For the greater good: Clerics endorse birth spacing

As many as 40 scholars stress need for improving health of mothers and children .

ISLAMABAD: Close to 40 prominent religious scholars, representing all major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, have endorsed the concept of birth spacing as a means to save lives of mothers and children.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Population Council in collaboration with UNFPA at a hotel on Tuesday, the Ulema unanimously underscored the need for improving the health and well-being of families in order to lay down the foundation of a strong Islamic welfare society.

According to a press release, the scholars unanimously endorsed that birth-spacing should be considered a basic right of mothers and an important intervention for improving maternal and child health outcomes.

They have also allowed the usage of all reversible contraceptive methods as prescribed by medical practitioners. This message needs to be clearly enunciated from the pulpit so that it permeates to the grass roots, especially among rural communities, they said.

They also urged that policy makers must ensure that access to services and information is improved and recommended introducing changes in the educational curriculum which focuses on preparing the youth to enter into harmonious marital relations and enable them to raise their families in accordance with Islamic precepts.

Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, Imam of Badshahi Masjid responding to a presentation made by Dr Ali Mir of the Population Council on the state of mother and child health in Pakistan, said it is most unfortunate that despite the high status accorded by Islam to women, especially mothers, they were relegated to an inferior position in society.

“This is totally contrary to Islamic teachings. It is a grave tragedy that mothers and infants are dying because of repeated and closely spaced pregnancies,” he said.

The Holy Quran enjoins mothers to breast feed their children for two years so as to allow them to space pregnancies and to recoup their energy expanded during the birth of their last child, said Azad.

He said that according to Islamic teachings, one life saved is the same as saving the entire humanity and concluded that we cannot condone the loss of 13,000 mothers who die annually due to pregnancy-related complications at any cost.

All the ulema unanimously offered to support initiatives that were in conformity with the teachings of Islam.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2014.