"Blessed is He in whose hands is the domain, and He has power over all things, who has created life and death that He can test who is best in conduct. He is oft forgiving and almighty."

Qur'an 67:1-2

Nineteenth-Century Persian Anatomical Study

This verse of the Qur'an can serve as a theme for all who discuss self-discovery in the light of Sufi tradition. The Sufi path is a path of self-discovery and discovery of our creator. On this journey we encounter many who are loved by God or who love God. We have to give them love unconditionally only for the love of God.

Discovering God
Although I was born into a Muslim family and knew Islamic rituals, I did not discover God until I started to reflect upon His creation, especially the human body. At age nineteen, as I dissected cadavers in medical school, looking at the arrangements and purpose of bone, nerves, vessels, organs and their interconnection and function, it began to impress me that this machine could not have created itself. I was reading the human body as a book, trying to locate the author. I appreciated the masterpiece painting and asked: Where is the artist? The Muslim poet and philosopher Iqbal writes:

If you are looking for mysteries of life, look into yourself. You will find Me, when you find yourself.

Once I found God by reason, I wanted to know more about Him and asked myself: What does God want me to do? What aspects of my life does He influence? Is God "up there," leaving me to run around on earth while He waits in the house like a father to reward or punish me when I come home?

Thus I started to study the Qur'an and reflect. If a Muslim is to get the true message from the Qur'an, he must study it as a personal message. Although the Qur'an was revealed to the prophet Mohammed, Muslims feel that God is addressing us individually. One night during Ramadan, I came upon this verse:

O Mankind! It is you who is needy of God, and it is God who is above all needs. (Qur'an 35:15)

I could not read further as tears came to my eyes, reflecting on how much I have been dependent on God since my conception up to the present moment.

I realized that God not only created me, but He sustains me as well. He guides me through my journey on this planet, and, upon return to Him, I will have to give an account of how I conducted myself. When I read the Qur'an, the purposes of creation revealed to me are three: (1) to be viceregent of God on earth, that is, to carry out God's mission and establish His laws; (2) to worship God in a broader sense, not only by performing the ritual, but also by taking care of human beings as well as the environment in which we live; (3) to do good for self and others, and avoid wrong.

Through my experience as a physician, other things affected me and my beliefs.

Observing Death
It was fascinating to watch a fellow human being die—the separation of soul and body, the loss of communication with the body that I knew, the helplessness of the caregiver, the return of the body to its origin (humankind was created from clay), praying to someone whom we have not seen to take care of this body in the next life. Then when I returned to the Qur'an and reflected, these verses came to mind:

Every soul must taste death. (Qur'an 2:35)

How can you reject the faith in God, seeing that you were without life and He gave you life; then He will cause you to die and will again bring you to life and again to Him will you return. (Qur'an 2:28)

Thus the phenomenon of death reinforced what the Qur'an said and my belief. I also observed that believers died more peacefully, and I could postulate as an endocrinologist that they produced less of the stress hormones ACTH and adrenalin; and therefore more endorphins were released to take care of the pain of extraction of the soul from the body. Therefore, death was not as painful to them.

Biochemically, I could understand the process of dying from the couplet of the poet Ghalib: "Life is nothing but arrangements of elements in a certain order, and death is disturbing that arrangement."

Power of Prayer
After using all the necessary medicines, I found that patients' responses were not all the same. In some, the medicine worked, and in some it did not. Therefore, like a combination antibiotic or combination chemotherapy, I started to add prayer to my patients' treatment regimen, Muslims as well as non-Muslims. I never told them that I was praying, but after giving them medicine, I prayed for them by name, asking God to make my medicine effective, comfort their pain, and give each one healing through his or her own power of healing. I observed that this practice worked, but I do not know how.

In the Qur'an, God says, "Call upon me, I hear the prayer of every supplicant. So let him respond to my call" (Qur'an 2:186). My patients did not know that I was praying for them, but they kept coming back after becoming well to thank me. They should have thanked God.

Finally, how do my faith and Sufi practices affect my medical decisions? A Sufi seeks God's pleasure and fears His displeasure. This contentment of being an instrument of God is a divine feeling. I know it when I am rewarded. When my patients get better, or even after the death of an incurable patient, her family comes to thank me for the care I gave her. Islam and Sufism have made me a better human and a better physician.

At the beginning of the day in my clinic, I offer the following dua, or prayer:

Praise be to God.

The Creator of the Universe

Who taught us: "Whoever saves a human life, has saved the life of all mankind." (Qur'an 5:32)

Give us the knowledge, the skills, and the will to serve fellow humans.

Give us the wisdom to comfort and console all toward peace and harmony.

Help us alleviate human sufferings.

Give us the strength to admit our mistakes, amend our ways, and forgive others.

Give us the devotion to serve the poor, the hungry, the destitute, and homeless with honor, love, dignity, and piety, with patience and tolerance, with knowledge and vigilance, with thy love in our hearts, compassion for thy servants, and desire for thy mercy for all those who are instruments of thy healing. Amen.