Religious talk: Scholars say organ transplant allowed in Islam

Different schools of Islamic thought represented at seminar

KARACHI:

Scholars belonging to different schools of Islamic thought agreed that transplantation of human organs is permitted in Islam.

A seminar was organised by the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre, Karachi University, in collaboration with the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) on ‘Donation and Transplantation of Organs In the light of Quran and Sunnah’.

Speaking at the ceremony, a majority of the scholars expressed the idea that transplantation of organs from one human to another is allowed and is, in fact, considered ‘sadqa-e-jariya’ [continuous charity] in Islam. The chief guest at the event was the chairperson of the Council of Islamic Ideology, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani.

According to Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee chairperson Mufti Muneebur Rehman, transplantation of any organ from a Muslim to non-Muslim or from a non-Muslim to Muslim is allowed in Islam.

Shia scholar Maulana Syed Shahenshah Hussain Naqvi quoted a hadith, ‘The best person is he who helps other’, to show that transplantation of organs is allowed in Islam. However, he clarified that there are some conditions in which organ transplantation is considered a sin in Islam. “It is not allowed that a person gets an organ transplanted to spend a better life,” said Naqvi. “Transplantation is only allowed if it is done to save a life.”

Furthermore, he said that if a person announces before his death that he wishes to donate any of his organs to someone, then it is mandatory to take permission from his family members as well after his death.

Two foreign scholars and organ transplantation experts also spoke to the audience about transplantation via Skype.

Faisal Shaheen, who is considered a pioneer in organ transplantation in Saudi Arabia, said that his centre does not only transplant organs in Saudi Arabia, but in all the Muslim countries of the Middle East.

Another scholar, Mustafa Al Musawi, who is the head of the transplantation centre of Kuwait, said that Kuwait started the transplantation of human organs in 1979. “It’s good that religious scholars of Pakistan are sitting together today to discuss this important issue,” he said.

Both Shaheen and Musawi agreed that transplantation of human organs was permitted in Islam to save one’s life.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2015.