Short answer
Yes, it is haram. Human beings are honoured by Allah, alive or dead, so no part of a human body may be eaten. In the Hanafi school this holds even in starvation. The Shafi'i school, and some scholars of other schools, allow eating from a corpse only to survive certain death. Killing someone for food is never allowed.
Eating any part of a human being is haram because of human dignity, not because the body is impure. The Hanafi books do not allow it even to someone dying of hunger. The same reasoning forbids eating products made from human parts, such as placenta capsules.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- A person facing death from starvation, with nothing else at all, may eat from a human corpse to survive. Killing a person who is protected by law for this is forbidden.
Explanation
The Quran says Allah has honoured the children of Adam, and the Prophet ﷺ said that breaking the bone of a dead person is like breaking it while he is alive. Respect for the human body does not end at death, which is why Muslims wash, shroud and bury their dead with care. Eating human flesh is the opposite of that honour. Allah even uses it as the image of something repulsive, comparing backbiting to eating your dead brother's flesh.
The scholars discuss cannibalism mainly in the extreme case of starvation. The Hanafi school holds that a human body may not be eaten even then, because the dignity of the dead is not set aside for the living. The Shafi'i school allows the starving person to eat from a corpse to stay alive. No school allows killing a protected person for food.
The same principle answers some modern questions:
- Placenta capsules or eating the placenta after birth: not permitted in the Hanafi school, since the placenta is part of a human being.
- L-cysteine (E920) made from human hair: not permitted; versions made from duck feathers, pig bristles or by fermentation vary, so check the source (see E-numbers).
- Organ donation and transplants are a different, medical question (see organ donation).
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Israa 17:70
۞ وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ وَحَمَلْنَٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ وَفَضَّلْنَٰهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍۢ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًۭا ﴿٧٠﴾
And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite] preference.
The basis of human dignity, which forbids using the human body as food.
Quran, Surah Al-Hujuraat 49:12
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱجْتَنِبُوا۟ كَثِيرًۭا مِّنَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِثْمٌۭ ۖ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا۟ وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا ۚ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًۭا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ تَوَّابٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ ﴿١٢﴾
O you who have believed, avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin. And do not spy or backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is Accepting of repentance and Merciful.
Uses eating human flesh as the image of something detestable.
Sunan Abi Dawud 3207
Graded sahih... كسر عظم الميت ككسره حيا ...
"Breaking the bone of a dead person is like breaking it while he is alive."
The dead body keeps its dignity.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Kitab al-Karahiyya, chapter on treatment. Using human parts is not permitted because of human dignity, even for necessity.
- al-Majmu' (Nawawi), Kitab al-At'ima, on what the starving person may eat. The Shafi'i permission to eat from a corpse to survive.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.