How Can I Care for My Mother’s Intimate Health Needs If I Can’t Afford a Nurse?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
How can I care for my mother’s intimate health needs at home while upholding Islamic guidelines of modesty and dignity according to the Hanafi School, given financial limitations?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.
As a caregiver for a female patient, one must seek a same-sex caregiver to attend to intimate health needs. If one cannot find someone from either family or non-family connections, with pay or without, then it will be allowed for you as a son, but only to the extent necessary. In all circumstances, exposure and observation should be minimized — only what is absolutely essential should be seen or touched.
“If the treatment is on her private parts, then he should teach and instruct a female to treat her. If this is not possible and it is feared that the woman patient may perish or undergo unbearable pains, only then will it be permissible for a male doctor to treat her, provided her non-affected parts of the body are completely covered and provided he keeps his gaze low as much as possible except from the affected area.”
[Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
As a rule of necessity applies, only that area should be exposed based on a jurisprudential principle: “Necessities are only dealt with according to the extent of the necessity.”
[Ibn Nujaym; al-Ashbah wa al-Nadha’ir]
I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. In sha Allah, you will receive guidance and direction.
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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel has received a traditional education in various countries. He started his schooling in the UK and completed his hifz of the Quran in India. After that, he joined an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied secular and Aalimiyya sciences. Later, he traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries to further his education. Mawlana has served as an Imam in the Republic of Ireland for several years and taught the Quran and other Islamic sciences to both children and adults. He also worked as a teacher and librarian at a local Islamic seminary in the UK for 12 years. Presently, he lives in the UK with his wife and is interested in books and gardening.
