to prevent pregnancy merely out of fear of poverty, for Allah is the All-Provider, the Possessor of strength, the Ever-Firm, and “there is no creature on earth but that its provision rests with Allah” (Qur’an 11:6).

However, if pregnancy is averted because of a proven necessity—such as when the woman cannot deliver naturally and must undergo surgery to extract the child, or when conception is postponed for a set period in pursuit of a benefit the spouses deem legitimate—then there is no objection to preventing or delaying pregnancy. This is in keeping with the sound hadiths and the reports from a number of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, that permit coitus interruptus (ʿazl), and it accords with the explicit statements of some jurists who allow a woman to take medication that expels the drop of semen before forty days. Indeed, preventing pregnancy may even become obligatory when an actual, compelling necessity is established. Shaykh ʿAbd Allah ibn Ghudayyan, however, withheld judgment concerning such exceptions.

May Allah send blessings and peace upon Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.

Council of Senior Scholars

Resolution of the Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy on Birth Control

All praise is due to Allah alone, and may blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet, and upon his family and Companions.

To proceed:

The Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy has studied the issue of birth control—misleadingly termed “family planning.” After deliberation and an exchange of views, the Council unanimously resolved the following:

In view of the fact that Islamic law urges an increase in the numbers of Muslims and regards offspring as a tremendous blessing and a magnificent favor with which Allah has graced His servants—something attested by the textual evidence from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ—and because the call to limit births or prevent pregnancy clashes with the innate disposition upon which Allah created mankind and with the Islamic law that Allah has approved for His servants, and because