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From: paul@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Craig Paul)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Islam and abortion - no Qur'anic guidance, relevant ahadith...
Message-ID: <13129@wpi.wpi.edu>
Date: 28 May 90 01:46:25 GMT
Sender: shari@wpi.wpi.edu
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Approved: shari@wpi.wpi.edu


I noticed, in group soc.culture.arabic, some statements, without
supporing evidence, that Islam prohibits abortion. I find no statement
in the Qur'an about abortion. The closest the Qur'an comes regards
this prohibition...

Children
  - do not kill for fear of poverty 6:151, 17:31
  - female offspring buried alive will ask for what crime she'd been slain
    81:8-9
  - pre-Islamic customs of slaying children 6:137, 6:140

In the ahadith there are some very interesting verses regarding
quickening (entry of the soul into the fetus) which would seem
relevant (as follows)...

Sahih al Bukhari, book 54 (The Book of Creation), Chapter 6 (The
Angels), verse 430

Narrated 'Abdullah (bin Mus'ud) (may Allah be pleased with him):
Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him), the true and truely inspired
said, "(The matter of the Creation of) a human being is put in the
womb of the mother in forty days, and then he becomes a clot of thick
blood for a similar period, and the a piece of flesh for a similar
period. Then Allah sends an angel who is ordered to write four things.
He is ordered to write down his (i.e. the new creature's) deeds, his
livelihood, his (date of) death, and whether he will be blessed or
wretched (in religion). Then the soul is breathed into him. So, a man
amongst you may do (good deeds) till there is only a cubit between him
and Paradise and then what has been written for him decides his
behaviour and he starts doing (evil) deeds characteristic of the
people of the (Hell) Fire. And similarly a man amongst you may do
(evil) deeds till there is only a cubit between him and the (Hell)
Fire, and then what has ben written for him decides his behaviour, and
he starts doing deeds characteristic of the people of Paradise."

Sahih Muslim, Chapter 1102 (MCII) (The Growth of a Child in the Womb
of a Mother and his Destiny in Regard to his Livelihood, his Deeds,
both Good and Evil), verses 6390-6408, state the same.

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Sahih al Bukhari, Book 83 (The book of Ad-Diyat (Blood Money)),
Chapter 25 (The Fetus Inside a Pregnant Woman) states that a miscarriage
caused by an act of violence would entitle the payment to the woman,
and/or her family, of a slave, in retribution.