In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Praise be to Allah, who fashioned humanity in the most excellent form and ordained the laws of the cosmos with wisdom and governance, making every illness a remedy and every hardship a path to ease; praise be to the One, the Absolute, the Sustainer who has neither offspring nor parent, to whom belongs all praise and glory; praise be to Allah who creates whatever He wills, whenever He wills; He grants females to whom He wills and males to whom He wills, or blesses them with males and females, and makes whom He wills barren; and Allah’s majesty, power, and decree remain beyond measure; may prayers and peace be upon the One whom Allah sent as a caller to Him, a beacon of light, and upon his family and companions, with abundant salutations.
I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner to Him; to Him belongs the dominion, and to Him belongs all praise, and He is capable of all things, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. Then, O servants of Allah, O nation of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, indeed the issues of modern medicine have tangled their paths and intertwined their rulings, and it has become incumbent upon scholars and jurists to illuminate their obscurities and to reveal their purposes. Among the most salient matters is “artificial insemination as a treatment for infertility within marriage in the contemporary era,” that medical pursuit which has approached the doors of households, provoked questions of thought, and stirred the pens of jurists and physicians alike. It lies between a hope that nourishes the deprived and a fear that demands careful regulation and restraint, bridging the gulf between what is permissible and what is forbidden, and between the preservation of lineages and the safeguarding of marital dignity. Know, O servants of Allah, that infertility is a trial with which a believer may be tested in this life, and it stands as a means of expiation for sins and an elevation of degrees if patience is kept and one is content with Allah’s decree. Indeed, the child, O servants of Allah, is among the greatest blessings Allah bestows upon a person; it is the adornment of worldly life. As Allah says in the Qur’an, wealth and children are the adornment of this life, but what is with Allah is better for those who fear Him; yet Allah may deprive some of children and render them barren, as He declares, “To Allah belong the dominion of the heavens and the earth; He creates what He wills; He grants to whom He wills female offspring, and grants to whom He wills males, or He makes whom he wills barren;…” The wisdom, of course, is known to Allah alone, and you know not.
O Servants of Allah, the pursuit of offspring and the uses of means to secure them do not conflict with reliance upon Allah in His governance, provided the means are lawful and beneficial—whether medical treatments or established practices such as certain forms of exercise, or lawful measures sanctioned by Shari’ah, such as supplication and Ruqyah, and the like. It is not permissible to employ forbidden means such as magic or sorcery, or anything that would undermine the fundamental objectives of religion, such as the preservation of lineages and rights, or the avoidance of harm. Hence, higher purposes do not justify compromised means.
Among these means and approaches to treat infertility today is what is called “artificial insemination”, commonly known to laypeople as IVF—the so-called demon of artificial reproduction, often described as “test-tube babies,” “embryo transplantation,” and “implantation.” Before clarifying the legal ruling on this process, we must present the matter to you clearly, for a ruling on anything is rooted in the understanding of it; we therefore proceed to outline its forms, appearances, the opinions of scholars, and the position most likely to be held by the majority of scholars and by the global Islamic councils.
O congregation, I honour your time and would spare you from prolixity, and so I offer what, in my view, is the best definition of artificial insemination, including its four modalities in relation to the:
- locus of conception
- source of semen
- uterus
- spouses
According to the Medical Jurisprudence Encyclopaedia, “It is any method or image in which conception and reproduction occur without sexual intercourse between the man and the wife.”
Servants of Allah, know that the reasons leading to resort to artificial insemination as a therapeutic means for infertility vary from person to person.
In order to ensure due benefit and proper understanding of this weighty topic, we must, in this sacred setting, divide artificial insemination according to the foremost consideration—the locus of conception—into two parts:
- Internal or intrinsic
- External or laboratory-based
Note that all other remaining considerations are tightly bound to this and will be clarified in the second sermon.
Second Sermon
Servants of Allah, there remains now but to illuminate and apply the Shari’ah ruling to the two kinds of internal and external artificial insemination. Scholars have split into two camps on this matter:
First group: those who forbid artificial insemination in all its forms, to prevent the desecration of lineages. Among these scholars are Sheikh Rajab al-Temimi, Sheikh Ibn Baz, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mohammad, and the head of the World Union of Muslim Scientists, Sheikh Mu-yiddin al-Qaradaghi; they present numerous arguments in support of their stance.
Second group: those who permit some forms under certain conditions. This is the position of many contemporary scholars, such as Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltout, Mustafa al-Zarqa, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Abdullah al-Bassem, and the Islamic Fiqh Academy affiliated with the Muslim World League in Makkah, and the International Islamic Fiqh Academy of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, as well as a Kuwait infertility conference that brought together a group of renowned Islamic scholars and doctors. The criterion among them for distinguishing permissible from prohibited forms is as follows:
The body responsible for this matter must be a specialised and trustworthy entity.
The external or internal insemination should not result in mixing the semen of spouses with that of others.
There should be no third party involved, and if a third party is involved, the semen must not be that of a non-spouse, or the egg must not be from a non-wife, or the uterus must not belong to a non-wife. This is the principal criterion for determining permissibility or prohibition. (Scholars differ regarding cases where a third party causes harm; in such instances, there may be a shift between permissibility and prohibition.)
There should be no entailed prohibition.
The fertilisation of an egg with the husband’s semen during his lifetime, and the transfer of this fertilised egg to the wife’s womb while wedlock remains intact. In light of these controls, Servants of Allah, to permit certain forms of artificial insemination among those scholars who deem it permissible, I now present the following forms and their legal rulings, so that our Muslim brothers and sisters may be informed of what is permissible and what is not.
First: Internal insemination:
The semen is from the husband, and it fertilises his wife’s egg in her womb; this is permissible.
The semen is from the husband, and it fertilises the egg of a foreign wife in her womb; this is forbidden.
The semen is from a foreign man, and it fertilises his wife’s egg in her womb; this is forbidden.
The semen is from a foreign man, and it fertilises the egg of a foreign wife in her womb; this is forbidden.
Second: External artificial insemination or laboratory fertilisation:
It involves taking the husband’s semen and his wife’s egg, placing them in a medical laboratory to fertilise, and then returning them to the wife’s womb; this is permissible.
Taking the husband’s semen and his wife’s egg and returning them to the womb of his wife’s co-wife, the law in jurisprudence differs, but prohibition is more likely.
Taking the semen of the husband and the egg of a foreign woman and placing them in a laboratory for fertilisation, then returning them to the womb of another woman, is forbidden.
Taking semen from a foreign man and the egg of a foreign woman, placing them in a laboratory for fertilisation, then returning them to the womb of another woman, is forbidden.
Taking semen from a foreign man and the egg of a foreign woman, placing them in a laboratory, fertilising them, and then returning them to the womb of another woman is forbidden.
From this point, we understand the danger facing Muslims today, and the essence of this discourse is that artificial insemination is permissible so long as the semen, the egg, and the womb belong to the spouses; anything beyond this is forbidden.
And our appeal from this honoured National Pulpit to our brothers and sisters afflicted by infertility remains: if it is necessary to pursue artificial insemination, then seek the first permissible form from the internal category, and the first permissible form from the external category as well, in order to avoid mixing lineages and to safeguard families and to eschew sins.
Servants of Allah, my counsel to anyone afflicted with infertility is to reflect upon Allah’s will and decree; for Allah does not wrong His servants, and He does nothing save with wisdom. If a believer contemplates the sudden loss of a child whom he has striven to bring happiness to his life, and he is resolved to preserve life, he should find composure and contentment in Allah’s plan, and this constitutes a profound spiritual state.
Then the trial that the believer faces in this world is but a test of truth against deceit, faith against hypocrisy, and submission against defiance; all are tested in some form, and Allah says: Do people suppose that they will be left alone because they say, We believe, and will not be tried? We have surely tried those before them, and Allah will surely reveal the truthful and will expose the liars.
May Allah lighten us and grant us ease in patience and endurance beyond our capacity.
- Sheikh Dr Abdulkadir Al-Salman, the “Chief Custodian of Knowledge and Scholars” (Malami Ubandoma), of the Ilorin Emirate and one of the Imams, at the National Mosque in Nigeria
