(31) “Do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Surely killing them is a grave sin.”

This is part of His mercy toward His servants, for He is more merciful to them than their own parents are. He therefore forbade parents to kill their children out of fear of poverty and destitution, and He guaranteed provision for them all.

He also declared that killing them is a grave sin—that is, one of the gravest major sins—because it reflects the disappearance of mercy from the heart, constitutes an immense violation of their rights, and is a brazen act of killing children who have committed neither sin nor disobedience.