Greetings to everyone

The Foundation received a question from one of our supporters in regards to the Islamic ruling on Abortion as result of rape, this was a reply to the press release the Foundation sent out about the current debate in UK's Parliament about the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, the question was answered by our Chairman Mr. Muhammad Umar.

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Dear Mohammed,

I really do like reading your regular mailouts but let me ask you a question regarding faith and abortion?

What would you say to the women in the UK who are raped and get pregnant, what is your position on this and where does your faith stand on this?

Kind Regards

Pedro Carvalho
FNIK PR
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I begin with the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful.

We seek refuge in Allah from the cursed Satan.

As to what follows, then below is the Islamic view of our learned and respectful scholars in regards to abortion.

Muslim jurists have agreed unanimously that after the fetus is completely formed and has been given a soul, abortion is Haram (prohibited). It is also a crime, the commission of which is prohibited to the Muslim because it constitutes an offence against a complete, living human being.

The jurists have mentioned the life enters the foetus upon 120 days. From then onwards the foetus is a living human being.  Jurists insist that the payment of blood money (diya) becomes incumbent if the baby is aborted alive and then died, while a fine of lesser amount is to be paid if it is aborted dead.

The issue of abortion in Islam as a result of a women being raped is matter of difference of opinion amongst the learned Scholars of Islam, some have allowed it while orders have prohibited it.

Shaykh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Shaykh of Al-Azhar University in Cairo Egypt, made the following ruling when he said, "that abortion is allowed in Islam if the mother's life is in imminent danger".  He also allowed abortion if the pregnancy was due to the result of rape.

The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Mufti Ali Jumuah, said, "It is Haram (forbidden) to abort the fetus after life is breathed into it, in other words after 120 days,"

However, he added that a woman could terminate a pregnancy if she was in immediate danger. "Both the raped woman and the child are guiltless," he then said, "If it is sacrilegious for a woman to get rid of a child who is the result of incest, then an innocent raped woman also may not abort a fetus."

The learned Islamic Jurist, Malakah Youssef, professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, said "abortion was a crime from the moment of conception - even in the case of rape."

He also stated that, "We cannot stop a crime, that is, rape, by committing a more cruel and barbarous crime of killing a human being,"

These scholars amongst others suggested that the victims of rape should give birth to a child conceived in a rape and then give it to an orphanage or a woman unable to have children.

Shaykh Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi the head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, states in his well-known book, The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam:

"While Islam permits preventing pregnancy for valid reasons, it does not allow doing violence to it once it occurs.

However, there is one exceptional situation. If, say the jurists, after the baby is completely formed, it is reliably shown that the continuation of the pregnancy would necessarily result in the death of the mother, then, in accordance with the general principle of the Shari`ah, that of choosing the lesser of two evils, abortion must be performed. The reason for this is that the mother is the origin of the fetus; moreover, her life is well-established, with duties and responsibilities, and she is also a pillar of the family. It would not be possible to sacrifice her life for the life of a fetus which has not yet acquired a personality and which has no responsibilities or obligations to fulfill.

Imam al-Ghazzali makes a clear distinction between contraception and abortion, saying that contraception is not like abortion. Abortion is a crime against an existing being. It follows from this that there are stages of existence. The first stages of existence are the settling of the semen in the womb and its mixing with the secretions of the woman. Then come the next gestational stage. Disturbing the pregnancy at this stage is a crime. When it develops further and becomes a lump, aborting it is a greater crime. When it acquires a soul and its creation is completed, the crime becomes more grievous. The crime reaches a maximum seriousness when it is committed after it (the fetus) is separated (from the mother) alive."

However Dr Qardawi later on in his Fatwa mentions that even though this was the trend he followed in regards to the prohibition of abortion in Islam mentions that there are some jurists who think that it is permissible to have an abortion within the first forty days of pregnancy. Some of them even permit it until before the soul is breathed into the embryo, he mentions that there are some exceptional cases in which one may adopt one of the latter views, and the stronger the excuse, the clearer the reason for the dispensation is, and if that is within the first forty days, it means that the dispensation is more appropriate.

However according to some Scholars it may be permissible to abort before 120 days in the following instances:

1) Rape
2) Incest
3) Sexual interference with the mentally retarded
4) Foetal deformity for e.g.. anencephaly (no brain)
5) Foetal deformity for e.g.. congenital rubella health.

And Allah knows best.

Compiled and written by:
Muhammad Umar
Chairman, Ramadhan Foundation