We know a great deal about the heroes of this series. We know Rufaida’s tent beside the mosque of the Prophet ﷺ. We know the instruments az-Zahrāwī drew, and the lines Ibn Qayyim wrote about the medicine of the heart. We know how they lived, what they left behind, and why their names still shine today.
About the hero of this portrait we can write almost nothing. We do not know his year of birth. We do not know whether he works in a hospital, a practice, a nursing home, or a lecture hall. We do not even know whether it is a man or a woman.
Not because his story was forgotten. But because it is still being written. Anew every day.
Not by us. By you yourself.
Your deeds write it. Your movements of the hand, your words at the bedside, your thoughts, your intentions, your ideas. No biographer has to record them, for a record already exists, more precise than any archive: “Over you are keepers, noble scribes, who know what you do.”1
وَإِنَّ عَلَيْكُمْ لَحَـٰفِظِينَ كِرَامًا كَـٰتِبِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ
“Over you are keepers, noble scribes, who know what you do.”
Sūrat al-Infiṭār (82:10-12)
Remembrance cannot be manufactured
What will you be remembered for? The world has a quick answer: visibility. Titles, followers, positions, prizes. But true remembrance is not made. It is given.
The Prophet ﷺ reported:
إِذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ الْعَبْدَ نَادَى جِبْرِيلَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ فُلاَنًا فَأَحْبِبْهُ. فَيُحِبُّهُ جِبْرِيلُ، فَيُنَادِي جِبْرِيلُ فِي أَهْلِ السَّمَاءِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ فُلاَنًا فَأَحِبُّوهُ. فَيُحِبُّهُ أَهْلُ السَّمَاءِ، ثُمَّ يُوضَعُ لَهُ الْقَبُولُ فِي الأَرْضِ
When Allah loves a servant, He calls Jibrīl: “I love this person, so love him.” Jibrīl loves him and calls it out to the inhabitants of heaven, and they love him. Then acceptance is placed for him on earth.2
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3209 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2637
Standing can be bought. Acceptance in the hearts of people is placed there by Allah alone. It does not begin with a marketing strategy, but in heaven.
What remains
And when the last service has been rendered?
إِذَا مَاتَ الإِنْسَانُ انْقَطَعَ عَنْهُ عَمَلُهُ إِلاَّ مِنْ ثَلاَثَةٍ إِلاَّ مِنْ صَدَقَةٍ جَارِيَةٍ أَوْ عِلْمٍ يُنْتَفَعُ بِهِ أَوْ وَلَدٍ صَالِحٍ يَدْعُو لَهُ
“When a person dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: an ongoing charity, knowledge that brings benefit, or a righteous child who prays for him.”3
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1631
No title of chief physician appears on this list. No billing code, no career star. What appears on it is what you leave behind in people. The colleagues you have shaped, not only professionally, but in their bearing. The patients you stood up for when no one else did. The good knowledge that travels on through you, from heart to heart, from generation to generation. The institution you help to build. The person who, through you, finds the way back to his Lord. All of this keeps writing your portrait long after your hands have come to rest.
The question to you
Do you want to be remembered as the physician who earned the most, or as the one who treated with taqwā and sensitivity?
As the nurse with the most shifts, or as the one who found a place in the hearts of people?
As the psychologist with the fullest practice, or as the one who truly listened and helped from the heart?
The Prophet ﷺ said:
خَيْرُ النَّاسِ أَنْفَعُهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ
“The best of people is the one who is most beneficial to people.”4
aṭ-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿǧam al-Awsaṭ · Ṣaḥīḥ al-Ǧāmiʿ 3289
And he said:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ إِذَا عَمِلَ أَحَدُكُمْ عَمَلًا أَنْ يُتْقِنَهُ
“Allah loves that, when one of you does a work, he carries it out with perfection.”5
Abū Yaʿlā, Musnad · Ṣaḥīḥ al-Ǧāmiʿ 1880
Benefit and itqān: that is the measure. But not only for the dunya.
For it is not enough to be a good healthcare professional. The hero of this series heals in the light of Islamic legal guidance, examines his intention before he puts on the coat, and knows that he is a sabab, a means, while the Healer remains Allah. He stands up for the people entrusted to him, and he stands up for his dīn, with calm self-assurance, without hiding.
And he does not lose himself in the currents of our time. Not in a world that says: think of yourself first. Not in a system that turns the sick person into a number and service into a business. He knows these currents, but they do not carry him away. For his compass does not hang in the chief physician’s office. He carries it in his heart.
Your line
Every hero of this series carries a line beneath his name. “The first nurse of Islam.” “The service of the hand.” “Medicine as worship.”
Your line has not been written yet. But work on it is under way, in this very moment, with every decision you make.
Which line shall it be?
May Allah make us among those whose knowledge benefits, whose hands serve, and whose hearts are with Him. Āmīn.
This series is part of HAKIM Forgotten Heroes. We welcome feedback and suggestions: To the feedback form
The portrait you are writing
Twelve portraits of this series look back. This one looks at us. Remembrance does not arise from visibility, but from service: from intention, itqān, and benefit that Allah accepts and that lives on in people. For us at HAKIM this means: every movement of the hand at the bedside writes a biography that is recorded more precisely than in any archive.