When is the soul breathed into the fetus?

The questioner : Shaykh, regarding the breathing of the soul into the fetus, when does it occur? Especially since some say that there is scientific evidence proving that the soul is breathed in at the beginning of the first forty days of the fetus's life. And there is a hadith in Muslim that confirms that it becomes a clot like that in those forty days. They use this hadith as evidence that the soul is breathed in after forty days?

The Shaykh : Your question has two aspects: one is religious and the other is medical. From the religious aspect, it is established in the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud, which is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim, that the soul is only breathed into the fetus after forty days, after four months. As for the claim that it is scientifically and medically established that the soul is breathed in before that, in my opinion, while this contradicts the aforementioned hadith, it is also not medically established. Because, although this is not my area of expertise, it is among the information I share with every educated person who has a stake in keeping up with today's scientific research and the like. We know that the small sperm, of which there are millions in a man's semen, are all sperm that are not dead, but rather possess life, is that not so?The Shaykh : This sperm, when it grows, when it fertilizes the egg in the woman's womb, it grows and grows, along with the life that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) instilled in this sperm while it was in the man's loins, before it moved to the woman's womb. So here there are two lives, and we are lenient in our expression, and there is no harm in that a little. Here there are two souls: the first soul existed with the sperm while it was in the man's loins. The other life or soul was breathed in, by the explicit text of the hadith, after four months, when the time comes and the soul is breathed into it, and it is asked: Is it happy or wretched? Male or female? Until the end of the known details in the authentic hadith. So here, then, there are two souls. What is this third soul? Medically, there is absolutely no third soul, meaning other than the soul by which this sperm lives, grows, and develops, and grows until it moves in the mother's belly. And the soul that is breathed into the fetus is undoubtedly a new soul, different from that latent soul in that sperm. This is merely a claim that there is something established in medical science that the soul about which Allah informed us, or about which our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us that Allah commands the angel to breathe into it, is not in the Shari'ah, nor in medical science, that this is breathed in after forty days, or at least before the four months have passed. This has absolutely no existence. And finally, I want to mention that we should not mix human empirical science with divine knowledge, whose source is from the book of our Lord and from the hadith of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), because each of the two sciences has its own path. The path of religious knowledge is the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The path of acquired knowledge is humans, who may err and may hit the mark. We often hear and ask, much to our regret, that a woman has a fetus in her womb, and they have now discovered via the device that resembles a television that this fetus is deformed, and that if the woman does not abort and gives birth naturally, this child will be disabled. The last question I was asked was that some doctors told a pregnant woman that this is severely deformed, perhaps having more than two arms or more than two legs, meaning a very frightening picture, especially for the mother. And there was a woman in the assembly when this question was asked who told us, and she was truthful, that a relative of hers was told that the fetus in her womb, if it is born, will be born with four legs, and I no longer remember how many arms. So the poor woman was very afraid, but she said, "My affair is with Allah (Mighty and Majestic)." When she gave birth, lo and behold, the fetus was a sound human being. Glory be to Allah. They later explained that, by Allah, the television might have been a bit distorted, and it was like that, and so on. And this is a reality that often happens. Yes...

Another questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : This sperm, when it grows and fertilizes the egg in the woman's womb, grows and grows with it the life that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) instilled in this sperm while it was in the man's loins before it moved to the woman's womb. So here there are two lives, and we are lenient in the expression, and there is no harm in that slightly. Here there are two souls: the first soul existed with the sperm while it was in the man's loins, and the other life or soul was breathed in, by the explicit text of the hadith, after four months, when the angel comes and breathes the soul into it, and asks whether it is happy or wretched, male or female, until the end of the known details in the authentic hadith. So here, then, there are two souls. What is this third soul? Medically, there is absolutely no third soul, meaning other than the soul by which this sperm lives, grows, and develops until it moves in the mother's womb. And the soul that is breathed into the fetus is undoubtedly a new soul, different from that latent soul in that sperm. This is a mere claim that there is a fixed point in medical science that the soul about which Allah informed us, or about which our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us that Allah commands the angel to breathe it into the fetus, is not in the Shari'ah nor in medical science that this is breathed in after forty days, or at least before the four months have passed. This has absolutely no existence. Finally, I want to mention that we should not mix human empirical science with divine knowledge, whose source is from the book of our Lord and from the hadith of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), because each of the two sciences has its own path. The path of religious knowledge is the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and the path of acquired knowledge is humans, who may err and may hit the mark. We often hear and ask, much to our regret, that a woman has a fetus in her womb, and they have now discovered via the device that resembles a television that this fetus is deformed, and that if the woman does not abort and gives birth naturally, this child will be disabled. The last question I was asked was that some doctors told a pregnant woman that this is severely deformed, perhaps having more than two arms or more than two legs, meaning a very frightening picture, especially for the mother. And there was a woman in the assembly when this question was asked who told us, and she was truthful, that a relative of hers was told that the fetus in her womb, if it is born, will be born with four legs, and I no longer remember how many arms. So the poor woman was very afraid, but she said, "My affair is with Allah (Mighty and Majestic)." When she gave birth, lo and behold, the fetus was a sound human being. Glory be to Allah. They later explained that, by Allah, the television might have been a bit distorted, and so on, and so forth. And this is a reality that often happens like this. Yes...

Another questioner : Especially, our Shaykh, in determining the male from the female.

The Shaykh : Also.

Another questioner : They tell her it is a female, so she gives birth and it turns out to be a male.

The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah. So my intention is to say that we do not link this to that, because in reality we will fall into contradictions with the religious ruling.