Do not sever the bonds of the womb.
– Qur’an 4:1
Do not kill your children from fear of poverty.
– Qur’an 17:31
On the Day when the one buried alive will be asked for what sin was she killed.
– Qur’an 81:8–9
Marry and be fruitful, for I will be proud of the multitudes of my community of believers on the Day of Judgment.
– Prophet Muĥammad ﷺ
To die by other hands more merciless than mine.
No; I who gave them life will give them death.
Oh, now no cowardice, no thought how young they are,
How dear they are, how when they first were born;
Not that; I will forget they are my sons
One moment, one short moment—then forever sorrow.
– Euripides’ Medea
In English, the term we define ourselves with, human being, emphasizes “being” over doing. It is not our actions that mark us as humans but our mere being. When, then, do we come to be? When does that being we identify as human first become human? The answer is consequential for many reasons, not the least of which is that our nation’s foundational document states that all human beings are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” that include the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The question of when human life begins stubbornly remains a central point of contention in the debate, now raging for half a century, regarding the ethics of abortion. The Supreme Court made its decision, but for many, it is far from a settled matter.
Beyond our borders, meanwhile, induced abortion rates are increasing in developing nations, despite declining slightly in developed nations; an estimated one-quarter of all pregnancies worldwide end in abortion.1 The debate over abortion still rages across parts of Europe and remains contentious in North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, as well as Central and South America. While the Catholic Church continues to prioritize abortion as an egregious social ill, for many, abortion has become an acceptable option for dealing with unwanted pregnancies. Increasingly, some Muslims are adding their voices to the conversation—some even supporting legalization in areas where abortion remains illegal.
Given this global trend, it becomes all the more urgent to re-examine the normative view of infanticide and abortion in the Islamic legal tradition, which relies on the Qur’an, prophetic tradition, and scholastic authority for its proofs.
Abortion derives from the Latin word aboriri,2 meaning “to perish, disappear, miscarry.”3 The verb to abort is both intransitive (meaning to “miscarry” or “suffer an abortion”) and transitive (“to effect the abortion of a fetus”).4 In standard English, we also use the word to connote the failure of something, as “an aborted mission”—something that ends fruitlessly. As a noun, abortion means “the expulsion of a fetus (naturally or esp. by medical induction) from the womb before it is able to survive independently, esp. in the first 28 weeks of a human pregnancy.”5
Historically, civilizations and religious traditions often grouped abortion with infanticide—defined as “the killing of an infant soon after birth” by the Oxford Modern English Dictionary. Indeed, even some modern philosophers link abortion and infanticide by arguing for what they euphemistically term “after-birth abortions.”6 Reviewing the sordid history of infanticide since the Axial Age7 and how the different faith traditions inspired a change in attitudes about both practices helps set the stage for understanding the Islamic ethical vision toward abortion, which depends ultimately, as we’ll see, on the central question of when human life begins. The Mālikī legal school—or the Way of Medina,8 as it was known—offers modern Muslims a definitive response rooted in the soundest Islamic methodology to a seemingly intractable problem vexing our world today.
Genesis 9:6 further states, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”19 An alternate reading of this text renders “whoever sheds the blood of man in man,” which some rabbis argued referred to a fetus. For example, Tractate Sanhedrin of the Babylonian Talmud offers a rabbinical opinion concerning abortion:
In the name of Rabbi Yishmael20 they said: “[A Noahide receives capital punishment] even for [destroying] a fetus.” What is the reason of Rabbi Yishmael? It is the verse “he who sheds the blood of man in man (adam bādam) shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). What is the meaning of “man in man?” This can be said to refer to a fetus in its mother’s womb.21
Josephus,22 a first-century Jewish historian, wrote, “The law orders all the offspring to be brought up, and forbids women either to cause abortion or to make away with the fetus.”23 Jewish rabbinical tradition prohibits abortion unless the pregnancy threatens the mother’s life. Undeniably, Judaism’s strong stance against both infanticide and abortion informed early Christianity and the doctrine of the Church that emerged. An early Christian handbook for Church doctrine, the Didache (c. 85–110), states, “Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born.”24 Some biblical scholars have even argued that the absence of abortion from the New Testament can be explained by its inconceivability to early Christians. In fact, according to C. Ben Mitchell,
Early Christians did not just condemn abortion and infanticide; Christian communities were at the forefront of providing alternatives, including adopting children who were destined to be abandoned by their parents. Callistus (died c. 223) provided refuge to abandoned children by placing them in Christian homes. Benignus of Dijon (third century) offered nourishment and protection to abandoned children, including some with disabilities caused by failed abortions.25
Strong prohibitions against infanticide and abortion also exist in Hindu and Buddhist literature. India, despite Hinduism’s condemnation of abortion, currently suffers from an epidemic of female feticide and even infanticide.26 Buddhism, much to the chagrin of Western pro-choice advocates who view the faith as meshing with a progressive ethos, clearly condemns abortion in its earliest scriptures. The Dhammapada, an early collection of sayings of the Buddha, states, “Considering others as yourself, do not kill or promote killing. Whoever hurts living beings ... will not attain felicity after death.”27 Professor of religion and Zen teacher David R. Loy writes,
Abortion [in Buddhist tradition] is killing. According to the Pali Canon, the Buddha said that it breaks the first precept to avoid killing or harming any sentient being. Any monastic who encourages a woman to have an abortion has committed a serious offense that requires expiation.... This absolute rule in early Buddhism is a source of discomfort and embarrassment to many Western Buddhists, and is often ignored by those who are aware of it.28
Concerning the sanctity of life, including the sanctity of life within the womb, tomes from the world’s religious traditions could be written, but it remains safe to say that the normative premodern traditions of the world’s religions have universally condemned abortion and infanticide. Islam, the last of the Abrahamic faiths, is no exception, for its primary source, the Qur’an, presents its teachings as an extension of previous dispensations.
The great prophets of Judaism and Christianity find constant mention as early messengers in the Qur’an, and God reminds the Prophet Muĥammad ﷺ, “Say, ‘I am not an innovator among the messengers’” (Qur’an 46:9). Pre-Islamic Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula practiced infanticide but employed a different, if no less brutal, method than the Greco-Roman culture’s practice of death-by-exposure: the Arabs buried their children alive. They did it usually as a form of birth control, for reasons of poverty, or else out of shame at the birth of a girl. (The killing of male infants, driven by the scarcity of sustenance in the arid desert climate, was less common, though still practiced.) Commenting on the Qur’anic verse “Do not kill your children from poverty” (6:151), Imam al-Qurţubī29 (d. 671/1273) states, “Among [the Arabs] were those who also killed both their female and male children for fear of poverty.”30
Several verses in the Qur’an prohibit infanticide. The sixth chapter states, “And thus their [belief in] false gods made the killing of their children appear good and led them to destruction while confusing them about true faith. If God willed, they would not have done that; so leave them and their lies” (6:137). Shortly after those verses, the Qur’an lays out what are considered by Muslim scholars to be the first principles of Abrahamic morality:
Say: Come, I will recite to you what your Lord has forbidden you. You should not associate anything with Him; and be good to your parents, and do not kill your children on account of poverty—We provide for you and for them—and do not approach sexual indecencies, open or secret, and do not kill the soul—which God has made sacred. (6:151)
Another verse addresses this topic with the subtle nuance of fear of poverty as opposed to the previous verse, which prohibits killing the child on account of poverty—in other words, an actual impoverished state. The pronouns in the above verse (for you and for them) emphasize that God provides for the parents first and then the children in the case of actual poverty to alleviate their fears. In the following verse, the pronouns are reversed (them and you), for the parents are afraid the addition of new children will reduce them to poverty despite their current well-being: “And do not kill your children out of fear of poverty—We provide for them and you. Indeed, killing them is an enormous sin. And do not approach fornication: surely it is an obscenity and leads to an evil end. And kill not the soul which God has forbidden, except for just cause” (17:31–33). Commenting on this verse, Qāđī Abū Bakr31 (d. 543/1148) relates a hadith where the Prophet ﷺ said killing a child from fear of poverty was the second gravest sin next to setting up “partners with God.” Then Abū Bakr mentions that infanticide “is the greatest of sins because it is an assault on the entire species,” and also because it “involves men taking on the qualities of predatory beasts.”32
Similarly, another verse also prohibits infanticide and pairs it with censure of sexual deviance: “O Prophet, when believing women come to you to pledge allegiance to you that they will not associate anything with God, and will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor kill their children, nor bring a calumny which they have forged of themselves, nor disobey what is good, then accept their pledge and ask God to pardon them, for surely God is most forgiving, most merciful” (60:12).
Regarding the practice of killing female infants, the Qur’an states, “And when news of the birth of a daughter is given to one of them, his face darkens, and he grieves within. He hides himself from the people out of distress at the news he’s given. Shall he keep it, in spite of ignominy, or shall he bury it (alive) in the dust? Oh, what an evil decision they make!” (16:58–59).
The Qur’an thus unequivocally prohibits infanticide; scholars, by consensus, hold this position based upon the Qur’an, the prophetic tradition, and the consensus of the companions. In the history of Islam, there has never been debate about this issue.
So what of abortion in Islam? In order to address that question, it will help to examine the surprisingly numerous verses in the Qur’anic discourse on embryology and the accompanying traditions attributed to the Prophet ﷺ.
Ibn ¢Abbās33 (d. 67/687), the Prophet’s companion and cousin, stated that the passage of time will continue to explain the Qur’an. We can appreciate the wisdom of that statement when we consider the Qur’anic verses and hadith that relate to how and when human life begins, especially in light of what today’s science has discovered about the process of birth. Scripture and science, taken together, can lead believers to rethink our understanding of when life begins, of the miracle of revelation, and most certainly of abortion.
Unfortunately, commentaries on such Qur’anic verses and hadith contain many mistakes due to the difficulty in understanding the premodern, nontechnical terms used and the reality that the commentators of yore simply lacked the sound knowledge of embryology that we now possess through scientific discovery.
More than a Clot
Arabic words are notoriously difficult to translate due to the nuances involved in the root system of Arabic that cannot be replicated in other languages. In the first verses revealed to the Prophet Muĥammad ﷺ, the Qur’an declares, “Read, in the name of your Lord, who created: created man from an ¢alaq” (96:1–2). The word ¢alaq was traditionally understood as simply a “blood clot.” The root ¢aliqa, however, means “to become pregnant”; according to Ibn Manżūr’s34 (d. 711/1311) Lisān al-¢Arab, an authoritative Arabic dictionary, ¢alaq also means “the desire of spouses for one another,” due to its root meaning “to cling to.”35 Other meanings are “anything attached to something, something that imbeds itself into another, such as a mountain or earth, blood of any type, or a portion of it, the cord of a bucket, any cord that holds something, a leech, a clot.”36 The most appropriate connotation is “something that imbeds itself into something else,” as in the imbedding of an embryo, or blastocyst, into the woman’s uterine wall. Another possible meaning is a clot, as in “a small compact group of individuals,” given the blastocyst is a collection of rapidly dividing individual cells. The classical understanding and subsequent translation of ¢alaq as “blood clot” is simply wrong, though understandable given that a miscarriage often reveals congealed lumps that appear to be blood clots from the prematurely formed fetus.
Also, regarding the creation of human beings, the Qur’an clearly states, in many verses, that we originate from the earth: “God has caused you to grow as a growth from the earth, and afterwards, He will make you return there. He will bring you forth again anew” (20:55). “God created you from the earth” (53:32). “God created you from clay” (32:7). “We began the creation of the human being (insān) from clay” (37:11). Another verse states that man was created from water: “He is the One who created from water man and established bonds of kinship and marriage” (25:54). These verses, according to exegetes, refer to the creation of Adam, peace be upon him, from earth and water, but they equally apply to all men, as earth and water are the sole components of our physical being.
Interestingly, the Qur’an also states that man was created from a nuţfah: “God fashioned man from a nuţfah” (16:4). Again, we are confronted with the problem of translation. The meanings of nuţfah are “a minute quantity of fluid,” “a drop,” “a tiny drop left in a container,” “a flowing drop,” “drop of sperm,” “female drop [ovum].”37 What is striking about these Qur’anic verses is the accuracy with which they describe what we now know to be the male spermatozoon and the female ovum, both of which are shaped like a drop of water. The male reproductive cell, the spermatozoon, represents one of billions in the overall sperm ejected into a woman’s womb. These tiny spermatozoa, each containing a unique genetic code, race to reach the released ovum, which also contains a unique code, but only a few complete the journey, and only one or two actually penetrate the female’s ovum. The hadiths regarding this reproductive process reveal strikingly accurate details that premodern commentators misinterpreted due to their lack of the scientific knowledge necessary to understand them properly.