Assalaamu alaykum. A Muslim works at a blood bank and sends blood components to the hospital and outside the hospital, but each time the Muslim sends blood components, the recipient has to pay. The Muslim does not want to charge the recipient but cannot change the way things work at the hospital. Is it obligatory for that Muslim to quit this job? May Allaah reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

There is no doubt that selling blood is forbidden in Islam. The fatwa of the Fiqh Council of the Muslim World League in its eleventh session held in Makkah (13-20 Rajab 1409 A.H.) reads:

"Regarding the ruling of taking a compensation for blood, in other words, the sale of blood, then the Council is of the view that it is not lawful because blood is one of the things that have been prohibited in the Quran along with pork and the meat of dead animals. So it is not permissible to sell blood or take a compensation for it. According to an authentic hadeeth, 'When Allaah prohibits something, He prohibits its price too.' It has also been authentically reported that Prophet Muhammad forbade the sale of blood. However, extra-ordinary circumstances call for an exception from the normal rulings. Such circumstances include the different medical situations and when nobody is available to donate his blood except with compensation, because necessities call for the permissibility of what is prohibited to an extent to remove the state of necessity. In this case, it becomes permissible for the buyer to pay a compensation for blood, and the person who takes the compensation money for his blood would be sinful. There is no objection if the blood donor is provided with an amount of money as a gift or reward in order to encourage him for this humanitarian charitable deed, because it would be a donation then, and not a compensation.”

However, if the blood bank takes an amount of money in return for extracting the blood, storing it, testing it, and so forth, then, in our view – and Allaah knows best – this is not prohibited. In a dissertation by Dr. Ismaa'eel Marhaba, titled ‘Human medical banks and their Fiqh rulings’, it reads, "Dr. Abdullaah At-Tureeqi said, 'What some blood banks are doing, such as taking a compensation for extracting the blood and examining the donor in order to test whether his blood is good or not… then the amount that the blood bank takes in this case is in return for the cost [the work done], and not for the blood; it is in return for the work done by such banks, then this is acceptable, unless this is conditioned and it is the price of the blood, then this is forbidden and it is not valid.'

So it can be said, based on the above, that it is permissible for the bank to take a fee for extracting the blood, examining it and storing it, and (it can also be said) that there is no disagreement on its permissibility.”

Therefore, if the bank sells the blood and its components, then it is not permissible to work in this field, because working in it involves doing what is forbidden or helping in it; indeed, it is established in the ruling of the Sharee'ah that helping in the disobedience of Allaah is forbidden, as Allaah says (what means): {…but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allaah; indeed, Allaah is severe in penalty.} [Quran 5:2]

However, if the bank does not sell the blood but only takes an equivalent cost for storing the blood, delivering it, and the like, then there is nothing wrong in working for it.

Allaah knows best.