Post-Mortem and Islam

 

Is post-mortem permissible in Islam, some times post-mortem leads to valuable information that may help save other lives. Many a time post-mortem is done to discover mysterious and suspicious death. What is the Islamic verdict?

All things and practices have their advantages and benefits. However, along with their benefits are their harms. On the bases of harm, the shariah has outlawed many practices in spite of their benefits. While conceding the benefits of post-mortems, the shariah does not permit this mutilation of the body because:

A. The human body is sacred and an object of honour and respect. Cutting it, dissecting it and mutilating it are not permissible no matter what beneficial results may stem from such post-mortems.

B. The human body does not belong to any person, hence man has no right to use and misuse the human body. He has no right to donate his own body since it is not his property nor is he allowed to sell it or part of it.

C. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) explicitly forbade making use of the human body. Unanimously, all authorities of the shariah have declared unlawful cutting and dissecting the body of a human being even to save the life of another human being. The shariah has made two exceptions to this law, as follows:

1. A pregnant women dies and the baby is alive within her. In this case, it is compulsory to cut open the body and remove the baby. However if the body is already dead then it is not lawful to cut the dead body [ fatawa alamghiri ]

2. A person unlawfully takes possession of another’s property and swallows it e.g. a precious stone and dice in this case if the owner demands his wealth it will be paid from the estate of the deceased. If the deceased has left sufficient wealth to compensate for the liability, it will not be permissible to operate to him to remove the article. However, if he does not possess sufficient wealth to compensate for the item, which he had swallowed, and the owner demands his wealth, the body will be cut and the item returned to its owner.

These are the only exceptions allowed by the shariah because the rights of others are involved. For no other reasons will post-mortems be permissible. Another important thing to remember is that the shariah has ordained many rules and acts applicable for the deceased. Bodies used for experiments [and models] by medical students are denied the holy rituals such as ghusl, kafan, burial etc. the teaching of Islam on this regard are all abandoned in cases of mutilation of bodies.

Al Mumin Vol. 1 No. 3 Page