Preventing pregnancy

20-8-2006 | IslamWeb

Question:

Dear Brothers, I have read your fatwas on birth control but I am still confused about my action whether it is halal or haram. I already have 8 children and my wife and I are already more than 45 years old . Now everytime we make sexual intercourse, I use a condom to prevent pregnancy. We decided to this on our own withouth consultanting any trustworthy doctors. We want to prevent pregnancy because: 1. My wife is old and her previous pregnancies were quite hard on her. So we fear at this age it might be harder on her. 2. We fear that we are too old to take care of babies and young children. 3. We fear that the young ones might not be able to get proper islamic education. Please answer specifically to my situation. And can wearing a condom be compared to "withdrawing before ejaculating"?

---

Answer:

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. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

If the condom does not cause any harm then it takes the ruling of coitus interruption (withdrawing before ejaculation); we have already discussed it in Fatwa 86946, so please refer to it.

Therefore, what you are doing is permitted if you did not intend to completely prevent pregnancy as it is forbidden to completely prevent pregnancy, unless it is confirmed by a trustworthy physician that pregnancy is permanently dangerous for the life of the mother.

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 92181 and 87304.

Allaah Knows best.