On Monday, Muslims will celebrate the new hijrah year of 1422. Hijrah denotes the migration of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. There were several reasons for this move. The Prophet had just lost his uncle Abu Talib and wife Siti Khadijah, who were his staunch supporters and protectors. This led to the Quraisy clan of Mecca becoming more hostile.
They were also daring in their showing of hatred towards Islam, to the extent of threatening to assassinate the Prophet. Realising that his life was in danger, Prophet Muhammad successfully negotiated an agreement with a clan from Medina, the Bani Najjar.
The clan, being a relative of his grandfather Abdul Muttalib, ensured him personal protection if he had to migrate to Medina.
At the same time, the number of the indigenous Medina population who converted to Islam was increasing rapidly. The new Muslims began to urge Prophet Muhammad to hasten his trip to their city.
They wanted to be close to the Prophet so that they could seek his guidance at any time. They were truly in need of assistance for spiritual fulfilment.
Prophet Muhammad was also looking for a suitable place to continue to propagate Islam. He felt that he would have a better chance of success doing that by making the city of Medina his base.
But, most of all, the migration was an instruction from God the Almighty. Although he was under tremendous pressure to leave, through numerous requests by his followers, including his closest companion Abu Bakar, Prophet Muhammad stood his ground.
He was finally given the divine inspiration to leave at the time when the Quraisy had assembled a group of young warriors from the different tribes, with the instruction to bar Prophet Muhammad from leaving Mecca even if they had to kill him.
Today, we are told that they is no hijrah after the Prophet’s hijrah. However, hijrah as a concept does offer an opportunity for Muslims to re-live the spirit of Prophet Muhammad’s struggle.
The first lesson is that one must migrate in order to escape oppression and persecution to a place where one can live in peace and security, and try to set up a community where God is worshipped.
However, one should not move from a place of relative calm, freedom and prosperity, where God’s teaching is sanctified, to one that is chaotic and unable to truly manifest the benefits of subscribing to the faith of the Almighty.
It would also be against the spirit of hijrah to instigate violence, destroy peace, jeopardise security and, worst of all, undo the various accomplishments in putting God’s religion in its proper place.
Second, hijrah becomes a binding duty upon every Muslim capable of undertaking it, should any group of Muslims anywhere in the world be subjected to aggression or oppression.
The Quran states that Muslims everywhere are brethren and protectors of each other. “The believers, men and women, are protectors – one of another. They enjoin what is just, and forbid what is evil. They observe regular prayers, practise regular charity and obey God and His Messenger. On them will God pour His mercy, for God is exalted in power and wise” (verse 71 of Surah at-Taubah).
A pertinent but rather subtle example of this is the recent visit to Iraq by a group of Malaysians, led by officials of the Ministry of Health. The country is facing sanctions imposed by the United Nations.
Many must have seen on television the appalling pictures of how the people of Iraq are suffering from the sanctions. The worst affected groups are probably the children and women.
No doubt many are dying unnecessarily due to infections and complications arising from lack of basic medication.
No doubt too, that these victims could have been successfully treated had they been citizens of a developed country, or even Iraq in the pre-UN sanctions era.
Given the sad state of affairs of the Iraqi medical and health sectors which in turn contribute to below par service to the people, it has become an obligation on other Muslims to come to their aid, even if they live outside Iraq.
Thus, it can be inferred that the team that visited Iraq this week to initiate co-operation in health-related areas like hospital management, preventive healthcare, pharmaceutical supply and professional training, has indeed performed hijrah.
Similarly, Malaysian medical personnel who volunteer to help those in disaster areas are actually reliving the spirit of hijrah. The lesson to be gleaned from hijrah is that there must be a constant effort to move from the present position to a higher one. In the management field, this is sometimes referred to as kaizen.
Kaizen pushes one to continually improve one’s performance, both by increasing the quality of one’s work and reduce waste and inefficiency.
Again, to show how the spirit of hijrah that is akin to kaizen has been inculcated in this country, we refer to the healthcare sector.
Since independence, numerous programmes undertaken by various agencies especially the Health Ministry, to enhance the health status of the population.
Indicators have provided ample evidence for this. The crude death rate decreased by more than two-fold between 1957 and 2000, that is from 10.6 to 4.4 per thousand people.
In the period between 1957 and 1998, infant and toddler death rates per thousand also eased from 73 to 8.1 and from 8.9 to 0.7, respectively.
The death rate during delivery, too, has been significantly reduced, from 0.28 per cent in 1959 to 0.03 per cent. This figure is almost comparable to that of developed countries.
Due to a commendable ante-natal care service, more than 90 per cent of newborn babies in this country attain at least the minimum healthy weight of 2.5kg.
Life expectancy has also improved since the 1950s. Today, a baby boy can expect to live for 70.2 years and a girl, 75 years. All these indicators are examples of how the spirit of hijrah has been translated into action.
Apart from medical service, medical personnel within our health care system have also managed to uplift their expertise to be at par with the world’s best.
In the field of anaesthesiology, for example, great strides have been made over the past few decades. This is both true in terms of professional competency and infrastructural development.
Malaysian hospitals are equipped with up-to-date anaesthetic equipment. Local universities offer post-graduate courses in anaesthesiology, so much so that overseas training at this level has become relatively dispensable.
The Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists and its sister organisation the Chapter of Anaesthesiologists of the Academy of Medicine are two of the most active professional bodies to conduct or facilitate scientific meetings, and formulate guidelines for good patient care.
And many may not have known, that until recently a Malaysian doctor was the President of World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists.