In fact, Islam honours human beings, alive or dead. This applies to their bodily parts as well as to their persons. Therefore, if a bodily part, like a leg or a hand, was cut off from a human being, it is to be buried and not to be thrown away as garbage. Moreover, the bodily part cut off is not to be washed before burial and no funeral Prayer is to be offered for it. It is just to be wrapped in a piece of cloth and buried.
Dr. Husam al-Din Ibn Musa `Afana, professor of principles of Islamic jurisprudence at Al-Quds University, Palestine, states: If a bodily part like a leg or a hand is cut off from a human being, it is to be buried either in a grave or in pure land. It is not to be thrown away as garbage, for human beings are honoured alive or dead. This applies to their bodily parts as well as to their persons. Allah Almighty says :“And surely We have honoured the children of Adam, and We carry them in the land and the sea, and We have given them of the good things, and We have made them to excel by an appropriate excellence over most of those whom We have created” (Al-Isra’: 70). The organ cut off is not to be washed before burial and no funeral Prayer is to be offered for it. It is just to be wrapped in a piece of cloth and buried. Some scholars also say that it is recommendable that every part separated from man’s body, like hair, nails, and blood, be buried.
Sheikh Ibn Qudammah Al-Maqdisi said, “It is recommendable that a person bury the nails he has clipped or the hair he has trimmed. It was reported in this regard that Mayl bint Mashrah said, ‘I saw my father clipping his nails and burying them saying, I saw Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) doing so.’ It was also reported on the authority of Ibn Juraij that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would like to bury blood.”
Mahnah, a companion of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, said, ‘‘I asked Imam Ahmad about the nails one clips and the hair one trims: Should one bury them or throw them away? He said, ‘One should bury them.’ Upon this, I said, ‘Do you have evidence for this?’ He said, ‘`Ibn `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) would bury them. Besides, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was reported to have ordered that nails and hair cut be buried saying, ‘(This should be done) so that sorcerers would not play with them (using them in black magic to harm people).’”
Imam An-Nawawi, a Shafi`i scholar, said, ‘‘It is recommendable that nails and hair that one cuts be buried. Ibn `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) was reported to have had this opinion. Our fellow scholars have also agreed upon this.’’
Imam An-Nawawi also said, “Al-Metwali (may Allah have mercy upon him) reported that there is scholarly agreement that bodily parts that are cut off are not to be washed before their burial and no funeral Prayer is to be offered for them. He said, ‘There is no scholarly difference regarding that the hand that is cut off as punishment for stealing or retribution is not to be washed and no funeral Prayer is to be offered for it. It is just to be wrapped in a piece of cloth and buried. So is also the case with the nails clipped and the hair trimmed: no Prayer is to be offered for them; it is just recommendable that they are buried.’”
Imam An-Nawawi also said, “Burial is not recommended only in the case of the bodily parts that are cut off from dead people; it is recommendable also in the case of any bodily part that separates from a living human being like hair and nails. Likewise, it is recommendable that the clot or foetus that a woman miscarries be buried, and so should also be the case with one’s blood.”
To sum up, when a bodily part of a human being is cut off, no Prayer is to be offered for it, nor is it to be thrown away as garbage. It is just to be wrapped in a piece of cloth and buried. It is not also to be kept until the death of the person it belongs to.