Issues and Questions Q1. What is the view of Islam about donating ablood to a non-Muslim?
A1. Blood transfusion formedical purposes is permissible in Islam.It is permissible to take blood from non-Muslims and to give blood tonon-Muslims. These matters are relatedto human life. Islam teaches us to feed the hungry, to take care of the sickand to save human life. In these matters Islam emphasizes taking care of allhuman life without any distinction of religion, race, gender, color ornationality. All human life should be respected and protected. Muslim doctorsmust treat all patients equally and whosoever is in need of blood or anymedical treatment should be provided without any consideration of his/herreligion
Q2. What is the rule about Euthanasia? When oneis very sick and old (80 years old) and had an attack lately, medication is inthis case not helpful. He asks for pulling the trigger (I mean he asks for along sleep through intravenous medicine high doses morphine). He has amechanical breathing. If you stop this, he will die. So taking his request intoconsideration and the deterioration of his situation, what should the doctordo? Should the doctor think of stopping breathing, as there is a young boy whois in very need of mechanical breathing?
A2. Euthanasia is notallowed in Islam. Islam considers humanlife sacred. Life is to be protected and promoted as much as possible. It is neither permissible in Islam to killanother human being, nor even to kill one's own self (suicide). Killing is allowed only in a declared justwar situation. The court of law may pass a death sentence against a person as apunishment for some crimes such as premeditated murder or other seriouscrimes. However, there is no provisionin Islam for killing a person to reduce his pain or suffering from sickness. It is the duty of the doctors, patient's relatives and the state to take care ofthe sick and to do their best to reduce the pain and suffering of the sick, butthey are not allowed under any circumstances to kill the sick person. The sickperson also should patiently endure the pain and should pray to Allah. Ifhe/she is patient, there will be a great reward and blessing for him/her in theeternal life.
It is also not allowedin Islam to kill an old person in order to economize on medical treatment or toprovide medical facilities for younger people.Young or old, rich or poor all have their right to be treated equallyand fairly.
If, however, a numberof medical experts determine that a patient is in a terminal condition andthere is no hope for his/her recovery, then it could be permissible for them tostop the medication. If the patient ison life support, it may be permissible, with due consultation and care, todecide to switch off the life support machine and let the nature take its owntime. Under no condition it is permissible to induce death to a patient.
Q3. In the West due to shortage of space, atsome mosques, Friday prayers are conducted twice immediately after first onewhere in both prayers different Imams recite Khutbah as well. My question is:can two Friday prayers be offered with Khutbah at the same place?
A3. As a rule there should be only one Jama'ahprayer for any Fard Salat in the Masjid, whether they are five daily prayers orJumu'ah prayers. According to ImamShafi'i, Imam Abu Hanifah and other, it is Makruh to hold two Jama'ah prayersin a regular Masjid that has a regular Imam and Mu'adhin etc. They allow peopleto hold several Jama'ah prayers, according to the convenience of the people, inMasajid that are built for the travelers, such as Masajid at the airports orrailway stations or in big hotels etc. The wisdom behind this rule is to uniteMuslims and to urge them to be together in large numbers at the Masjid at thetime of Jama'ah prayer. If more thanone Jama'ah for a prayer is allowed then people will not be one group. Theywould come to Masjid whenever they desire to make their own Jama'ah. It is also possible that some people may dividethe community, by not praying behind the regular Imam and making their ownseparate congregations in the Masjid.
However, if the Masjid is too smalland it cannot accommodate all the worshippers at one time then more than oneJama'ah for any prayer including Jumu'ah prayer is permissible. But this shouldbe only a temporary arrangement. To keep the community together the believersshould try to enlarge their Masjid as soon as possible. They may also build another Masajid in theirneighborhood for the convenience of Muslims in that area.
Q4. Is associating words with Allah that hedidn't give to us in a holy book a sin? I recently had a hot discussion on an egroup of my university regarding aforward message. It goes something like... “As I watched, I praised Allah forHis beautiful work. As I sat there, I felt his presence with me. He asked me,”Do you love me?” I answered, “Of course! You are my Lord!” Then He asked, “Ifyou were physically handicapped, would you still love me?”... My point was that this is a sin as you areassociating words that Allah didn't use. Some people said that as the intention is good, sofigurative speech shouldn't matter. Who is right?
A4. Only Prophets and Messengers of Allahreceive the Revelation (al-Wahy). TheRevelations received by the Prophets and Messengers of Allah have the authorityfor the Believers. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him- is the Last and FinalProphet and Messenger of Allah. There is no one after him who can claim anauthentic and authoritative Revelation. However, it is possible and people doreceive true inspiration (ilham) from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Prophet (peace be upon him- called 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him- as Muhaddath (one who receives special message from Allah, see al-Bukhari 3210). In Du'apeople can make special Munajat (conversation) with Allah. Many pious people have written theirinspirational discourses with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we have ampleexamples from Islamic spiritual literature as well as poetry on this subject. 'Allama Iqbal's long poem”Shikwah wa Jawab Shikwah” (Complaint and Answer to the Complaint) is a verygood examples of this inspirational conversation. The rule about all inspirationaldiscourses is that they must be in agreement with the Qur'an and Sunnah. If they contradict the teachings of theQur'an and Sunnah then they are not authentic and Divine inspirations, theymust be from Satan. Also these individualinspirations have no general authority. If one is told to do something in one'sinspiration, then it may be binding only on the person who received theinspiration as long as the inspiration is in accordance with the Shari'ah. If it were against the Shari'ah, then itwould have no authority even on the person who had the vision orinspiration.
Q5. What is the Islamic view on Hypnosis? Muslims do not believe in reincarnation. However, there have been many caseswhere people have been hypnotized and have described their previous life.
A5. Hypnosis is defined as “alteredstate of consciousness and heightened responsiveness to suggestions.” In anormal person it is induced by a variety of methods and has been usedoccasionally in medical and psychiatric treatment. It, probably, has somemedical and psychiatric benefits and for this purpose it can be permitted in Islam. But hypnosis is not a definitesource of knowledge. The scholars onthis subject point out that hypnosis lends itself to misinterpretation. It issaid, “The revival through hypnosis of early, forgotten memories may be fusedwith fantasies. Research intohypnotically induced memories in recent years has in fact stressed theiruncertain reliability. For this reasona number of state court systems in the US have placed increasing constraints onthe use of evidence hypnotically obtained from witnesses.” The doctrines and beliefs in Islamare not taken from hypnotic experiences; they are taken from the DivineRevelations that came to the most trustworthy Messenger of Allah. According to the Qur'an and Sunnah there isno “reincarnation” (tanasukh al-arwah) but there will be indeed “resurrection”(ba'th).