Rulings Concerning the Miscarried Fetus
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Fatwa No. ( 21082 )
Q: I submit this inquiry to your eminence regarding infants (premature babies) found in the morgue of the Turaif hospital. There are twelve miscarried fetuses, the first dating back to the year 1406 AH and the last to the year 1416 AH. Some of them do not have a known date of being placed in the refrigerator. There are also severed limbs, such as fingers, hands, and others. When the hospital director was asked to write to the governor stating that they have been in the hospital refrigerator for a long time and have not been claimed by their relatives, and that there are insufficient addresses to identify their guardians, a donor offered to take them over, prepare them, and bury them. Permission was granted to hand them over to me as the donor to prepare and bury them. My questions are: 1- Is it permissible for me to take them over without the knowledge of their guardians, given that it is impossible to identify their relatives because the addresses are insufficient and the cases are very old?
2- Regarding the miscarried fetus, if it is more than four months old, is it washed, shrouded, prayed over, and buried in Muslim cemeteries? And if it is less than that, what is the ruling? Is it permissible to throw it with the waste or into the sewage drains? 3- Some of those in the refrigerator cannot be distinguished by age (gestational age) due to changes in their shapes and colors and atrophy in their entire bodies. What is obligatory in this case? 4- Is it permissible to place two or three of them in one grave, and how should that be done? 5- What is the ruling regarding the limbs in terms of washing, shrouding, prayer, and burial?
A: 1- The responsible party in the hospital must hand over the miscarried fetus to its guardian after its expulsion, and it is not permissible to delay this without a legitimate religious reason necessitating it. 2- If the guardian of any of the aforementioned miscarried fetuses is known, it must be handed over to him. If the guardian is not known, the hospital administration or a Muslim who has volunteered must take it over to carry out the following: a- If the miscarried fetus has not reached four months, it is wrapped in a cloth and buried in a hole in the public cemetery, without washing or prayer;
because the soul has not been breathed into it. b- If the miscarried fetus has reached four months or more, it is obligatory to wash it, shroud it, pray over it, and bury it. If there is more than one, each one is buried in a separate grave, like adults. 3- As for limbs separated from a dead person, those limbs are washed and placed with the dead person from whom they were separated, inside his shroud. If the dead person from whom that limb was separated is not found, the limb is washed, shrouded, prayed over, and buried in the cemetery in a separate grave; because this is what the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) did with the limbs of the dead that they found. As for a limb separated from a living person, it is buried in a hole in the cemetery without washing it or praying over it. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Q: I submit this inquiry to your eminence regarding infants (premature babies) found in the morgue of the Turaif hospital. There are twelve miscarried fetuses, the first dating back to the year 1406 AH and the last to the year 1416 AH. Some of them do not have a known date of being placed in the refrigerator. There are also severed limbs, such as fingers, hands, and others. When the hospital director was asked to write to the governor stating that they have been in the hospital refrigerator for a long time and have not been claimed by their relatives, and that there are insufficient addresses to identify their guardians, a donor offered to take them over, prepare them, and bury them. Permission was granted to hand them over to me as the donor to prepare and bury them. My questions are: 1- Is it permissible for me to take them over without the knowledge of their guardians, given that it is impossible to identify their relatives because the addresses are insufficient and the cases are very old?
2- Regarding the miscarried fetus, if it is more than four months old, is it washed, shrouded, prayed over, and buried in Muslim cemeteries? And if it is less than that, what is the ruling? Is it permissible to throw it with the waste or into the sewage drains? 3- Some of those in the refrigerator cannot be distinguished by age (gestational age) due to changes in their shapes and colors and atrophy in their entire bodies. What is obligatory in this case? 4- Is it permissible to place two or three of them in one grave, and how should that be done? 5- What is the ruling regarding the limbs in terms of washing, shrouding, prayer, and burial?
A: 1- The responsible party in the hospital must hand over the miscarried fetus to its guardian after its expulsion, and it is not permissible to delay this without a legitimate religious reason necessitating it. 2- If the guardian of any of the aforementioned miscarried fetuses is known, it must be handed over to him. If the guardian is not known, the hospital administration or a Muslim who has volunteered must take it over to carry out the following: a- If the miscarried fetus has not reached four months, it is wrapped in a cloth and buried in a hole in the public cemetery, without washing or prayer;
because the soul has not been breathed into it. b- If the miscarried fetus has reached four months or more, it is obligatory to wash it, shroud it, pray over it, and bury it. If there is more than one, each one is buried in a separate grave, like adults. 3- As for limbs separated from a dead person, those limbs are washed and placed with the dead person from whom they were separated, inside his shroud. If the dead person from whom that limb was separated is not found, the limb is washed, shrouded, prayed over, and buried in the cemetery in a separate grave; because this is what the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) did with the limbs of the dead that they found. As for a limb separated from a living person, it is buried in a hole in the cemetery without washing it or praying over it. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.