In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

KILLING THE FETUS – A THIRD CLASS MENTALITY

[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]

Human behavior in case of his progeny is very dubious. He thinks and plans that how many children he should have as if he is the master of the situation. The ever-increasing Western mania towards keeping higher and higher standard of living has overcast very negative effect on his thinking process. The more he or she is educated, the more chauvinistic is his living style, the more Iconic social status a family possesses, the greater importance it gives to the choice: “whether to have a baby or a car and very often car wins.” This tendency is increasing manifold with the increase in the per capita income of the couple and now it is fast infesting the middle class strata of our society, especially in the developing countries.

The two most densely populated countries of the world like China and India are competing with their own socio-economic condition to curtail down their respective population, considering that they are already overpopulated and hence must scale down the growth of their birth rate. China is restricting to have only one child in each family and the choice for parents goes to have only a male baby. As a result, the proportion of females in terms of males has sharply dwindled. Now more than 100 millions men have no female partners to marry. India has introduced “compulsory” family planning to check the growth but it is resulting in a social stigma as families prefer a male boy over a female girl. This human disturbance in the equilibrium of ratio proportion of gender growth interferes with the natural process of growth of human population that maintains a close proximity of fifty-fifty, now is resulting in reduction of female ratio, into the lopsided growth of male population both in China and India, creating a lot of social problems and family unrest in its wake.

This thinking process is very fallacious and connotes that man is controlling the affairs of this cosmos and he is the “Provider” and maintaining the equilibrium in the supply of what man needs on this earth to feed his belly for survival. He forgets that man is neither the Creator nor the Sustainer. The Sustainer is God, the Great Who manages the affairs of this universe. He provides the food that humanity needs globally in abundance but man spoils this global concept by artificially creating 197 nations states, causing surplus at many places while scarcity at many other places, encountering famine and food shortage, hunger and starvation in the human abode. Thus, shortage of food and making it a plea to resort to family planning or birth control tantamount to ‘lame duck excuse’ that is advocated by the protagonists of family planning and are reducing the human population on earth, advocating to kill the fetus in the womb of the mother. This is a tyranny and transgression on earth of an unprecedented nature.

To nullify this entire argument of food shortage that from where it will come with the increase in population to fill the belly, Allah (SWT) very vehemently tells the humans that it is He Who provides the Rizq to everyone not you, the man, and strongly condemns the killing of fetus in any form. The fear of poverty, concern for shortage of food, over-consciousness of scaling down of life standard, sacrificing or forgoing the quality of life are often found the paramount reasoning to resort to family planning and killing the fetus to get rid of additional children in the family. This attitude of life is a kind of mental sickness man right from the very inception of human society has been nurturing and, in return, the Sustainer and the Provider of Rizq has given a befitting answer to all these social aliments.

* “Lo! Allah! He is that gives livelihood, the Lord of Unbreakable might” [The Qur’an: Al-Zariyat - Surah # 51, Verse # 58]

* “Slay not your children, feeling a fall to poverty. We shall provide for them and for you. Lo! Slaying of them is great sin.” [The Qur’an. Verse # 31 of Surah #17 –Al-Isra]

A THIRD CLASS MENTALITY:

It would be most appropriate to share at this juncture the details of an incident that happened with Late Moulana Maudoodi (RA) in Sylhit, East Pakistan [now BD] when he visited that part of Pakistan in 1956. He was standing on the railway Platform surrounded by JIP workers and well-wishers. There was a great rush on the platform, the train was packed to the capacity and many passengers were trying to enter in the third class compartment which was already over-packed. The inside passengers were not letting them in the compartment whereas the outside passengers were trying their utmost to get in the compartment. At that time a brother asked Moulana Merhoom, “What is your opinion about the family planning?

Moulana Merhoom immediately responded that it is “a third class mentality.” “Don’t you see the condition of the third class compartment? Those who are already inside the compartment are resisting their utmost that no one else should be allowed to get in. See, when one gets in anyhow he is behaving likewise. This is the mentality of third class compartment. They have come to this world anyhow and now are obstructing for others not to come in this world. The public around him instantly got the message and people enjoyed Moulana’s presence of mind and his great sense of “Mizah” (hummer). [May Allah bless him immensely]

I think this is the best and the most appropriate comment on the issue. It does not need any explanations and the advocates of family planning must give up their advocacy of killing the fetus in the womb of mothers. It is a crime against humanity and the perpetrators must be hanged to death for killing the unborn before their birth. They are responsible for the disturbance of human race and spreading innumerable aliments in the society.

Shamim Siddiqi

November 11, 2009