What is your opinion regarding hastening in the process of a C-section, and is it a sign of weak reliance upon Allah?
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The questioner : Your Eminence, may Allah preserve you: Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, says in Surat Abasa: ['Abasa 80:20] So Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has guaranteed to make this birth easy. It is observed that many people, both men and women, hasten to undergo what is called a C-section. Is this a sign of weak reliance upon Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He?
The Shaykh : I see, may Allah bless you, that this method which people now use, from the moment a woman feels labor pains, she goes to the hospital and they perform a C-section on her. I see that this is from the inspiration of Satan, and that the harm of this is far greater than its benefit. Because the woman must inevitably experience pain from labor, but she benefits from this pain in several ways. The first benefit is that it is expiation for sins. The second is that it raises her ranks if she is patient and seeks reward from Allah. The third is that the woman comes to appreciate the status of the mother who suffered as this woman suffered. The fourth is that she comes to appreciate the blessing of Allah the Exalted in health. The fifth is that it increases her tenderness toward her child, because the more difficult it is to obtain something, the more compassionate the soul is toward it and the more affectionate it is. The sixth is that the child, or this fetus, exits through its known and customary passages, and in this is good for him and for the woman. The seventh is that she thereby avoids the harm of the operation, because the operation weakens the abdominal membrane and the uterus, among other things, and a rupture may occur. It may succeed or it may not. The eighth is that one who becomes accustomed to C-sections hardly returns to natural delivery, because it is not possible for her and it is dangerous for her that the site of the operations may tear. The ninth is that performing operations reduces the offspring, because if the abdomen is cut three times from different places, it becomes weak and fragile, and future pregnancy becomes dangerous. The tenth is that this is a method of luxury, and luxury is a cause of destruction, as Allah the Exalted said regarding the people of the left:[Al-Waqi'ah 56:45] So it is obligatory for the woman to be patient and seek reward, and to continue to give birth naturally, for that is better for her in the present and in the ultimate outcome. And men also, with their own selves, should be alert to this matter. And what do we know? Perhaps our enemies are the ones who made these operations easy for us in order for us to miss these benefits and fall into these losses. Yes.
The questioner : O Shaykh?
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : What is luxury?
The Shaykh : Yes, luxury, because it involves avoiding the pain of natural labor, and this is a type of luxury. And luxury, if it is not a means to obedience to Allah, is either blameworthy or, at the very least, permissible. Yes.
Then He eased the way for him;
ثم السبيل يسرهThe Shaykh : I see, may Allah bless you, that this method which people now use, from the moment a woman feels labor pains, she goes to the hospital and they perform a C-section on her. I see that this is from the inspiration of Satan, and that the harm of this is far greater than its benefit. Because the woman must inevitably experience pain from labor, but she benefits from this pain in several ways. The first benefit is that it is expiation for sins. The second is that it raises her ranks if she is patient and seeks reward from Allah. The third is that the woman comes to appreciate the status of the mother who suffered as this woman suffered. The fourth is that she comes to appreciate the blessing of Allah the Exalted in health. The fifth is that it increases her tenderness toward her child, because the more difficult it is to obtain something, the more compassionate the soul is toward it and the more affectionate it is. The sixth is that the child, or this fetus, exits through its known and customary passages, and in this is good for him and for the woman. The seventh is that she thereby avoids the harm of the operation, because the operation weakens the abdominal membrane and the uterus, among other things, and a rupture may occur. It may succeed or it may not. The eighth is that one who becomes accustomed to C-sections hardly returns to natural delivery, because it is not possible for her and it is dangerous for her that the site of the operations may tear. The ninth is that performing operations reduces the offspring, because if the abdomen is cut three times from different places, it becomes weak and fragile, and future pregnancy becomes dangerous. The tenth is that this is a method of luxury, and luxury is a cause of destruction, as Allah the Exalted said regarding the people of the left:
Indeed they were, before that, indulging in affluence,
إنهم كانوا قبل ذلك مترفينThe questioner : O Shaykh?
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : What is luxury?
The Shaykh : Yes, luxury, because it involves avoiding the pain of natural labor, and this is a type of luxury. And luxury, if it is not a means to obedience to Allah, is either blameworthy or, at the very least, permissible. Yes.