Hindu doctor, raised in Dubai, recites Kalima Shahada for dying Covid patient

Abu Dhabi - Former UAE resident, Dr Rekha Krishnan, attributed her gesture as a result of her upbringing in the culturally rich Emirates.

As her dying Muslim patient lay on a bed at a Covid ward in India, Hindu doctor Rekha Krishnan — who was raised in Dubai — felt what seemed like ‘divine intervention’. She recited the ‘kalima shahada’ (the Islamic oath of faith) for her. And the moment she finished the shahada, ‘La ilaha illallah Muhammadur rasulullah’, the woman took her last breath.

Family members and relatives were not allowed inside the ward, so Dr Rekha was the only person with her 56-year-old patient Beevathu in her final moments.

“She had severe pneumonia. During admission, she was in a bad shape and placed on a ventilator. We tried our best but after 17 days, her organs started malfunctioning. There was no hope. We had a discussion with the family members. They gave consent to take her off the ventilator. They accepted the fate,” said Dr Rekha, an internal medicine specialist at Sevana Hospital and Research Centre in the south Indian state of Kerala.

“While I was standing there, helplessly watching her leave the body, I felt very sad. I didn’t know what her last memory of her family was. I started a silent prayer for her soul and then chanted the kalima. If her daughter or a family member was there, they too would have done the same thing. It was not a religious act but a humanitarian one. What touched me the most was the moment I finished the prayer, she took her last breath. The way this happened, made me feel that someone made me do it, like a divine intervention,” she said over the phone from Pattambi, Palakkad district.

Dr Rekha attributed the gesture to her upbringing in the culturally rich UAE.

“I was born in Kerala but raised in Dubai. I finished my schooling at The Indian High School Dubai. My parents and my relatives are in Dubai. I am the only one who moved to India for higher studies and settled in Kerala. My husband is a doctor in Thrissur,” she said.