Ramadan Notes #21: Let the Qur'an drive your healthcare WHY

As-salamu’alaykum,

What is your healthcare WHY?

Is your WHY grounded in your ego and its need for rewards and recognition tied to this world?

OR

Is your WHY anchored in the pursuit of success in the eternal sense driven by a service orientation and a yearning for Allah’s pleasure?

Surah Ash-Shuraa Q42 v20: “Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter, We will increase their harvest. And whoever desires ˹only˺ the harvest of this world, We will give them some of it, but they will have no share in the Hereafter.”

In this verse of the Qur’an, the long-term eternal view of true success is highlighted by Allah SWT. As healthcare workers, we are accustomed to the concept of delayed gratification wherein we have to put in a lot of effort upstream even when the results are not readily accessible such as on the journey to becoming a physician.

Somewhere along the line with a worldview that is not anchored in the Qur’an, this can get lost in translation and we start to nurture our nafs (the lower self) with a focus on the financial gains, the reputational benefits and other similar attractions.

The Qur’an offers a broader view that focuses on success in the hereafter and helps us frame our long and often irregular work commitments and other related sacrifices in this context fostering a healthier mental framework to deal with what ordinarily could translate into moments of sadness, feelings of guilt or loss or even anxiety about not fulfilling our duties to our  Lord or even to our families and other close associates where a tension exists.  

Consider the opening questions as a thought experiment for you and I to reappraise where we are today? Are we serving on the frontlines of healthcare with an ego-centric default or are we aspiring to a Quranic worldview that calls us to serve in pursuit of the pleasure of Allah without missing out on the rewards of service in this life? 

May Allah SWT make us from among the people of the Qur’an and allow us to reach Laylatul Qadr. Amin

Sincerely,

Sulyman

P.S. Join like-hearted #HealthCareWorkers on Zoom every Thursday this Ramadan for weekly check-ins at 4.15pm CST/9.15pm GMT/10.15pm WAT . Register and join with this link.

P.P.S. Please share your thought about this with me and others in the comments section or reply to [email protected]

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