What is the Islamic ruling on euthanasia and end-of-life decisions?

Actively ending a life — whether by a doctor's injection or by a patient's own request — is unlawful and counts as killing a soul Allah has made sacred: "Do not kill yourselves; indeed Allah is Merciful to you" (Quran 4:29). The Prophet ﷺ related that a man among those before us was in pain from a wound, took a knife and cut his hand, and the blood did not stop until he died, whereupon Allah said, "My servant hastened to bring about his death, so I have forbidden Paradise to him" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3463; a parallel narration is in Sahih Muslim 113) — a severe warning against ending suffering by ending life. Withholding or withdrawing treatment that doctors judge to be futile is a different question: since seeking treatment is not universally obligatory in the view of the majority, the scholars permit a family, guided by trustworthy medical advice, to decline aggressive interventions that only prolong dying, while food, water, and pain relief continue. And when illness becomes unbearable, the Sunnah is not to wish for death but to say, "O Allah, keep me alive as long as life is better for me, and take me when death is better for me" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5671; Sahih Muslim 2680).

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