Abortion (ijhad)

إجهاض

Ijhad in the lexicon is the early delivery of a child, and as a term it is the expulsion of a foetus before its time. ¹ After ensoulment, at about a hundred and twenty days, abortion is forbidden by consensus. ² Before ensoulment the jurists differ: some allow it only for an excuse, as the Hanafis do; some allow it at the earliest stage, as one Hanbali view does; and the Shafi'is forbid it once the drop has settled. ^{3 4}