Delaying having children until finishing studies

28-2-2010 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamu Alaykum
My name is Khalid , I live in USA. I have a question which am finding hard to get straight forward answer. I am getting married (Insha Allah) this year, my fiancée and I are both college students. We agreed to that she uses pills to avoid getting pregnant, since it will be hard for both of us especially her to rise a child & go to school. Even though we both love to have kids if Allah gives us, so she went to her doctor & they told her the saves way is to take 1 pill a day & 1 injection every month. But we don’t want to do anything haram or against the will of Allah, so please help us is what we are doing right. I have asked these question different sheikhs & am getting different answers. Please give as an answer with reference to Quran or Hadith. May Allah bless all of you, I have learnt so much from this web.
SWC.

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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.

 

It is permissible to delay having children for a temporary period for a specific benefit as in the case that you mentioned in the question, which is delaying having children until finishing studies. The Sharee’ah permitted this for a necessity, and the evidence for this is that Jaabir narrated that a man from the Ansaar came to the Prophet and said: "I have a female slave, and she is our servant and she carries water for us, and I have sexual intercourse with her, but I do not want her to be pregnant.” Thereupon the Prophet said: ''You may practice ‘Azl (coitus interruptus) if you so like, and it is only what Allaah decreed for her that will come to her.”  [Muslim]

Moreover, Jaabir said: “We used to practice ‘Azl during the lifetime of the Prophet . This (the news of this practice) reached him and he did not forbid us from doing so.” [Muslim]

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 89833.

Allaah Knows best.