B U S I N E S S N A M E

Reflections
From the Glorious Qur’ān
I S S U E N O . 3 1 S T J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9

Female Infanticide
‫ُِّش أَ َح ُد ُُه ِِب أ ُْل َهث َظ َّل َو أ ُْج ُه م أُس َودًّا‬
َ ِّ ‫َو ِإ َذا ب‬ everywhere, is still widely practiced in mentioned in five places. The first
some parts of India and China today. four relate to the Makkan period.
۞ ‫َو ه َُو َك ِظ مي‬ This can be seen from the skewed The verses mention the different
male to female ratios of these two reasons for which the Arabs com-
‫ُِّش ِب ِه‬
َ ِّ ‫يَتَ َو َارى ِم َن امأقَ أو ِم ِمن ُسو ِء َما ب‬ countries. In 2004, the Times of Lon- mitted infanticide.

ِ ‫ُون أَ أم ي َ ُد ُّس ُه ِىف‬

‫امرتُّاب‬ ٍ ‫أَيُ أم ِس ُك ُه ع ََل ه‬ don reported that India was missing In the ayah under discussion, an
POINTS TO 40 million girls because of abortion
interesting perspective is given i.e.
PONDER َ ‫أَ ََل َسا َء َما َحي ُ ُُك‬
‫ون‬ and infanticide. the psychological state of the father
Though Judaism and Christianity who considers burying his newborn
UPON When one of them is brought the news of a
openly condemn the practice, there daughter. The Arabs were a proud
female (newborn), his face becomes dark-
 When was the ened and he chokes with suppressed agony. are some references in the Bible that people and they considered bravery
practice of He hides from the people out of distress at are somewhat troubling. For example, and chivalry as the foremost virtues
infanticide the news he has been brought: shall he keep in 1 Samuel 15:3 God commands the - but virtues that cannot be found in
started? it in humiliation or bury it in the ground! deaths of suckling infants and in women. So when a man heard that
Verily evil is their judgment. Psalms 137:9 God commands that the his wife gave birth to a daughter, all
 What are the (al-Nahl [16]:58,59) infants of His enemies should be his hopes were dashed. The colour
different rea- “dashed upon the rocks” of his face changed and he became
sons for this greatly distressed.
practice? Infanticide is the putting to death of a
newborn child with the parent’s con- It was a humiliation not to have
 What do the sent. Studies show that infanticide has gotten a son. How would this father
different relig- been practiced on every content in face the people? How will he stand
ions have to say every age. In fact, anthropologists the mockery of his colleagues? It is
about this prac- at this point that he considers killing
have deduced from decapitated skele-
tice? the newborn infant.
tons of hominid children that the
 Is infanticide
practice of infanticide was there from In another verse (al-Takwir [81]:8)
practiced only in
pre-historic times. Allah (s.w.t.) gives a heartbreaking
human beings or Numerous different cultures are re- description of how the female infant
in animals too? corded as having killed infants as a will ask her father on the day judg-
form of sacrifice to the deities they Children are a blessing - whatever their
ment for what sin was it that he
 Is infanticide gender may be. killed her.
worshipped. Other reasons for this
still practiced
practice include: population control, This is not to say that Christianity In the hadith corpus one finds recur-
today?
poverty, extermination of ‘defectives’ condones infanticide in any way. In ring prohibition of infanticide and
and ‘illegitimates’, social pressure andfact there are many historical ac- praise for the believers who are
loss of the nursing mothers. counts of the Church playing a key instrumental in saving girls from
In ancient Greece and Rome, infanti- role in combating the practice in the being buried alive. Some traditions
cide was a legal practice until the 4th middle ages. even state that the murdered infant
Century A.D. Will Durant writes that Female infanticide was particularly is one of those who is expected to
infanticide was so common in ancient common in Arabia before the time of stay in paradise forever with the
Rome that “birth itself was an adven- the Holy Prophet (s). The Arabs were Prophet and the martyrs (shuhada).
ture.” Female infants were particularly an intensely patriarchal society and Arabs undermined females and did
Please send your vulnerable to infanticide. It has been females were generally seen as unde- not even consider them worthy of
comments and recorded that of 6000 second-century sirable burdens to the family. They inheriting their possessions and
suggestions to:
families, only one percent raised more had a proverb that it was “a generous continuing their lineage, but the
tridhaj@yahoo.co.uk than one daughter. Great Prophet of Islam, who himself
deed to bury a female child.”
Female infanticide, though illegal had no son, taught them otherwise.
In the Glorious Qur’an, infanticide is