The Amānah Paradigm: Bodily Stewardship and Organ Transplantation in Islamic Law

Abstract

Organ donation remains one of the most contested issues in contemporary Islamic bioethics because it raises fundamental questions concerning the legal status of the human body, bodily integrity, and the preservation of human life. Although contemporary Islamic jurists have extensively examined the permissibility of organ transplantation through legal doctrines such as necessity (ḍarūrah), public interest (maṣlaḥah), and the objectives of the Sharīʿah (Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah), comparatively little attention has been devoted to the underlying jurisprudential question of human authority over the body. This article addresses that gap by reconstructing organ donation through the doctrine of Amānah (trust), arguing that the human body should be understood not as an object of private ownership but as a divine trust entrusted to human stewardship. Employing a qualitative doctrinal methodology, the study analyses the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, classical works of uṣūl al-fiqh, substantive jurisprudence, legal maxims, and contemporary Islamic bioethical scholarship to examine the legal status of the human body and its implications for organ donation. The analysis demonstrates that Islamic law recognises neither unrestricted proprietary authority over the body nor an absolute doctrine of bodily inviolability. Rather, human beings exercise delegated fiduciary authority conditioned by accountability before Allah and the objectives of the Sharīʿah. On this basis, the article develops a jurisprudential theory of bodily stewardship, arguing that organ donation constitutes a lawful exercise of delegated authority when undertaken in accordance with informed consent, medical necessity, proportionality, the prohibition of commercialization, the minimization of harm, and respect for human dignity. The article concludes that the doctrine of Amānah provides a more coherent and principled legal framework than approaches relying exclusively on ownership, autonomy, or necessity, thereby offering a normative foundation for contemporary Islamic bioethics and future jurisprudential engagement with emerging biomedical technologies.