ABSTRACT
Abu Hurayra said: ‘Make your funerals speedy, for it is only good that you are advancing him towards, or evil that you are taking off your necks’ (Muwatta).
Euthanasia is a practice accepted by certain sections of the medical profession. It means to bring about a mercifully easy and painless death for persons suffering from a painful and, what seems to be, an incurable disease. ‘Voluntary’ euthanasia is when the affected person requests to be killed painlessly. If the person is not in a position to decide for himself or herself (maybe because they are brain dead), it is the doctors or the person’s relatives who must decide, and this is called ‘compulsory’ euthanasia. Islam does not consider euthanasia as a ‘merciful release’ but rather as murder (in the case of compulsory euthanasia) or suicide (in the case of voluntary euthanasia). It may be acceptable to a person who does not believe in God; to this person life is not sacred. But for a believer it is hardly thinkable to contemplate such a thing. The shari
( a bans
suicide (viz. voluntary euthanasia): ‘And do not be cast into ruin by your own hands’ (2.195); ‘O ye who believe . . . Neither kill (or destroy) yourselves: for really Allah has been to you most merciful!’ (4.29). The shari
( a also bans mur-
der (viz. compulsory euthanasia) ‘Do not take life – which Allah has made sacred – except for just cause’ (17.33). Life is God’s gift; it is not given by man. Therefore, man has no right to terminate it, except on strictly legal grounds on the course of justice. God is compassionate and merciful.
To think that suffering is to no purpose is to question his wisdom and forget his compassion. No disaster occurs except by God’s permission: ‘And whoever believes in Allah He guides his heart.
