Question:
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
We follow the Hanafi madhhab and urgently need a case-specific ruling regarding abortion. Conception was approximately ——–, so the pregnancy is currently approximately 50 days from conception.
This would be our third child. Our existing children are 4 years old and 10 months old. The younger child was therefore only around 8 months old when this pregnancy was conceived and is still breastfeeding normally.
Our principal concern is the mother’s capacity to adequately manage three very young children. She already struggles considerably with two children. She has difficulty maintaining consistent routines and homeschooling for the 4-year-old, needs frequent reminders and encouragement from the father to maintain educational structure, sometimes loses patience, and does not always respond with sufficient empathy when the children are hurt or distressed. There have also been concerns about supervision and accidents, although we do not want to exaggerate this: the children are properly fed, their basic needs are being met, and there has been no established serious neglect or major injury.
The mother performs essentially all physical childcare and household chores, because the father is physically unable to provide substantial practical help in the home. She will also have to return to work shortly. The 10-month-old would likely need to attend crèche/daycare while the 4-year-old remains at home with the father and continues homeschooling. The father is concerned that pregnancy, followed by another newborn, could further reduce the mother’s patience, supervision, emotional availability and ability to provide consistent care to the existing children, and could also seriously strain the marital relationship.
Our financial circumstances are also difficult. We currently live with the two children in a one-bedroom apartment, and substantial paid childcare or domestic assistance is not realistically affordable.
In addition, the father has significant ongoing family responsibilities in his country————. He financially supports his widowed mother, who is dependent on him. He also provides significant financial assistance to his three married sisters and their three children, because their husbands do not adequately provide for them. We understand that under Hanafi fiqh the married sisters’ maintenance may primarily be the responsibility of their own husbands, so we do not wish to incorrectly claim that all of this assistance constitutes obligatory nafaqah. However, in practical terms these seven family members depend significantly on his financial assistance, particularly his widowed mother. This further limits our ability to obtain larger accommodation, domestic assistance or additional childcare.
There is currently no known serious medical danger to the mother’s life or health, and the existing children are receiving food and their essential care. Our concern is therefore the cumulative situation: two very young existing children, only an 8-month interval between childbirth and conception, continued breastfeeding, the mother’s existing difficulty managing two children consistently, essentially all physical childcare and housework falling upon her, her imminent return to work, the father’s physical inability to assist substantially at home, inadequate housing, financial pressure, responsibility toward dependent relatives, and the father’s concern that a third child could significantly worsen the care and supervision of the existing children and the stability of the marriage.
We are not asking merely because we prefer two children or because raising another child will be inconvenient.
According to the Hanafi madhhab, do these circumstances cumulatively constitute a valid shar’i ʿudhr permitting abortion at approximately 50 days after conception, or would abortion remain impermissible?
We would particularly appreciate clarification as to whether the welfare of the two existing young children and the mother’s realistic capacity to care for them can constitute a valid ʿudhr before 120 days when there is no established medical danger to the mother’s life.
Jazakum Allahu khayran.
Answer:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-Salāmu ʿAlaykum Wa-Raḥmatullāhi Wa-Barakātuh
In principle, abortion is not permissible without a severe and compelling Sharʿī excuse. However, where there is a genuine danger to the mother’s life or serious harm to a breastfeeding child, there is, due to extreme necessity, leeway to terminate the pregnancy before 120 days, subject to the conditions established by the jurists.
In the scenario described, no sufficiently strong Sharʿī excuse has been established. Although the difficulties mentioned are genuine and deserving of serious consideration, they do not, on the facts presented, reach the level of necessity required to permit abortion. Therefore, the pregnancy should not be terminated on the basis of these circumstances.
Allah تعالى warns us in the Qurʾān:
وَلَا تَقۡتُلُوٓاْ أَوۡلَٰدَكُمۡ خَشۡيَةَ إِمۡلَاقٖۖ نَّحۡنُ نَرۡزُقُهُمۡ وَإِيَّاكُمۡۚ إِنَّ قَتۡلَهُمۡ كَانَ خِطۡـٔٗا كَبِيرٗا
“And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Indeed, killing them is a great sin.”
[Sūrah al-Isrāʾ 17:31]
Raising children is an important responsibility and a virtuous act in Islam. It requires patience, sacrifice and emotional discipline, particularly as parents are responsible for raising the next generation upon īmān, good character and righteousness. Thus, the difficulty of raising another child, even when considerable, does not by itself constitute a Sharʿī necessity for abortion.
The father should nevertheless make every reasonable effort to reduce the mother’s burden and assist with the children and household according to his ability.
Regarding his financial assistance to his three married sisters and their children, their maintenance is not ordinarily obligatory upon him while their husbands are responsible for them. If this voluntary assistance is affecting his ability to fulfil the obligatory rights of his own wife and children, he should reduce it as necessary and prioritise his obligatory responsibilities.
Therefore, based on the circumstances described, abortion would not be permissible merely because of the difficulty of raising another child, financial pressure, limited housing, childcare difficulties, or the father’s inability to provide substantial practical assistance. [1]
And Allah Taʿāla Knows Best.
| Baba Abu Bakr
Student Darul Iftaa Accra, Ghana |
Abdour-Rahmaan Lim Voon Heek
Student Darul Iftaa |
Checked and Approved by
Mufti Muhammad Zakariyya Desai
