or to break any of his bones, for the body is a trust that will be resurrected whole on the Day of Resurrection. Consequently, it is not lawful to take anything from him.

For this reason the Hanbali jurists, may Allah have mercy on them, have stated explicitly that it is impermissible to remove any organ from a deceased person—even if he had bequeathed it—because the dead enjoy the same inviolability as the living. Breaking the bone of a dead person is like breaking it while he is alive; if we were to take an organ from him or fracture one of his bones, that would constitute an offense against him, an act of aggression for which we would be sinful.

The deceased himself cannot donate any of his organs, for they are a trust in his custody and he is not permitted to squander that trust. Allah the Exalted therefore said, “Do not kill yourselves; truly Allah has been merciful to you” (al-Nisaʾ 29).

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (may Allah be pleased with him) applied this verse to a person in a state of major ritual impurity who, in severe cold, fears harm from bathing. While commanding a military detachment he became junub on a bitterly cold night, so he performed tayammum (dry ablution) and led his men in prayer. When they returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he was informed, the Prophet asked, “O ʿAmr, did you lead your companions in prayer while you were junub?”—that is, without bathing. ʿAmr replied, “O Messenger of Allah, I remembered Allah’s words: ‘Do not kill yourselves; truly Allah has been merciful to you’ (al-Nisaʾ 29), and I feared the cold, so I performed tayammum.” The Prophet ﷺ laughed, approved his action, and endorsed his reasoning from the verse; he did not say that the verse failed to apply in this situation.