How has the Islamic view of marriage, family formation and child rearing developed and adapted over the centuries? Is contraception just permitted or actively encouraged? The family is the basic social unit of Islamic society. Even without compelling population pressures, there has been concern with spacing and family planning. This book is the result of a massive research project, gathering fourteen centuries (the seventh to the twentieth) of views on family formation and planning, as expressed by leading Islamic theologians and jurists. The work has been discussed and shaped at each stage by a committee of Islamic experts representing the majority of the Muslim countries. The book provides a much needed source of reference and will be of equal value and interest to professionals in health care and development work and to those working in the academic disciplines of Middle East studies, religion and population studies.

Birth control, or family planning through contraception, has become a common practice in society. Many new methods of permanent and temporary contraception have become widespread. Consequently, Muslims have also increasingly begun adopting the various means of limiting or spacing out procreation. This no doubt has a deep influence on the very core of our society and thus raises many ethical and religious questions, particularly surrounding abortion. Birth Control & Abortion in Islam systematically and concisely presents the relevant rules and regulations of Islamic law on these issues. The discussions are based entirely on the Holy Qur’an, Sunna, and the formal legal rulings propounded by the jurists of the four major Sunni schools of Islamic law. After learning of the significance of the topic through the author’s simple writing style, the reader is guided through the Islamic teachings on the various forms of birth control and abortion with unequivocal conclusiveness. Short and to the point, it contains all the essentials one needs to know about the subject.

The Population Myth reveals how the right-wing spin to population data has given rise to myths about the 'Muslim rate of growth', often used to stoke majoritarian fears of a demographic skew. The author, S.Y. Quraishi, uses facts to demolish these, and demonstrates how a planned population is in the interest of all communities. The book delves into the Quran and the Hadith to show how Islam might have been one of the first religions in the world to actually advocate smaller families, which is why several Islamic nations today have population policies in place. This busts the other myth - that Muslims shun family planning on religious grounds. Based on impeccable research, this is an important book from a credible voice about the politicization of demographics in India today.