The old adage, 'It takes a criminal to understand a criminal' may be true to a certain extend as they should know better how the brain mechanism works in those 'criminal' minds. But that does not mean that someone of religious background cannot be compassionate to them. Only the other day I comented on Crimsonskye's blog that I find a stark contrast between christian missionaries and muslim dhaie ( this is just a generalisation- may not be true always) whereby the christian missionaries are more approachable and less prejudiced. This goes to show that people with strong religious hold can and should be able to treat drug addicts/ criminals as well if not better. In fact as a muslim doctor, we are at an advantage as we have the Quran and sunnah to help us deal with the addicts.
There is the story of the king who has 2 servants, one who makes a lot of mistakes but is always aware of them and always repentant and the other servant is perfect and is proud. Guess which one the King likes best?
You could say the proud servant is a zealot.
The difference is one of religiousness which focuses on the mercy and compassion aspects of God and the relgiousness which focuses on the punishment aspect of God. There are Quranic verses and Hadith which point out the the Mercy of God far exceeds his punishment but many are focussed on punishment rather than mercy.
It helps when we view sinners as people with potential for a lot of good. And we view their temporary state of being caught in self destructive behavior as a stage they are passing through and we can then see our role in giving them our helping hand.
Remember story about the murderer who went up to a Shaikh and asked if he could be saved even though he had killed 99 people? The Shaikh became the 100th person he killed when the Shaikh replied he was a goner. He went to another Shaikh who then told him to go to a town of very good people and live there to get salvation. He died on the way and the angels fought over him to bring him to heaven/hell and brought their case to God who told them to measure the distance he was from the city.He was more than halfway there..and the angel in charge of heaven won the dispute over his soul. ..I can t quite remember the origin of this story but I think it is a hadith and was told by the Prophet to bring home the message of God's mercy.
Also as regards Muslim Daie:
Muslims daie instead of focusing on Muslims, they have to realise their role as Khalifah of the Universe and also they have yet to realise that Muhammand is Rahmatan Lil Alamin, ie a Blessing for all Creation, not a blessing for all Muslims.( Mind you this is a very huge blanket statement that is sometimes not true so take it with a pinch of salt and don 't mind me)
3 comments:
Alhamdulillah for this well thought entry.
Just to share with you. A colleague here deals with drug addicts but he is no psychiatrist. He gives them Surbutex but now to another drug (forgot what it is). He also gives them basic motivation classes on and off I think. During a meeting he once made this statement which stuck to my mind till this day (till I read your entry that is): 'once a drug addict, always a drug addict'.
I read this particular entry from this guy's blog http://www.aisehman.org/archives/2005/09/muffled_mufti.html
his second last statement shares your sentiment here :) :
As long as there is life, there is hope. Of repentence. Of forgiveness. And of mercy.
Once a drug addict..
Your friend is right . A drug addict has changes in his brain that he has to live with all his life. He will always have the addictive personality and will relapse even if he had been free of drugs for 20 years given the right amount of circumstances. In understanding this, a drug addict remains humbly aware of being *helped* by a higher power, namely God...
Applying this to the rest of humanity....we are all in some way or another vulnerable to things we a re prone to , tempation is always with us...what prevents us is.....
Post a Comment