The basics of life | Pretty basic

Bismillah.

I noticed and learned something about doctors from my recent meetings with one GP, one consultant neurologist, one dentist, another GP, and a doctor friend who is doing housemanship at a local government hospital - all within 10 days. That's like one doctor every two days - pretty intense. [Thank God, I broke up with one consultant surgeon or life would have become too sterile and clinical...heh...heh]

Anyway, doctors - we truly admire their dedication, commitment and patience, don't we? If we were to rank their good attributes, patience would come first. Imagine the sacrifices they have had to make, the many years of study and after all the hardships at uni, they have to face even greater challenges in handling hundreds of patients weekly. They work around the clock and oftentimes their patients can be pretty dumb about the basics of good health (that's me). If I were them I would have been mad when patients need to be reminded about simple things. I mean, common, they have had to study medicine like crazy but all the patients need to be told are pretty basic like: "Please don't forget to brush your gum too. Hold your toothbrush at 45 degree angle." Oh my, at my age I still need such a reminder and the dentist actually spoke so calmly and patiently! Imagine she might have to repeat the same advice to each of her patient day in day out!

Some basic advice we often hear from our doctors: please find time to exercise, please drink lots of water, please get enough rest and please watch your diet. God bless them!

But generally speaking, we tend to complicate life when life or religion for that matter actually involves simple basic things like cleanliness, good characters, simplicity and so on.

So one simple advice I shall give to myself and all of you out there: stick to the basics. Basic things are all we need, though we often take them for granted.

I'll be volunteering for my alma mater at an Education Fair in KL. I have been thinking hard about what I should tell prospective students. Then I realized what I learned in uni was pretty basic. I learned only two things: to have an eye for detail and to keep checking/correcting my work.

Why not, the next time you visit your doctors, surprise them by asking what were the two most basic things they learned in medical school. They might say: perseverance and patience.

Have a healthy weekend y'all!

Ustaz Don Daniyal gave a tausiyah at Majlis Ta'lim Darul Murtadza last Friday night. He related a story about an Arab Bedouin who gatecrashed one of the Prophet's majlis. He brought a dhob (monitor lizard) with him and confessed to the Prophet that he [pbuh] was the only person whom he hated the most and that if his dhob were to accept Islam, he would too. And so by the miracles exhibited by the Prophet, the dhob did miraculously speak up and proclaim shahadah. Upon accepting Islam, the Arab Bedouin asked what he should do as a Muslim. The Prophet said: 'Your Islam may not be acceptable unless you pray, and your prayers will not be acceptable unless you recite the Qur'an.' The Prophet in his wisdom then taught the Arab Bedouin Surah al-Ikhlas.

Ustaz Don said, we would have been tempted to teach a new convert plenty of things, like teaching a lengthy surah e.g. Al-Baqarah, this and that, but the Prophet kept it simple. We also have the tendency to tell people don't do this, don't do that, focusing on the restrictions [nahi munkar] but we often forget to encourage and invite people to do good.

Allahu a'lam. That much I could share from the majlis at Masjid Mu'az bin Jabal yesterday evening.