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Prescription 7: Your Comprehensive Role

تَخَلَّقُوا بأخلاق الله

Condition yourselves with the traits of Allah.
- Holy Prophet (S)

The doctor must realize that the ultimate goal of the human creation, according to scholars well-grounded in the depths of religion, is to attain the sublime attributes of Allah (al-Asmaʾ al-Husna). That is why the Holy Prophet (S) is reported to have said:

إِنَّمَا بُعثت لأتمم مكارم الأخلاق

Indeed, I was only sent to perfect the traits of greatness.1

Traits of nobility and greatness essentially belong to Allah but can be manifested in those human beings who struggle to actualize their potential of exemplifying the beautiful names of Allah.

The human being has been bestowed with a potential that can enable him to soar and attain the station of being a vicegerent of God on earth. He has been conferred with the ability to practically realise the attributes of perfection. Appreciating this profound reality should enhance the vision of every doctor and increase his efforts in bettering his methods of treating his patients.

If, therefore, a doctor also trains himself in the fundamentals of faith, not only would he attempt to treat the patient physically, but also convey and impart the pure and pristine teachings of Islam.

The excellent morals and character of a doctor when attending the patient can transform the ignorant patient and guide him to the path of salvation.
One of the most brilliant dictums of Imam al-Sadiq (ʿa) is as follows:

كُونُوا دُعَاةً لِلنَّاسِ بِغَيْرِ الْسِنَتِكُمْ، لِيَرَوْا مِنْكُمْ الْوَرَعَ والاجتهاد والصَّلاَةَ وَالْخَيْرَ، فَإِنَّ ذَلِكَ دَاعِيَةٌ

Be callers of people [to the truth] without your tongues. They must see from you [acts such as] self- abstinence, struggle, prayer, and virtue, for these are things that call [towards the truth].2

In order to practically realize an excellent character, a doctor must always update his limited knowledge about religion and its sublime teachings by reading authoritative material and seeking directions from scholars of piety and authority. This can be done parallel to his other reading projects.

He must remember that not only is it important for him to know the intricacies of the human body, which is a secondary reality, it is also vital for him to know the subtleties of his spiritual dimension, which actually forms his primary reality. In fact, such knowledge is a path towards the knowledge of God himself.3

Imam ʿAli (ʿa) is reported to have said:

من عرف نَفْسَهُ عرف ربه

Whosoever comes to know himself will come to know his Lord.4

The well-known authoritative predecessors of the science of medicine like Hippocrates (d. 370 BC), Galen (d. 200 CE), and Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi (d. 925 CE), were not only masters in the field of physical medicine but were also well-versed in spiritual medicine.

Galen, for example, is said to have written two treatises exclusively devoted to the vices of the soul: The Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul’s Passions and The Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul’s Errors5 Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi wrote a well-known treatise called al-Tibb al-ruhani (Spiritual Medicine), where he discussed ways of repelling the different maladies of the soul.

This book6 was translated by Professor Arthur J. Arberry (d. 1969 CE) in the year 1950 with the title The Spiritual Physick. It consists of twenty chapters. Some of the thought-provoking chapters are as follows:

Chapter (1): Of the Excellence and Praise of Reason
Chapter (2): Of Suppressing and Restraining the Passion
Chapter (4): Of How a Man may Discover his Own Vices
Chapter (5): Of Repelling Carnal Love
Chapter (8): Of Repelling Excessive and Hurtful Anger
Chapter (11): Of Repelling Excessive and Hurtful Anxiety and Worry
Chapter (12): Of Dismissing Grief
Chapter (13): Of Repelling Greed
Chapter (14): Of Repelling Habitual Drunkenness

The beauty of this work is its practical nature. Most of its chapters start with the word Repelling; Razi, therefore, is serious in revealing the method of curing spiritual maladies.
In his introduction to the book al-Dirasat al-tahliliyyah li kitab al-tibb al-ruhani (Analytical Studies on the Spiritual Physick of Razi) published by the University of Tehran, Dr. Mahdi Muhaqqiq writes:

The commonly held view among physicians was that excellence would be reached through knowledge of both medicine and philosophy. Hippocrates was mentioned as the perfect example of the physician and philosopher. Also, to Galen was attributed a work called Fa anna al-tabib al-fadil yajibu an yakuna faylasufan (The Excellent Physician must necessarily be a philosopher).

Similarly, to achieve this end most physicians included chapters on philosophy at the beginning of their medical works; for example, Abu al-Hasan al-Tabari a fourth century A.H. physician in his al-Muʿalajat al-buqratiyyah (Hippocratical treatments) gives some elementary notions of philosophy and declares that a physician without a certain knowledge of philosophy is not reliable. It is therefore not surprising that beside the many medical works of Razi we find about eighty books and treatises on philosophy, as listed by Biruni in the Fihrist.7

Perhaps the great emphasis for physicians to study philosophy is because philosophy actually forms the basis and foundation of the different fields of science. Furthermore, it also teaches the human being about the existence and attributes of the Creator and His relation with His creation and instils faith in him. It is not based on speculations or generalizations but rational convictions, which can form a strong basis of the physician’s worldview.

Hence, the aspiration of an ideal doctor should not be limited to the intricacies of the body but must include the intricacies of the soul as well.

  • 1. ‘Allamah Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, v.16, p. 210
  • 2. Shaykh al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, v.2, p. 78.
  • 3. Obviously, this would then be the beginning of his struggle, for knowledge without action instead of elevating the status of a human being can degrade him and lower him to the station of animals, or perhaps even inferior than that.
  • 4. Shaykh al-Rayshahri, Mizan al-Hikmah, v.3, p. 1877.
  • 5. B. T. Qutbuddin, Healing the Soul: Perspectives of Medieval Muslim Writers (Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 2 (1995)), 2:62- 87.
  • 6. An online PDF copy of this work can be procured from the Online Library of Liberty
    http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show. php%3Ftitle=1791
    [2/9/2012]
  • 7. M. Muhaqqiq, al-Dirasat al-tahliliyyah, pp. 14-15.