CAIRO, March 28, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Muslim Sunni world, is likely to allow parents to determine the sex of their would-be child, but under specific and limited conditions.

The Jurisprudence Research Committee of the Islamic Research Academy, Al-Azhar’s highest and most influential arm, is expected to made an official statement on the issue within days.

“The committee will take into consideration all viewpoints and will be guided by the statement of Al-Azhar’s International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Researches,” Sheikh Ibrahim Atta Al-Fayoumi, the academy's secretary general, told IslamOnline.net.

He said that the center concluded that determining the sex of the fetus is permissible for certain medical purposes such as avoiding chronic diseases associated with a specific gender.

Al-Fayoumi added that the center’s experts have determined that 250 diseases could be avoided through such a process.

The scholar further said that Al-Azhar’s International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Researches allowed gender selection for social considerations but under specific restrictions and after discussions with the parents.

Dr. Mohammad Rafat Othman, a member of the Jurisprudence Research Committee, told the London-based Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper on Saturday, March 26, that determining the sex of the fetus was permissible.

“Choosing the gender is allowed (because) there is nothing in the Noble Qur’an or the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to prohibit it.”

Dr. Naser Farid Wasel, Egypt’s former Mufti and member of the Jurisprudence Research Committee, also approved the predetermination of gender as long as “it takes place during the fertilization period because if it succeeded it would be within Allah’s will.

Prominent scholar Sheikh Yussef Al-Qarawai has earlier allowed choosing the child sex for social considerations.

He said that if a woman only gives birth to girls and her marriage is threatened by this she can seek a doctor help in determining the sex of the fetus.

Al-Qarawai also allowed gender selection before fertilization in the case of test-tube babies to meet a pressing need for the parents.

The veteran scholar, however, stressed that such selection should be restricted and not be motivated by discrimination against a specific gender.

Sheikh Mohamed Al-Rawi, member of Islamic Research Academy, reiterated opposition to gender choice.

“God give parents a boy or a girl for a wisdom no man can comprehend.”

Dr. Farag Ibrahim Farag, jurisprudence professor at Al-Azhar University, agreed.

He said that interference in determining the sex of a baby “is the act of the Creator”.

Established in 359 AH (971 CE), Al-Azhar mosque drew scholars from across the Muslim world and grew into a university, predating similar developments at Oxford University in London by more than a century.

Al-Azhar, which means the “most flourishing and resplendent,” was named after Fatima Al-Zahraa, daughter of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who gave rise to the Fatimid dynasty which governed Egypt from 969 to 1171 CE. 

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