Healthcare Policy in the Khilafah State

Hizb ut Tahrir

First Edition Dhu al-Hijjah 1443 AH July 2022 CE

Updated and Reviewed in Safar 1448 AH - July 2026 CE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Excerpt

Introduction

This book outlines the healthcare policy that will be followed by the Khilafah State, which will be established soon, by the Permission of Allah ﷻ. It is the state that Hizb ut Tahrir has been working with the Ummah since the day of its inception, with diligence, dedication, and sincerity, to establish, so that it may implement Islam in a revolutionary, radical, and comprehensive manner in ruling and administration, making it the controlling authority in the lives of Muslims. This will usher in a new era in which Muslims and the entire world will feel the real change they long for, to be delivered from injustice, misery, and hardship. Humanity has been suffering since Islam was absent from the arena of life and the creeds of Kufr (disbelief) and its corrupt systems took control, plunging man to the lowest depths in his creed, life, and livelihood. This is true whether those creeds are socialism, including communism, or capitalism, including democracy, which has permeated the world, revealing its flaws and evils to mankind: killing, displacement, forced migration, and deprivation of the most basic rights for the individual and the group, such as food, clothing, shelter, education, health, and security.

Among the administrative systems that the Khilafah State will implement, by the permission of Allah, is the healthcare system, which aims to preserve the health and well-being of all those under the ruler’s care. This will position the Khilafah at the forefront of the world’s nations through excellence and superiority in this field. The world will witness the excellent implementation of Islam and the sincerity in looking after the affairs of the people, serving as an invitation to embrace Islam, turn towards it, and bring the world out from the servitude of men to the servitude of the Lord of men, from the oppression of religions to the justice and mercy of Islam, and from the narrowness of this world to the vastness of this world and the Hereafter.

We will begin in this book by mentioning the reality experienced by the countries of the world in terms of poor healthcare and the deprivation of peoples from its most basic elements. We will explain the causes of the corruption associated with capitalist systems when they made material value the basis for solving problems, foremost among them healthcare. Consequently, healthcare has generally become corrupted despite scientific and technological progress in the fields of medicine and preventive health, because healthcare has often been linked to high costs, the realization of material profits, and treating the rich while neglecting the poor.

We will subsequently clarify the concept of health and healthcare from the perspective of Islam, the responsibility of the Khaleefah and the Islamic State regarding it, the Shariah rulings related to it, and the means and methods used by the Islamic State to implement it. The Khilafah State is committed to providing free healthcare provided by the state as an obligation to all those under the ruler's care; because preserving health is a basic need for all people, regardless of the burden this care places on the State Treasury (Bayt al-Mal). It views the health problem as a human problem, not an economic one; thus, its goal is to provide healthcare in the best and most complete manner. The book then addresses public healthcare related to the health of the environment in which man lives, including air, water, and food, as well as environmental health in all its elements. This care aims to promote health through state-level policies. Public healthcare generally focuses on the prevention of diseases more than treatment, because prevention is one of the most important divisions of healthcare, the most universally beneficial, and the most productive. It includes protecting those under the ruler's care from risks to public health, such as maintaining health standards, where the Khilafah exerts effort to ensure these standards are among the best global standards so that its subjects may enjoy a decent, healthy life befitting human dignity and well-being.

The book then presents preventive medicine in the Khilafah from the perspective of individual health. It focuses on community health measures that affect individual health conditions, whether primary or secondary prevention, and all related measures to prevent disease or reduce the likelihood of its occurrence. This is achieved through establishing a database for patients and the necessary population, through screening examinations, and by monitoring and managing those susceptible to diseases. Preventive medicine also covers the necessary health services for specific categories of those under the ruler's care within society, such as school nursing, oral and dental health, maternal and child health centers, occupational health, vaccinations, monitoring the outbreak of epidemics, and preventing them in a timely manner.

The Khilafah State bears the responsibility of looking after the health needs of individuals affected by diseases and establishing effective systems for treating individuals. This includes providing clinics, hospitals, and public facilities used for treatment. Medical treatment is a fundamental part of public interest and public facilities that the state must undertake. This is done through gradual stages in providing treatment via healthcare, starting from primary healthcare centers, then secondary care in local hospitals, and finally central hospitals, according to the health needs of the patients. This is provided with an adequate number of doctors and allied health professions, and with the latest equipment and devices that ensure the provision of therapeutic services with ease, speed, and efficiency, in addition to caring for the patient's recovery period, and serving the disabled and the elderly.

The healthcare system in the Khilafah State consists of a set of Shariah rulings and administrative laws related to this care. As for the administrative laws for healthcare, they are the permissible means and methods that the ruler deems effective in implementing the system and achieving its purpose. The administrative system for healthcare in the Khilafah State is based on simplicity and speed in providing health service and treatment, as well as on competence in those who assume the administration. The Public Health Department, headed by the Director General of the Health Department, manages and implements the healthcare policy in the Khilafah State and preserves public health by providing preventive, curative, and regulatory health services to the society and individuals. It supervises all the circles and administrations affiliated with it. For every circle and every administration, a director is appointed who is directly responsible for it and for the branches and sections that follow it. The Public Health Department also ensures quality control and draws up strategies to implement healthcare plans. Through its expert committees, it oversees the setting of the necessary standards for medical education, health education, and medical liabilities. It also coordinates with other state apparatuses that share in the implementation of the elements of this care whenever necessary, such as disaster management.

The book then addresses issues and controls that complement the perfection of healthcare in the best manner, including: medical education and its curricula, standards for granting licenses to practice medical professions and specialties, controls related to medical professional ethics, and the liability of medical malpractice.

The book also addresses the subject of medicine and pharmaceutical industries in the Khilafah State, and the issue of disaster management and first aid. Finally, a brief word regarding the form and features of healthcare throughout history since the establishment of the Islamic State at the hands of the Messenger ﷺ its rapid progress, and its distinction from the rest of the  nations and civilizations through the Rightly Guided Khilafah and then the various historical eras of the Khilafah State, where Bimaristans were established, and scientific research, studies, and outstanding scholars emerged, who were spoken of in Islamic and non-Islamic history books.

We are certain of the ability of the Khilafah State, whose glad tidings are looming on the horizon, to undertake advanced and distinguished healthcare befitting human beings, such that it harnesses scientific and medical achievements in providing the best health services, alongside other distinguished programs for looking after the affairs that the Khilafah State implements based on the Islamic Aqeedah and according to its systems emanating from it.