Vaccinating children against polio

The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta

Machine translationRead the Arabic original

Praise be to Allah alone, and may prayers and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. Then: The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta has reviewed the telegram sent to His Eminence the Grand Mufti from His Royal Highness PrinceSaud al-FaisalMinister of Foreign Affairs, bearing number (96/33/42732/1) and dated 26/3/1425 AH, the text of which reads: To His Eminence the Grand Mufti, President of the Higher Committee of Scholars, and the Administration of Scientific Research and Ifta; a copy to His Excellency the Minister of Health. The Ministry has received a memorandum from the Kingdom's embassy inMalaysiaattached with the letter and its translation, addressed to His Excellency the Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosquesthe Noble SanctuariesatMalaysiafrom the President of the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association, which included his desire to obtain a legal ruling from the Kingdom permitting the polio vaccine against infection with the (Poliomyelitis) virus, adding that the recent Islamic Summit held in Kuala Lumpur did not issue a declaration urging Islamic countries to vaccinate children with the aforementioned vaccine, and further adding in his letter that he had obtained a ruling from the Mufti ofthe Arab Republic of Egyptit states that it is obligatory to vaccinate Muslim children and immunize them against this disease, but some Islamic countries did not accept this fatwa, and insist that
the ruling must be issued by the Mufti of the Kingdom. I hope you will review this and take whatever action you deem appropriate, and provide a response to be sent to the embassy. With my best regards.

Saud al-Faisal

Minister of Foreign Affairs

and attached to His Highness’s telegram was a query directed from the President of the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association to the Honorable Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosquesthe Two Holy MosquesinMalaysiaand its text is:

Hamid Muhammad Ali Yahya
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Riyadh,
Makkah
Polio vaccine
Kuala Lumpur
Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia
Datuk Hajj Mustafa Ma
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Malaysia,
The Two Holy Mosques
Malaysia
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Malaysia

Minister of Health

Hamad ibn Abdullah al-Mani’

After the Committee’s study of the correspondence, it issued the following ruling: The use of the vaccine mentioned in the question, and other permissible medicines, is prescribed (mashru’). It is among the lawful means by which Allah averts diseases and by which a person immunizes his children, given the expected benefit in protecting against serious diseases such as polio and others, due to the presence of an epidemic or other causes for which the occurrence of the disease is feared. This is based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):

He who ate seven 'ajwa' dates in the morning, poison and magic will not harm him on that day.

من تصبح بسبع تمرات عجوة لم يضره ذلك اليوم سم ولا سحر

Sahih Muslim 2047b

It was narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim in their (Sahihayn). This falls under the category of averting calamity before it occurs, and it does not contradict reliance upon Allah (tawakkul); because it is the doing of lawful means to guard against ailments and diseases that are feared
to descend. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Tie it up and rely upon Allah.

اعقلها وتوكل

It was narrated by al-Tirmidhi in his (Jami’) from the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), and al-Hakim in his (al-Mustadrak) from the hadith of Amr ibn Umayyah al-Damri, and it was also narrated by al-Tabarani through various chains, and al-Dhahabi said in (Takhrij al-Mustadrak): (Its chain is good).

Source www.alifta.gov.sa

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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