KARACHI, Oct 17: Hakim Mohammed Said Shaheed treated more patients than any doctor or Hakim in Pakistan. From early in the morning till late in the afternoon he saw patients.
When he used to do so, he rarely took calls. Neither did he make them himself. He never kept the patients waiting as he was always punctual.
Hakim Said was a deeply religious man who used to regularly say Tahajjud prayers. He had a multi-faceted personality, with intimate knowledge of Unani Tibb, science and business concepts, besides other disciplines.
This was stated by 10-odd speakers at a seminar entitled “Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said as a physician”, which was organized by the Hamdard Foundation Pakistan on Friday evening. Among the speakers was Dr Abdul Quadeer Khan, the Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Strategic Programme.
On the occasion, Dr A.Q. Khan said it was difficult to fully encapsulate the good qualities of Hakim Said. “How can you describe the qualities of a moon, or for that matter a sun,” he said.
He said during his days as a student of DJ College whenever he had cold or cough he used to visit Hakim Said’s clinic. “I used to visit him especially when I had a dry cough because the western medicine did not seem to work.”
Dr Khan said when Hakim Said was made a fellow of the Academy of Sciences he got an opportunity to work with him. “This is the period when we came quite close to each other.”
In his chief guest’s address, Dr Khan said he had written an obituary when Olof Palme was shot dead. “But whenever I wanted to write an obituary for Shaheed Hakim Saeed, I simply couldn’t, because I suddenly became very sad.”
In recent years, he had visited Malaysia in connection with a seminar. “And sure enough there I saw one of the Hakim Saheb’s many books which showed that his work was not only known inside the country but also outside it.”
Dr Khan hoped that the Hamdard Foundation would manage to build on the excellent work done by Shaheed Hakim Said.
Dr F.U. Baqai said Hakim Said seemed to be ahead of his times. “You see community-oriented medicine is supposed to be a new concept. However, this concept was being practised by him since an early age.
“Similarly, there’s a new concept that to be able to resolve the health problems of the masses, a chain of clinics be established on a no profit no loss basis. This idea was also implemented by him.”
Dr Baqai was of the opinion that Hakim Said’s work needed to be appreciated and more importantly analysed so that they could be replicated.
Justice M. Abdur Rouf of Bangladesh in his presidential speech said Hakim Said was a multi-dimensional genius. “He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of a variety of subjects.”
Justice Abdur Rouf said Hamdard Foundation’s chapters in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan must join hands to fend off the challenge mounted by the multinational pharmaceutical corporations. These chapters must work overtime to maintain their position in the scheme of things in the subcontinent.
Hakim M. Yousuf Haroon Bhuiyan of Bangladesh said the foundation stone of a “Madinatul Hikmat” had been laid by Hakim Said in his country back in 1994. “Efforts are also under way to acquire a piece of land for a university.”
Speaking in Urdu, he said Hamdard’s medicines were quite popular in Bangladesh. “Doctors not only prescribe such drugs but also use them themselves.”
Hakim N. Islam, Prof Hakim Abdul Hannan, Hakim Dr Mahmood A. Barakaati, Hakim Mufti Sadiq Anis and Hakim Rahat Nasim Sodhravi were among those who spoke.
Two books — Letters to Quaid-i-Azam (Book III) and Science of Medicine in the Ottoman Empire — which are published by the Hamdard Foundation were also launched during the seminar. One of the granddaughters of Hakim Said Shaheed read the citation.
