in the resolutions of the fiqh councils. Those who regarded withdrawal as disliked did so only because of several misgivings: it deprives the wife of complete pleasure and of sharing with her husband in sexual enjoyment; it seems to oppose the divine decree and represents, in the estimation of the man who practises it, an attempt to repel that decree by human planning.
As for the procedure performed by some physicians today—severing certain ducts so as to disable the power of procreation while leaving the ability to have intercourse intact, for the purpose of limiting births—there is no doubt that it is forbidden. It is certainly not to be compared with withdrawal, for there is a great difference between the two: withdrawal is only a probable cause of preventing conception, whereas cutting the duct is a definitive cause, after which the perpetrator no longer has any choice about the coming of a child.
- Resolution of the Council of Senior Scholars on Birth Control, no. 42, dated 13/4/1396 AH:
All praise is for Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet, and upon his family and companions. To proceed:
At its eighth session, held in the first half of the month of Rabiʿ al-Thani 1396 AH, the Council of Senior Scholars examined the issue of preventing pregnancy, birth control, and its regulation, in accordance with the decision taken at the Council’s seventh session, held in the first half of Shaʿban 1395 AH, to include the subject on the agenda of the eighth session. The Council reviewed the study prepared on the matter by the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Fatwas, and, after exchanging views and discussions among the members and listening to the different perspectives, resolved as follows:
– In view of the fact that Islamic law encourages the spread and increase of offspring and regards children as a great blessing and immense favor that Allah has bestowed upon His servants—as is confirmed by the scriptural texts from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ, cited by the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Fatwas in the study it submitted to the Council—and in view of