Lesson 13 – Halal Earnings Or Eternal Burning?

Rabi Al-Awwal 5, 1431

“In fact those who earn by wicked ways then their wrongdoing are ever around them, all such people will be companions of Fire, in there they will live.”

Surah Al-Baqarah (Surah 2), verse 81

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I’m fortunate enough to be working with a doctor who’s adamant on correcting the world. His subspecialty in that is making sure nobody gets the extra cut he/she’s ploying at the expense of the patients. Different hospitals/ clinics/ doctors have different things to say about a certain condition and that’s fine as long as there aren’t unnecessary (read: pricey) scans and tests and operations involved… But they are! They so are! So often! It’s a shame people in the profession of medicine are ready to scam patients who really don’t know any better. (Note how I said people in the profession of medicine, not doctors; because doctors live by an oath and these people live by moolah, if nothing else.)

Say, if I told you Pakistan is going to the dogs and you rebut with, “Nooo, we have Zardari,” does it change things? It doesn’t and you’re right, this has nothing to do with the current post. <insert smiley with the tongue out>

My consultant gave us an example that explains the concept of most of the current practice of medicine today: If there were an elephant behind the door you were pushing, can you do anything about it? No. Until you moved the elephant. So, sure you can get somebody to break down a wall and make you another door for you to exit, but the elephant still remains, right? The doctors who choose to practice this way are either being negligent or working actively for an exotic vacation they couldn’t afford otherwise

So if I were to count how many hurdles a patient has to cross unknowingly in terms of monetary gains (for others) and losses (for our hero of a patient), I’ll be embarrassed for where the Muslims are headed. 😦

Coming back to this verse, there are a couple of things to note here:

• Getting an illegal, unethical cut is considered such a slight sin by most; people think of it as a means to survive in these difficult times and while I haven’t seen difficult time in its face I know it’ll always be wrong in my books. How can cheating and manipulating somebody right under his nose ever settle with you? This is why I absolutely love reading the word “wicked” for something considered so minor in our times by a majority. Drives home the point very well for me.
• All will be companions of Fire. Yaayy party! A hot party… W00t!
• When your finger (average 4 square cm) touches a hot pan accidentally, you shout out and rush to get something cold (or a toothpaste, there you go, I just fit in a tip there!) and you spend a good ten minutes just trying to numb the burn; for the next few days, it keeps smarting and you have a vexing awareness of a finger that you once took for granted. Now multiply that by 4325 (17300 square cm/ 4 square cm) to get your average BSA. Basically what I’m saying is, imagine that heat on every last bit of your body, imagine the frustration and the screams. Now the real cherry is to imagine LIVING in that fire, no you can’t die and just end the anguish once and for all. No, you must LIVE with your friends who used all possible means to earn and earn some more in this life. Live in that fire, day in, day out; your skin melts before your melting eyes, your nerves are shouting on their own, your whole life runs before your eyes over and over, you finally realize how worthless that 10% cut was to you… but you must continue to live that life, oh you must!
  It’s hard, but not impossible, to imagine a scene like that but you must – it should be a constant reminder in these times, when living it up is so important that everything else including morals seem to fade away.