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Discussions of Islamic medical ethics tend to focus on Sharı‘̄ah-based, or obligation-based, ethics. However, limiting Islamic medical ethics discourse to the derivation of religious duties ignores discussions about moulding an inner disposition that inclines towards adherence to the Sharı‘̄ah. In classical Islamic intellectual thought, such writings are the concern of adab literature. In this paper, we call for a renewal of adabi discourse as part of Islamic medical ethics. We argue that adab complements Sharı‘̄ah-based writings to generate a more holistic vision of Islamic medical ethics by supplementing an obligation-based approach with a virtue-based approach. While Sharı‘̄ah-based medical ethics focuses primarily on the moral status of actions, adab literatur