Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

altmuslim

Home
Muslim
If You Have Your Health, You Have the World

If You Have Your Health, You Have the World

Last updated on: June 14, 2017 at 4:15 pm by Guest Contributor

If You Have Your Health, You Have the World 2017-06-14T16:15:07-04:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Image source: Pixabay

This is Day 19 of the 2017 #30Days30Writers Ramadan series – June 14, 2017

By Jalal Baig

My recent Ramadans have largely been spent in hospitals. The toil and interminable hours of residency and fellowship training precluded little else. And so, the timings for sunrise and sunset were lost in the blur of my daily routine: Appeasing angry nurses, suppressing temptations to cast stones at my pager (whose constant ringing appeared to be a sign of possession by Shaytan (Satan) and perfecting patients’ constipation regimens.

But reminders of Ramadan and my starvation always remained. This happened any time I would open my mouth to release a noxious “fasting breath” and then would frantically improvise ways to lessen its pungency. The refried and excessively salted swill being served in the hospital cafeteria only increased my longing for the samosas, fruit chaats (sweet and spicy fruit salad) and other South Asian gluttony that I had forgone.

While the struggles above were real, they were subsidiary to everything else I was experiencing at the time. For it was in these Ramadan days that I found myself witnessing unabated human suffering in the intensive care unit (ICU) and in the cancer wards. Though I had worked in these parts of the hospital before, Ramadan had encouraged a greater curiosity and sensitivity within me about the onslaught of death on life occurring daily in the rooms of my patients. It all became my intimate education on why good health is the marrow of life.

I still remember the page that summoned me down to the emergency room to see Karen. As with most patients requiring admission to the ICU, I expected to find an elderly individual whose fragile, tenuous health had taken a steep descent. Yet who I found was an unconscious 22-year-old woman with a breathing tube in her mouth and multiple IVs piercing her arms to pump in fluids and medications for blood pressure support. Karen’s life was being artificially sustained.

Her friends stood hysterically outside the room as I tried to piece Karen’s history together through their words. Previously healthy, she had collapsed suddenly while attending a party with friends. CPR had been initiated immediately after her friend couldn’t feel a pulse, and 911 was called. Though a pulse inevitably returned after protracted resuscitation efforts, Karen remained unresponsive with unstable vital signs.

No explanation for her condition readily revealed itself despite exhaustive testing with modern medicine’s best tools. Nor was it possible to quantify then how much brain damage Karen had endured in the time she was pulseless. She was the archetype of the human body’s fallibility and how quickly it could go irrevocably awry.

Not much would change in the coming days. Karen’s residual brain function increasingly seemed incapable of supporting her breathing let alone a meaningful life. The tenor of the conversation surrounding her care thus changed from one of optimism to resignation and despair.

On the day her family decided to withdraw all life support, Karen’s room teemed with friends who shed tears not only for the loss of a young, unfulfilled life but also the loss of all hopes they had harbored for her. The sudden loss of good health had toppled all the plans.

Though there is temptation to ascribe Karen’s story as extreme and improbable, other examples of her fate were routinely found around the hospital. The only thing that differed from patient to patient was the disease responsible. Sometimes it was a crippling cancer that had furtively spread diffusely, a nondescript headache from an aneurysm that had ruptured or an autoimmune condition that had stirred chaos throughout the body.

Illness can unexpectedly enter the stage while many are still scripting or pursuing their grand plans for life.

It is reported that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “Whoever among you wakes up … healthy in his body … it is as if he were given the entire world.”

These words are a reminder of why good health enables and permits all else. Without it, our aspirations, both lofty and mundane, unravel. In these dwindling days of Ramadan, let’s appreciate our good health for the blessing it is instead of an assumption we sometimes wrongfully make.

It’s something I never appreciated in the past despite a medical school education and my daily interaction with the fragility of human life in the hospital. I only wish that this valuable lesson about life wasn’t learnt from the patients who had very little of it left.

Jalal Baig is a physician and writer. He is currently a hematology/oncology fellow at University of Illinois Hospital–Chicago. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, the Guardian, Slate, Salon, Public Radio International and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter @jalalbaig.

30 Days 30 Writers 2017

Previous Post

June 13, 2017

Not the Perfect Life, but a Reflection of Allah's Perfect Plan

Next Post

June 15, 2017 How American Sunni/Shi'a Muslims Can Help Combat Political 'Sectarianism'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am a small member of the body, yet I boast great things. I am a fire, a world of iniquity. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The heart The tongue The hand The eye