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Lecture for medical students at the
Faculty of Medicine King Fahad Medical City Riyadh May 29, 2014 by Professor
Omar Hasan Kasule Sr.
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
General
objective
·
Link the religious and spiritual
principles to the medical practice
Specific
objectives
·
Describe the religious and
cultural practices of spiritual healing.
·
Describe the clinical
opportunities for applying spirituality.
·
Apply the concept of spiritual
support in clinical practice.
SPIRITUAL
MODALITY OF CURE…1
·
Use of dua from the Qur’an[1]
and hadith as ruqiy. Dua was reported to have been used for
madness, duamin al junoon[2] and for fever[3].
·
The
formulas for ruqy reported from the prophet, al ruqiy al
mathuur, consist of the following chapters of the Qur’an:
al fatihat, al falaq, al naas, ayat al kursi, and the various supplications
reported from the prophet, duama’athurat.The Qur’an is the best medicine[4].
·
Asking for protection from Allah,
isti’adhat,is medicine[6].
·
A strong iman and trust in Allah, tawakkul,
play a role in the cure of diseases.
·
Salat is a cure[7].
SPIRITUAL
MODALITY OF CURE…2
·
The spiritual approach to cure is
mediated through the physical processes.
·
Psychosomatic processes affect the
immune functions and other metabolic functions of the body.
·
A believer who is spiritually
calm will have positive psychosomatic experiences and not negative ones because
he or she will be psychologically healthy and at ease.
·
Faith can change the very perception
of disease symptoms. Pain is for example subjective. A believing person who
trusts in Allah may feel less pain from an injury than a non-believer with the
same injury.
·
Faith healing is using divine
power to cure disease. Jesus did faith healing.
CONCEPT
OF LIFE, hayaat
·
Life, from the tauhidi-based
holistic integrative Islamic paradigm, shumuliyat al Islam, is a complex
phenomenon with biological, chemical, social, psychological, and spiritual
components.
·
The relations among the
components of life are governed by the physical laws, sunan al kawn, of
balance, mizan, equilibrium, i’itidaal, and reciprocal
action-reaction, tadafu’u.
·
Humans share biological life with
plants and animals and share spiritual life with angels.
·
Humans are the only creation to
have both biological and spiritual life at the same time.
·
Human life devoid of spirituality
is like animal or plant life.
CONCEPT
OF HEALTH, sihhat, raahat, ‘aafihat
·
Health is a positive and holistic
state of well-being and not mere absence of disease or illness.
·
Health includes spiritual,
physical, psychological, emotional, and psychological dimensions in holistic
balance and equilibrium.
·
The spiritual component is the
most important and its impairment adversely affects all the other components.
·
Holistic measures of quality of
life and health must incorporate all the dimensions above.
CONCEPT
OF THE SOUL, ruh
·
The ruh, the permanent and
eternal essence of each human life, was created before Adam.
·
Ensoulment, nafakh al ruh,
occurs in intra-uterine life. It is a spiritual event that also sustains
biological life; Desoulment, naza’u al ruh, is followed rapidly by
biological death.
·
The limited knowledge of humans
about the ruh is only from revelation, wahy.
·
The Qur’an used several terms
that seem to be referring to various manifestations of the same essence of
human life: ruh, nafs, aql, naasiyat, lubb, dhihn, fuadetc,
·
These terms can be mapped by
experts in tafsir al Qur’an to spiritual, psychological, cognitive,
emotional, and social modalities that professionals use in providing holistic
spiritual support to patients.
CONCEPT
OF SPIRITUAL SUPPORT, al da’am al ruhi
·
Patients should be supported to
reach calmness devoid of fear or anxiety by accepting death as a transitional
event
·
The transition is from inferior
and temporary life on earth, hayat al duniyat, through the interregnum, hayat
al barzakh, to the superior and eternal life in the hereafter, hayat al
akhirat.
·
Death is not a terminal event and
neither does it break the reassuring direct communication between the human and
the Creator.
·
Of all links and relations that a
human can have, it is only the link with Allah that persists after the
disappearance of parents, siblings, children, spouses, friends, and enemies
PSYCHOLOGICAL
SUPPORT,al
da’am al nafsaani
·
The patient should be supported
to ascend from the lowest to the highest levels of the nafs
·
From the evil-inclined soul, nafs
al ammaratto the self-conscious soul, nafslawaamat
·
From the self-conscious soul, nafslawaamatto
the high levels of the calm soul, nafsmutmainnat.
·
Nafsmutmainnat is described as
raadhiyat, mardhiyat, qanuu’at
·
At this level the patient bravely
faces the suffering and pain of illness.
COGNITIVE
SUPPORT FOR THE PATIENT, al da’am al ma’arifi/al fikri
·
The patient should be supported
to appreciate illness as just one minor phenomenon in the wide and expanding
spatio-temporal dimension of the universe ‘aalamiin
·
The patient should be guided to
appreciate that illness can have beneficial aspects such as forgiveness of sins
and bringing out the best in the human who can overcome pain and suffering and
stay calm and composed.
EMOTIONAL
SUPPORT, al da’am al ‘aatifi
·
The patient’s self-worth,
self-esteem, and self-confidence to face the challenges of illness should be
enhanced
·
The patient should be aware of
the superiority of human creation that overcomes innate weakness such as
evil-doing fisk, and spilling blood, safk al dima, to become a
vicegerent, khalifat, who with limited control of the universe, taskhiir,
is able to build a material civilization, imarat al ardh.
SOCIAL
SUPPORT, al da’am al ijtima’e
·
The patient should be given
support to live the remaining life with the highest quality of social relations
with the family and the wider community.
·
Members of the family should be
welcome as partners in patient care and should be treated as honored guests of
the hospital with all the rights of the visitor, huquuq al dhaif.
·
The patient should be enabled to
stay in contact with the outside community and not be confined to the 4 walls
of the hospital room: news, visits, participation in radio talks etc
PHYSICAL
SUPPORT, al da’am al maadi
·
The spiritual support
professional cannot ignore the physical needs of the patient
·
The primary necessities, dharuraat,
are those needed to preserve life like basic staple food and water
·
The needs, haajiyaat,
bring emotional satisfaction like favorite dishes served in an attractive way
·
Embellishments, tahsiinaat,
and complementaries, mukamillaat, are what are beyond the necessities
and needs.
NOTES