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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Bioethics: A General Scheme Part 1: Value of life Life is a divine quality: Among God’s attributes and names in the Islamic scriptures, “the Living” (Al-Hayy) is one of the most obvious and outstanding one. Sanctity of life All forms of life are precious and are considered as signs of God. However, among all forms of life in the material world, human life is the most outstanding and the most precious.

Human life is so important that God mentions in the Qur'an its development step by step and finally after referring to the creation of spirit, which is considered as “Khalqan Aakhar” says: “Blessed be the Best of creators!” [^1] If the creator of man is the best of creators, man himself must be the best of creatures – at least potentially. Life must be appreciated and respected. Killing an innocent person not only is considered as a criminal act (i.e.

murder), but also represents an underestimation or an insult to human life as a whole. The fact is interestingly expressed in the following verse: For this reason We prescribed to the Children of Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men; and certainly Our messengers came to them with clear proofs, but even after that many of them certainly act extravagantly in the land.

[^2] One may conclude from the above verse that: • Causing death to one person unjustifiably is like causing death to all people. In the other words, lack of respect for an individual life demonstrates lack of respect for life as such and, therefore, for all individual lives (1, 2). This is in agreement with the fact that whoever commits a murder is likely to murder more people and endanger all people (2).

This is why the Qur’an considers legislation of the retaliation as a source of life, though prefers pardon when there is no fear of threat to the public security[^3]. Animal life: We also found in the Islamic hadiths that even killing or destroying animals unjustifiably is very severely condemned.