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Prescription 6: The Divine Visage Of The Patient

وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنْتُمْ

… And He is with you wherever you may be … (Qur’an Surah al-Hadid, 57:4).

The Holy Qur’an says:

وَلِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

To Allah belong the east and the west: so whichever way you turn, there is the face of Allah! Allah is indeed All-Bounteous, All-Knowing. (Surah al-Baqara, 2:115).

هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنْزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنْتُمْ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ

It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then settled on the Throne. He knows whatever enters the earth and whatever emerges from it and whatever descends from the sky and whatever ascends to it, and He is with you wherever you may be, and Allah sees best what you do. (Surah Hadid, 57:4).

هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He has knowledge of all things. (Surah Hadid, 57:3).

Amir al-Mu’minin (ʿa), disclosing his state of perceiving reality, is reported to have said:

ما رأيتُ شَيْئًا إلا ورأيت الله فيه أو قَبْلَهُ أو معه

I have not seen anything save that I saw Allah in it, or before it or with it.1

This is a very important, profound and subtle dictum that must not be comprehended superficially. The containment (zarfiyyah), priority (qabliyyah), and unity (maʿiyyah) spoken about in this dictum must not be taken in the material sense.

Some traditions of the infallible progeny of the Holy Prophet (S) are such that they intoxicate the reader and transport him to a world of love and ecstasy. If the practitioners of medicine were astute enough to understand and comprehend that every entity in this universe is a locus where the attributes of God are manifested, they would be extremely cautious in every move that they make when dealing with a patient.

The Holy Prophet (S) is reported to have said:

يعير الله عز وجل عبداً من عِبَادِهِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَيَقُولُ: عَبْدِي مَا مَنَعَكَ إِذَا مَرِضْتُ أَنْ تَعُودَنِي؟ فَيَقُول: سبْحَانَكَ سُبْحَانَكَ أَنْتَ رَبِّ الْعِبَادِ لا تَألَمْ وَلَا تَمْرَضٌ. فَيَقُولُ: مَرِضَ أَخُوكَ الْمُؤْمِنُ فَلَمْ تَعْدَهُ، وَعِزَّتِي وَجَلَالِي لَوْ عُدْتَهُ لَوَجَدْتَنِي عِنْدَهُ ثُمَّ لَتَكَفَّلْتُ بِحَوَائِجِكَ فَقَضَيْتُهَا لَكَ، وَذَلِكَ مِنْ كَرَامَةِ عَبْدِي الْمُؤْمِنِ، وَأَنَا الرَّحْمَنُ الرَّحِيم

On the Judgement Day, Almighty Allah would reproach a servant among His servants, and say: O My servant, what hampered you from visiting Me when I turned ill? The servant thereupon would say: Free from imperfections are You! Free from imperfections are You! You are the Lord of the people, neither do You sense any pain, nor do You get sick.

Thereupon Allah would say: Your faithful brother became ill, and you did not visit him; I swear by my Invincibility and Majesty, had you visited him you would have found Me near him, and I would have taken the responsibility of attending to your needs and would have given them to you; and this is due to the nobility of My believing servant, and I am the All- Beneficent, the All- Merciful.2

This is one of the most profound traditions narrated from the Holy Prophet (S). It needs a reflective heart to understand its subtleties and intricacies. One of the most remarkable statements it reveals is the phrase ‘O My servant, what hampered you from visiting Me when I turned ill?’

Scholars of insight have a very subtle and deep interpretation of this, the elucidation of which is beyond the scope of this brief treatise. In short, the phrase ‘… Law ʿudtahu lawajadtani ʿindahu’ (… “had you visited him, you would have found Me near him”) speaks of the most beautiful reality of divine immanence and proximity propounded by mystical scholars.3

If a doctor, therefore, would realise that he is not only treating one who is in pain, but also dealing with the One who is everywhere, he would handle the patient with patience, love, attachment, care and deep concern. Alluding to this extreme proximity of Allah, the Holy Qur’an says:

وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنْتُمْ

… And He is with you wherever you may be … (Surah Hadid, 57:4).

Allah, the Exalted, also says:

أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ فِي مِرْيَةٍ مِنْ لِقَاءِ رَبِّهِمْ أَلَا إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ مُحِيطٌ

Look! They are indeed in doubt about the encounter with their Lord! Look! Indeed, He encompasses all things! (Surah Fussilat, 41:54).

The phrase ‘Indeed He encompasses all things’ should never be conjectured to signify a material phenomenon. The encompassment spoken about in the aforementioned verse is not akin to the encompassment of one thing over another, as this is only correct with regard to material entities.

Allah, Exalted is He, encompasses every layer of every existential entity, such that one may wonder and ask: is there any layer where He is not present?

Comprehending this subtle secret creates a different kind of environment for the doctor, and he handles every patient, regardless of his race or even religion and regardless of his habit and manners, as an entity where Allah is present and which manifests the attributes of Allah.

Understanding The Meaning Of ʿIyadah

It is important to note that traditions narrated about visiting the sick generally mention the term al-ʿiyadah (repetitive visitation) and not al-ziyarah (visitation). The word al-ʿiyadah literally signifies repeated visits. It is derived from the word al-ʿawd which means to return. When we wish to say ‘Muhammad visited a patient’, we express: ‘Muhammad ʿada maridan’, although the literal meaning of ʿada is ‘he returned’. This reveals that the reality of ʿiyadah is not a simple one-off visit.

Shaykh al-Turayhi (d. 1058 AH), the Shia lexicographer, referring to this subtlety says:

كل من أتاك مرة أتاك مرة بعد أخرى فهو عائد، وإن اشتهر في عيادة المريض

Whosoever comes to you again and again is known as ʿaʾid, although this word has become associated with visiting the sick.4

However, we should note that Islam encourages such return visits that are short and do not cause the patient inconvenience and distress.
Imam al-Sadiq (ʿa) is reported to have said that Amir al-Mu’minin ʿAli ibn Abu Talib (ʿa) said:

إن من أعظم العواد أجرًا عِندَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ لَمَنْ إِذَا عَادَ أَخَاهُ خَفَّفَ الْجُلُوسَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَكُونَ الْمَرِيضُ يُحِبُّ ذلك

Indeed, among those visitors [of the sick] who have the greatest reward near Allah, the Invincible and Majestic, is he who upon visiting his [ailing] brother, sits for a very little while, save if the patient loves that [he should sit more].5

ʿAllamah al-Majlisi (d. 1110 AH) in his Bihar al-Anwar quotes the following thought-provoking poetry:

حقّ العيادة يوم بين يومين

وجلسة لك مثل طرف بالعين

لا تبر من مريضا في مسائله

The correct manner of visiting [the sick] is a day between every two days
And a sitting for you the like of a blink of the eye Do not twist a patient in his matters
Sufficient for you is that you ask in two words.6

  • 1. Shaykh al-Rayshahri, Mawsu’at al-’aqaʾid al-Islamiyyah, v.3, p. 75.
  • 2. ‘Allamah Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, v.7, p. 304.
  • 3. Scholars of mysticism have spoken at length about the principle of the Oneness of Being (wahdat al-wujud). If one understands this reality properly and is enabled to vision the same, everything around would appear differently. One would always be positive and optimistic and savour the different loci of divine attributes.
  • 4. Shaykh al-Turayhi, Majma’ al-bahrayn, v.3, p. 273.
  • 5. Shaykh al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, v.3, p. 118.
  • 6. ‘Allamah Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, v.78, p. 225.