What is the ruling on a woman whose fetus was lost due to excessive travel and failure to follow the doctor's orders?
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Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. A questioner says: My wife and I went to the market between Maghrib and 'Isha' while she was pregnant, and she experienced bleeding. So we took her to a private clinic, and the doctor gave her an injection to stabilize the pregnancy and told her not to travel anywhere. The next day, we went to Jeddah for 'Id al-Adha. After a week, my wife felt unwell, so we went to the doctor, who gave her medication and told her not to travel until after four days. After the four days, we traveled to Riyadh. Then, the next day, we went to the hospital, and they decided to perform a procedure to remove the fetus. Praise be to Allah, we washed it and prayed over it. The question is: Do we owe an expiation for this?
Answer:
Yes, she owes an expiation for this because she was advised, advised not to travel, as that would affect the fetus, but she disobeyed the advice and traveled, so it affected the fetus until it died and was removed by procedure while dead. Thus, she owes an expiation. The expiation is freeing a slave. If she cannot find one, she must fast for two consecutive months, because she was the cause; she was advised and made clear to her, but she did not comply. This is if the fetus had reached four months or more. If it was less than four months, she owes nothing, because the soul had not been breathed into it.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. A questioner says: My wife and I went to the market between Maghrib and 'Isha' while she was pregnant, and she experienced bleeding. So we took her to a private clinic, and the doctor gave her an injection to stabilize the pregnancy and told her not to travel anywhere. The next day, we went to Jeddah for 'Id al-Adha. After a week, my wife felt unwell, so we went to the doctor, who gave her medication and told her not to travel until after four days. After the four days, we traveled to Riyadh. Then, the next day, we went to the hospital, and they decided to perform a procedure to remove the fetus. Praise be to Allah, we washed it and prayed over it. The question is: Do we owe an expiation for this?
Answer:
Yes, she owes an expiation for this because she was advised, advised not to travel, as that would affect the fetus, but she disobeyed the advice and traveled, so it affected the fetus until it died and was removed by procedure while dead. Thus, she owes an expiation. The expiation is freeing a slave. If she cannot find one, she must fast for two consecutive months, because she was the cause; she was advised and made clear to her, but she did not comply. This is if the fetus had reached four months or more. If it was less than four months, she owes nothing, because the soul had not been breathed into it.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم من سقط جنينها بسبب كثرة السفر وعدم التزام أوامر الطبيبة؟ لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.
