# Is it haram for medical students to dissect dead bodies?

*Ahl al-Hadith rigidity: a fatwa forbidding medical students to dissect cadavers*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/housirokbvu/s/6/
- Date: 2020-04-19 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Shaykh Kashif Khan | Policing thought, Pornography & Pandora's box | MindTrap with Mufti #15 (25:17–29:14)
- Status: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOusirOkBVU&t=1517s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/housirokbvu/

**Topics:** Medical questions; Salafism and Wahhabism; Guest conversations

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The guest says dissecting cadavers for medical training is permissible, and cites a Salafi fatwa forbidding it as an example of Ahl al-Hadith rigidity.

## Longer summary

Asked which Ahl al-Hadith views he has publicly criticised, the guest says their main problem is that they are not fond of reading fiqh. He relates that his brother brought him a medical student whom a senior Salafi scholar in Karachi, whom he declines to name, had told that practising on dead bodies was haram because it meant seeing a naked body, leaving the student unsure how to continue his studies. The guest says he explained to the student that it is totally fine, since general rulings cannot be applied to dissection done for learning. He gives this as one example of thinking in a closed box, likening it to debates over whether one may pray on a boat, a train or a plane.

## Sources and names cited

- Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)
- Ahl al-Hadith
- fiqh
- 'awrah (nakedness of the dead)

## Transcript (machine tier, 25:17–29:14)

[24:46] like this on Facebook so what some of these issues must lucky I am into la Hadi so they are always grouping in every in every sec there are other groups for a moment I thought he said there's always grow pink

[25:16] I was like okay so you think so what are some of these key issues or some examples of issues that you've had that you've gone public with rattle the cage so the main problem was they're like they were not we're very fond of reading

[25:55] the fake right so they were very very so I'll tell you an incident my younger brother he he brought me his friend who was doing he was in doing MBBS was becoming the doctors medical doctor and they had to you know do this practice over the dead body of the people do this oh they have to practice on the dead body I forgot the name of that word they

[26:34] use in the medical term anyways so much my brother brought that guy to me and a selfie shameful Hadees very famous apologies I'm not taking his name so he's he's from Karachi as well the Vice senior scholar he he asked him so that when we examined the dead body we practice on them and we have and there's no other option other like if we do not study on these dead bodies we can't practice right we had shot this on them we have to learn from the anatomy and whatever it is not so yeah yeah so he

[27:13] said to him it is Haram it's Haram for you to see the naked dead body he's had to practice over them he gave him this and that guy he was just he was like what the heck is this like how what I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do and I'm still studying and if you if you tell someone a common guy who is who is religiously devoted and at the same time study involved in his profession and a lot of people are like that they're both would reduce and devote it to their carriers and things like that so he said to him it is her I came

[27:54] to me and I explained to him well it's totally fine it's not a problem otherwise this is like he can't apply the general rulings on this this is for the learning purposes and I and I kind of satisfied him but this is just one incident that how their thinking is how their thinking is that every kind of enclosed box you know deal with that whether you can pray you know in a in a crane or not whether you can pray because in a mosque in a in a boat or in

[28:33] a train in a plane in an airplane speaking of in a break speaking of praying in mosques one of the issues you've been very vocal on is women praying in the streets yeah yeah it's me it's my much luck okay what's going on with this I think I think the LP its colors they're a bit relaxed because all wine women go to the mouth I can't sit in Mystica you can't go to the mosque

[29:13] you can't come to the III but since I became selfie or would always take my mom to the east race and I was otherwise if they don't go how they're gonna learn like they're going to the market they are going to the universities colleges everywhere else they're going but they're specifically told not to go to the mosque right yeah and from the evidence perspective like they don't have any evidence like what evidence do they have other than other than this thing it's fit enough if you allow women to go to the mall it's fit enough and it just

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment hOusirOkBVU/s/6. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/housirokbvu/s/6/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.