This is a chapter from The Baha'i Faith and Abortion
Kill Not Your Awlad
The Qu'ran was revealed in Arabic, and Arabic-speaking Muslims believe that the Qur'an cannot be properly understood unless read in Arabic.
In Arabic, there are two words for "child":
1. Walad ("child" that is born or unborn)
2. Maolood ("child" that is born)
For plural for Walad (child born or unborn) is Awlad ("children" born or unborn).
"Say, Come let me tell you what your Lord has really prohibited for you: You shall not set up idols besides Him. You shall honor your parents. You shall not kill your AWLAD ("children") from fear of poverty--we provide for you and for them. You shall not commit gross sins, obvious or hidden. You shall not kill any person--GOD has made life sacred--except in the course of justice. These are His commandments to you, that you may understand." (6:151)In the Qur'an, a Muslim woman is described as those "who do not kill their AWLAD." (60:12) Notice the word AWLAD ("children" born or in the womb) is used; not the Arabic word for "children" born only (MAOLOOD)."Do not kill your AWLAD for fear of poverty: it is We who shall provide sustenance for them as well as you. Killing them is certainly a great sin." (17:31)
Muslims and Baha'is consider the Qur'an, in the Arabic, to be the perfect uncreated Word of God.
In the time the Qur'an was revealed (7th century A.D.) pagan Arabs would often bury their female children alive in the sand; because female children were a liability and could not support the parents in old age like male children. Also, at that time, the wormwood plant was used as a potion to produce abortions.
Hadiths on Abortion
The Ahadith ("Sayings") of the Prophet Muhammad are His sayings that His Companions heard Him say. To be considered reliable or trustworthy they must follow a provenance back to one of the close Companions of the Prophet. Many of the ahadith are contradictory. Some are absolutely bizaar.
Just about all Muslims consider the "Sayings" (hadiths) of the Prophet Muhammad to be equally as binding and equally as inspired as the Qur'an. Different Muslim scholars argue on which "Sayings" are authentic, which are questionable, and which are fraudulent. It is generally agreed that the Hadiths recorded by Sahih Muslim and Bhukari are the earliest and most reliable.
Baha'is do not believe the Hadiths are absolutely reliable, and thus do not consider them as infallible. Baha'is do not believe the Hadiths come near to the revealed Word of God as found in the Qur'an. For Baha'is, the Qur'an and the Holy Writings of the Faith (by The Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'l-Baha) are considered the infallible Word of God. Subjects not directly mentioned in the Writings are left to the Universal House of Justice ("under the shadow" of Baha'u'llah) to pronounce upon. The Universal House of Justice is not considered "infallible", but "inspired" to a lesser extant; whose collective legislative decisions are "binding" upon Baha'is.
In the "sayings" of the Prophet Muhammad there is little reference to abortion other than accidental miscarriages. There is a hadith which says that two sister-wives fought, one threw a stone at the other, who was pregnant, and the victim had a miscarriage. They went to the Prophet to ask Him what should be done, and the Prophet replied that the nearest male relative of the offender (the woman who threw the stone) had to pay Diya (blood-money) to the nearest relatives of the woman who miscarried. The nearest male relative was Hamal b. al-Nabigha al-Hudhali; who vehemently objected to having to pay Diya for a fetus. He formed a rhyme that said he didn't think he needed to pay blood-money for something that doesn't think, or breath, or talk, because "it is like a non-entity". The Prophet replied that Hamal was "one of the brothers of the soothsayers" (i.e. a brother to evil men) and made him pay the Diya. (Sahih Muslim 16:4168/4170)
There is one Hadith ("Saying") that most Sunni Muslim jurists (doctors of jurisprudence) draw upon to justify abortion up until the 40th or 120th day.
"Abdullah (b. Mas'ud) reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) who is the most truthful and his being most truthful said: Verily your creation is on this wise. The constituents of oen of you are collected for forty days in his mother's womb in the form of blood, after which it becomes a clot of blood in another period of forty days. Then it becomes a lump of flesh and forty days later Allah send His angel to it with instructions concerning four things, so the angels writes down his livlihood, his death, his deeds, his fortune, and his misfortune." (Sahih Muslim 33:6390)Notice:
40 days as a drop of blood + forty days as a clot of blood + forty days as a lump of flesh and "forty days later" equals 120 days.
Some schools of Islam allow abortion up until day 40, since, they reason, it is merely a "drop of semen" until then (science says 'no'). Other schools allow abortion (either restricted or unrestricted) until day 120 because this is the "time of quickening" when allegedly an Angel breathes into the fetus his or her human "soul". Without a human soul the fetus is merely like a toad or a leech; "life" but not human life, and thus not sacred.
They compare this to a Verse in the Qur'an which reads:
"Man We did create from a quintenssence (or clay), then We placed him as a drop in a place of rest firmly fixed, then We amde the drop into a leech like clot which clings; then we made the clot into a lump of flesh; then We made out of the lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature." (12:12-14)The Arabic word translated "drop" is nutfah. The word translated "leech-like clot" is alaqah, the words translated "lump of flesh" is mudgah. If one takes this Verse, and gives "forty days" to nutfah, forty days to alaqah, and forty days to mudgah, one comes to 120 days. This leads some Muslim schools to believe that it does not become "human" for 120 days.
Aristotle
During the "Dark Ages" the custonians of Greek knowledge were the Arabs! They translated all the ancient Greek texts on mathmatics, medicine, etc., they could find into Arabic. During the Middle Ages the great seats of learning were in Baghdad, Cairo, and the Morrocan cities of southern Spain. The European universities did not teach mathmatics, but theology, astrology, and some very dangerous and backward forms of medicine. On the other hands, the great Muslim universities at that time were the most advanced in the world in engineering, mathmatics, geography, chemistry, geology, etc. This was in large part due to the Arabic facination with Greek sciences. The Arabs were expecially pleased with Aristotle; the tutor of Alexander the Great.
Aristotle wrote that the "soul" did not come into being in the fetus until the 40th day (for men) or the 80th day (for women). Many Muslims in the Middle Ages accepted that as a scientific fact, so they decreed that the fetus was not a "human soul" until day 40 or day 80. That tradition has continued today in some Muslim schools of jurisprudence.
Schools of Jurisprudence
Sunni Islam has four major schools of jurisprudence (interpetation of Islamic law):
1. Hanbali
2. Hanafi
3. Maliki
4. Shafi
Here is what they determine about abortion:
Hanbali: permitted without restriction until day 120. Permitted in certain cases after that.
Hanafi: permitted with restrictions until day 120. Forbidden after that.
Maliki: permitted with consent of both the man and woman up undtil day 40. Forbidden after that.
Shafi: up to day 120 unrestricted. Forbidden after that.
Shi'ite Islam has basically three major sects:
1. Ithnashari ("Twelvers")
2. Ismailis ("Seveners")
3. Zaydis ("Fivers")
The Twelvers accept 12 Imams (successors of Muhammad). The Seveners accept the first 6 Imams the Twelvers accept, but then follow the line of Ismail (as 7th Imam), and believe in the continuation of Imams until the present day with the current living Aga Khan. The Zaydis (in Yemen) accept the first 4 Imams, then their own founder (the Fifth).
Ithnashari: forbidden in all cases except to save the life of the mother. However, individual Faqihs (Jurists) can issue fatwahs (judicial decisions) overriding this if they feel a case necessitates it. In Iran, rich Iranians can procure abortions by bribing a Faqih to issue a special fatwah.
Ismaili: a conservative sect says abortion is forbidden in all cases. Abortion before day 40 is punished by a small fine. Harsher punishments for abortion after day 40. A liberal sect of Ismailis permit it in all cases.
Zaydi: permitted up to day 120 unrestricted.
Muslim countries don't always follow the decisions of the schools. Tunesia is 99% Sunni Muslim of the Hanbali school, but has liberal abortion laws. Iraq under Sadam Hussein had somewhat liberal abortion laws. Other secular Muslim nations such as Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Morocco, have somewhat liberal abortion laws.
Conclusion
If one sticts to the text of the Holy Qur'an, then abortion is the "killing" of the child in the womb. No exceptions are indicated.
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