487. Does abortion amount to homicide.

In the following verses (6:140, 6:151, 17:31, 60:12, 81:8,9) of the Quran we find it saying ‘Do not kill infants’.

The pagan Arabs prior to the advent of Prophet Muhammad committed infanticide of females fearing poverty and considered giving birth to a female child a disgrace. This cruel practice was abolished with the coming of Islam.

This is the direct meaning of the verse of the Quran mentioned above. 

During the time this verse was revealed, the knowledge to perform abortion was not available, and the pagans started killing the girl child only on delivery.

Now in the modern world the practice of killing the girl child is carried on while the child is unborn.

We need to know whether abortion amounts to homicide. How does Islam view the act of abortion.

Islam’s point of view on souls is the presence of two kinds of souls within the human body, one makes the body of humans to function, and the other is the difference of life and death.

The moment a life is conceived within a woman, it keeps developing and grows, proving existence of a life within another life extending from a-day old embryo to a nine-month-old fetus. Hence it can be easily concluded whether the formation is a one-day embryo or a nine-month-old fetus. It does carry a life in it, undergoing various stages of development in various stages, and destroying it amounts to homicide, it seems. But Prophet Muhammad has said, life is blown into a fetus only on its 120^{th day}. (Bukhari: 3208, 3332, 6594, 7454) 

Hence the life that is blown into the fetus after 120 days as quoted by Prophet Muhammad in addition to the one that was present all through 120 days of development of the same fetus is identified as the other life.

From this we come to understand the presence of life before the completion of 120 days of development of the fetus when another life is blown into it on the 120^{th day}.

To know more about the existence of two souls with additional evidence please refer to explanation point 486 of this compilation.

When human life is blown only on the 120^th day of conception of the fetus, aborting the blood clot prior to the 120 days does not amount to homicide of a human being is the conclusion arrived here.

Just as the usage of condoms and other forms of prevention of babies being conceived cannot be considered as killing the embryo, so is aborting an embryo less than 120 days old. But abortion of a 120-day old fetus amounts to killing a child. And destroying an embryo less than 120 days does not amount to killing a child. Yet taking into account the various ill effects abortion creates in the health of woman carrying the embryo, it is considered a crime.

In Islam there is prohibition in one carrying out activities that harms the body, scientists have discovered abortion harms the health of women. Hence destroying the embryo that is less than 120 days is also prohibited but on the basis of creating hazards to the mother, not because of infanticide in the womb.

When there is danger to the life of the mother or some other serious danger to her health, committing a small evil to prevent something worse or a bigger one does not amount to a crime. 

To know more on this subject please refer to explanation points 296, 314, and 486 of this compilation.