Wants to expiate for aborting her fetus

5-11-2009 | IslamWeb

Question:

i have had an obortion, my husband keeps saying it was under 120 days, how do i calculate this?
how much money and who to, do i pay (i have searched and searched for the answer but is is not clear?
do i fast for 2 months/ from what months, can it be from the middle of a month?
when can i start to pray? is it after 40 days?
what does my husband need to do as he told me to do this shamemful act?
please pelase help me , i have committed a sinful act that i cannot forgive myself for, i am ashamed and humiliated by myself.
please guide me clearly.

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

 

Abortion is forbidden at the different stages of the fetus, and the sin is even graver after the soul is breathed into it because it is killing a soul without right. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 85558.

Therefore, you are obliged to repent. If you are the one who carried out the abortion and this was after the fetus had taken human form, then you are obliged to pay the Diyah to his heirs while you do not inherit anything from it yourself. The Diyah of the fetus is one-tenth of the Diyah of the mother. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 85943 and 102388.

There is a difference of opinion among the scholars  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  them in regard to the obligation of expiation (by fasting two consecutive months) but it is better to expiate in order to acquit yourself from sin.

On the other hand, it is permissible to start fasting during the month, whether this is at the beginning, middle or end of the month, and you should fast for two consecutive lunar months [e.g. if you start fasting on the 6th of Shawwaal, you should continue until fasting on the 5th of Thul-Hijjah, because after the month of Shawwaal is the month of Thul-Qi’dah and then the month of Thul-Hijjah.]

If the situation is truly as you mentioned that it was your husband who incited you to carry out the abortion, then he is also obliged to repent to Allaah.

Furthermore, you should start fasting when your post-partum bleeding stops. If this bleeding lasts for a long time, then you should refrain from performing the prayer for the maximum period of post-partum bleeding which is 40 days according to our view here in Islamweb. The bleeding after 40 days is a bleeding outside the regular periods [or post-partum bleeding] and a woman is not prevented from the matters that she is prevented during menses or post-partum bleeding, unless this bleeding coincides with the regular monthly menses, then it is considered as menses.

For more benefit on bleeding outside the monthly menses, please refer to Fatwa 84479.

Allaah Knows best.

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