In
Islam
,
nurses
provide
healthcare
services to patients, families and communities as a manifestation of love for
Allah
and
Muhammad
. The
nursing
profession is not new to
Islam
. Islamic traditions include sympathy for and responsibility toward those in need.
[1]
This perspective had emerged during the development of Islam as a
religion
,
culture
, and
civilization
.
Ethos of health care service
[
edit
]
In Islamic traditions, caring is the manifestation of love for Allah and Muhammad.
[1]
Caring in Islam, however, is more than the act of
empathy
; instead, it consists of being responsible for, sensitive to, and concerned with those in need, namely the weak, the suffering and the outcasts of society.
[1]
This act of caring is further divided into three principles: intention, thought, and action.
[1]
Intention and thought refer to who, what, where, when and why to care, whereas action is related to the knowledge necessary to be able to care.
[1]
In short,
health care
is deemed a
service
to the
patients
and to Allah, as opposed to other professions that are commercial.
[1]
This ethos was the fundamental motivating factor for the majority of the
doctors
and
nurses
in the
history of Islam
.
[1]
Approach to health care service
[
edit
]
Another aspect of Islamic health care service that distinguishes it from the contemporary Western
health care industry
is the holistic approach to health and wellbeing taken.
[1]
This holistic approach consists of both treating the organic basis of the ailments and providing spiritual support for the patient.
[1]
This spiritual component comes in the form of
Tawheed
(Oneness of Allah), a dimension lacking in current Western models of nursing and, thus, could pose as a challenge for application of this model of nursing to Muslim patients as it does not meet their holistic needs.
[1]
First Muslim nurse
[
edit
]
The first professional nurse in the history of Islam is a woman named Rufaidah bint Sa’ad, also known as
Rufaida Al-Aslamia
or Rufayda al-Aslamiyyah, who was born in 620 (est.) and lived at the time of Muhammed.
[2]
She hailed from the Bani Aslam tribe in
Medina
and was among the first people in Medina to accept Islam.
[3]
Rufaidah received her training and knowledge in
medicine
from her father, a
physician
, whom she assisted regularly.
[3]
At the time when Muhammed's early followers were engaged in war, she led a group of volunteer nurses to the
battlefield
to treat and care for the injured and dying. After the Muslim state was established in Medina, she was given permission by Muhammed to set up a tent outside the
mosque
to treat the ill and to train more Muslim women and girls as nurses.
[2]
[4]
Rufaidah is described as a woman possessing the qualities of an ideal nurse:
compassionate
, empathetic, a good leader and a great
teacher
. She is said to have provided health education to the community, helped the disadvantaged (like orphans and the disabled), advocated for preventative care, and even to have drafted the world’s first code of nursing ethics .
[2]
[3]
Nursing in hospitals
[
edit
]
In
hospitals
built in the Medieval Muslim society male nurses tended to male patients and female nurses to female patients.
[5]
The hospital in
Al-Qayrawan
(Kairouan in English) was especially unique among Muslim hospitals for several reasons. Built in 830 by the order of the Prince
Ziyadat Allah I of Ifriqiya
(817?838), the Al-Dimnah Hospital, constructed in the Dimnah region close to the great mosque of Al Qayrawan, was quite ahead of its time.
[6]
It had the innovation of having a
waiting area
for visitors, not to mention that the first official female nurses were hired from
Sudan
to work in this hospital.
[6]
Moreover, aside from regular physicians working there, a group of religious
imams
who also practiced medicine, called
Fugaha al-Badan
,
[6]
provided service as well, likely by tending the patients’ spiritual needs.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
G. Hussein, Rassool (2000), "The crescent and Islam: healing, nursing and the spiritual dimension. Some considerations towards an understanding of the Islamic perspectives on caring",
Journal of Advanced Nursing
,
32
(6): 1476?1484,
doi
:
10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01614.x
- ^
a
b
c
December 11, AISHA AWAISU; history, 2022 ? 10:56 pm Reply Click here to cancel reply It’s a break through we appreciate this type of (January 30, 2017).
"Many centuries before Florence Nightingale, this Muslim woman introduced nursing to the Arabic world"
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
Kasule, Omar Hasan
Sr. (November 1998)
9811 - Historical Roots of the Nursing Profession in Islam
Islamic Medical Education Resources
, retrieved January 3, 2012
Archived
April 26, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Kasule, Omar Hasan
Sr. (2008-05-17)
Historical Roots of the Nursing Profession in Islam
Islamic Medicines Forum
, retrieved April 26, 2010
Archived
July 13, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Syed, Ibrahim B.
Efficient Hospitals: Islamic Medicine’s Contribution to Modern Medicine
The Imam Reza Website
, retrieved April 26, 2010
- ^
a
b
c
Zaimeche, Salah (September 2004)
Al-Qayrawan (Tunisia)
Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization
, retrieved April 26, 2010