Fatawa Ajila li-Mansubi al-Sihha
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Da‘wah and Guidance
Fatawa Ajila li-Mansubi al-Sihha (Urgent Legal Rulings for Healthcare Personnel) is a collection of Islamic legal rulings delivered by the Saudi scholar Ibn Baz (1330–1420 AH / 1912–1999 CE), addressing legal and ethical questions encountered by hospital staff, medical professionals, and patients .
Background and Composition
The book consists of answers to questions posed following two lectures delivered by Ibn Baz at Al-Noor Specialist Hospital in Mecca . The first set of fatwas was delivered at the conclusion of his lecture titled Kalima ila al-Tabib al-Muslim ("A Word to the Muslim Physician") in Rajab 1410 AH . The second set arose from answers given after another lecture at the same hospital on Monday, 27 Rajab 1412 AH . The compilation was prepared by Mu‘awwad ‘A’id al-Lihyani of King Abdulaziz Hospital in Mecca, who dated its introduction to 20 Muharram 1413 AH .
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into two sequential parts containing numbered questions and answers that address practical hospital scenarios and medical procedures .
Worship and Ritual Purification
The treatise outlines rulings for patients and medical staff regarding acts of worship:
- Purification for the sick: Guidelines for performing dry ablution (tayammum) when unable to use water, recommending that hospitals keep clean soil in containers beneath patient beds, as well as rulings on wiping over plaster casts and bandaged wounds .
- Prayer under medical constraints: Instructions for patients fitted with urinary catheter bags or suffering continuous discharge, allowing them to pray according to their ability within each prayer time , and rulings permitting prayer in blood-stained garments when clean alternatives are unavailable .
- Anesthesia and missed prayers: Rulings stipulating that patients undergoing surgery should make up prayers missed during anesthesia upon regaining consciousness if the period of unconsciousness does not exceed three days .
- Work duties and congregation: Regulations concerning medical personnel missing congregational or Friday prayers due to unavoidable hospital duties .
Workplace Ethics and Interactions
The book addresses social conduct and professional standards within medical facilities:
- Gender division: The obligation for medical staff and patients to be segregated by sex—assigning male physicians and nurses to male patients, and female staff to female patients—permitting cross-gender treatment only in cases of necessity (darura) .
- Seclusion and modesty: The prohibition of illicit seclusion (khalwa) between unrelated men and women in examination rooms or during night shifts, the impermissibility of shaking hands between male and female colleagues, and modest dress requirements for female healthcare workers .
- Administrative integrity: The prohibition against department heads accepting personal gifts from staff members, equating them to potential bribery , and the duty of confidentiality when treating patients involved in sinful behavior, counseling them rather than exposing them .
Medical and Bioethical Rulings
The collection also covers specific bioethical questions:
- Abortion and sterilization: Prohibiting the abortion of fetuses diagnosed with congenital deformities, and restricting surgical hysterectomies for sterilization to cases of medical necessity .
- Ambiguous sex (khuntha): Criteria for determining gender after puberty through physical indicators and medical intervention .
- Disposal of amputated parts: Advising the burial of amputated limbs or tissue in clean earth out of respect, while noting that disposal does not carry the formal rules of human burial unless it involves a fetus that reached four months of gestation .
- Therapeutic practices: The rejection of music therapy as invalid, directing that spiritual comfort be sought through the recitation of the Quran, and emphasizing that repentance remains open for terminally ill patients, including those with HIV/AIDS .
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