Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada., answers: “As far as population control in a collective level imposed by the government is concerned, there is no room for its permissibility in Islam. The argument used by the so-called expert cannot stand rational scrutiny. Everyone with common sense knows that the problem of poverty in the world is not simply attributed to lack of resources or over population, rather it is because of few capitalists monopolizing those recourses. Allah has provided enough resources to sustain the full population. However, human beings commit injustice when the stronger of them devour the weak.
Allah has also granted us scientific knowledge to invent creative ways of allocating the resources in order to face the challenges of poverty. If only we are to apply the principle of Zakah properly as ordained by Islam, this alone will eliminate poverty from the society. This was proven effectively in the time of the pious Muslim caliph ‘Umar Ibn `Abdul-`Aziz, may Allah be pleased with him.
Coming to the issue of the individual resorting to family planning because of some individual considerations such as sufferings between births, health considerations or education and proper nurturing of children, it has been considered permissible to do so according to the fatwas of contemporary recognized scholars such as Sheikh Shaltut (may Allah bless his soul), Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Sheikh Mustafa Az-Zarqa (may Allah bless his soul), and many others.