1 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 8 female’s substance [chromosomes and genes], it is the male child that is created by Allah’s Decree, and when the substance of the female prevails upon the substance contributed by the male, a female child is formed by the Decree of Allah. The Jew said: What you have said is true; verily you are an Apostle. He then returned and went away. The Messenger of Allah [may peace be upon him] said: He asked me about such and such things of which I have had no knowledge till Allah gave me that.” (Sahih Muslim 003:0614). Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb al-Zurʿī l-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī, who is well-known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya [“The son of the principal of the school al-Jawziyya”] was very interested in the issues connected to formation of particular sex of the child based upon the Qur’an and Hadith in conjunction with Hippocratic tradition, mainly the doctrine of the writingDe victu. He is one of the most famous medieval (13th–14th century) Sunni theologians and lawyers because he was a student of the mischievous Ibn Taymiyyah. The education of Ibn Qayyim far exceeded the time requirements of an expert in the legal science in particular of the Hanbali madhab, for which he is generally considered; his contribution in his studies has tended to be reduced to questions of evidence in court proceedings, as he enrolled in the history of legal science in Islam. His spiritual motivation to examine issues related to embryology and genetics consisted of the desire to direct believing Muslims in everyday life, while respecting the principle of unity of faith and reason. We have found out, that scientific studies on issues of sex selection in children connected to the threat of PGD [1] were published already in the late 1980s. Since about 2000, the focus of articles has changed: from the PGD threat there is a shift to the factual aspect of PGD processes; only exceptionally, we can also find in this period some studies on ethical justification of the usage of sex selection in children. The bioethical dimensions of sex selection have become a priority of scientists’ interest about five–six years later and continue to this day, focusing in particular on the following three aspects: • elimination of X-linked hereditary diseases; • the sex balance in society; • male preference in a traditionally masculine-based religious society, e.g. in Judaism and Islam. 2 Methods The issue of our study required the analysis of holy scriptures as a basis; analysis of Qur’an and Hadith. Subsequently, we have proceeded to analysis and comparison of the writings of Ibn Qayyim al Yawziyyah: Tuḥfatul Mawdūd fī Ahkām al-Mawlūd and the anonymous writing of Hippocratic tradition –De victu. In order to be able to confront the state of the problem in a historical aspect with the present one, we had to use the scientific databases of the studies, with which we have worked by entering the key words of our topic. We have used these databases: Web of Science, Pubmed, Ovid, Google Scholar, and iGoogle Scholar. To the findings from the databases we have added the latest findings published in monographs of English, Bosnian, Croatian, and Czech provenience. So that our analysis of chosen issue can be comprehensive – including the expert and lay world, at the end we have used the database of Bosnian islamic periodic Preporod, which is being issued byRijaset islamske zajednice u Bosni i Hercegovini, and which is the most important periodic in Balkan part of ummah. Preporod serves on communication of islamic scholars and mullahs who inform and give religious guidance to believers; they are dealing with the most accute questions of Muslims’everyday life. Sex selection subject has been analyzed in our study using diachronic and synchronic approach. 3 Results Current Islamic reproductive bioethics respects first Qur’an, Hadith and Shari’a, to which are the results reached by the reason added; that means, the results of the science, which should be in the harmony with the Revelation, e.g. holy scriptures: “If it comes to it [to the collision between reason and Revelation], then it is only a seeming obstacle that must be eliminated in a professional manner. In removing that contradiction, the following hypotheses must be applied: that a scientific matter that is in the conflict with religious attitudes and teachings, has not yet reached the level of scientific fact, or that the religious attitude and teaching that is in a collision with a scientific fact is not authentic or not understood in the right way” (Topoljak 2010, 89). Since a healthy man in Islam is only the one who takes care both of his physical and spiritual aspect, it is not possible for the responsible believer to ignore the reproductive and genetic health issues. The question of sex selection, which belongs to the two mentioned areas, has evolved. We have captured this development continuously from pre-Islamic times to today.
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