Islamic Ethics of Organ Transplantation and Brain Death

The ethical problems raised by recent advances in medicine are the domain of the ethicist, medical philosopher, lawyers, members of Parliament, religious leaders as well as physicians involved in the dilemmas of day to day problems. Islam is not only a religion; it is a code of life and hence encompasses the secular with the spiritual, the mundane with the celestial, through its holistic approach. The Islamic scholar is both the jurist and the ethicist. It is true that new methods and techniques in medicine have no precedent and hence make it difficult for Islamic jurists to give their verdict. However, the Islamic jurists were very active in the last decade and held many conferences to which many doctors were called to discuss issues such as brain death, organ transplantation, and new methods of procreation, abortion and euthanasia. They passed resolutions that help formulating the rules regarding medical ethics in the arena of rapidly advancing the medicine of high technology.

It is important to have an idea how the jurists reach their rulings and judgment on these thorny hair-raising contentious issues. Islamic jurisprudence is based on two pillars: 1) O' Sool (fundamental, basis) 2) Foroo branches) which include the actual rulings of different Islamic jurisprudence schools in various aspects of life and worship. The jurist reaches his verdict through Careful study of the Holy Quran the Sunna (the trodden path) which include the sayings and speeches of the Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH) (Sunna Qaw-liya), his deeds (Sunna Filiyya and his approvals (Sunna Taqiiriya). The paradigmatic behavior of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) is the example and model that each Muslim aspires to reach. If the jurist is unable to reach a verdict through studying the Holy Quran and scrutinizing the Sunna, he uses analogy and reasoning (Ijtihad or Qiyas). He can also use other sources e.g. Al Masaleh Almursalah, which simply means taking care of public interest provided it does not clash with a clear text of the Quran or Sunna.The Hanafi School of jurisprudence has in addition a similar source which they call Isthsan, i.e. seeking the best solution for general interest. Ijma is a unanimous opinion of the whole community of Islamic jurists all over the world on a certain issue. It was, and still is, very difficult to achieve; however the consensus of the majority of jurists is more pragmatic. In fact, almost all the rulings that were passed by Islamic jurists conferences were passed by majority of votes.

The Interplay of Technology and Sacredness in Islam: Discussions of Muslim Scholars on Printing the Qur'an

Abstract

In the midst of available studies on the relation between technology or science and religion, one of the vital and early episodes of this relation within the Islamic tradition did not receive the due attention from modern researchers. This episode has to do with the discussions of Muslim scholars (‘Ulama) on using the then emerging technology of printing to reproduce the sacred scripture of Muslims, namely, the Qur'an. The main discussions among the ‘ulama on this issue took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the Ottoman Empire was an important power in the Islamic world. The main question raised here is: what are the juristic arguments used by the ‘Ulama to justify their objection to print the Qur'an? At the end, this article argues that these arguments have not been the sole agent in this issue. Social reality also played an important role and was ultimately, at least partially, responsible for a considerable shift in the standpoints of the ‘Ulama towards this issue especially from the nineteenth century onwards.