity. A trustworthy doctor, therefore, would never reveal the ugly and unpleasant things he observes in a patient. His main concern would be to learn about his patient for the sake of treatment and relief. Only when he maintains the secrets of others can he represent God on earth.
In a well-known counsel, Hippocrates (d. 370 BC) describes the character of a doctor as follows:
وينبغي أن يكون مشاركاً للعليل، مشفقاً عليه حافظاً للأسرار
The doctor should be a partner to the sick person, kind to him, protective of secrets1
In his treatise, Ethics of a Doctor, Ibn Zakariyya al-Razi says:
اعلم يابني أنه ينبعي للطبيب أن يكون رفيقاً بالناس حافظاً للغيب كتوماً لأسرارهم ولا سيما أسرار مخدومة فإنه ربما يكون ببعض الناس من المرض ما يكتمه عن أخص الناس به مثل أبيه وأمه وولده وإنما يكتمونه خواصهم ويفشونه إلى الطبيب ضرورة
Know, O my dear little son, that a doctor must be friendly to people, protective of that which is hidden, extremely secretive of their secrets, especially the secrets of one whom he serves [i.e. the patient], for indeed a person may have a sickness that he hides from one who is very near to him such as his father, mother, and children, and indeed his close associates hide it but disclose it to the doctor due to desperation and necessity. 2
In hiding the defects of the patient, the doctor actually exemplifies and manifests Allah’s attribute: Concealer of defects.
In the supplication of al-Jawshan al-Kabir we are taught to address Allah as follows:
يَا مَنْ أَظْهَرَ الْجَمِيلَ يَا مَنْ سَتَرَ الْقَبِيحَ
O You who manifests beauty, O You who covers ugliness3
Allah is not only introduced as al-Satir (the Concealer) or Satir al-ʿAwrat (the Concealer of deficiencies), but also as Sattar al-ʿUyub (One who extremely covers the defects).
In the supplication of al-Jawshan al-Kabir we address Allah as follows:
اللهم إِنِّي أَسْتَلكَ بِاسْمِكَ يَا غَافِرُ، يَا سَائِرُ، يَا قَادِرُ
O Allah, indeed, I ask You by Your name, O Forgiver, O Concealer, O Powerful.4
And in the same supplication we also address Allah as:
يَا سَائِرَ الْعَوْرَاتِ يَا مُحْيِيَ الأَمْوَاتِ
O Concealer of defects, O Reviver of the dead.5
In a supplication of Prophet Yusuf (ʿa), we address Allah as follows:
يَا غَافِرَ الذُّنُوبِ، يَا عَلامَ الْغَيُوبِ، يَا سَاتِرَ الْعُيُوب
O Forgiver of sins, O Knower of the unseen, O Concealer of defects6
In the concluding verses of the well-known supplication of al-Sabah, Amir al-Mu’minin (ʿa) addresses Allah as follows:
يَا سَتَارَ الْعُيُوبِ، وَيَا عَلامَ الْغُيُوبِ، وَيَا كَاشِفَ الْكُرُوب
O One who extremely covers all the defects, O One who extremely knows all the hidden things, O Reliever of all the deep anguishes.7
If a doctor therefore would like to preserve his status as a representative of God, he, likewise, would be extremely cautious lest he insults or diminishes the sanctity of his patient by revealing his defects to others. Amir al-Mu’minin (ʿa) is reported to have said:
مَنْ سَتَرَ مُسْلِمًا سَتَرَهُ اللهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ
Whosoever covers a Muslim, Allah, the Invincible and Majestic, would cover him in this world and the Hereafter.8
This tradition informs us about the powerful effect of veiling the unpleasant deficiencies of a faithful person. Such a person would be protected in this world as well as the Hereafter, and Allah will not allow his faults and secrets to be disclosed.
Imam al-Sadiq (ʿa) is reported to have said:
يَجِبُ لِلْمُؤْمِنِ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِ أَنْ يَسْتَرَ عَلَيْهِ سَبْعِينَ كبيرة
It is compulsory for a faithful believer to cover seventy major sins of a believer.9
Imam al-Sadiq (ʿa) is also reported to have said:
وَمَنْ سَتَرَ عَلَى مُؤْمِنٍ عَوْرَةٌ يَخَافُهَا سَتَرَ اللهُ عَلَيْهِ سبعين عورَةً مِنْ عوراتِ الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ
Whosoever covers a faithful person from a defect [the disclosure of] which he fears, Allah will cover him from seventy defects from the defects of the world and the Hereafter.10
Note that seventy does not always allude to the exact number, such that a believer, for example, is not bound to forgive another believer’s seventy- first sin, or if a believer hides one deficiency of another believer, Allah would only hide seventy deficiencies of his and not seventy-one.
Numbers like seventy, one thousand, seventy thousand, and the like are known in the Arabic language ʿadad al-kithrah (numbers that signify abundance). The Holy Qur’an employs seventy, for example, to confer a similar connotation. Allah tells His Apostle:
إِنْ تَسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ سَبْعِينَ مَرَّةً فَلَنْ يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ
Were you to seek forgiveness seventy times (for the hypocrites), Allah would never forgive them (9:80).
This does not mean that if the Prophet (S) sought forgiveness seventy-one times then Allah would forgive them.
One of the most appropriate examples of Allah’s attribute of concealing the deficiencies of a believer is unveiled on the Day of Judgement, the day when the secrets will be unveiled. In a hadith qudsi, the Holy Prophet (S) is reported to have requested Allah not to take account of his nation in the presence of the Angels, the Apostles, and the rest of the nations, so that their defects do not appear before them, but rather to take account of them in such a way that none other than Allah and the Holy Prophet (S) comes to know about their sins. Thereupon Allah said:
يا حبيبي أنا أرأف بعبادي مِنْكَ، فَإِذَا كَرِهْتُ كَشَفَ عند غيرك، فأنا أكْرَهُ كَشَفَهَا عِنْدَكَ أَيْضًا. فَأَحَاسِبهُم وَحَدِي بحيثُ لَا يَطَّلِعُ عَلَى عَثَرَاتِهِمْ عيوبهم غَيْرِي
O my beloved, I am kinder than you to My servants; if you dislike disclosing their defects to other than you, I dislike disclosing them even to you as well. Thus, I will take their account Myself, such that other than Myself none will come to know of their lapses.11
This conversation transports us to the following beautiful name of Allah taught to us in the well-known supplication of al-Jawshan al-Kabir:
يا نعم الحسيب
O Best Accounting One.12
- 1. Al-Lahiji, Mahbub al-qulub, v.1, p. 182.
- 2. Ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, Akhlaq al-tabib, pp. 27-28.
- 3. Al-Kaf‘ami, al-Misbah, Du’aʾ al-Jawshan al-Kabir, p. 250.
- 4. Al-Kaf‘ami, al-Misbah, Du’aʾ al-Jawshan al-Kabir, p. 252.
- 5. Al-Kaf‘ami, al-Misbah, Du’aʾ al-Jawshan al-Kabir, p. 250.
- 6. ‘Allamah Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, v.92, p. 171.
- 7. ‘Allamah Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, v.84 p 341.
- 8. Ibn Hanbal, Musnad Ahmad, v.4, p. 104; al-Qawini, Sunan Ibn Majah, v.2, p. 85.
- 9. Shaykh al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, v.2, p. 207.
- 10. Al-Shahrudi, Mustadrak safinah al-bihar, v.7, p. 48.
- 11. Al-Shirazi, Kalimat Allah, p. 57.
- 12. Al-Kaf’ami, al-Misbah Du’aʾ al-Jawshan al-Kabir, v.51, p. 253.