Sharief has a donor kidney: 'Muslims know very little about organ donation'

Sharief wants as many people as possible to know what organ donation entails. He finds this important: 'Too little is known about it in our faith community. It is not talked about enough. I want to make people aware that it is important to think about it.'

Didn't notice anything

Sharief discovered in 1998 that his kidneys were not working properly. He was 31 at the time. 'I had constant headaches. After a long time, it turned out that my kidneys were leaking. As a result, you don't get rid of the waste products in the blood sufficiently, and that gives you headaches. The cause was sky-high blood pressure. Except for the headache, I hadn't noticed anything.'

Difficult to ask

When his kidneys were only working at 11 percent in 2003, he had to go on dialysis to take over the functions of the kidneys and clean the blood. At the same time, Sharief was put on the waiting list for a donor kidney. 'I didn't ask anyone in my family if they wanted to donate a kidney to me, because I chose what God wanted to happen. And because no one noticed that I was sick, I found asking for a kidney difficult.'

In 2007, Sharief received a kidney from a deceased donor. 'It's going well. The kidney is working at 33 percent, but that is enough. I still get tired quickly, so I work 20 hours a week. And I exercise every other day.'

Survival more important

Sharief belongs to a faith community within Islam. He talks about their view on death: 'The body is made of earth. After death, the body goes into the ground and the soul goes to a place where all souls are. On the day of judgment, the soul returns to the body. If you have lived well, you go to heaven; otherwise, you are punished.'

For organ donation, this is no obstacle, Sharief explains: 'If you can save someone's life with it, that is good. Actually, according to our faith, your body should remain intact, but saving a life takes precedence. Another example is eating pork, which Muslims are not allowed to do. If there is nothing left to eat at all, but there is pork, then you are allowed to eat it anyway. Survival is more important then.'

Talking about it

Sharief's family reacted positively to his donor kidney. It was also well received within the faith community. Yet Sharief says: 'Everyone knows that I received a kidney, but I notice that people don't like to talk about it. Not even about saying yes or no in the Donor Register. I don't think that's because people find it scary, but because they know very little about it. More attention is needed for it.'

Meetings in the Mosque

He does have an idea of how that could be done. 'Among Surinamese Muslims, diabetes is common. The mosque organizes meetings about that. People can even have their blood drawn monthly in the mosque. That is how the mosque makes visitors aware of the dangers of diabetes. They could also organize these kinds of meetings about organ donation. People need to know that they can save lives with it. And that the faith is actually positive about donation, because you save lives with it.'