ACCORDING to a hadith: “Allah will say on the Day of Judgement: ‘O son of Adam! I was sick, but you did not visit Me.’ ‘My Lord! How could I visit You when You are the Lord of the whole world?’ the believer will reply. Allah will say, ‘Did you not know that so and so from among My servants [that is human beings] was sick but you never visited him/her? Did you not know that if you had visited, you would have found Me there?’”

In Muslim ethics, taking care of the sick is one of the most important acts of love. Medicine is unique in a sense that its practice makes one closer to ailing humanity, thus offering the opportunity to get closer to God. Metaphorically speaking, the physical aspect of care can be considered as a body of medicine, whereas the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of patient care can be described as the soul of medicine.

Whereas modern medicine with all its novel advancements takes care of one’s physical illness, there is something lacking in the contemporary healthcare system that does not cater to patients’ psychological and spiritual well-being. This is being realised strongly nowadays by the institutions of healthcare worldwide. I attended such a conference recently at Duke University, where the theme was ‘Medicine and Faithful Responses to Suffering’. It was gratifying to see how many researchers among medical practitioners are doing cutting-edge research on the meeting point of the body and the soul of medical practice.

In addition to the physical dimension of pain, there are also psychological, social and spiritual components intertwined within the whole spectrum of suffering. For holistic healing to work, body and soul should be addressed concurrently. Treating the body and ignoring the soul only adds to the misery of not only the affected but the whole society including the family of the sufferer, and healthcare personnel and facilities.

Treating the body and ignoring the soul adds to patients’ misery.

With the increasing burden of electronic medical records, tougher disciplinary regulations, litigation fears and a surge in sophisticated investigations, the time for actual patient-physician interaction is decreasing, with more time being spent on the computer screen and less in talking to and examining the patient. The situation is the same in developing countries, including Pakistan, but for different reasons. Here, the number of patients per physician is too high; the hospitals are overwhelmed by patients. Although the reasons vary in developed and developing countries, the basic problem remains the same — less time for patient-doctor interaction.

Sometimes, it is not possible for a physician to understand the underlying cultural complexities, religious and spiritual perspectives of the patient, which may be the root cause of the disconnect between body and soul. In that case, proper screening for religious and cultural aspects of the patients and families are critical in order to refer them to psychological services or give them religious solace.

Despite the rise of artificial intelligence and medical technologies, the physician’s hand remains one of the most valuable diagnostic tools. The humane touch of a physician’s hand to the ailing body of a patient adds to the healing of the soul.

There is an emerging allegory within the industrialised modern medical environment, where the physician-patient relationship is characterised as a buyer-seller one that tends to deprive modern medicine of its core value of compassionate care. Collective life centred on physical health, cure and needs can be termed as a “spirituality of immanence”. The socialisation that clinicians receive through the curriculum that neglects a patient’s spirituality is seen as the prime contributor to infrequent spiritual care provision by clinicians.

Clinicians rarely engage in religious and spiritual issues in their daily work in hospital wards. Bypassing these issues is especially prevalent among young clinicians under training.

Thus, taking care of the body’s ailments while being alive to spiritual needs, starting with the basic requirements, such as a therapeutic touch, is essential, as is addressing the patients’ psychological and spiritual needs. These needs are often fulfilled by many workers in the hospital today, who are mindful of the background of the patient.

The Muslim culture has a strong background in the mediaeval hospital tradition of caring for these needs and, therefore, Muslim doctors and institutions also have a responsibility towards respecting and being mindful of this humane and spiritualised care of patients of different backgrounds, so that a sufferer, and not just one part of his or her body is treated in a holistic manner.

The writer is an instructor in oncology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, with an interest in the study of interaction between medicine and spirituality.

Twitter: @mohsinfareed

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019