On Family Planning Controversy

The issue of birth control has always been controversial due to the religious and socio-cultural dynamics that influence people’s responses to it. Also many people suspect that it is part of a grand international conspiracy perpetrated by the world powers to reduce the populations of many other counties in order to perpetuate their domination over them.

After all, there have been shocking and credible revelations of instances where populations of some countries and communities around the world were actually targeted for reduction under the pretexts of inoculation exercises and promotion of various birth control or limitation measures.

    

Nigerians have largely opposed family planning for obvious reasons, which explain why its recent endorsement by President Jonathan will simply end up the same way the previous governments’ campaigns had ended.

Needless to say there are some Islamic religious provisions that basically prohibit birth limitation on one hand, and others which encourage procreation amongst Muslims on the other.  And in its light, Muslim jurists maintain consensus on the prohibition of birth control or limitation unless if there is an acceptable excuse in Shari’a perspective.

However, though they (i.e. jurists) often give examples of such acceptable excuses, they literally limit such acceptable excuses to health related complications suffered or likely to be suffered by the mother or her baby as a result of delivery. They therefore hardly give other equally acceptable excuses, which are not necessarily health related in nature. This led to the general assumption that only excuses of health related nature are acceptable for a married couple to engage in birth control e.g. spacing or birth limitation

This general assumption is contrary to the dynamism of Islamic religion, which emphasizes its unique features of principled flexibility and regulated adaptability to changing circumstances, through which it also derives and maintains its universality and everlasting relevance intact

It is pertinent to note that, acceptable excuses to engage in birth control or even limitation are neither limited to health related issues nor limited in number for that matter. Instead there are other acceptable excuses that allow for or even perhaps necessitate birth control or limitation as the case may be. This is due to the ever-changing realities of life that inevitably dictate where, when and how everything both earthly and spiritual is pursued, conducted and achieved nowadays.

Likewise it is noteworthy that, the applicability of the Islamic prohibition of birth control or limitation is not unconditional, instead it applies on married couples purely on individual bases depending on the circumstances of each couple. In other words, while it could be absolutely prohibited for a particular married couple to do it, it could be allowed for another, and in fact it could be recommendable or even compulsory to some other married couples for that matter.

Interestingly, in olden days, where at some points there were largely no standard political and leadership structures, basic necessities of life were quite few and indeed relatively very easily accessible and affordable. For instance, all what man needed to not only survive but even fully achieve his intellectual and professional potential were largely basic food, which he produced through farming and basic shelter, which he simply erected with any available material on any available land. His personal intellectual and professional productivity depended mainly on his own bodily strength and the extent of his enduring capacity.

Communal security and macroeconomic productivity depended primarily on clannish size and society’s demographic advantage. That simplicity also characterized the types of illnesses he was vulnerable to or which he actually suffered, as their medicines were equally simple to obtain.

It was against such background that, Islam prohibits birth limitation and recommends procreation; a rule which though is still relevant as it shall remain forever, it nonetheless needs to be put in the current contextual reality in order to accommodate other equally relevant Islamic rules hence reflect the general objectives of Islamic Shari’a.

Nowadays the realities of life have completely taken different dimensions in all aspects. For instance, while on one hand the list of basic necessities of life for everybody is literally growing at the same rate with his own age, pursuing them is becoming much more difficult on a daily basis, on the other.

Consequently, things as essential as basic proper healthcare, basic quality of hygienic environment for human habitation, basic shelter, basic quality of healthy nutrition, basic security of life, property and even dignity, basic quality of adequate education and professional training amongst other basics, have all turned into commodities accessible only by those who can afford its exorbitant costs.

Nevertheless, a typical example of a diehard opponent of birth control in our society is a person who does not have any regular source of income, and only hustles for survival, squats with his wife in a tiny rented room inside a crowded (face me, I face you) shared house in an unhealthy environment, unable to take care of his largely malnourished children and exhausted wife (if not wives), who despite her almost annual birth ritual she has perhaps never enjoyed even proper nutrition much less proper prenatal care.

Yet despite all these overwhelming challenges, he is still likely to go ahead and add another wife once he somehow manages to get hold of any reasonable amount of money, and the society applauds him for that. This is because he is motivated by the ridiculous Hausa proverb that says “Duk bakin da Allah ya tsaga baya hanashi abinci” i.e. God will never deny His own creature food to it.

Incidentally, I consider this proverb quite insulting to human being as it actually likens human being with animals, who regard feeding as an end, while in reality feeding is simply part of natural sustenance measures for man to survive in order to pursue excellence in all his earthly and spiritual endeavors.

Anyway, cases of similar nature or even worse are actually prevalent in our societies, which explain the prevalence of many social problems and vices, e.g. child destitution, illiteracy, lack of proper moral and professional training and of course massive unemployment; all of which predictably lead to rampant moral decadence in various forms. After all, Kano for instance has maintained its position as the worst state in Nigeria in terms of drug abuse as recently declared by National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLA). 

 

It is therefore imperative upon each couple to consider the current realities of life as exemplified in the foregoing to determine their managing capacity of children accordingly. After all, jurisprudentially speaking, the rule encouraging procreation can’t override parental compulsory responsibilities of providing necessary physical and mental care as well religious, moral, educational and professional training for their children.