Sarmad Naveed, Canada
A recent article in The New York Times considered that pig-to-human transplants could pose a dilemma for Jews and Muslims, considering the consumption of pork is forbidden in both religions. The article raises the question:
‘Will Jews and Muslims accept a transplant organ from a pig if it saves their lives?’
This all stems from recent medical and scientific breakthroughs. For example, history was made in 2022 at the University of Maryland when a 57-year-old man in the end stages of heart disease lived for two months after a successful pig-to-human heart transplant. This marked the world’s first ever xenotransplant.
More recently, a procedure by Harvard Medical School physician-scientists saw the first ever successful transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney into a human, giving a 62-year-old man with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure a new outlook on life.
These medical and scientific breakthroughs have created a new source of hope in a world dealing with a shortage of donated organs. It’s become a new way of helping to save lives.
But are these pig-to-human transplants seen positively by everyone?
Let’s explore the Islamic perspective.
Does Islam Allow Pig-to-Human Organ Transplants?
This question arises because the Holy Qur’an – the holy scripture of Islam believed to be the revealed word of God – teaches that the consumption of swine is haram or forbidden. The Holy Qur’an states:
‘He has made unlawful to you only that which dies of itself, and blood and the flesh of swine, and that on which the name of any other than Allah has been invoked.’[1]
The question then becomes whether this prohibition extends to all facets of the pig, including things like pig-to-human organ transplants.
There are different schools of thought, but the most accurate answer based on the original teachings of Islam has been provided by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba), the Fifth Caliph and Worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
He presents a fundamental principle when it comes to understanding the Islamic permissibility of pig-to-human organ transplants:
‘When it is a matter of saving human life then there is no harm is such forms of treatment.’
Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) explains that alcohol consumption is also strictly forbidden in Islam, yet it’s use is permissible in medicines which help save lives. This principle is rooted in a teaching found in the same verse which prohibits eating swine and goes on to say:
‘But he who is driven by necessity, being neither disobedient nor exceeding the limit, it shall be no sin for him.’
Based on this principle, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) concludes:
‘Hence, as a form of treatment, in order to save a life, it is permissible to transplant a pig’s heart into a human body, as this would be an instance of being driven by necessity, and thus is not forbidden.’[2]
Understanding the Islamic Prohibition of Swine
It goes to show that according to Qur’anic law, the impermissibility of swine pertains to its consumption. But the use of other pig-related products does not fall under the same prohibition.
For example, Hazrat Mirza Bashiurddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra), the Second Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community explained that ‘the use of pigskin is permissible because it is not consumed.’[3] He applied the same principle applies to toothbrushes made of pig hair, ‘because the flesh of swine has been forbidden as it can be consumed, whereas hair isn’t eaten.’[4]
These distinctions between what is and isn’t permissible in the context of swine opens a window to better understanding Islam’s prohibition of pork. The philosophy can be characterised by the famous words of renowned French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin who said, ‘Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are.’[5]
He believed that the food one eats has an intricate bearing on their character as a person. This reflects a wider Islamic philosophy which has existed for over 1,400 years, that physical elements, including food consumption, directly impact a person’s moral character.
That is the essence behind the prohibition of eating swine. Along with the potential health implications associated with pig’s meat such as trichinosis, there is another element to its prohibition which is explained by the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as):
‘Everyone knows that it [swine] eats filth and is utterly shameless. Thus the reason for the prohibition of its flesh is obvious, as by the law of nature its flesh would have a foul effect on the body and the soul of one who eats it. As we have already demonstrated food affects a person’s soul and there can be no doubt that the flesh of such a foul animal would also be foul.’[6]
Various behaviours found in pigs point to their prohibition by this standard. For example, they are prone to laying in urine and feces; they have highly inbred lines, leading to either extreme aggression or extreme placidity and indifference. A pig could be so aggressive that it tramples its own piglets, or so lethargic that it doesn’t register the squeals of its piglets when it lays on them, causing them to die. In fact, mother pigs, or sows, are also known to eat their own children. What’s more, pigs are also known for their perverse sexual behaviours.[7]
By the principle of ‘you are what you eat’, the prohibition of consuming swine seems to make incontrovertible sense.
A rule of thumb to always remember is that Islam is a religion of sensibility and practicality. Whereas consuming swine is prohibited, there could a be a life-or-death situation where there’s nothing else to eat. Hence, God has given the exception that in those circumstances, when driven by necessity, swine can be consumed in order to stay alive.
It’s by the same reasonable principles that there is no Islamic prohibition when it comes to life saving measures and procedures like pig-to-human organ transplants.
About the Author: Sarmad Naveed is an Imam of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community who graduated from the Ahmadiyya Institute for Languages and Theology in Canada. He serves as Online Editor and is on the Editorial Board for The Review of Religions, and also coordinates the Facts from Fiction section. He has also appeared as a panelist and host of programmes on Muslim Television Ahmadiyya (MTA) such as ‘Ahmadiyyat: Roots to Branches.’
ENDNOTES
[1] The Holy Qur’an, 2:174
[2] Daily Al Fazl International – 8 May 2022
[3] Tafsir-e-Kabir, Vol. 4, p. 260
[4] Al Fazl Newspaper, Qadian Darul Aman, No. 5, Vol. 16, 17 July 1928, p. 7
[5] Brillat Savarin, The Physiology of Taste, Translated by Fayette Robinson, p. 25, 1854
[6] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam, p. 39
[7] Signoret et al (1975), The behaviour of swine. In ESE Hafez (Ed.), Behaviour of Domestic Animals, Baillière Tindall, London: pp. 295–329.
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