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Telling a person when he will die approximately

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Telling a person when he will die approximately
sal
06/23/05 at 16:42:44
[slm]Doctors in the west usually tell when the sick has no more hope to live such as cancer disease
In the Arab and Islam world they don’t do that and still give hope even if the case technically shows the chance of cure is 0%
Well regardless of the religion side that no one knows when a person will die but if the doctor from the scientific sense feels there is no hope where he can be in the safe side of not entering into a sin of specifying approximate time of death by saying to the patient
“Your case is difficult to cure unless by miracle of Allah “ definitely this message is clear to the sick what the doctor wants to say
Which way do you see is fair? Knowing the truth or hidden?
Death and Dying
pearl
06/23/05 at 22:12:48
[slm]

It would be terrible to tell a patient "there's no hope"!  InshaAllah, none of us will ever hear a doctor say that!

But, saying "there's no hope" is very different from acknowledging that the patient is dying or has a condition that usually causes death within a certain time frame. Actually, even if doctors and relatives try to conceal it, the dying person usually figures it out anyway.

If a condition is statistically likely to cause death within a certain period, it seems fair to let the patient know.  Of course, it can't be presented as an ironclad prediction; and there are plenty people who outlive their doctors' expectations by many years.  Then, too, the person with a fatal condition might be felled by something unrelated to their condition.

But, if a doctor says, "Most people with your condition die within XXX amount of time"... that could be a signal to the patient to get their affairs (spiritual and worldly) in order.

Dying is not "hopeless."   What's worse?  Preparing for death with prayer and reflection, or pretending that the inevitable isn't really happening?

Pearl
when there is no hope
timbuktu
06/24/05 at 00:25:43
[slm] my nephew was diagnosed with leukaemia just one year before he died.

There were tests to find a bone-marrow donor, and a transplant in the US. He recovered for a while, but there was a relapse and then everyone (including my nephew) knew he didn't have much time to live.

I wasn't there, but I am told he was in high spirits and kept telling others to cheer up.

What must it feel like to be in the prime of your life, and not wanting death, yet knowing you are going to die soon.

A similar thing happened to my niece. She was administered an overdose of anaesthtic while undergoing an operation, and after that her condition went downhill, and she was much, much younger than my nephew. They had her on life-support, and she knew they had decided to remove that. Her mother said she looked terrified and longingly at her, trying to motion for her to stay, but my brother and sister-in-law were ordered out of the room, and they removed life-support.

She knew, and what she must have gone through, at 14 years of age! She didn't want to die.

I guess I have some personal experience of what you have said, and I took a wrong decision, yet Allah brought kheir out of my wrong decision..

Although from my example you would say one shouldn't be told what is going to happen, but I think one needs to be told. Only there should be extensive psychological and religious counselling together with the bad news.
Re: Telling a person when he will die approximatel
Desert_Flower
09/14/05 at 09:01:01
[slm]

my opinion is, that it is always better to tell that ill person the truth. I know it is hard, but I can only speak for myself, because 11 months ago, my fiancee died within 6 months of lung cancer. When we found out that he was ill, the doctors pretended, that there was a good chance of getting his illness under control, but it was a lie.They knew all along that  a prognosis like that would mean max. another 6 months. We thought he would have at least 1 or 2 more years to live.

Believe me, if we both had known, that he would only live 6 more months from diagnosis, we would have done things like getting married because I still love him very much, and I miss him so much too, organizing his things at work... but al-hamdu lillah, I made a lot of Duas and read daily Quran for him till today, which helped very much al-hamdu lillah. Allah (t) answered all my prayers, he was very merciful.
Anyway, it is better to use the last days on earth in prayer and asking God for forgiveness and everything that is important for one???!!! We only have this chance on earth, USE IT and "tawakal" on Allah !!!
Salam,
a sister from Germany :-)


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