نص قرآني / حديث شريفAllah says: "We have honoured the children of Adam" (17:70), and: "Whoever saves one life, it is as if he had saved all of mankind" (5:32). The protection of life (hifz al-nafs) is one of the aims (maqasid) of the law. Two principles guide medical questions. First, "there is to be no harm and no reciprocating harm" (Nawawi's Forty Hadith, no. 32), so harm is to be removed. Second, necessity can permit what is normally forbidden, within limits: "whoever is compelled, without desiring it or exceeding the limit, there is no sin on him" (2:173). Modern medical questions are new, so scholars reason together. Councils such as the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (Jeddah) gather jurists and doctors: doctors explain the facts, jurists apply the evidences. A collective ruling of this kind carries more weight than a single opinion, though councils can differ. This lesson explains how scholars and councils reason; it is not a personal fatwa. For your own situation, ask a qualified scholar and your doctor.