M6:1320 — باز گرد و قصهٔ رنجور گو / با طبیب آگه ستارخو

Translation: Turn back and tell the tale of the ailing one To the knowing physician, the sattār-khū (secret-keeping).

Meaning: This verse instructs the ailing person to confide their condition to a wise and discreet physician in order to find appropriate healing.

This verse, addressing the narrator or reader, commands a return to the story of the ailing person. Mawlana immediately points to a profound ethical observation about the role of a physician, one that transcends time and place: the quality of a 'knowing and sattār-khū (secret-keeping) physician.' A physician must be both 'knowing' (āgah), meaning fully aware of the patient's condition, and 'secret-keeping' (sattār-khū), meaning discreet and a concealer of patients' secrets. This quality of confidentiality, in my view, is the very spirit of the Hippocratic Oath, which remains central to the ethical pledges of physicians today, emphasizing the importance of respecting patients' dignity and privacy.

The significance of this characteristic becomes evident later in the story. Mawlana's physician, after taking the patient's pulse and discerning with his knowledge that there is no hope for recovery, prescribes a peculiar remedy: 'Whatever your heart desires, do it / So that this ancient pain leaves your body.' He further emphasizes: 'Do not hold back whatever your mind desires / So that patience and abstinence do not become a torment (zahīr).' This means, do whatever your heart wishes, deny yourself nothing, lest 'patience and abstinence' themselves become a zahīr (a form of respiratory distress or an aggravating ailment). This radical and compassionate prescription can only come from a knowing and discreet physician who is both aware of the profound depth of the pain and understands that for this particular suffering, conventional treatments are futile and might even transform into another source of agony. This seemingly simple verse inherently teaches both professional ethics and the dignity of a physician, while also opening up a profound approach to treatment in specific circumstances.

Key takeaways

• The Virtue of Confidentiality: A physician must be both knowledgeable of the pain and a keeper of patients' secrets.
• Medical Ethics: The principle of sattār-khū (secret-keeping) in medicine is equivalent to ethical pledges like the Hippocratic Oath.
• Empathetic Healing: Sometimes, healing hinges on a deep understanding of suffering, not merely on prescribing medicine.
• Unconventional Prescriptions: For profound and incurable afflictions, conventional remedies (such as patience and abstinence) might themselves add to the suffering.