I Am Studying Medicine, Due To Which Interacting With Males Is Unavoidable. Please Advise

[ummtaalib]

I am studying medicine, due to which interacting with males is unavoidable. Please advise

 

Question:

I am a 4^th year female studying medicine. From this year onward, the teaching is primarily practical training which requires us to work in hospitals. My aim once I finish studying Insha Allah is to work with female patients only. When going to the hospitals now, I try to avoid working with male patients and interact with females only. However, this is not always possible. Could you please advise regarding the above.

 

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

 

We appreciate your query to us. We understand you were motivated by your consciousness of Dīn and religious duties to seek guidance on Dīn.

 

Our duty as the deputies of Allāh and His Rasūl is to present Dīn to you as is. Surely, it is also what you expect from us. In our response, we only seek and wish well for your Dīn and eternity.

Allāh Ta’ālā states in the Holy Qurān:

وَقَرْنَ فِي بُيُوتِكُنَّ (سورة الأحزاب، رقم الاية 33)

And remain in your homes. (Quran 33: 33)

From this verse, it is understood that the temperament of Sharīah is that a female should confine herself to her home. In this age of shamelessness, the reason for women being in their homes is more understandable.

 

However, Sharīah takes into consideration circumstances and practical realities and difficulties. Accordingly, a woman may emerge from her house due to need and necessity as defined in Sharīah. If a woman has no one to maintain her and she has no means of income, she may leave her home to earn an income. This is based on the following maxim:

 

الضرورات تبيح المحظورات (الأشباه والنظائر)

Necessity relaxes prohibition (al-Ashbāh wan-Nadhāir)

Such a relaxation comes with strict conditions. The absence of the conditions will cancel the leniency and the prohibition will remain for example, a woman has a source of income or she is maintained by her father or husband etc.[1]

You state that you wish to pursue medicine so that you may treat only female patients. Indeed this is a virtuous act. However, one faces challenges to one’s Imān and chastity in a university or co-ed environment which contaminates one’s virtuous intentions.

In any case, you have already started medical studies and are currently in the 4^th year of studies. You state that in the near future, you are required to undergo practical training in hospitals. During this process, you may have to come in contact with male patients as well.

 

If you cannot secure any leniency in interacting with males, then do so only to the extent of necessity. Avoid all unnecessary contact with males. Keep the conversations limited to only what is required for your training. Make lots of Tawbah and Istighfār on a daily basis for being in such an environment where your Imān, values and character risk being contaminated.

 

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

 

Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.

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