Are Muslim Female Nurses Allowed to Work and Do Personal Care Support?


Hanafi Fiqh

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

I hope you can understand and give me an answer to my question. Firstly, thank you for your time and your effort.

In the last months, I have embraced and accepted Islam. I have learned sura Al-Fatiha, and I pray Allah opens my heart.

My question is that I am working as a nurse in a hospital, and I care for women of all ages. Sometimes they need personal care and support. Would this be okay for a female Muslim nurse?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

Working as a female Muslim nurse and looking after the old, sick, and vulnerable is rewarding work. The question of personal care is inevitable in the above cases. As this is part of the job, it would be permissible as a necessity. Necessity permits prohibit acts.

As a rule of necessity applies, only that area should be exposed, which is necessary, and female carers and nurses should tend and care for female patients as much as possible.

Intention

In health and care, intentions can change your type of work into tremendous reward in this world and the Next. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd-al-Muhtar]

Below are some further guidelines and answers:
nurse Archives – SeekersGuidance

I pray this helps with your question.

May Allah Most High make you a means of ease and comfort for all in your care, Amin.

[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied within UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan and Turkey.

He started his early education in UK. He went onto complete hifz of Qur’an in India, then enrolled into an Islamic seminary in UK where he studied the secular and Alimiyyah sciences. He then travelled to Karachi, Pakistan.

He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for a number of years. He has taught hifz of the Qur’an, Tajwid, Fiqh and many other Islamic sciences to both children and adults onsite and online extensively in UK and Ireland. He was teaching at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences.

He currently resides in UK with his wife. His personal interest is love of books and gardening.