We, husband and wife, have been deprived of children for many years. The doctor has suggested a test-tube baby (IVF). What is its Shariah ruling? And what is the ruling on the cases of a donor egg or sperm and a rented womb (surrogacy)?

Children are a blessing of Allah, and having their treatment done through lawful means is liked in the Shariah. But the protection of lineage is among the fundamental objectives of the Shariah; the Prophetic command is: “The child belongs to the one of the bed (the husband)” (Sahih al-Bukhari: 6749; Sahih Muslim: 1457). And the Qur'an's decision regarding the determination of the mother is: ﴿إِنْ أُمَّهَاتُهُمْ إِلَّا اللَّائِي وَلَدْنَهُمْ﴾ (Surah al-Mujadalah: 2), that is, their mothers are only those who gave birth to them. All the forms of IVF will be weighed in the light of these very two principles.

The form in which the sperm is the husband's, the egg is his wife's, after fertilisation that same fertilised egg is placed in the womb of that same wife, and the nikah subsists — this form is permissible with conditions at the time of a genuine need. Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-'Uthaymeen, may Allah have mercy on him, has stated its three conditions: (1) the fertilisation should take place with the husband's sperm alone; using anyone else's sperm is not permissible; (2) the sperm should be obtained by a lawful method; (3) after fertilisation, the egg should be placed in the wife's womb alone; placing it in any other woman's womb is not permissible in any case (Majmu' Fatawa al-Shaykh al-'Uthaymeen: 17/27–28). The Islamic Fiqh Council has also declared this method permissible at the time of need, with “all necessary precautions” (Majallat al-Majma': 3/1/423). The further precautions are these: there should be complete trust in the husband and wife and in the treating physician and the institution, so that no possibility of mixing remains; the woman's uncovering should not go beyond the extent of need, and if female staff is available, the work should be taken from them; and the storing of sperms/eggs and unnecessary delay should be avoided. It should be clear that some scholars of al-Lajnah al-Da'imah and Shaykh Abdullah ibn Jibreen, may Allah have mercy on him, have also given the view of abstaining from it as a precaution, by way of blocking the mixing of lineages; but with observance of the conditions, the view of the majority of the contemporary academies and councils is permissibility, and this is the preponderant view.

All of the following forms are forbidden (haram): (1) donor sperm — that is, using the sperm of a man other than the husband; (2) donor egg — that is, taking the egg of a woman other than the wife; (3) a rented womb (surrogacy) — that is, placing the fertilised egg in the womb of a stranger woman, even if that egg belongs to the husband and wife themselves; (4) using stored sperm/egg after the nikah has ended (divorce or death). Resolution No. 16 (4/3) of the Islamic Fiqh Academy (Jeddah), of the year 1986, reviewed the seven forms of artificial reproduction and kept lawful only those two forms in which the substance is the husband's and wife's and the womb is the wife's, and declared all the forms involving a third party (a donor or a rented womb) prohibited on the basis of the mixing of lineages and the violation of the limits of nikah.

Choose an institution that is bound by the Shariah limits and is trustworthy, obtain written confirmation of all the stages, and, before the treatment and alongside it, make arrangements for supplication (dua), seeking forgiveness (istighfar) and charity (sadaqah); giving children is in the power of Allah alone — adopting the means is not contrary to trust in Allah (tawakkul).

A Maqasid Note: The objective of the protection of progeny (hifz al-nasl) is not the mere increase of progeny but its purity and clarity. When treatment remains within the limits of this very objective, it is a mercy; and when it breaks the boundaries of lineage, that same treatment becomes a trial (fitnah).

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.