Is there a scientific method to determine whether a child is a boy or a girl while still in the mother's womb? Is this true?

The questioner : The questioner says: There is a scientific method to determine whether a child is a boy or a girl while in the mother's womb during pregnancy. Is this true?

The Shaykh : As for whether this is true or not, that is not within my area of expertise, as this relates to the science of medicine. However, to the extent of what we have read, the matter is still within the limits of research and verification. I feel that the motivation for such a question is that the questioner, or others, fears that this may become a scientific reality, which would then conflict or contradict the sacred texts that explicitly state that no one knows what is in the wombs except Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. This misconception is what causes some Muslims to fear that this news is true, and that experimental science would then conflict with religious knowledge. In reality, there is no fear for the Islamic creed regarding this matter, as is the case with all matters of Islam. If it is scientifically established that it is possible to know whether the fetus is male or female through any of the means or scientific tools that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, makes available to whom He wills among His servants, there is no fear of that. The intended meaning of Allah’s, Mighty and Majestic, exclusive knowledge of what is in the wombs involves two things. The first is that He knows it with intrinsic knowledge. As for this experimental knowledge, it is known through one of these means that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, creates for whom He wills among His servants, as we mentioned. So there is a difference between divine knowledge, which is intrinsic knowledge—"Does not He know who He has created?"—He does not need a means. Meanwhile, the servants need to utilize every one of the means that Allah makes available for them, through which they gain insight into what is usually hidden from the rest of people who do not utilize these means. Distinguishing between intrinsic knowledge of the unseen is very necessary; we should always keep it in mind in such matters that pose difficulties for some people. You know a scientific fact without doubt or hesitation: many astronomers predict eclipses before they occur, not by months, not by a year, and not by years, but through very precise calculations using what Allah, as we mentioned, has made available for people, enabling them to predict and inform people of solar and lunar eclipses many years in advance. Moreover, their news usually contains precise details, stating that the eclipse in such-and-such a region will be total, in a second region it will be partial, in a third region it will be partial, and so on. The eclipse is seen in one place and not in another, and so forth. Is this, which has become a tangible, undeniable fact, and is not like the matter about which the question was directed—solar and lunar eclipses, which we always read about in newspapers and which do occur—is this from the knowledge of the unseen that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has exclusively, as in many verses, including ? The answer is no, because the intended meaning of the unseen here is what many who claim affiliation with Sufism or the paths imagine. They mention in the books of these people that such-and-such a close friend of Allah would look like this and gain insight into the Preserved Tablet, saying so-and-so will die, so-and-so will be happy, and so-and-so will be wretched, and so on. This intrinsic knowledge belongs to Allah alone, with no partner in anything, and among that is that He has no partner in knowledge of the unseen. I mentioned to you in a previous session the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: Look at how He says and distinguishes between His, Blessed and Exalted is He, knowledge of the unseen. He mentions that He knows the unseen by His essence. As for the chosen, noble messengers who sometimes bring us some of the unseen, their knowledge of it is not from the category of intrinsic knowledge of the unseen from themselves, but rather by Allah revealing it to them. Therefore, these many, and very many, hadiths that came in the books of hadith, which specifically fall under the signs of the Hour, whether they are the major or minor signs, this is not from the knowledge of the Messenger of the unseen, because this, as we mentioned, is something Allah, Exalted is He, has exclusively. Rather, this is from Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealing to His Prophet what He wills of the unseen. If we understand this fact, it becomes easy for us to understand that the prediction of solar and lunar eclipses by astronomers is not from the category of gaining insight into the unseen, nor is it from the category of knowledge of the unseen. Rather, it is their utilization of the means that Allah has made available for them, through which they reach knowledge of what is hidden from the rest of people. These people, in reality, if they followed the same path of learning through the means they have learned, and were thereby able to know when the eclipse occurs with the details mentioned above, they would also know the knowledge of the eclipse and the lunar eclipse. So, knowledge of something hidden from people through one of the means that Allah created is not from the category of knowing the unseen, so there is no problem. For example, there is a matter I read long ago in some books, which may be true, and is the stronger opinion, that a farmer can know the age of a tree after cutting its trunk from the rings he sees in the trunk itself. They say that each ring means a year. So if there are two rings in this trunk, he says the age of this tree is two years, three, three, and so on. In fact, I read something more precise and stranger: that it is possible to know the age of a person by looking at the lines seen with some precision on the palms of a person, where each line also means a year. This is what concerns me: whether it is true or not, like the matter of the fetus and discovering whether it is male or female. But if it is true, there is no problem, and it is not from the category of sharing with Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in knowledge of the unseen. Rather, it is through utilizing these means that Allah created and recognizing through them what is hidden from people. If we understand this, it does not concern us at all, medically, the discovery of the identity of the fetus, whether it is male or female, or whether it is not true. Because if it is true, it is not from the category of knowledge of the unseen, but rather from the category of utilizing the means that Allah has made available for man to discover the matters behind them that are usually hidden from the rest of people. I said that this does not mean sharing with Allah in the unseen from two aspects; this is one of them.
The other is that when Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said , meaning He alone knows in detail. If science, for example, can discover the identity of the fetus, whether it is male or female, but it cannot encompass knowledge of this fetus, for example, whether it will be complete or incomplete, meaning its creation, whether it will be perfect or defective. Then He knows what is in the wombs before the clot attaches to the ovum, as they say, with the man’s semen. As soon as the man ejaculates his water into the womb of the woman, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, knows that this water will coagulate or not, and if it coagulates, whether it will be male or female. And if it is male or female, will its creation be complete or not? Will it be happy or wretched? Or what else? These details are impossible for science, no matter how high it rises, to encompass with knowledge. So that is what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has exclusively, and it is the intended meaning of the saying .