A shaykh in our region issued a ruling that a fetus of three months should be washed, shrouded, and prayed over. Is he correct in what he said?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : He says: A shaykh in our region issued a ruling that a fetus of three months should be washed, shrouded, and prayed over. Is he correct in what he said?
The Shaykh : He is not correct in what he said, because a fetus before the soul is breathed into it is not a human being. It will not be resurrected. Only the one into whom the soul has been breathed will be resurrected. And this does not occur before four months.
Therefore, I ask the questioner to clarify to the one who issued the ruling for him that this fatwa is not correct, and that the fetus over which prayer is performed is the one into whom the soul has been breathed. As for before that, no prayer is performed over it. Yes.
The Shaykh : He is not correct in what he said, because a fetus before the soul is breathed into it is not a human being. It will not be resurrected. Only the one into whom the soul has been breathed will be resurrected. And this does not occur before four months.
Therefore, I ask the questioner to clarify to the one who issued the ruling for him that this fatwa is not correct, and that the fetus over which prayer is performed is the one into whom the soul has been breathed. As for before that, no prayer is performed over it. Yes.