The first thing you notice about him is the calmness and humility that surround him, and then you see his soft and gentle eyes. This is Dr. Thaer Ahmed, a Palestinian American trauma physician who went to Gaza with MedGlobal.
There was probably nothing that could prepare him for Gaza and for the resilience of its people. There, he rediscovered the meaning of iman and taqwa, and found new courage—courage that led him to walk out of a meeting with the President of the United States, Joe Biden..
Dr. Thaer Ahmed was born and raised in a Palestinian American family in Chicago. Although thousands of miles away from Palestine, the distance never kept him from visiting it often to provide medical assistance where it was most needed.
In January 2024, he went once again to Gaza with MedGlobal. He stayed in Nasser Hospital for several weeks, treating patients who were mostly women and children. As soon as he entered the hospital, Dr. Thaer found himself surrounded by the wounded and traumatized.
One patient, a young man of about 22 years, did not survive and succumbed to his injuries. As Dr. Thaer stood in shock, his Palestinian colleague turned to the father to break the news. To Dr. Thaer’s amazement, the doctor simply said, “Your son’s last words were:
أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمدا رسول الله
‘I bear witness that no one deserves to be worshiped except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad (saw) is the Messenger of Allah.’”
Instead of crying out in grief, the father asked the doctor, “Do you promise?” When the doctor reassured him, the father turned to his family and said, “Your son is a shaheed. May Allah (swt) accept his shahadah.” He and another son then carried the young shaheed away for burial. Subhan Allah!
Dr. Thaer was moved beyond words. He had seen and treated many trauma patients, and some had shown great bravery, but never had he witnessed such sabr, such taqwa, and above all, such shukr in embracing martyrdom. He realized that one must have a deep and unwavering belief in the Akhira to find comfort in the last words of a dying son.
There were other incidents that impacted him deeply. As an ER doctor at a trauma center, he had worked in hospitals where patients had access to rooms, medicines, and proper facilities. In Gaza, however, he saw “huddled masses,” with people lying on concrete floors—often bloodstained and muddy from constant foot traffic. Despite this, the respect for dignity was remarkable. If a patient was being moved and their belly became exposed, nurses, staff, and even doctors would rush to cover them with a sheet. If a younger patient, with tubes running in and out of him, was occupying a bed while an elderly patient waited, the younger one would give up the bed for the elder. A grandmother who had been shot by a drone and paralyzed from the waist down was addressed as Mama out of respect. These were living examples of ithar(selflessness) and the Qur’anic truth:
اِنَّمَا الۡمُؤۡمِنُوۡنَ اِخۡوَةٌ
“Indeed, the believers are but brothers.”
(Surah Al-Hujurat, 49:10)
Dr. Thaer’s visit to Gaza strengthened his iman, especially after meeting people who lived tawheed (la ilaha illa Allah) in their daily lives and who embodied the ayah:
حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَ نِعْمَ الْوَ كِيلُ
“Allah (swt) is Sufficient for us, and He is the Best Disposer of affairs.” (Surah Al ‘Imran, 3:173)
After a few weeks, Dr. Thaer returned to the U.S. But his struggle was far from over. He became a vocal advocate for Palestinians, speaking at different forums about their rights. In April 2024, he and other Muslim doctors were invited to the White House to meet President Biden.
He wanted to share what he had witnessed firsthand in Gaza and to warn against the potential Israeli military attack on Rafah. “We’ve been on the ground,” he later told reporters. “We’ve seen just how overcrowded Rafah is—how little aid is getting in—and that any sort of military activity there would be catastrophic.”
At the meeting, he also handed Biden a letter from an eight-year-old orphan girl named Hadeed, pleading with him to stop Israel from attacking Rafah. But during the meeting, Dr. Thaer rose and walked out. As a Muslim, he did not want to beg the oppressor for aid, nor humiliate himself by asking the enemy for mercy. He wanted to make clear that what the White House had done so far was far from sufficient.
Dr. Thaer has drawn strength and courage from the resilience of Palestinians. Men, women, and children continue to stand firm against unimaginable odds. Each wave of bombardment only deepens their iman, and they continue to say, alhamdulillah.
Their ithar reminded Dr. Thaer of the Ansar of Madinah, who opened their homes to the Muhajirun of Makkah. Their unwavering faith reminded him of the Prophet (saw) and his companions (sahaba) during the years of boycott in Shaib Abi Talib.
Dr. Thaer’s story and his visit to Gaza remind us that courage, iman, sabr, and ithar did not end with the sahaba. Muslims today continue to strive to embody these virtues. May Allah (swt) grant us all the qualities of the sahaba. Ameen.
