Prof. Dr. Faid Muhammad Said
Introduction: Before Medical Fiqh Had a Name
In the early 1980s, when the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences (IOMS) was founded in Kuwait, the term “Islamic medical jurisprudence” had not yet gained traction in scholarly discourse. Nor had modern medical dilemmas—what Islamic jurists now refer to as nawāzil ṭibbiyya—been meaningfully integrated into traditional jurisprudential texts or the institutional fatwa landscape (Al-Qaradawi 2001; Ghaly 2013). Many of these issues were barely discussed; others lacked proper jurisprudential framing.
With direct patronage from the Kuwaiti leadership and participation from prominent scholars of Al-Azhar, the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, and various regional councils, IOMS began by addressing the most critical questions affecting human dignity and life itself.
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The Organ Transplantation Conference (1985): A Defining Fatwa
In 1985, IOMS organized its first major international conference, focusing on organ transplantation. The conference concluded with a landmark fatwa that articulated two key positions:
1. Organ donation from living donors is permissible, provided it does not endanger the donor’s life or violate Islamic ethics.
2. Post-mortem organ donation is also permissible in cases of necessity, provided the deceased had consented in life or their heirs approve, and that the dignity of the human body is preserved (IOMS 1985).
This ruling marked a turning point in Islamic bioethics. It paved the way for organ banking, informed national legislation across the Arab world, and contributed to saving countless lives (Sachedina 2009). What was once a deeply controversial issue burdened by theological uncertainty had become an avenue of compassion, guided by clear legal parameters.
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The Cloning Conference (Late 1990s): Between Scientific Wonder and Ethical Caution
Following the global debate that erupted after the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996, IOMS convened a specialized conference on human cloning. Leading experts in genetics and Islamic law deliberated on pressing questions:
• Does cloning amount to tampering with God’s creation?
• Is reproductive cloning of humans permissible under any condition?
• Can therapeutic cloning for disease treatment be differentiated from reproductive cloning?
The scholars concluded with a total prohibition of reproductive human cloning, citing its threat to lineage, parentage rights, and the ontological structure of human identity. However, they left room for conditional allowance of therapeutic or research-based cloning under strict ethical and legal regulations (IOMS 1999; Ghaly 2012).
This nuanced approach distinguished between innovation that preserves life and experimentation that endangers human dignity and social order.
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The Abortion Conference: From Ethical Absolutism to Jurisprudence of Balancing Interests
Among the most sensitive topics addressed was abortion, especially as prenatal genetic diagnostics became more sophisticated, and abortions due to social or economic factors more widespread.
The conference dealt with complex questions, such as:
• At what stage is the fetus considered a person in Islamic law?
• When is termination of pregnancy legally impermissible, and when might it serve a legitimate medical or social interest?
• What is the difference between abortion before and after ensoulment (commonly held to occur at 120 days)?
• In which medical cases (e.g., saving the mother’s life or severe fetal deformities) is abortion religiously sanctioned?
The scholars responded with precise, stage-specific rulings that accounted for fiqh al-ḍarūra (jurisprudence of necessity), rafʿ al-ḥaraj (removal of hardship), and the difference between fetal development stages. These rulings helped bridge traditional jurisprudence with modern medical realities, without compromising Islamic ethical principles (Kamali 2008; IOMS 2001).
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The Institutionalization of Collective Ijtihad
What made these early conferences transformative was their pioneering methodology. The IOMS:
• Established foundational principles of medical fiqh before the rise of modern “Islamic bioethics” as an academic field (Sachedina 2009; Padela 2013).
• Adopted a collective ijtihad approach, merging rigorous legal scholarship with contemporary scientific understanding.
• Produced reference documents that remain foundational in the curricula of faculties of Shariah and Medicine across the Muslim world.
The methodology emphasized depth, precision, and humility—hallmarks of a jurisprudence rooted in revelation, yet attuned to the lived realities of patients, families, and healthcare professionals.
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A Legacy That Endures
The outcomes of these conferences continue to shape Islamic legal discourse and medical practice. Their influence is visible in:
• National healthcare legislation,
• Hospital policy frameworks,
• Fatwa councils’ decisions, and
• The ethical training of Muslim medical professionals navigating between science and faith.
Through these efforts, IOMS revived a jurisprudence of life—one that did not shy away from complexity, but rather sought to harmonize the divine and the empirical, the timeless and the temporal.
Conclusion: A Civilizational Trajectory of Integration
The Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences has charted a civilizational trajectory that reclaims the legacy of ijtihad while rooting it in collective scholarly engagement. It has demonstrated that Islamic law, when informed by scientific knowledge and governed by ethical integrity, can provide robust and compassionate frameworks for the most pressing moral questions of our time.
Rather than resist modernity, IOMS offers a model of principled engagement—where religion is not a barrier to progress, but its moral compass.
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References (Sample)
• Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf. 2001. Fiqh al-Ṭibb: Bayna al-Sharʿ wa al-Ṭibb al-Ḥadīth. Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq.
• Ghaly, Mohammed. 2012. “Human Cloning in Muslim Ethics: The Missing Dimension of Hermeneutics.” Bioethics 26(6): 285–295.
• Ghaly, Mohammed. 2013. Islam and Disability: Perspectives in Theology and Jurisprudence. London: Routledge.
• IOMS. 1985. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Organ Transplantation in Islam. Kuwait: Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences.
• IOMS. 1999. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Human Cloning in Islam. Kuwait: IOMS.
• IOMS. 2001. Conference on Abortion and Its Jurisprudential Dimensions in Islam. Kuwait: IOMS.
• Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. 2008. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society.
• Padela, Aasim I. 2013. “Islamic Bioethics: Between Sacred Law, Living Traditions, and Human Experience.” Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 34(2): 65–80.
• Sachedina, Abdulaziz. 2009. Islamic Biomedical Ethics: Principles and Application. New York: Oxford University Press.
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