Is it permissible for a woman to abort her fetus for fear that it will affect her health, and it is deformed?

The questioner : If, for example, the doctors have ruled that this fetus is dangerous and this danger is to the mother.

The Shaykh : Yes, yes.

The questioner : And the mother's condition has changed medically, and they have ruled that this woman must have an abortion due to the change in this woman's health, so what is the ruling on that?

The Shaykh : Is this a question you are raising on your own initiative, or is it related to the brother's question?

The questioner : It is related to another incident before birth. They said she is deformed, and her head has a snake, and limbs, and so on, and they said it is necessary to...

The Shaykh : Okay, what is the connection of that to the mother's health?

The questioner : They say that it affects the mother's health.

The Shaykh : Because I heard here that the brother's phrase was good, that they are afraid for the mother's mental health, right? Did I say it that way or not?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : I do not often raise my head to look at this, especially when the woman is, as the brother says, a believer. What is her mental health? Today you see some women are hairy, and others may grow a beard. They say, for example, her father or her mother, and so on, that she suffers from psychological suppression. So we must remove this suppression by what? By disobeying the Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, who made His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: at the end of which is . Therefore, we do not agree with these medical theories that it is for the sake of preserving her mental health; because this treatment is not a Shari'ah-compliant treatment for this problem, but rather a treatment in the style of Abu Nuwas, in the school of Abu Nuwas who used to say: "And I treated with that which was the disease." So the treatment of mental illnesses is not by contradicting the Shari'ah texts, but first by adhering to them, and by nurturing those texts with, as we said earlier, submission to the divine decree and destiny. So this woman whom Allah, Mighty and Majestic, created as hairy, or grew a beard on her chin, she does not like Allah's creation, so she resorts to every means to remove this creation of Allah from her face. This is not reform, but this is the very essence of corruption. Therefore, when you or anyone else raises this question, he raises it as he heard it from the doctors. So we must note what we said earlier about classifying doctors into categories. We should not submit to the saying of one or two or more doctors that there is a fear for her health. We need to contact Muslim doctors who are first committed to their religion, who know the forbidden and avoid it, and know the lawful and practice it. Second, they are skilled in their specialty, in their medicine, in their profession. Because today I hear many of these words, and men and women fall into sins against Allah merely because a doctor whose origin and details we do not know simply said the doctor is afraid for her, so we abort her, even after the soul has been breathed into the fetus. And this is undoubtedly the killing of a soul.

The questioner : A girl came with the face of a cat, the hands of a cat, the hair of a cat, a large face and a small body.

Another questioner : She dies, she does not live.

The Shaykh : Did she die?

The questioner : No, the doctors told her that an abortion is necessary.

The Shaykh : They aborted her, may Allah grant us well-being.

The questioner : If we assume that it is true that this resulted in a reflection on her mental health?

The Shaykh : How do we know?

The questioner : No, excuse me, what is it by experience, for example, if it is true that there are several cases where many women were affected by her delivery of some of these...?

The Shaykh : The question comes from those who were affected

The questioner : by such a condition

The Shaykh : Is the question not from Muslim, believing women?

The questioner : Let us assume they are Muslims; as for this faith, you know...?

The Shaykh : This is a correct hypothesis, but he erred in calling it a hypothesis. He must say Muslim; but if he said let us assume she is a believer - he laughsThe Shaykh : May Allah have mercy on him.

The questioner : Faith varies from one person to another. This faith may not elevate its owner to the level of being psychologically stable, relying on Allah, and believing in the divine decree and destiny...

The Shaykh : This is correct, this is correct, but it is not permissible for us to say so-and-so is a believer or not a believer. But reality is what informs us. This reality regarding Zaynab from the women did not become a reality, but there is a fear, right?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : How do we treat the matter? We treat the matter by strengthening faith and by making this woman accept the divine decree and destiny, whatever the results may be. Why? I wanted to say before you raised this hypothesis - may Allah have mercy on you -

The questioner : May Allah guide you and rectify your affairs.

The Shaykh : that there is a verse in the Qur'an, truly most people, men and even more so women, are heedless of it, as if they had not heard of it - may Allah have mercy on you - it is the saying of the Exalted: And your Lord creates what He wills and chooses. Our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, by His wise, eternal wisdom, decreed that He made the male and the female. And so that people would not have an argument against Allah, and rather the argument would be for Allah against His creation, He created a third gender so that people would not say this is the nature of male and female. He says to them, our Lord, look, there is neither male nor female. It is called what? The hermaphrodite. Good, He created the male and the female. He created the male and stamped him with a beard, distinguishing him from women by this beard. And on the exact opposite, He created the woman bare, with no hair on her face.

Another questioner : Praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh : So that the gender harmonizes with the other gender, and also so that people do not become accustomed to this creation and say, as we said regarding the male and the female, our Lord creates a gender, or rather two other genders. He creates a male without a beard and a woman with a beard. Why? So that He establishes the argument against His servants. I am effective in what I will . The spouses do not possess anything of the creation except the beginning, if Allah wills. The beginning is sexual intercourse. Then, if Allah wills, the water coalesces there, the known medical philosophy, and so on. But if Allah does not will, it is absolutely impossible. So when the man connects with his wife, he does not know, and the doctors do not know, what type, what do they call this drop, this small drop, a drop from the head of a pin of water, something that confounds minds, millions. No matter how far the doctors have reached in their knowledge, they do not know what this small drop is, with its succession and development. What will be its result and its destiny? Male or female? Or hermaphrodite? A male as usual grows a beard, or does he not grow a beard? And so on. Our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, also, as we heard from some incidents earlier, wants to show people a creation of women who is neither a man nor a woman. You called it an animal, you called it a cat, or what?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, so this is a sign. A sign that people must see. The sign is that this sign is attributed to such-and-such a father and such-and-such a mother, did you see? This will be a sign. But the people disbelieved in their Lord. They disbelieved in their Lord. They no longer want to see things that point to the power and greatness of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Rather, they no longer want to see anything that points to something called death. And therefore, now, among the innovations of the disbelievers that Muslims have been influenced by, is surrounding graves and planting them with trees, so that you see their shade, you see their greenery, and you do not see what is beneath them of the dead. The graves have become a place of recreation. And you see today on the two festivals, what do they do? They set up cafes here. These cafes want to be complete, they want greenery, they want beauty, and so on. Whereas it is supposed that people pass by the graves and take a lesson from them, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Now people do not want anything to remind them of death, they are afraid of it. So these graveyards are fenced, the graveyards are planted, the resuscitation is decorated, and the coffin is put in a car and run, where to? To the graveyard. They do not want to see the appearances that remind of death and remind of the outcome of piety and the outcome of sin, and so on. Therefore, these issues, in reality, I see that they must be left as Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, wills. Because He, as He said, Mighty and Majestic, in the known interpretation: When you see a woman with a beard, do not think that this is a natural anomaly.

The questioner : Allahu Akbar.

The Shaykh : I seek refuge in Allah! This is the creation of Allah. We no longer believe in these issues, although they are very fundamental, and a person becomes strong and believes in them and knows his Lord that He is effective in what He wills.

The questioner : The meaning of this statement, my dear professor, is that if a man takes his wife to a doctor, male or female, and this doctor informs her husband that abortion is necessary because the fetus has a condition of deformity, then this matter must be presented to trustworthy doctors who are people of religion and knowledge, who avoid what is forbidden and adhere to the commands. If they rule that this fetus should be aborted, diagnosing this wife that this will have health consequences for this woman?

The Shaykh : Psychological or otherwise?

The questioner : Health.

The Shaykh : Physical, you mean?

The questioner : It was permissible.

The Shaykh : It is permissible, but with one condition: what is the proportion of these effects and consequences that you are calling physical health effects, such that they are not usually bearable? So I say yes, it is permissible. Is the answer clear?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : I mean, it is not just the doctor saying that the woman will feel some discomfort, or for a few days or months, and so on; but this discomfort is expected to be something that any person, male or female, would suffer from. The important thing is that the harm they estimate must be to a degree that is unbearable.

The questioner : So in this case, the wife must be presented to several Muslim, believing doctors who are people of knowledge and piety.

The Shaykh : The husband, the husband... the wife.

The questioner : The wife.

The Shaykh : But we are speaking in Arabic now; do we not understand from you that the husband means the male?

The questioner : The wife.

The Shaykh : The wife, okay.

The questioner : So if these doctors agree on the abortion?

The Shaykh : For a legitimate reason, we say it is permissible.

The questioner : ...and weight... if the wife’s weight decreases by fifteen kilograms or more due to something known in her womb that is not normal, does this justify anything?

The Shaykh : The inquiry returns to the same result that the brother mentioned earlier, which is whether this decrease is normal for pregnant women or not. This is first. Let us assume the answer is that it is not a normal decrease.

The questioner : Not normal.

The Shaykh : Let us assume that. We need to treat what is the cause? The cause is either something that is necessary; or it is due to delusions and thoughts that come to this woman. In that case, the previous inquiry applies, and the treatment would not be by abortion.