Moral Precepts

                      From The Holy Qu-àn

Say: Come! I will recite what your Lord has forbidden to you: That you do not slay your children for fear of poverty. We provide for you and for them. And do not draw nigh to indecencies.   (vi. 152)

Words of wisdom revealed over thirteen centuries since, but intended, it would seem, more as a cure for the present-day evils. Of the multifarious moral corruptions that have sprung out of the modern civilization, materialistic and self-seeking as it is in its trends, the most alarming is that of the steady fall in the rate of procreation. Hundred and one devices have been made to avoid the multiplication of progeny. Without shame or shudder, these are studied and practised openly. Dr. Marie Stopes´ Wise Parenthood forms the decoration of many a maid and madam´s library, if it does not form part of a bride´s dowry. And small wonder that the threatening decline in birth-rate should have forced, in some countries, the adoption of counter measures on the part of the State to encourage the propagation of species. France, for instance, makes special State endowments for the purpose.

There are, in the main, two motives underlying this suicidal tendency of the age. There are those, and they are, unfortunately, in the majority, who think a married life would interfere with their free indulgence in the promiscuous sex-intercourse. Thousands of human souls never see the light of the day on this account. They are offered, so to speak, as sacrifices to the demon of lust. Again, there are others who would not enter into matrimonial relations for fear that the procreation of children would mean additional expense, and consequently the curtailment of their own comforts. Avoidance of conception and abortion, in the case of married couples, is also prompted by either of the two motives. The detrimental effect of such a trend of things on society, at large, and the nationality concerned, in particular, is obvious enough.

The above-quoted verse of the Holy Qur-án strikes a deathblow at the very root of the evil. First of all, it condemns the practice – deliberate waste of human seed – to be as heinous a crime as cold-blooded murder. The life thus nipped in the bud means an incalculable loss to the human race. Who knows what a great asset to mankind the wasted life might have turned out to be – perhaps a sweet poet, a great philosopher, or scientist, a fine artist and what not. Surely a crime of such far-reaching effect must not be indulged in with a light heart. Neither fear of lack of means nor the passion of lust should be allowed to have the better of us and lead us to evils of such disastrous consequences. Abstention from marriage, indulgence in promiscuous sex-intercourse, extirpation of seed in any form, is a crime of the blackest dye. Poverty should not stand in the way of our duty to our race in this respect. “We provide for you as well as for them,” the Holy Qur-án assures us. We must have no anxiety on that account. No soul comes into being, but the Universal Providence undertakes to see to its needs. Does He not provide all our wants? The same beneficence will be forthcoming to provide for the coming ones.

                                                    Muhammad Yaqub Khan

                                            The Islamic Review

                                      Aug-Sept 1922.