A note on the issue of organ donation.

The Shaykh : If someone were to say, "If seclusion were permissible, would castration be permissible?" we would say that castration is not permissible. The statement of Sa'd, "If it were permitted, we would have castrated ourselves," does not constitute castration until we say that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted it or that Allah permitted it. However, this is the opinion of Sa'd, but the implication of the legal principles is that it is not permissible, because cutting off any of your organs or any of your skin, in which you have not been given permission, is forbidden, for the human body is a trust in his possession. For this reason, it is forbidden for a person to donate any of his organs to anyone, whether in his lifetime or by bequeathing them after his death, as our jurists (may Allah have mercy on them) have explicitly stated. Among those who mentioned this is the author of *Al-Iqna'* in the chapter on washing the deceased in the book of funerals: "It is not permissible to donate any of one's organs to anyone, even if one bequeaths them after death, for the bequest will not be executed". This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And because of the great harms that result from this, we have even heard that in some countries they snatch children; they snatch children in order to sell their organs: the kidney or the liver or whatever can be transplanted. And as we have also heard, some of them hasten to what is called brain death, so when a person loses consciousness, they say, "That's it, he has died a brain death," and immediately they cut up his limbs! In any case, whether or not feared consequences result from it, it is sufficient for us that the human body is a trust in his possession, and it is not permissible to encroach upon it in any way. Allah the Exalted said: And He said: And what people are rushing into today is only because of their greed for this world, so that something is taken from this person for that person, so that the one in whom it was transplanted remains. And if he remains, he remains only with great distress and hardship and continuous medication that he uses. Then he does not know; perhaps death will overtake him in a single day. If this matter were left to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), then if the person remains, he remains, and if he perishes, every living being is destined to perish. Yes, every person will die. For this reason, when the Angel of Death came to Moses (peace be upon him) to take his soul, What is the benefit? If a person were to live a thousand years, he said, "Then from now on." But he asked his Lord to bring him within a stone's throw of the Holy Land. Yes.