This entry brings together 2 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.
Text of the verse as cited
And do not kill your children for fear of impoverishment…
Reader’s answer
Question
How does Muhammad Shahrur read God’s statement, “And do not kill your children for fear of impoverishment”? Does he treat it as a general ruling on killing children because of poverty?
Shahrur employs the verse in a particular reading that connects the discourse of “killing children” to the issue of abortion, rather than to killing a child after birth. He holds that, after birth, a child comes under the prohibition against killing a human soul; accordingly, he understands the specification of parents in this discourse as concerning the fetus in the womb. However, in the available passage, he does not establish a general rule that “fear of poverty does not justify killing children”; rather, he explicitly states that “imlāq is not poverty” and treats the verse as a prohibition of abortion in the condition that the text calls imlāq.
Shahrur connects Qur’an 17:31 with Qur’an 6:151 to an issue concerning parents, which he identifies as abortion. He explains this connection by maintaining that, after birth, the child becomes a “human soul” and thus falls, according to his reading, under the general prohibition against killing a human soul. He therefore understands the specific prohibition against killing children as concerning the period before birth. Shahrur does not treat “imlāq” as synonymous with poverty; rather, he explicitly states that the two differ. It is therefore inaccurate to attribute to him a reading that makes the verse a general prohibition against killing children merely out of fear of poverty.
Evidence and location
The Book and the Qur’an — p. 456.
Limits of the reading
- The evidence is from The Book and the Qur’an, not from the page Islam and Humanity; therefore, it alone is insufficient to substantiate the use of the verse in the second source.
- Shahrur’s reading, which confines the discourse to abortion, is an interpretation attributed to him in this passage; the evidence does not establish it as the only possible meaning of the verse.
- The excerpt does not provide a complete explanation of the criterion of “imlāq,” nor does it clarify its practical jurisprudential or legal implications.
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Brief reading
The verse is cited to affirm that fear of poverty does not justify killing children or the fetus.
Themes
- Humanitarian and ethical
- Legislative
Related concepts
- Imlāq: 2
- Abortion: 2
Its place in the network of concepts
It is connected to the concept of the ethical and legal prohibition of killing a vulnerable human soul.
Role of the verse in the argument
- Support: 2
Instances of use
- Islam and Humanity: It reinforces the claim that fear of poverty does not justify killing children and that this is an ethical and legal crime.
- Concept: imlāq
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual evidence: “{ And do not kill your children for fear of impoverishment … } (Al-Isra 31)”
- The Book and the Qur’an, p. 456: He joins it with Al-An’am 151 to extend the meaning of the prohibition to killing the fetus out of fear of poverty, rather than actual poverty alone.
- Concept: abortion
- Function of the verse here: support
- Textual evidence: “And He said: {And do not kill your children for fear of impoverishment…}”
Related books
This page is presented within the general methodology for building the atlas.