Learning from the sick


My vacation in Indonesia with my family this year is more filled with accompanying my mother and mother-in-law who are sick and mourning relatives who have died. Alhamdulillah, with the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, it allows me to ponder the meaning of life. Trial of life that is always present in human life, like sickness, losing a loved one, fear and hunger, must be endured with a pure heart and sincerity.

When I brought my mother to the doctor, there was an interesting event in the hospital waiting room. As usual, there were many patients who had been sitting waiting for their turn. Due to the length of waiting time for the doctor, who had not come yet because she had a meeting, I could hear the conversation between two cancer patients near me, a middle-aged mother and a teenager. Both had been undergoing chemotherapy. They told each other about the side effects of chemo that they were going through. The middle-aged mother had apparently damaged the nails of her fingers and toes due to the chemo, while the teenager’s suffering was the emergence of brown dots on her skin and hair loss. What I applaud was how both could talk about the severe illness that they were suffering positively, accepting  accepting Divine destiny, without complaining.

There was even a man aged 80 who came for treatment from outside the city using the public bus unaccompanied by relatives. According to the doctor who treated my mother, the man used to be more regular in his treatment, when the medication was still under insurance coverage. Maybe he came from a poor family.

The wisdom I learned is to always think well of Allah SWT. Pain is a form of Allah’s loving care, so we must always remember his blessings when we are healthy. We must always pray to Allah, begging for forgiveness for the sins we have done in the past. Even my ustadzah said, to even have a smell of heaven, a sick man/woman should not be complaining, always be patient to the point of even the people around him/her do not know his/her pain. Worship Allah SWT and do good as much as possible before we are old and sick, and spend your wealth in the name of Allah SWT as much as possible before falling into poverty.

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