Diyah for aborting a fetus Fatwa No: 102388
- Fatwa Date:9-12-2007
Assalam alaikum brother, I would like to know about the diyyah when people make abortion . You have mentioned in your answers that the person should keep fast for two consecutive months. Does that mean the woman who has caused her abortion ? But as u know that women they have a certains days in a month when they cannot pray or fast . Is it that the woman should continue these fast without any break? Who exactly are the inheritors of the diya (blood money)? Does the person who had caused the abortion has to fast as well as give blood money or fasting is enough. Please clarify. thank you so much for all your help may Allah give you a great reward in the hereafter. Ameen.
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
If a woman aborts a foetus that is forty days (or more), she is obliged to pay a Diyah for aborting it; for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 85970.
An expiation for this Diyah is not enough, rather a Diyah must be paid unless its heirs renounce their right in it.
It should be noted that the jurists differed in opinion about the aborted foetus on which the Diyah must be paid. The view we adopt here in Islamweb is that if the foetus is forty days or more, it is only then that the Diyah must be paid on it.
The days of menses and the days of sickness during which a woman is unable to fast do not interrupt the continuity of fasting the two months for expiation. She should break the fast when she is in menses, and when she becomes pure, she should continue the remaining days of fasting. She is not permitted to fast during the days of menses, and her fasting during these days is void. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 92152.
As regards those entitled for the Diyah, they are the heirs of the foetus. The mother is among the heirs but she is not entitled to anything in the Diyah because she is the one who killed the foetus (caused the abortion). The killer has no right to inherit from the Diyah of the dead, as confirmed in the Hadeeth of the Prophet .
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 98739, 86841 and 85558.
Allaah Knows best.