Abstract
This chapter uses the lens of abortion to explore the notion of the soul and the concept of life within the Islamic tradition and compares this view to current western scientific views. Drawing from biomedical science as well as scriptural and theological texts of classical Islam, the aim is to create a coherent, nuanced Muslim argument on the practice of abortion. It argues that the traditional ‘ensoulment’ (nafkh al-rūḥ) date of 120 days – the minimum threshold by which Muslim jurists had qualifiedly permitted abortion – was based on a misunderstanding of the biomedical knowledge underpinning it and that a shorter period of 40 days, when the nervous and circulatory systems are developed, should mark when the foetus becomes human and thus abortion becomes categorically prohibited.
This chapter is a revision of an article that first appeared in the journal Renovatio. See Yusuf (2018).
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Notes
- 1.
Guttmacher Institute (2020): www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-worldwide
- 2.
Herbermann et al. (1907), 1:46.
- 3.
Barnhart et al. (1988), 4. According to Chambers, the word came into use in 1580. The first use of ‘abortionist,’ one who performs an abortion, was in 1872.
- 4.
Thompson (1996), 3.
- 5.
Ibid., 508.
- 6.
Two philosophers, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, argued in the Journal of Medical Ethics that ‘when circumstances occur “after birth” such that they would have justified abortion, what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a new-born) should be permissible.’ See Giubilini and Minerva (2013): 261–263. Also, see Saletan 2012).
- 7.
The Axial Age is a term first used by the German philosopher, Karl Jaspers (d. 1969), characterizing the period from the eighth to the third century BCE. Jaspers argued that ‘the spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently in China, India, Persia, Judea, and Greece. These are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today.’ See Jaspers (2003), 98.
- 8.
Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) said, ‘To clarify the Way of Medina and its preference over other schools among the various other cities is among the most important of matters when the innovations of the ignorant and those who follow opinions, whims, and heresies of the egos become widespread, and God knows best.’ See Ibn Taymiyya (2006), 163.
- 9.
Kilday is Dean and Professor of Criminal History in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. Her research and teaching focus on the history of violent crime and its punishment in Britain and America.
- 10.
Kilday (2013), 3.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Plato (1992), 142 (Book V, sec. 460b–460c).
- 13.
Aristotle (2005), 1999 (Book VII, sec. 1335b).
- 14.
Toner (2014), 70.
- 15.
See Barr (1966).
- 16.
Gorman (1982), 32.
- 17.
Barker et al. (2002), 225.
- 18.
Ibid., 225 and 228.
- 19.
Ibid., 24.
- 20.
Considered one of the most prominent ‘fathers of Talmudic literature,’ Rabbi Yishmael was a rabbinic sage of the second century.
- 21.
Schiff (2002), 52.
- 22.
A biographer from Jerusalem, Titus Flavius Josephus was also a Roman citizen. He recorded Jewish history and studied Jewish law with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and the Essenes.
- 23.
Mitchell (2013), 35.
- 24.
Ibid., 35.
- 25.
Ibid., 36.
- 26.
See Mohanty (2012).
- 27.
Cleary (1995), 47.
- 28.
Loy (2008), 67.
- 29.
A jurist and a scholar of Arabic, al-Qurṭubī is best known for his book on exegesis, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān (The General Judgments of the Qur’an), also referred to as Tafsīr al-jāmiʿ or Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī. His commentary remains among the most important legal commentaries of the Qurʼan.
- 30.
Al-Qurṭubī (1993), 7:86.
- 31.
Known mainly for his writings in exegesis and law, Qāḍī Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī was a preeminent Mālikī jurist from Andalusia. He was the last student of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111).
- 32.
Ibn al-ʿArabī (2000), 3:149.
- 33.
A leading scholar and jurist of Islam as well as a narrator of ḥadīth, Ibn ʿAbbās was the son of the Prophet’s uncle, ʿAbbās (d. 32/653).
- 34.
A jurist and a judge, Ibn Manẓūr is the author of Lisān al-ʿArab (The Tongue of the Arabs), a twenty volume Arabic dictionary.
- 35.
Ibn Manẓūr (1993), 2:215.
- 36.
Ibid., 2:215–16.
- 37.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1989), 220.
- 38.
Ibid., 220.
- 39.
Lousse and Donnez (2008): 833–4.
- 40.
In the case of the ḥadīth, which differs in the various narrations, oral transmission allows for the real possibility of mistakes in words or substitute words that convey a similar meaning, especially given the completely novel nature of the subject to the listeners.
- 41.
Cooper (2000), chap. 2.
- 42.
A scholar in exegesis, Arabic grammar, and rhetoric, al-Zamakhsharī is known for his major work, al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʾiq al-tanzīl (The Discoverer of Revealed Truths; also known as Tafsīr al-Zamakhsharī).
- 43.
Ibn Manẓūr (1993), 2:556.
- 44.
Wehr (1994), 1067.
- 45.
One of the earliest and closest Companions of the Prophet, Ibn Masʿūd was known for his erudition and knowledge of Sharīʿa.
- 46.
Al-Qārī (2014), 1:186.
- 47.
Mulla ʿAlī al-Qārī was a Ḥanafī jurist who authored many books on jurisprudence.
- 48.
Al-Qārī (2014), 1:186.
- 49.
Al-Ṭabarī is known as the Imam of the scholars of exegesis, and his Qur’anic exegesis is the most relied upon commentary in the Islamic tradition.
- 50.
Ibn Mandah was a Ḥanbalī jurist and well-known master of ḥadīth.
- 51.
Al-Qārī (2014), 1:187.
- 52.
Wehr (1994), 412–13.
- 53.
Al-Qārī (2014), 1:186.
- 54.
Al-Attas (2015), 33–34.
- 55.
Ḥadīth no. 4 of al-Nawawī’s Forty Ḥadīths (al-Arbaʿīn), found in Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (2008), 197. Considered the master of the Shāfiʿī school of jurisprudence, al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) was a ḥadīth scholar, linguist, and jurist.
- 56.
Imam Muslim is the author of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the second most important book of ḥadīth and one of the six famous works on ḥadīth.
- 57.
Muslim (2013), 8:45 (ḥadīth no. 2644). Editor’s note: Imam Muslim’s version specifies a range for the arrival of the angel from 40 to 45 nights, i.e., around six weeks.
- 58.
A jurist and a ḥadīth scholar, Abū Dāwūd authored one of the six canonical works on ḥadīth (Sunan Abī Dāwūd). Editor’s note: Abū Dāwūd’s version of the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd appears in Abū Dāwūd (2009), 7:93 (ḥadīth no. 4708).
- 59.
Allan and Kramer (2010), 12–31 and 32–164.
- 60.
Founder of the Mālikī school of jurisprudence, Imam Mālik is from the second generation, or Follower (tābiʿīn). A scholar of ḥadīth known for his major work, al-Muwaṭṭaʾ. After his death, his legal opinions and teachings in jurisprudence were written down in the book al-Mudawwana al-kubrā (The Great Compilation) by one of his students.
- 61.
A jurist and a scholar of ḥadīth, Ibn Mājah authored one of the six canonical works of ḥadīth (Sunan Ibn Mājah).
- 62.
Ibn al-ʿArabī (1992), 2:763. The ḥadīth has some weakness in its chain, but it is quoted by Mālikīs as one of their proofs that abortion is prohibited from inception. Editor’s note: Ibn Mājah’s version of the ḥadīth is no. 1608.
- 63.
A scholar of ḥadīth, Khaṭīb al-Tabrīzī authored the book Mishkāt al-maṣābīḥ (The Niche of Lanterns).
- 64.
Ibn al-ʿArabī (1992), 2:863.
- 65.
Al-Shawkānī (2005), 4:603. The ḥadīth is related by Ibn Ḥanbal, al-Bukhārī, and Muslim. Author of the well-known Nayl al-awṭār (The Obtainment of the Objectives), al-Shawkānī (d. 1250/1834) was one of the top scholars of Yemen in the twelfth and thirteenth century AH (eighteenth and nineteenth century CE).
- 66.
Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī is one of the most authoritative voices in the Mālikī school.
- 67.
Ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawānī (1999), 13:464.
- 68.
A jurist and scholar of ḥadīth, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Rajrājī wrote a seminal commentary on the Mālikī school’s most important resource of Mālikʼs opinions, al-Mudawwana.
- 69.
Al-Rajrājī (2007), 10:222.
- 70.
A Persian scholar based in Baghdad, Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī was known for influencing his younger contemporary, Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī. His works on ethics, Qur’anic vocabulary, and Arabic literature are widely referenced.
- 71.
Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (2014), 106.
- 72.
The Qur’an has ten variant recensions that contain different readings. Each is considered valid and transmitted by the Prophet to his Companions. They offer subtle nuances in meaning. In this verse, two readings, Nāfiʿ and ʿĀsim, differ. One uses the masculine yumnā, and the other uses the feminine tumnā. This indicates that both the male and the female are releasing their respective nuṭfas, which will commingle and become the nuṭfa amshāj. This appears to be a clear miracle of the Qur’an.
- 73.
Gazzaniga is a distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
- 74.
Gazzaniga (2005), 4–5.
- 75.
Muslim (2013), 8:128 (ḥadīth no. 2794).
- 76.
Ibn al-ʿArabī (1992), 2:763.
- 77.
A ḥadīth scholar from Morocco, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ was a Mālikī jurist and a judge.
- 78.
ʿIyāḍ (1998), 8:127.
- 79.
A Mālikī jurist and Azharī scholar, al-Kharashī authored commentaries on Mālikī jurisprudence.
- 80.
Al-Kharashī (n.d.), 3:225.
- 81.
Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī was a linguist, an exegete, Mālikī jurist, and formidable scholar of uṣūl al-fiqh.
- 82.
Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbī (1977), 141.
- 83.
Aḥmad al-Wansharīsī was a Mālikī jurist who compiled the most important work on legal responsa from the Mālikī school.
- 84.
Al-Wansharīsī (1981–1983), 3:370.
- 85.
Known as ‘the Sultan of Scholars,’ Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām was a leading Shāfiʿī scholar.
- 86.
Al-Wansharīsī (1981–1983), 3:370.
- 87.
A philosopher and a physician, Avicenna was known as the father of medicine in the Middle Ages. His book on medicine was used as a textbook in Europe until the seventeenth century.
- 88.
Avicenna (2014), 3:1262.
- 89.
Ibid., 3:1262.
- 90.
Al-Lakhmī, a formidable Mālikī jurist, was also knowledgeable in ḥadīth and Arabic literature.
- 91.
A late Shāfiʿī scholar, al-Ramlī is invariably quoted as permitting abortion, and along with Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1252/1836) from the Ḥanafī school, he is the most quoted authority on abortion’s permissibility. Nevertheless, a close reading of al-Ramlī’s words leaves more doubt than certainty about the matter.
- 92.
Al-Ramlī (2003), 8:442.
- 93.
One of the most learned scholars of Islam and considered a renewer of the faith, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī was a theologian, philosopher, mystic, and Shāfiʿī jurist. His most famous work is the Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (The Revival of Religious Sciences).
- 94.
Al-Ghazālī (2010), 2:385–86.
- 95.
Muslim (2013), 4:161 (ḥadīth no. 141).
- 96.
The author of nearly three hundred works, Ibn Taymiyya was a theologian and a logician who was also highly regarded for his legal opinions.
- 97.
Ibn Taymiyya (1961–1967), 34:160.
- 98.
Jarvis (2017).
- 99.
See elsewhere in this book for a neuroscientific argument of the ‘ensoulment’ as ‘primary self-awareness’ in Chap. 7, ‘Where the Two Oceans Meet: The Theology of Islam and the Philosophy of Psychiatric Medicine in Exploring the Human Self,’ by Asim Yusuf and Afifi al-Akiti.
- 100.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr is arguably the greatest ḥadīth scholar of Andalusia and a recognized master of Mālikī jurisprudence.
- 101.
Al-Būṣī (1999), 2:1036.
- 102.
Al-Tirmidhī (1937–1965), 4:315 (ḥadīth no. 1907).
- 103.
Semega et al. (2020), 3.
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Yusuf, H. (2022). When Does a Human Foetus Become Human?. In: al-Akiti, A., Padela, A.I. (eds) Islam and Biomedicine. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 137. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53801-9_6
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