What is the ruling on family planning? And what is the ruling on the means of limiting and regulating it?

The questioner : What is the ruling of the Shari'ah regarding family planning?

The Shaykh : Family planning as a popular practice does not exist in Islam; because it contradicts one of the objectives of Islamic legislation regarding marriage; which is the objective to which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) referred in his saying: . So the Messenger (peace be upon him) encouraged men, when they marry, to seek a woman of known lineage and one who is fertile, and he explained this by saying that he will boast to the nations on the Day of Resurrection about the multitude of his Ummah. So the one who is the ruler or the system that imposes on Muslims the limitation of their offspring is counted among those who negate his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . And there is no doubt that any system or law that opposes the wisdom intended by the Lawgiver in the matter of marriage is not permissible to adopt. As for the individual person, he has his own situation regarding his wife and his family, such as if, for example, she is ill, and the advising Muslim doctors say that this woman cannot bear childbirth every year; then that may expose her to death or to an illness that will accompany her until death; so in such a case, it is permissible... to limit the number of children, on the condition that when she returns to her natural health, she returns to what she was doing before, which was not limiting the number of children.
This is my answer in this matter.

The questioner : ... a means?

The Shaykh : ... which means?

The questioner : ... regarding coitus interruptus...

The Shaykh : ... the means, as we discussed yesterday, that means have the ruling of their ends. If a means, however it differs, leads to what Allah has forbidden, then it is forbidden. If it leads to what Allah has permitted, then it is permissible. So these means today, the newly invented methods of coitus interruptus, whether they are pills or drinks or the regulation of sexual intercourse as it is called, all these means have the ruling of the end. If these means are adopted for collective population control, we know that this contradicts Islam. But if one of these means is adopted to limit the number of children due to a specific illness of two spouses, then it is permissible, unless it is medically established that one of these means is harmful to the woman, as is said about some pills; in that case, that type is avoided in itself because of its harm.

Another questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The questioner : ... .