FAMILY PLANING

Bismillahir RHRH,
Assalamu alaikum WRWB,
HADITH-5 CLASS-Fiqh-Family Law
TEXT:See Hadith-A in Composition.
COMPOSITION:
There is no doubt that Islam attaches alot of importance to family
system;marriage and procreation of progeny.And in the Quran Allah SWT
has in numerous verses spoken of the blessings He has bestowed upon his
prophets AS ie with children,signifying their importance.Allah SWT has
said 'We blessed him with Ishaq and Yaqub:all three We guided..','Nay,I
am only a Messenger from thy Lord(to announce) to thee the gift of a
pure son'.'We blessed him with Yahya..','We blessed Dawud with Suleiman'
etc refering to Ibrahim,Maryam,Zakariya and Dawud AS respectively.
And He also said 'And those who pray "Our Lord!Grant unto us wives and
offsprings who will be the comfort of our eyes,And give us the grace to
lead the righteous"'.
The prophet's sayings also infer that he regarded children as a blessing
to the Ummah.He said,when an individual dies only three deeds follow him
to the grave one of which is a righteous child that prays for him.Once
he prayed for his young servant Anas Ibn Malik,'Oh Allah increase him in
wealth and children and bless him...'.The prophet SAW also said,You
should marry the ones that bear children that I be proud of you
(among other prophets)on the day of judgement.Furthermore there are
instances where the prophet has prevented his followers from practicing
castration(Abd. Ibn Mas,ud),celibacy(Usman Ibn Maz,un) and from marriage
to beautiful but infertile women.These ahadiths suggest he encouraged
having cildren.
Against this background,a number of ahadiths have been reported from the
propet SAW on Azl,or Coitus Interruptus(CI)-the main method of
restricting conception and birth during his lifetime.The arguments for
or against modern day family planing,by the Ulama,have largely been
buttressed based on interpretation of these,below mentioned ahadiths;

A-Abu Saed Al-Khudri RA said:We left with the messenger SAW for the
battle of Bani Al-Mustaliq and we got some female slave girls and the
loneliness(away from our wives)became prolonged and severe;We practiced
coitus interruptus with them with the prophet among us.We asked him
about that,He said there is nothing upon you that you don't do (Azl),
there is not a person predestined to being up to the day of judgement,
except that he shall be..Bukh & Mus.

B-Jabir Ibn Abdullah RA said;We practiced coitus interruptus while the
Qur'an was being revealed and the prophet became aware,and he did not
forbid us...had there been anything wrong the Qur'an would have forbidd-
en us..Bukh & Mus.

C-Abu Saed Al-Khudri RA said that a man said,O prophet of Allah,I have a
slave girl who I wish to practice Azl on as I don't want her to concieve
though I desire what men desire,and the jews are saying that Azl is a
minor infanticide.The prophet SAW said,'The jews lied;if Allah wills to
create him,who can change it or prevent him'..in another narration the
prophet is reported to have advised the man to practice Azl..Ahm/Abu
Dawud/Nisai.

D-Judhama bint Wahab RA met the prophet SAW in a gathering and he was
saying,I wanted to stop the practice of ghila(pregnancy while breast-
feeding),but I looked on romans and persians who practice it upon their
children without ill-effects.Then he was asked about Azl,and he replied
that is minor infanticide..Mus.

Ulama have delibrated on these ahadiths:Argument have been advanced that
ahadiths-A,B,C abrogated D or that D abrogated A,B,C or thatthe narrator
of hadith-D,the less well known-Judhama bint Wahab compared to Abu Saed
al-Khudri& Jabir Ibn ABdullah-is weaker or the hadith is weaker thanABC.
Ibn Hajar says the statement no sin upon you if you don't do may either
mean Azl is Ja,iz(allowed) or may imply certainty of blameworthiness if
you do it.The andulusian strict scholar Ibn Hazm believe that Judhama
bint Wahab's hadith-D abrogated other ahadiths-A,B,C.Ibn Hazm therefore
infers Azl to both slave and freeborn woman is haram.On the other hand
Ibn Taymiyyah and his deciple Ibn Qayyim maintain that Azl is
permissible with a freeborn woman's permission,a view also held by the
four Imams-Abu Hanifa,Malik,Shafii and Hanbal.Imam Shawkani says 'There
is no conflict among Ulama in the permissibility of Azl with the
condition that the freeborn has consented to it as she is a patner in
the married life'.Imam Al-Ghazali says'..but Azl,ie for a man to
ejaculate outside the womb in hope of avoiding conception;there are
differences of opinion regarding its status permissible or reprehensible
...the opininon we hold is that it is allowed',he recounted a number of
situations where it is allowed;1-for slave girls it is not forbidden for
him.2-when there is desire to preserve a woman's beauty and elegance so
as to derive a more prolonged pleasure and also to prolong her youthful
life for fear of divorce-here also it is not forbidden.3-fear of too
much difficulty with many children which will lead to difficulties and
subsequently plunge people into sins-here also it is not forbidden.

The medical experts tell us there are other more effective methods of
family which are divided for convenience into-reversible and
irreversible methods.Reversible methods include-Azl,Rhythm method,pills,
condom,diaphragms,spermicides,intra uterine devices IUD and abortions.
The irreversible methods include surgery to the female birth apparatus
(bilateral tubal ligation BTL or removal of the womb hysterectomy) and
to the male tract-vasectomy,similar to castration.Historically,the Arabs
were the first to use foreign body-stones placed in the womb of their
she-camels when travelling for long distances to prevent pregnancy in
the she-camels.
All the reversible methods except IUD and abortions do not need a third
party ie a medical personnell for execution;one needs a third party for
insertion of an IUD but the prophet SAW said'Allah curses the on-looker
(of private parts) and the one whose genitalia are being looked upon.'
The seeming advantage,if any,to me,does not outweigh the caution/curse
narrated in the above hadith.Furthermore the prophet SAW also said
'Do not do what is harmful to yourselves or others',but of the methods,
perhaps the pills are the ones associated with most ill-effects and in
my opinion pills,even though highly effective,should not be used for
preventing conception.All scholars are agreed that abortion is haram
after 4 months-120days within mothers womb,as soul has been blown into
the faetus.As the prophet SAW said'Dont kill life that Allah safeguards
only for just cause'.But before soul is infused ie less than 120days
there are varied opinions.Among Maliki scholars;all of them believe
abortion is haram after 40days of conception,while most of them also
believe it is haram even before 40days though few see it as only
reprehensible(makruh),but Al-lakhmi even see it as permissible then.
These discussions on abortion pertain to shari,a justified abortions eg
mothers or babies health not for leisure related births limitations.
However few scholars permitted abortion less than 120days after
conception even if the faetus is a product of adultery or fornication.
As noted above the prophet SAW prevented someone from castrating himself
and by extension all irreversible methods of family planing seem not
justified,only for medical or health related reasons.Furthermore they
alter human natural physique as created by Allah SWT.

In view of these modern contemporary issues and after due consideration
of purely Islamic viewpoint,some contemporary Ulama have analysed and
concluded on the matter of family planing;
Sayyid Sabiq concluded that,'It preceeded that Islam favours many
children....but that Islam does not forbid family planing by taking
medicine or otherwise to prevent pregnancy as where a man has plenty of
children and is not able train this children(islamically) and similarly
if the woman is weak and or because of frequency of pregnancy or the man
is poor,or sickness in one or both spouses.'Sheikhs Mahmood Shaltoot
and Tantawi also support the permissibilty of family planing.Others
like Sheikhs Dr Abdulaziz Ibn Al-Dardir,Abul Ala-Mawdoodi have been
reported to have vehemently opposed the whole concept of family
planing.They argue that Allah SWT says'You should not kill your children
for fear of poverty,we enrich both you and them'.

Importantly,family planing should be viewed in the grand design of the
imperialist 'new world order' and the zionist forces trying to subjugate
Islam and Muslim populations;a condom is nearly free in nigeria compared
to say in Europe.The United Nations UNPF organised 1994 Cairo Conference
indicates such moves.In nigeria the National Population Commission NPC
set out the population policy 1987 which seeks to reduce child to woman
ratio to two by early next century.The ulterior motives of these
international moves need to be appreciated by our muslim policy formula-
tors.The increasing smallness of family size among muslim elites suggest
that,our enemies are gaining the upper hand without our appreciating it.

Conclusions:
1-Azl is largely regarded as permissible by most scholars,family planing
  could be regarded also as permissible at individual couple level
  particularly more so where there are health related indications.
2-Consent of either spouse ie both husband and wife should always be
  necessary before embarking.
3-Irreversible methods of family planing(as also abortion I feel) should
  be regarded as haram.
4-Reversible harmless methods that do not entail exposing ones nakedness
  would be more acceptable to the spirit of Islam eg condom,diaphragm,
  spermicides and rhythm methods.
5-It is wrong to enact or enforce family planing in Muslim countries;It
  should be left to the discretion of individual couples to decide.
6-Islamic Ummah should evaluate the ulterior motives of family planing
  as encouraged or indirectly enforced by the 'new world order',and at
  Ummah level family planing should be regarded as makruh-reprehensible.
May Allah guide us amen and Allah knows best.
Maasalam,AGH.
(This write up is an abridged form of a previous oral presentation)