“Khuda sagla Doctor-o ne khidmat karwane yaari aape, ehna haath per mumin ne ane ibaadullah ne shifa haasil thai, doctor-o ni ginti hajin ziyada thai.” Min kalemaat nooraniyah Jamadil-ullah 1436H, Orange County

Welcome to the Saifee Burhani Medical Association of America!  We are honored to be the first association of its kind founded under the direction of Syedna wa Molana Aali Qadr Mufaddal Saifuddin (TUS), with the guidance of Shehzada Husain bhaisaheb (DM) and Shehzada Qusai bhaisaheb (DM).

We endeavour to be a truly unique organization within the framework of Dawat.  Largely self-sufficient and self governing, we have been given a large, almost overwhelming mission, to use our specialized skills and training to bring mumineen closer to Mola (TUS).   Needless to say, it will take time and hard work by all of our members to bring it to fruition.  But with Mola’s (TUS) doa, we are confident that we can reach our goal.

Our platform consists of three main planks:

1. Khidmat of mumineen — we hope to accomplish this through the standardization of medical khidmat for mumineen in the United States, largely run currently through the “mumin free clinic” model, with each center re-inventing the wheel as they go.  By standardizing this model, we can benefit from each other’s collective experiences and ideas and eventually move forward to provide proactive preventative care which is so sorely needed in our community.
2. Mentorship of students — applying to and studying at any school related to the health sciences is an overwhelming and highly competitive process.  Trying to accomplish this while being an observant mumin can be doubly so.  We hope to help mentor potential students through their undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate training to ease the road in front of them, let them learn from our mistakes, and share in our experience.  We hope to also be able to provide halal financial aid to these students as well.
3. Networking and Professional development — Through an organized structure, we can assist one another more than we perhaps realize.  Looking to relocate? Each of us has an extensive network of doctors in many specialties locally which could be tapped in to.  In private practice?  There may be benefit in shared management schemes or group purchasing rates.  Eventually we hope to offer CME credits as well, perhaps during our Meeqat Muqadassah such as Ashara Mubaraka, to encourage doctors to come by providing financial incentives in the form of tax deduction or use of earmarked CME funds.

As you can see, we have quite a broad scope and quite a heavy responsibility.  That is why we are so excited to have the enthusiastic membership we continue to enjoy.  While the leadership council has, under the guidance of Shehzada saheb, laid out some preliminary ideas and some basic groundwork, there is much more work to be done.  Our ideas and goals for the first year are preliminarily as follows:

1. The development of an infrastructure to SBMAA.  Our current structure consists of five members of the leadership council appointed with the raza mubarak of Mola (TUS).  We have also formed a 25 member “advisory board” to help us with the dissemination and implementation of ideas and initiatives.  We have made every effort to make this board as diverse as possible, with regards to gender, specialty, and geography. HOWEVER, for the plans, the ideas, the research, the top level work, and everything else, we are dependent on you, the members. We sincerely hope, desire, and indeed expect, to hear your input, your creative ideas, your out-of-the-box thoughts, and yes, your criticisms.  The first step in this “horizontal leadership” concept is a blog on our website, available for all members to share their thoughts, and for others to comment upon them.
2. The establishment of an assistance program to assist young medical professionals (particularly students or post graduate trainees) to attend Ashara Mubaraka 1437H.  These are folks who may be so engrossed in their training that they do not feel they have time for this commitment, or folks who are spending so much on tuition, or making so little as post-graduate trainees that they do not feel they can go.  Our hope is that they will indeed attend and gather the azeem sharaf of attending Ashara and doing khidmat of mumineen in the medical camps there, thus gaining valuable career experience as well.
3. We hope to offer continuing education credits at upcoming meeqats, to encourage people to attend and partake of the barakaat through the use of incentives such as not having to use “vacation time”, use of tax deductions, and use of CME money.
4. The development of a mentorship “infrastructure” where students can find physicians who share their interests, and would be willing to guide them through the complexities of career and job choices, while understanding the particular cultural and religious needs of mumineen.  This would also extend to include physicians willing to allow pre-medical students to “shadow” them during the day to gain insight, experience, and even letters of recommendation.

That’s a lot to do, and that’s just the first year!  But Mola (TUS) has confidence we can do it, and has given us his doa, which makes nothing impossible.  So roll up those sleeves, it’s time to get to khidmat!

Abde Syedna (TUS)
Aamer Sk. Husain Jamali (MD)
Secretary, Saifee Burhani Medical Association of America