Assalamulaikum respected scholars, My husband has requested me to get my \”tubes tied\” otherwise known as female sterilization to prevent any more children. We have two children and I am pregnant with my third, Alhamdulillah. He does not want any more children. It is my understanding that this procedure (tying the tubes) is against Islam. I suggested that I get a IUD (Intrauterine device) which is pretty effective. This device is inserted and can stay for up to 5-10 years. But he is adamant that I get the surgery done at the birth of our third child. Tying the tubes effectively eliminates your ability to have children…However, you can have a reversal procedure to untie the tubes. There is not a large chance that the reversal procedure will enable you to have children though. Please advise me if tying the tubes is okay in Islam. Also, he wants proof from the Quran or Hadith as to the answer. May Allah swt reward you for your expeditious answer.
Alhamdulillah,
Islam encourages procreation. The Messenger of Allah r said:
” انْكِحُوا فَإِنِّي مُكَاثِرٌ بِكُمْ”
“Marry, for I will boast of your great numbers.” Ibn Majah.
Birth control is permitted, when it is unharmful, temporary, and for a valid reason, including the parents’ inability to care for more children.
Tube ligation is prohibited since it may result in sterilization, which is forbidden in Islam, and constitutes undeniable harm to the woman undertaking the procedure. The only exception would be the case where the mother’s health would be greatly compromised by conceiving, and it is feared that other methods may not be as effective.
Here is the resolution of the Islamic Fiqh Assembly of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) 39 (5/1) Kuwait-Jumâda Al-Akhir 1st – 6th, 1409 A.H. / December 10th – 15th, 1988 C.E.:
“During the course of its fifth session the council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy reviewed the research papers submitted by the members and experts and listened to discussions concerning the subject of birth control. Since the purposes of marriage, according to the Islamic Sharî’ah, include procreation and the preservation of human kind, and since it is not permissible to invalidate these purposes, as so doing would contradict the provisions of the Sharî’ah which encourage procreation and call for nurturing and protecting progeny as one of the five major purposes the religious laws have been stipulated to safeguard, the council decided the following:
First: It is prohibited to issue a general law that limits the freedom of married couples to have children.
Second: It is prohibited, according to the Islamic Sharî’ah, to deprive men and women from the capacity of being able to have children, known as sterilization, unless it is unavoidable according to the Sharî’ah criteria.
Third: It is permissible to use birth control temporarily with a view of leaving an interval between pregnancies or preventing pregnancy for a certain period of time, when it is necessary according to the Islamic Sharî’ah. This should be done by the husband and wife upon mutual agreement, provided that no harm would afflict either of them or an existing pregnancy, and that the means to do so (or the contraceptive) are permissible.
With Allah Alone rests our success.”
The Islamic Fiqh Assembly of India in the First Juristic Seminar, Hamdard University, Hamdard Nagar, Delhi, India–April 1st – 3rd, 1989 C.E. issued a similar statement and added:
“………………………………
- It is permissible to use birth control temporarily with the intention of leaving intervals between periods of pregnancy, if it is feared that the baby, nursing, or child rearing would be negatively affected if the mother became pregnant again soon.
- It is impermissible for men and women to be sterilized, except in the following situation: if competent trustworthy doctors declare that the woman would very likely die or lose an organ due to a new pregnancy. Only then may such a woman have a surgical sterilization. And Allah Almighty knows best”
Besides, the husband does not have control over the body of his wife and may not command her to undergo surgery without her approval and despite her opposition.
Allah knows best.