Devout Muslim woman defends her decision to have an abortion
In beginning to consider an abortion, I looked first to the law. Islamic law makes allowances for abortion up to 16 weeks into the pregnancy (and beyond when the mother’s life is at risk).
The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said,
“Verily, each of you is gathered together in his mother’s womb for forty days, in the form of a drop of fluid. Then it is a clinging object for a similar period. Thereafter, it is a lump looking like it has been chewed for a similar period. The angel is then sent to him [the fetus] and breathes into him the spirit.” (Hadith 6390, Book 33, Muslim)
Based on this hadith, the classical scholars theorized that ensoulment occurs between three to four months in-utero, and built their rulings of abortion on this time frame.
~ Iman Ahmed revealing the process involved in her decision to have an abortion as a Muslim woman, Altmuslimah, May 21
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
In the Christian religion, abortion is wrong because the human being was created in the image of God. Originally, at least, he was like God. He may kill animals, but only God (and the civil government as His agent of justice) has the authority to take away the life of a fellow human being. “Ensoulment” and other stage-of-development criteria are irrelevant to the Christian argument, which is one of kind (ancestry).
The devil sows lies, people believe them, they are deceived, and they sin.
The Word of God, the Bible, and Jesus Who is the Word, are Truth, Jn 14.6, 17.17.
Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Mt 7:13–14
During a discussion with one of my pro abortion, agnostic friends, he said that he didn’t believe in the sanctity of human life, and that we were merely just another type of animal. He said that getting rid of a developing human, or fetus, was no big deal. I reminded him that I liked him and that we were friends and that because of that relationship, if anyone ever tried to do him harm, I would do everything in my power to help him…even if he was still developing in his mother’s womb.
Because it was him
Whatever helps you sleep at night lady. Crazy talk …..don’t do it!
I remember a show where they showed a woman on the abortion table getting ready to have the procedure. She said shed prayed about. it and God told her to do it. Hold the phone …that was Satan dear.
Okay Iman, but now we have this crazy thing called ultrasound and we know that the fetus does not look like a lump that has been chewed. It is clearly living and clearly a human.
Ah.
She found her justification.
Such a lovely man, that Mohammed.
The prophet also said, peace be upon him, “Ladies, do NOT kill your children for fear of poverty.” That’s in the Koran. The Hadith does NOT specifically tell you it’s OK to kill that child before the angel breathes SPIRIT into him who is already physically alive.
Mohammed’s lack of knowledge does not give you permission to murder, and since he is quite specific in the Koran, you misinterpret him for your own agenda. Yep, abortion rationale is stupid in any or no religion.
Someone looking for justification for sin will always find it.
A natural law perspective may have helped her to make a better decision: a decision for life.
“lump (of meat) that looks like it has been chewed.” “Meat in a crock pot.” Apparently Satan and his minions are consistent with their lies through the centuries.
As if we need any more evidence that it’s not the pro-life position that ignores science in favor of philosophy or religion.
St. Thomas Aquinas also wrestled with the question of when the immortal soul is introduced into the material body. Sometime in the womb, before the child is born — the ancient believers all agreed. The “moment of conception” not so clear to them, because they had no microscopes to reveal the tiny sperms and eggs. “Quickening” — when mother first feels movement in her womb — was a brighter line for them.
But one’s opinion about ensoulment does not give anyone the right to kill a child, anymore than one’s impression about fetal development.
I mean that it is not okay to kill a child, merely because one has the impression that the developing child is “just a clump of cells.”
And it is not okay to kill a child “because she doesn’t have a soul yet.” Atheists do not believe that anyone has an immortal soul, ever. Yet we do not give atheists a license to kill, based upon that belief.
How would muhammad have known ANYTHING about life in the womb???
He wasn’t a scientist. He didn’t have any “special” knowledge -(obviously)
Jeremiah 1:5 , GOD says: (To Jeremiah)
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations”.
BEFORE. God knew Jeremiah BEFORE HE WAS EVEN FORMED. That means he had a soul the MINUTE HE WAS CONCEIVED, and God ORDAINED him before he was even born. This Scripture tells me all I need to know about “when life begins” and when you have a soul.
Obviously, muhammad was just making it up as he went along. He knew NOTHING about the subject.
It does not really matter what a person uses to justify an abortion or how deeply held their belief or faith in the source of that rational. It does not matter if a person believes abortion is okay because of some phony science or philosophy or because of one or another religious belief…Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Taoist, tribal, whatever, it don’t matter.
Her child will still be dead regardless. She may be surprised to feel the sting and the emptiness and the grief afterward. And if she happens to be a contemplative-reflective religious (in touch with her interior self) it will likely feel even worse. There is no escape from what has been done. Pray for her. Healing is possible.
Amen Tommy.
There is healing.
Yes lets all pray for her for she is using semantics .
Islam is wrong. Always has been. Always will be.
I’ve heard Islam forbids abortion except to save the pregnant woman’s life.
“I’ve heard Islam forbids abortion except to save the pregnant woman’s life.”
From what I’ve read, views vary by scholar.
Muslims can find justifications to kill their born children–or their wives–so it’s not surprising they can find justifications to kill their unborn children.
Of course anyone, of any religion or no religion, can find justification for any evil they might want to do.
Whether a strict reading of the Islamic Scriptures allow for elective abortion or not, I don’t know.
What I do know is that a strict reading of the Christian Scriptures absolutely do not allow for elective abortion.
“Ensoulment” and other stage-of-development criteria are irrelevant to the Christian argument
Huh? What about Luke 1:26-38?
26In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.l 28And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”m 29But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31n Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. 32o He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,* and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, 33and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”p 34But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”* 35And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.q 36And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived* a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; 37for nothing will be impossible for God.”r 38Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Yes, what about it, Truth-seeker (at 12:05 am)? Please explain. Unlike Aquinas (correct me if I misrepresent him), I don’t believe the Greek idea that the spirit is good but the body bad. And good exegesis wouldn’t have the apostle Paul saying that, either.
But even if I did, so what? Abortion is wrong because the shedding of human blood is wrong. Read God’s blessing and warning to Noah after the Flood. Clearly Noah could kill animals but not another human being. God wasn’t explicitly prohibiting violence to spirits–after all, animals don’t have any–He was talking about bodies.
Yes Jon. But as children of God it is the Holy Spirit that breathes life into us. I am not arguing your other points; only that ensoulment is a part of Luke 1: and that the Holy Spirit was present at the time of conception is a part of Christian catechisis.
I don’t think that I believe in “ensoulment,” but maybe I don’t know enough about it. It’s not a doctrine in the Bible as far as I know. The role of the Holy Spirit in the Incarnation (Luke 1) was obviously unique; He enabled Mary to conceive without the aid of a man, and the Lord Jesus is both true God and true man.
I find it interesting how ancient religious ideas are sometimes proven real by modern science. Small example: Buddhists taught for centuries that ‘everything is in vibration; “solid” is a perception but not a reality.’ On an atomic level, this turns out to be true.
So, I wonder about the concept of ‘ensoulment’ which you find reference to in some Jewish writing and ironically in some New Age writing. It is possible that on a neurological level, at some point during gestation the human child’s consciousness undergoes a radical shift, at the point (I’m guessing) during which the brain is finally developed enough to permit levels of consciousness. *Sigh* It’s all very fascinating to think about. I wish abortion advocates could get excited and enthused about human development, instead of picking it apart to justify feticide and infanticide.
If I remember right “ensoulment” is an idea pointy headed theologians will toss around from time to time, but has never been widely accepted. Ensoulment ideas usually lead to strange places like justifying early abortion or zombies. Personally, I think the ensoulment proposition is a crock from the start. A person is not “two things” temporarily stuck together. The human person is a single unique entity created by natural and supernatural means. Each human person is supernaturally a special creation of God at natural conception. The soul has nothing to do with level of bodily development or awareness or conciseness. How the supernatural works is known only to God himself…hence the term SUPERnatural = ABOVE or BEYOND nature.
@ Del St. Thomas also believed that abortion was wrong no matter what stage of pregnancy, anyway.
Mohammed did not exactly have a very scientific description there, did he? The Bible does not say when the unborn child has a soul, but makes it clear it is well before birth in the Old Testament and strongly implies it is at conception in the story of Jesus’ birth in the New Testament. Science cannot measure or identify a soul, but makes it clear the fertilized egg is alive. Both logic and morals tell me that it is better to assume an unborn child has a soul too early, than to be guilty of murder because of mistakenly thinkng the fetus did not have one when it did.