Does the doctors' knowledge of the fetus's sex count as knowledge of the unseen?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks: Does the knowledge of the medical professionals regarding the fetus, or whether it is alive or dead, or whether it is female or male, count as knowledge of the unseen that is revealed?
The Shaykh:
What is this?
The questioner:
He asks: Does the knowledge of the medical professionals regarding the fetus, whether it is alive or dead, or whether it is male or female, count as knowledge of the unseen that makes its claimant a disbeliever?
The Shaykh:
My brother, they do not know it except through X-rays. Through X-rays they know it; without X-rays they do not know it, and they do not know what is in the belly. But if it is through X-rays, the ruling is that of the apparent, just as if his mother gave birth to him, he would know. If his mother gave birth to him, he would know; likewise, if the X-rays reveal it, he would know. This is one aspect.
The second aspect is that if they know whether it is male or female, or alive or dead, do they know whether it is wretched or happy? Do they know whether it will continue to live or die? Do they know about its term? Do they know about its provision? They do not know any of this. Yes.
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks: Does the knowledge of the medical professionals regarding the fetus, or whether it is alive or dead, or whether it is female or male, count as knowledge of the unseen that is revealed?
The Shaykh:
What is this?
The questioner:
He asks: Does the knowledge of the medical professionals regarding the fetus, whether it is alive or dead, or whether it is male or female, count as knowledge of the unseen that makes its claimant a disbeliever?
The Shaykh:
My brother, they do not know it except through X-rays. Through X-rays they know it; without X-rays they do not know it, and they do not know what is in the belly. But if it is through X-rays, the ruling is that of the apparent, just as if his mother gave birth to him, he would know. If his mother gave birth to him, he would know; likewise, if the X-rays reveal it, he would know. This is one aspect.
The second aspect is that if they know whether it is male or female, or alive or dead, do they know whether it is wretched or happy? Do they know whether it will continue to live or die? Do they know about its term? Do they know about its provision? They do not know any of this. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [577- 4717] هل علم الأطباء بجنس الجنين يعد من علم الغيب؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.
