However, if the purpose of taking birth-control pills is only to postpone pregnancy—not to end it altogether—and this is for a sound reason, such as the woman’s inability to cope with back-to-back pregnancies and her desire to delay conception so that she can nourish and nurse her newborn, while her health cannot withstand successive pregnancies, then there is no harm in it. In other words, she may take the pills to delay pregnancy until she is ready for a new one … This is what we call spacing or delaying pregnancy, so that the woman can receive a future pregnancy in good condition and sound health. Closely spaced pregnancies weaken her and may keep her from giving the fetus the nourishment it needs. In such a case it is permissible and unobjectionable.

By contrast, if the pills are taken to prevent pregnancy out of fear of poverty—as some people who do not believe in Allah claim, saying that a large population leads to famine and straitened means—then this is categorically forbidden. It betrays ill thoughts of Allah and aligns with the attitude of the people of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance who killed their children for fear of poverty. Allah the Exalted said: “Do not kill your children because of poverty; We provide for you and for them” (al-Anʿām 151), and He said: “Do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We provide for them and for you. Their killing is indeed a great sin” (al-Isrāʾ 31). Those who block pregnancy for this reason resemble the people of Jāhiliyyah in their bad opinion of Allah, for Allah does not create a soul without decreeing its provision, its deeds, and its lifespan.