Question:

I was advised by Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad to send the following for the attention of Dr. Karim Tourk.

I have been given the task of speaking about Islam’s position regarding Paediatric Palliative Care to an audience of doctors, nurses, physios, and social workers.

They would like some basic background about the Muslim faith and, in particular, beliefs around life and death.

They are then keen to know about the following:

1) Important rituals around death and dying in the Muslim faith
2) What they, as health professionals, can do to help before and after death
3) Timescales
4) Any things that they should particularly avoid doing
5) Who should and shouldn’t touch the child
6) Who should be there at the time of/after death
7) Direction that the child should face and why
8) Beliefs about post mortems
9) Any specific commmunication issues
10) Any other do’s and don’ts

Answer:

Many of the issues are going to be individualized by the family’s preferences and cultural traditions within the context of Islam. The general rituals of dying in Islam may be touched on in your presentation but most of these will be dealt with after the deceased has left the healthcare setting. Broadly speaking, post-mortems (autopsies) are not allowed as the deceased continues to feel after passing, hence the encouragement to use warm (not cold) water for washing the deceased. And Allah knows best.

Dr. Karim