Questioner: Sometime few years ago, there was an airplane crash and there was no food around and the people ate other human beings. Now forget about the moral visual for now, is it permitted in Islam if there is no food around and you are just about to die, can you eat another human flesh?
Huzoor (rh): It is not only permissible but in fact it is imperative for the human life to be saved, at whatever cost. But not at the cost of the alive ones, (only) at the cost of the dead. You can’t say a Muslim’s life is in jeopardy, so a Sikh should be devoured, that is not permitted in Islam. So life holds sanctity against life, but death does not hold sanctity against life, whatever the nature of that death be. But it should be only taken recourse to the very minimum, the very minimum essential for survival, that is all.
