In our community in Indonesia we have different point of view concerning the issue from the government. Concerning the? Concerning the issue from the government. I see. The issue from the government is about the family planning because the government asked the people to stop street. Stop giving birth to children at three. At three, yes. Right, right. Part of the community have the argument that we have to follow the issue of the government. But the other one. Not where it contradicts the Holy Quran. You should follow the rules and regulations of the governments where you live, generally speaking.
But whenever a rule made by a government is in direct contradiction with the Holy Quran, then you are not bound to follow that. Yes, that’s the point that I would like to ask. Whether it is against the Holy Quran? I’ll explain, yes. Is that against or? I’ll explain that. Although the Holy Quran does not make it necessary for any individual to have children to a certain number, it’s a personal choice. Anybody can restrict the size of his family or expand the size of his family if he can, if he so desires. There is no limitation. There, individual has complete freedom. Yet, in one instance alone, the Holy Quran tells you that if you reduce the size of your family, in this particular instance, then Allah would be angry with you. That is wrong.
Otherwise, you should not reduce the size of your family for one particular object in mind, with one particular object in mind. And that object is the fear that we’ll be left with no food. If we went on growing in number, then we’ll be left with no food, and that is the fear for which we should restrict our family number or family size. This is the only thing against which the Holy Quran has objection, and this is the only reason propounded by the present-day governments in favour of family planning. And how interesting it is. At the time of the Prophet, it was inconceivable that any government in future would start advising family planning on the plea that if you don’t plan, then the nation as such would be left without food. Fear of paucity of food. And it did not happen till at least 1350 years had passed that this idea started taking root. In fact, the concept took root earlier than that, about two centuries. Was it in the 17th century, I think, that first this idea of a human population in relation to the availability of food resources and so on, this started taking shape.
But the decisions by the government to have family planning, they came much later. So I’m talking of that. They started taking place about 1350 years from the time that the Holy Quran had positively instructed you not to abstain from giving home, I mean, not to practice family planning under the fear of a shortage of food. These are the words of the Holy Quran. Allah says, Allah is the provider of everything. It is he who feeds you. The verses speak in detail on this issue. It is he who feeds you and who feeds your children.
If you stop giving birth to children under the fear that you’ll be left without food, then it’s a reflection on Allah and his planning. So your planning, in fact, is a reflection on Allah’s planning. That should not be tolerated. So if you want to keep a small size of family, go ahead and do it, but not for the fear of food. And strangely, that is the only reason given today by the modern government. In fact, that was a prophecy. In the light of this history of 1400 years, you can positively say that that was a prophecy made in the Holy Quran. That the only reason given for the cutting of family size would be the fear of food, and that we do not permit you, because that will be a reflection.
How could Allah make the universe where his resources for food are left behind his machinery of reproduction? If you, for instance, if a country, for instance, have an army of one million, and the food is provided only for 100,000, that would be a very poor picture of the government which behaves in such a manner. Employs one million soldiers and provides only for 100,000 soldiers. So if this is a bad, it’s a point of great censure in any government, then how can you conceive of Allah committing such a folly and such a mistake? This is one answer to this, and the other is that having studied the history of famines and droughts and things, not only that I have come to the conclusion, but also recently I read a study made by the scientists of today, and which was also discussed in the television in the United Kingdom, which fully endorsed my view that historical evidence proves that at one time, at any one time in history, the shortage of food which occurred was only a relative shortage.
At another time, at another place, there was abundance of food, and if people had reacted in time and moved wisely, or the barriers of states had not stood in their way, it was not the paucity of food as such which was responsible for such a certain famine. It was the management of food, or the social status of that period which was responsible, the social development of that period which was responsible for famine. And that famine population relationship is a constant and undisturbed relationship which is found in the same proportion thousands of years before as it is found today.
This is the point which is the most important point in favour of Islamic point of view. The fact is that 10,000 years ago, for instance, there was very little human population as compared to the population today. Countries today have such population as would be perhaps the whole population of the entire world. So, the sources were unlimited. Yet we find very grave crisis in food production, and we come across great periods of droughts and famine in those times as well. The population continued to enlarge in maybe mathematical progression or geometrical progression, whatever it was. But the food relationship remained the same. Even today we have famines, and tomorrow or a thousand years hence we will also have famine.
So, the reason is not because Allah’s machinery of production has fallen short of the requirement. The reason lies somewhere else. So, even if you reduce your population, the famines will not be avoided. That is the point I am making. Because when the population was reduced previously, still famines could not be avoided. The only hope which can be cherished by the scientists of today is this. They can argue that previously when the population was small, human knowledge was also very little and very bigger. So, we find this relationship of famine versus population to be a constant relationship. Gradually human knowledge also increased.
So, smaller species were utilized for producing more food, and management improved, and handling of diseases improved, and so many factors came into the picture, so that the food situation improved. Now, if having got that knowledge gained, now you reduce the population, you will create a much better world. Because then your scientific development would be able to cater for a much smaller population. So, things can be improved. This is the only argument they can produce. But against this argument, there is another argument. That when you control, try to control human population by these means, this situation in itself goes out of control.
Because by applying artificial means to stop population, you may hurt the very machinery of production, human production. To an extent that at a time later on, you may find yourself yearning for more population which will not be coming your way. Because we know through our experience, by study of individuals in large numbers, that those who practice in the early marriage, this family planning, they sometimes are completely deprived of that capability of reproducing. And the number of such couples is much greater in number, in proportion, in the western countries where these methods are employed. Fertility is somehow disturbed and destroyed by these artificial methods.
So, a very grave danger can face mankind. A similar danger that is facing some other species of today. Extinction. It is possible that gradually you impose that control and interfere with nature to an extent where certain countries face human extinction. And if wars take place, then there will be further load on human population. So, you may start a downhill task where you begin to depopulate and you have no control over this. And this is what I fear will happen to the mankind if they in defiance of Allah’s challenge continue to pursue this policy. For more information visit www.fema.org