On Kindness, Compassion, and Trust

When learning about the attributes and qualities that differentiate an exceptional doctor from an average one, certain words often tend to be mentioned: empathy, patience, honesty, conscientiousness, and phronesis. The three that I found most notable were kindness, compassion and trust. I am told that the doctor who is kind, compassionate, and trusted is the doctor who stands out rather than the one who is simply more technically knowledgeable. And I find myself agreeing with the notion, but at the same time struggling to define exactly what these characteristics are beyond a vague sense of altruism, and questioning whether I had them or not. In researching these 3 for my own interest (and year 1 essay), I was reminded of various ahadith that I would like to share in this article bi’ithnillah, and also a reflection on implementation of belief.

Kindness and compassion are two similar attributes and are certainly related, but there is a slight difference. Beginning with kindness, it can be defined as the quality of being generous, helpful, and caring about other people. This is obviously an important virtue in patient care, but to a Muslim there is further beauty in it.

The Prophet peace be upon him said,

‘Show gentleness, for if gentleness is found in anything, it beautifies it and when it is taken out from anything it damages it.’ - Sunan Abi Dawud 4808.

It is gentleness that underpins how an interaction between two people is seen by the other, and causes interactions with doctors to be seen as something of beauty and in a more positive light.

Compassion can be broadly defined as an emotion or feeling induced by witnessing another person’s distress or suffering, motivating a desire to alleviate their hardship. I first found this definition when writing an essay over a year ago, and it reminded me of a hadith where the Prophet peace be upon him said,

“None of you (truly) believes until he loves for his brother that which he loves for himself.”- Al-Bukhari 13.

I found this hadith particularly profound in the importance placed on this virtue beyond being a good professional. It isn’t just encouraged as a periphery, but instead is a central mark of faith and belief itself.

Trust is an element of the doctor-patient relationship that gives intrinsic significance to the doctor-patient relationship. Intrinsically, it gives the doctor-patient relationship its uniqueness - that a patient arrives in a state of ill health and vulnerability and has to place trust in the doctor to alleviate that. It is an expectation that the other person will behave in a way that is beneficial or at least not harmful. I believe that this definition of trust is important in the wider community relationship with the doctor too; Rudolf Virchow said, “The physician is the natural attorney of the poor”, for the physician to fulfil this role, there must be an element of trust in the relationship. The reason why I draw attention to this is because of a worrying trend of misinformation I see within the muslim community. From vaccine hesitancy to doctors being murderers by profession to camel milk curing autism, there are all sorts of beliefs stemming from a distrust in modern medicine. The falsehood being spread and the schism that has caused it is our duty to repair as muslims who have knowledge of medicine. Allah tells us in Surah Al-Imran, ayah 103: 

وَٱعْتَصِمُوا۟ بِحَبْلِ ٱللَّهِ جَمِيعًۭا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا۟  

“And hold firmly together to the rope of Allah and do not be divided”

I think this is particularly relevant to this situation- we must not allow division to cause harmful misinformation to worsen health.

Reflecting on these 3 virtues, I was slightly confused. They seemed common enough, especially among medics, so how is it that these attributes are what make a doctor good compared to mediocre? This implies that the issue is the application of what people already believe, rather than changing their beliefs to introduce these 3 virtues. We do believe kindness, compassion, and trust are virtues that a good doctor should have, and that they are encouraged and rewarded in Islam, but we take for granted the effort required to apply them. This difference, between knowing something and doing something, is warned against in the Quran, in the 2nd and 3rd ayat of Surah As-Saf:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لِمَ تَقُولُونَ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ

“O believers! Why do you say what you do not do?”

كَبُرَ مَقْتًا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَن تَقُولُوا۟ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ

“How despicable it is in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do!”. 

Although for many I don’t think it is a conscious decision not to practice what we believe, it's a reminder that knowledge is nothing without action. May Allah allow us to better our character and to purify our intentions

Barakallahu feekum

- Abdulsattar Hussain