Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 52
52 MALFŪZĀT - ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF URDU VOLUME 8 27 OCTOBER 1905 (After the Friday Prayer, in Delhi) Benefit from Every System of Medicine Some maulawīs and some medical students and doctors from a med- ical school came. The topic of medicine came up during the conversa- tion. The Promised Messiahas said: A Muslim should not be averse to Western medicine. الْحِكْمَةُ ضَالَّةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ A word of wisdom is the property of a believer; it was lost and came into the possession of someone else, so seize it immediately wherever it is found. By this, my intent is not that I endorse the medical profes- sion, but I only mean that in accord with the hadith, a person should take that which is beneficial from wherever it is found. Hindi, Japanese, Greek, and English-benefit should be drawn from every system of medicine, and one should fulfil the mean- ing of this couplet: زہر خرمنے خوشہ یافتم I also derived benefit from countries far away, تمتع زہر گوشه And took a cluster from every heaped-up harvest. Only then does one become a proficient physician. Physicians have obtained prescriptions from women as well. 1. The complete text of the hadith is: كَلِمَةُ الْحِكْمَةِ ضَالَّةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ فَحَيْثُ مَا وَجَدَهَا فَهُوَ أَحَقُّ بِهَا which means word of wisdom is the lost property of the believer; he takes it wherever he finds it. [Publisher]