In the Name of God; the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

1. Deliberate termination of a human fetus in a surgical, chemical or by any other artificial method is intrinsically an unlawful act in Islam and its doer will be held liable both in here and in the hereafter.

2. A pregnant woman from the Islamic point of view is not the owner of her fetus as parents are not the owners of their children. She is rather entrusted with a human being in its early stages of its life responsible for its nourishment and development. The likeness of a mother's womb in Islam is the likeness of enriched tilth for cultivation.[1]

3. In Islam ‘all life matters'. Killing an innocent human even in its early stages as in abortion is like killing the whole of mankind, and to save a single human even in its fetus or embryonic stage is like saving the life of the whole of mankind.[2]

4. Killing an innocent human is considered to be one of the mortal sins.

5. There are specified fiscal penalties for killing or aborting a fetus. Although there is no ethical difference between taking the life of an unborn child at 5 weeks gestation or at 24 weeks gestation, given that the same child is just 19 weeks more mature, there is a different fiscal penalty for them. In Islam, the age of the fetus is divided into five stages commencing from the very conception and the amount of the penalty varies accordingly.

6. If a mother aborted her fetus without the consent of her husband, he should be compensated and as the ‘killer' of her child, she will be deprived of inheriting from her child. Similarly, if a man forces his wife to abort the fetus he is liable to compensate his wife and as the ‘killer' of his child, he will be deprived of its inheritance.

7. A Prophetic tradition states that on the Day of Judgment the first case is about shedding innocent blood.[3] The terminated fetus will confront its killer saying: “For what sin, was I killed?”[4]

8. The above verdicts are for the cases that abortion is done for selfish and personal not medical reasons. Abortion is permissible only if the life of the mother is at a serious risk, otherwise. The doer, however, will be still liable to pay the fiscal penalty.

9. The usage of various contraceptives which temporarily prevent conception are permissible in Islam, given they do not cause serious harm to the mother.