May the peace, mercy and blessing of Allah be upon you. I would like to know the Islamic verdict on donating a kidney to a person in need in return for financial compensation offered by the recipient. Is this permissible or not?

It is not permissible to sell organs. If a person donates because he wants to help his brother in Islam, then his brother in faith rewards him without any prior agreement, there is nothing wrong with accepting it.

Here is the decision of the Islamic Fiqh Council of the World Muslim League in this respect:

"Decision no.1, Session no. 8, Title: Organ Transplants

Introduction: All praise is for Allah alone, and may peace and blessing be upon the Last and Final Prophet, our leader and prophet, Muhammad. To proceed: The Islamic Fiqh Council of the World Muslim League, in its eighth session, held in the World Muslim League Building in the Holy City of Mecca, from Saturday, Rabi`a al-Akhar 28, 1405 H, until Monday, Jumada al-Ula 7, 1405 H (January 19-28, 1985 CE), has looked into the matter of taking human organs and transplanting them in another person who needs that organ to substitute for his own dysfunctional one, as has been achieved by modern medicine, which has seen incredibly important successes using these new techniques. The request has been brought before the Islamic Council by the office of the World Muslim League in the United States of America. The council has examined the report submitted by Shaikh Abdullah ibn Abd ur-Rahman al-Bassam on the subject, and what it contains of the divergent views of modern scholars of fiqh, concerning the permissibility of transporting and transplanting organs, the arguments for the opinion of each group, and the legal evidence to support their opinions. After exhaustive debate between the members of the council assembly, we have decided that the arguments for its permissibility are stronger. Therefore, the assembly has settled on the following decision:

First: Taking organs from a living body and transplanting them in the body of another human being, who depends on this for his survival or to revive one of the functions of an essential organ, is a permissible action, which does not negate human dignity, in terms of the donor, inasmuch as the benefit of this action is enormous. In fact, it is the best of all assistance to the recipient, and this is a legitimate and praiseworthy deed, as long as the following conditions are met:

1 - that taking the organ from the donor does not harm him in a way that disturbs his normal life, because the legal principle is: "Harm is not removed with similar harm, nor with anything worse than it." Because donation in that case would be like throwing one`s self into destruction [ref. Al-Baqarah 2:195], which is not legally permissible;

2 – that the organ be given voluntarily by the donor without compulsion;

3 – that transplanting the organ be the only possible medical way to treat the patient; and

4 – that the success of each operation—removal and transplant—is achieved either usually or most of the time.

Second: Organ transplant is also legally permissible by way of precedence in the following cases:

1 – taking an organ from a dead person to save the life of another person who needs it, on condition that the donor is legally responsible under Islamic law (mukallaf), and had granted permission while he was still alive;

2 – that the organ be taken from an animal that it is permissible to eat, which has been slaughtered completely, or otherwise when necessary, to be transplanted into a human being who absolutely needs it;

3 – taking part of a human body to be transplanted [into another] or to patch his own body, such as taking a piece of skin or bone to patch another part of his body with it when it becomes necessary to do so; and

4 – putting artificial parts, made of metal or other materials in the body of a human being, to treat a diseased condition in him, such as joints, a heart valve, or others.

In all four cases, the assembly sees that this is legally permissible under Islamic law, given the preceding conditions. A team of physicians participated in the discussion on this subject. They are:

1. Dr. Sayyid Muhammad Ali al-Barr
2. Dr. Abdullah Baslamah
3. Dr. Khalid Amin Muhammad Hassan
4. Dr. Abd ul-Ma`boud `Ammarah as-Sayyid
5. Dr. Abdullah Jum`ah
6. Dr. Ghazi al-Hajim

May Allah bless our master, Muhammad, his family and companions, and grant them abundant peace, and all praise is for Allah, Lord of all that exists.