Presented
at a Seminar on Islamization of the Medical Curriculum and Practice held at the
International Islamic University Kuantan Malaysia 26-27th August 2013 by
Professor Omar Hasan K Kasule MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) EM omarkasule@yahoo.com, WEB: www.omarkasule.blogspot.com
CONCEPT OF SHARI’AT COMPLIANCE
·
The term shari’at
relating to hospitals should be used in its original wider sense of a general
guide and way, shir’atanwaminhaajan, for all Muslim activities and not
the limited sense today that confines it to ‘ibadat and some mu’amalaat.
·
What
distinguishes a Muslim hospital is not the architecture or the types of medical
procedures but the Islamic paradigms, values, ethics, and culture of the health
professionals, other workers, and the patients.
·
All existing
and useful knowledge and technology used in the hospital can be used but within
the Islamic moral and ethical context, a process called Islamization.
THE BASIC GUIDING PARADIGMS TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE PLANNING OF THE
HOSPITAL
·
Integration
(deriving from tauhid)
·
Balance (tawazun)
·
Quality work (ihsan
and itqan)
·
Justice (‘adl).
THE HOSPITAL SHOULD BE PLANNED AROUND FULFILLING THE 5 MAIN
PURPOSES OF THE SHARI’AT (MAQASID AL SHARI’AT)
·
Preservation,
protection, and promotion of
o
diin (hifdh
al ddiin)
o
life (hifdh
al nafs)
o
progeny (hifdh
al nasl)
o
human intellect
(hifdh al ‘aql)
o
resources (hifdh
al maal).
QAWA’ID AL SHARI’AT
·
The hospital
operational procedures should be planned according to the principles of fiqh
(qawa’id al fiqh) that have yet to be developed in detail for hospitals
but were developed for commercial transactions in the Ottoman legal gazette
called Majallat al Ahkaam al Adliyyat.
·
The commercial
codes of the majallat require further development to be applicable to
the business operations of a modern hospital.
·
To these must
be added new codes on standard operating procedures and practice guidelines
that should be based on the best available empirical experience within an
Islamic ethical and legal context.
REVOLUTION vs EVOLUTION
·
Implementation
of a shari’at compliant hospital will fail if initiated in a
revolutionary way.
·
The process
should be evolutionary starting with what exists, making changes as we go
along, and learning from experiences both positive and negative.
·
The most
strategic move in the whole process is the Islamic training of the
professionals and workers in the hospital.
CHALLENGES
·
A shari’at
compliant hospital faces many challenges: personnel and finance
·
Training
facilities and modules limited
·
The most
significant challenge is financial survival. Since the idea of such a hospital
is new to many people, skepticism will keep patient numbers and hence revenue
low at the start but with passage of time this problem can be overcome.