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{short description of image}Abortion
Teacher's Tips:

{short description of image} Learn at least One quote (preferably two) from the Qur'an and Hadith and explain exactly how they relate to abortion. This is a more straightforward topic in Islam but don't be simplistic: Make it clear that you are aware that many Muslims today do not follow the traditional teachings.


{short description of image}Get familiar with the type of questions you will be asked to write paragraphs about








{short description of image}This is a great selection of key quotes. This first quote is overlooked in the textbooks but can provide an interesting basis for an anti-abortion argument.
Take advantage and learn a few of these





{short description of image}Life is sacred/holy.


{short description of image}An excellent point!




















{short description of image}I included this to show that many educated Muslims take this view.





{short description of image}This is the crux. Many abortions today are done for convenience. The traditional allowance up to 120 days was for risk to mother's life. Did Muslim scholars envisage the mass abortion situation today in many countries?

{short description of image}This is a good argument linking divorce regulation with the question of when life begins.




{short description of image}Note that you should make it clear that there are different opinions on tricky moral questions like this within Islam. This is particularly true as the science of foetology develops and more is known about the foetus.
Many Muslims think, however, that whatever the changes in opinion or science, certain Qur'anic principles like the Sanctity of Life are what matters; these do not change.
{short description of image}{short description of image}GCSE Questions:

These are the sort of Questions you will have to answer:

10 b) Explain religious attitudes to either abortion or war. (8 marks)
c) There are three main attitudes to abortion, euthanasia and war:
-they are wrong;
-some of them can be justified;
-they can all be justified.
Why do you think religious people sometimes disagree on these issues? (5 marks)
(SEG Short Course Specimen Paper)

4c) Explain Muslim attitudes to Abortion. (8 Marks)
(Edexcel Matters of Life & Death Section of Unit D: Religion and Life based on a Study of Islam)

7a) Describe Muslim attitudes towards abortion. (8 marks)
(OCR Religious Studies: Philosophy and Ethics, Unit 7: Religion & Medical Ethics)


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"Then we developed the drop into a hanging (embryo), then developed the hanging (embryo) into a bite-size (fetus), then created the bite-size (fetus) into bones, then covered the bones with flesh. We thus produce (Anshaa) a new creature. Most blessed is GOD, the best Creator." [Qur'an 23:14]

"Kill not your children for fear of want; it is We who provide sustenance for them as well as for you; for verily killing them is a great sin". (Chapter 17, Verse 31)

"Losers are those who killed their children foolishly, due to their lack of knowledge, and prohibited what God has provided for them, and followed innovations attributed to God. They have gone astray, they are not guided." (6:140)

"Say: Come, I will rehearse what God has really prohibited you from: Join nothing as equal with Him; be good to your parents, kill not your children on a plea of poverty; We provide sustenance for you and for them; approach not shameful deeds, whether open or secret; take not life, which God has made sacred, except by a way of justice and law" (Chapter 6, Verse 151).

The name God chose for His first revelation was "The hanging embryo" 'Al-'Alaq', Sura 96. This hanging embryo stage starts about 6 days after the fertilization of the ovum.

{short description of image}Islamic Teaching :

The Qur'an clearly condemns both the killing of born and unborn children. The first quote is actually a celebration of God creating life, forming an embryo a short time ( a matter of days) after its conception.

However, Muslim scholars agree that the foetus becomes a human being after 120 days of conception. According to them, the whole period of pregnancy can be divided into two stages: the first 120 days, and the remaining period before childbirth. Most traditional Muslim jurists claim that it is permissible to have an abortion for valid reasons during the first stage. This is largely based on this famous Hadith:

The Prophet (pbuh) said, "Each of you is constituted in your mother's womb for forty days as a nutfah, then it becomes an 'alaqah for an equal period, then a mudghah for another equal period, then the angel is sent and he breathes the soul into it."

A modern Muslim female writer puts it like this:
In Islam abortions are encouraged only if the pregnancy threatens the well-being of the mother. It is forbidden to sacrifice the mother's life for the fetus. Here again the practice of abortion is prescribed with limitations. The soul in the Islamic tradition develops after the fetus moves in the womb. The distinction between movement and life in Islam is very clear. The fetus moves, during the second trimester (precisely after 120 days of pregnancy). Abortion, as a result, is permitted during the first 120 days, i.e. before the soul develops. (By Nawal H. Ammar, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Kent State University/Trumbull. See http://www.consultation.org/consultation/ammar.htm#population)

Exceptions?
It is a grave sin to take the life of children for fear of want (poverty) as was the habit during the period before Islam in Arabia. Neither is it allowed to do so for any other reason unless a great evil is caused by the presence of the foetus that may cause the death of the mother.
(From our Recommended link-ISLAM & ABORTION by Dr. Arafat El Ashi - http://www.momin.com/abortion/This is an intelligent and concise argument.)

Women who get divorced have an interim of three months before getting married again. This is done MAINLY to see if they are pregnant or not. God then orders them to forget their own wishes and plans and respect the new life created in their wombs. If the first three months of pregnancy were not important God would have told these women not to wait and to have abortion and keep their life plans as they wish.
God cares about the whole three months of early pregnancy as much as we can see from the Quran’s treatment of the divorce cases. God named his first revelation after the hanging embryo, not by accident. This hanging embryo, is a stage that starts in 6 days after the fertilization of the ovum. (From a well written article showing a good knowledge of Qur'anic Arabic at-http://www.submission.org/abortion.html)


There has always, therefore, been a debate in Islam over this question. The majority of orthodox Muslims (following the Hanafi school) in later centuries, allowed abortion until the end of the four months. According to them, a pregnant woman could have an abortion without her husband's permission, but she should have reasonable grounds for this act. Most of the Maliki jurists (legal scholars) described abortion as completely forbidden. In their view, when the semen settles in the womb, it is expected to develop into a living baby and it should not be disturbed by anyone. According to Ibn Jawziyyah, when the womb has retained the semen, it is not permitted for the husband and wife, or one of them or the master of the slave-wife, to induce an abortion. After ensoulment, however, abortion is prohibited absolutely and is akin to murder.
(For more detail see a pro-Abortion Muslim article which exposes the complex history of this question:- Family Planning and Islam: A Review by Khalid Farooq Akbar at http://www.muslim-canada.org/family.htm)

{short description of image}Conclusions:

  • Some Muslims today stand by the Qur'anic commands never to kill children or - by interpretation- unborn children. For them, the Qur'an's celebration of life in the womb as an embryo is enough. Abortion is a sinful act. 'Take not life, which Allah has made sacred...'
  • However, even for most Muslims who believe this, the exception to this rule is when the mother's life is threatened and an abortion is necessary. (This exception has always been encouraged in Islam as the mother's life takes precedence). The Qur'an explicitly forbids exceptions like killing a child for economic reasons or for convenience: "killing" a child for fear of food (rizq).
  • Many Muslims today follow the Islamic tradition (Hadith and Legal rulings) and argue that abortion is an evil but is permitted up to 120 days when Allah 'ensouls' the foetus. After this time it is forbidden.

Find out about the abortion law in Iran, Turkey or Tunisia ( or many other coutries) from a good study at: http://www.cbctrust.com/abortion.html#74