Surah At-Takwir (81) — Ayah 8

(Ayah 9,8){ وَ اِذَا الْمَوْءٗدَةُ سُىِٕلَتْ … : ’’ الْمَوْءٗدَةُ ‘‘} The girl who was buried alive. In the age of ignorance, some Arabs used to bury girls alive out of shame, so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy or so that no one would become their son-in-law. Some did this due to poverty, and some even killed both boys and girls because of poverty. This custom has also existed among the Rajputs of India and some other nations. Nowadays, under the name of birth control, governments are systematically carrying out this act. In China, only one child is allowed in cities and only two in villages. Since most people prefer boys, in the case of a girl being born, many mothers do not even breastfeed, thus committing murder. Some rulers of Muslim countries, at the instigation of the disbelievers, are making the excuse of lack of resources (means of sustenance) to limit offspring, and in fact, are making every effort for the genocide of Muslims, and are spreading such methods by which the possibility of childbirth is eliminated altogether. For example, cutting the very tubes of sperm and eggs, and other indescribable methods. And this is being done by the people of the Ummah of that Messenger (peace be upon him) who disliked ‘azl (withdrawing at the time of ejaculation during intercourse), even though in the case of ‘azl, there remains a possibility of pregnancy, because the sperm can enter the womb through pre-seminal fluid even before ejaculation. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself expressed this reality that whether you practice ‘azl or not, the child that is destined to be born will be born. Nevertheless, when people once asked him about ‘azl, he (peace be upon him) said: [ ذٰلِکَ الْوَأْدُ الْخَفِيُّ وَھِيَ : «وَ اِذَا الْمَوْءٗدَةُ سُىِٕلَتْ » [التکویر: ۸] ] [مسلم، النکاح، باب جواز الغیلۃ… : ۱۴۱ /۱۴۴۲ ] “This is the hidden way of burying alive, and this act falls under the warning of Allah’s statement that when the girl buried alive will be questioned.” The purpose is that, despite the possibility of pregnancy in ‘azl, its continuous practice results in the destruction of the human race. From this hadith, the warning for other cruel methods of preventing pregnancy is self-evident.

The exegesis of this verse has been done along with the previous verse.

8. And when the buried-alive girl is asked [9],

[9]
Reasons for Burying Alive and the Prevention of This Custom:

In one recitation, instead of ﴿سُئِلَتْ﴾, ﴿سَئَلَتْ﴾ has also been reported, meaning that the girl who was buried alive herself will cry out to her Lord, asking for what crime she was buried in the earth. However, the recitation of ﴿سُئِلَت﴾ is more eloquent than ﴿سَئَلَت﴾, which means that Allah Almighty will neither like to look at such merciless and hard-hearted oppressors nor like to speak to them; rather, instead of them, attention will be turned to the oppressed girl and she will be asked for what crime she was killed. And this manner of address is evidence of Allah Almighty being extremely angry with the criminals. As for why the Arabs were so hard-hearted that they considered their daughters such a despicable gender that they would bury them alive, this has already been mentioned at several places before. Briefly, there were three reasons for this:

(1) They would kill their children out of fear of becoming poor and destitute, and in this regard, there was no difference between boys and girls.

(2) They considered it a matter of shame and disgrace to have someone become their son-in-law.

(3) And the third and most important reason was that the Arabs were constantly engaged in tribal wars, and in such wars, male offspring would become their successors or helpers. But the matter of girls was entirely different from that of boys. The girls, when married into another tribe, had to support that tribe, and the tribe of the girl's parents had to submit before it. And probably for this reason, the Arabs had deprived girls of inheritance. To end this concept, Islam took twofold measures. Firstly, it declared the killing of children and burying girls alive to be an even more severe crime than ordinary murder and strongly refuted the notion that people had the right to kill their children. Secondly, it encouraged the upbringing and nurturing of girls by declaring it a great virtuous deed. Thus, Sayyidah Aisha Siddiqaؓ narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said: Whoever is tested by the birth of these girls and then treats them well, these girls will become a means of protection for him from the punishment of Hell. [ترمذی۔ ابواب البروالصلۃ۔ باب ماجاء فی النفقات علی البنات]