The Integration of Islamic Values in Daily Clinical Practice among Healthcare Professionals: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Islam is a major world religion that has a universal system encompassing every aspect of daily human activities. In this regard, Islam also provides principles and values related to the practice of medicine. However, it is not known how much of the practices have been practiced in daily clinical settings. Therefore, this paper aims to chart the overview of the studies and publications that have been done related to the integration of Islamic principles and values being incorporated in clinical practice. This paper is a scoping review. Databases like PubMed, PLOS, BMJ, Cochrane, EBSCo, Emerald, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and ACI were used to conduct the literature search. MeSH terms like “Islam," “religion and medicine,” and “attitude of medical staff” are among the keywords used, along with synonyms like “Islam," “Islamic," “Muslim," “medicine," “clinical," “practise," “healthcare," “professionals," “Islamic medical practise," “doctor," “nurse,” and “healthcare professionals.” The Boolean operators “AND” and “OR” were applied during the search. In addition to databases, manual internet searches were conducted to find relevant papers. The review has found that Islamic concepts and ideals have been sporadically incorporated into medical practice worldwide, whether by Muslim or non-Muslim healthcare professionals. The three key themes related to Islamic practice in medicine: are (a) attitude and character of healthcare professionals, (b) clinical decisionmaking, and (c) holistic spiritual care. There is still a big gap and differences in integrating Islamic values into clinical practice. Further work on defining and constructing a framework for a holistic Islamic medical practice is warranted.