Quranic wisdom: Doctor-patient relationship
“Indeed, Allah commands you to return trusts to their rightful owners; and when you judge between people, judge with fairness. What a noble commandment from Allah to you! Surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.”
Quran 4;58.
This is one of the important ayah of the Quran for at least two reasons. Firstly it was revealed within Kaaba after the victory of Mecca by Muslims. Allah Almighty has commanded Mohammed Prophet ( peace and blessings be upon him) to return the keys of Kaaba to Uthman ibn Talha even though he was still the non-believer. Uthman and his descendants were given the privilege of maintaining the keys of Kaaba as they were rightful owners. Secondly in this ayah Allah Almighty emphasizes that it is one of the noble commandments to follow.
So this is the duty of every God fearing person to uphold trusts to rightful owners. The trusts can be tangible and intangible. The relationship of a doctor and patient is of trust. Patients rely on doctors for getting genuine advice about their health. It is imperative that we as doctors should keep this in mind and advise them accordingly in different aspects of their health and illness, whether it be about investigations, treatment options, medications or surgery. We should also play the role of a counselor in advising them according to their socio economic conditions. We should also facilitate that they get the best of the treatment according to their conditions. We should never conceal any information for our gains. We should never give wrong information about our competitors ( colleagues or hospitals). We should also keep ourselves abreast of the knowledge of medical advancements so that we can guide our patients in a better way.
We need to also derive a lesson that the keys of the most sacred place on Earth — the Kaaba were given back to the owner who was a non Muslim in spite of achieving victory. Such is the justice of Allah Almighty. Forgoing the keys of most sacred place was easy for the believers at that time. Similarly believing doctors should forgo self interests and upheld the interests of the patient. Whatever is the best for the patient has to be delivered. Their interests should always be upheld. Then how the doctors will earn , live and flourish. I have witnessed in my clinical practice that once we are genuine in our advice to our patients, many of them will get the treatment with us because they know that we keep their interests higher. For the patients who do not get treated with us in spite of our genuinity , we should have the wisdom that — their treatment with us was only up to this point and the further treatment is somewhere else and we should be at peace with it.
It should be our tawakkul that our Razzaq( Allah) will provide us the halal rizq in ways which are unheard and unimagined because He( Allah ) is the best of the planners.
