Sterilization to reduce the population

Question

The population of the country is increasing more day by day, because of which the conditions of the country are deteriorating; for this reason the government is considering how to reduce the population, and for this purpose, throughout the country, in order to put birth control into practice, it is having sterilization used for men and the “tube” and the like for women. According to the Shari‘a, should Muslims put this into practice or not?

Answer

The cause of economic hardship is not an excess of population. It is in the noble hadith that while the child is still in its mother’s womb its provision (rizq) is decreed and written, and it will certainly reach him. Just as death seeks a person out and finds him, however locked and secure a house he may be in, in the same way his provision too seeks him out and finds him.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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