Some doctors have expressed disbelief in the possibility of pregnancy lasting six months.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. Regarding the issue of li'an (mutual oath-swearing in an accusation of adultery) and lineage, and the establishment of lineage, they address the matter that if such a thing occurs, lineage is established at six months. That is, if a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth after six months, the child is attributed to the man who is the master of the bed. They cited the verse , , so the difference between them is six months, even though some doctors say: it is not possible for the pregnancy to be completed and the child to be born before seven months. So I do not know what your opinion is on this matter?

The Shaykh : No blame on you, but I am surprised by such a question; because the fact that some doctors say something contrary to the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an is not a place for doubt at all. Rather, even if all the doctors were to agree, if they all agreed, if they all agreed. If they agreed on something contrary to the Qur'anic text, that does not mean that the Qur'anic text is wrong first, or open to figurative interpretation second. How so, when this is the opinion of some doctors, and others said after discussion that this can happen sometimes, so the matter is settled. And at that point, we say, as is our custom on such an occasion: this dead person does not deserve this condolence. Meaning, this opinion does not deserve this attention, how do we reconcile the verse with the opinion of some doctors. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) in this verse gave the minimum time in which a woman can be pregnant, even though the norm is, for example, nine months. And there is another issue for which there is no Qur'anic or Prophetic text, but nevertheless it is a reality, that a woman can have the fetus in her womb for many years, three years or four years. Meaning, if a man was absent from his wife and found her after, what? A long time pregnant, the door to bad suspicion is closed before him; because it is possible that he left her while she was pregnant, even if on the last day he left her, did you understand?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Because this has happened, even to the point that they mention that Imam al-Shafi'i was one of those rare cases where his mother was pregnant with him for three or four years, I forgot, yes, four years. But this happens rarely, and the fact that it happens rarely does not mean we take this rare case and strike it against the established rule. Rather, it is even more fitting that we do not strike the established rule against the Qur'anic text which mentioned that it is possible for a woman to be pregnant within the span of six months. This is the answer.