I am a pharmacy student in my penultimate year at university. I am facing a dilemma regarding the permissibility of contraveption in Islam. I have read your answers and material from other sources and alhamdullilah it is very informative but unfortunately limited to contraceptive measures such as condoms, coils etc. As a pharmacist I will be faced with supplying patients with oral contraceptives such as the pill and especially the 'morning after pill'. I cannot find the Islamic perspective on the last two contraceptive measures and especially the latter. I may be mistaken, but does it say in the Qur'an somewhere that Allah (SWT) enters the soul into the foetus after a particular period of time? If so, please could you give me an answer in light of this since many muslims condemn the use of the 'morning after pill' on the basis that it kills a living human being. Some muslims also condemn the use of oral contraceptives/'morning after pill' on the basis that these drugs cause side-effects which may be harmful to the woman taking these but they fail to realise that EVERY drug has the potential to cause side-effects. Please could you give me an answer in light of the views expressed so that I can educate myself and other muslims.
Praise be to Allah.
We advise you not to sell them if you
know that the people who are using them are either women who want to
avoid getting pregnant if they commit zinaa (unlawful sexual relationships)
or men who want to avoid having children, or men whose wives have got
pregnant and they want to put an end to the pregnancy. All of these
are haraam. If he has to study pharmacy, then let him study it, then
when he wants to sell these things, let him tell the would-be purchasers
that this is not permissible; it is not permissible to abort a pregnancy
or to prevent pregnancy except in cases of necessity. Let him advise
them, then whoever does not accept this advice, the sin will be on them.
And if he can find a way to avoid selling these things, that will be
better.