Náboženské předpisy a kontrola porodnosti v islámských zemích

The article deals with the attitudes of Islam towards several questions connected to the family planning and the birth control. The author points out the fact that the attitudes of different Islamic authorities are not unambiguous and examines the basic sources of Islamic law, i.e. the Qur'an and Hadiths, and the ways that Islamic theologians use them to formulate their legal opinions. The Islamic attitude towards abortion is based on the interpretation of human fetus development. There is a substantial moment of ensoulment that is placed by most of Islamic lawyers to the end of the fourth month of pregnancy. The abortion after ensoulment is regarded as a sin, with an exception when the mother's life is threatened. As for the abortion during the first four months of pregnancy, the opinions of legal authorities differ, but most of them approve of it under certain circumstances. Unlike the abortion, there are several Hadiths that deal directly with a contraception. Most of them indicate that al-ʿazl (coitus interruptus) is permissible but a few others understand it as prohibited. But generally, according to the Islamic authorities the contraception is permitted under condition that there is a legally valid purpose (ʿuḍr) to it. The article also briefly examines the questions of sterilization and artificial insemination. The author concludes that the fact of the general permission of contraception by Islamic lawyers does not mean that they approve unanimously of the family planning campaigns in some Islamic countries. They regard the family planning as merely personal problem and many of them disapprove the official population policy aimed on general decrease of fast population growth. But on the other side, there are Islamic authorities that promote such campaigns and help the governments with popularization of family planning. The differences in attitudes are based partly on whether the sheikh comes from rather traditional or rather liberal environment and sometimes also on his political leaning.