Is it permissible for the husband and wife to take certain measures to determine the sex of the fetus? تحديد جنس الجنين

All praise is due to Allah alone, and may the Salah and Salam of Allah be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and his companions. To answer your question, we say while seeking the success from Allah: The issue of determining the sex of the baby is not a recent issue, but rather goes way back in history. The only difference is that today the advancement in medicine made determining the sex of the fetus easy and possible. There general rule is that it is permissible to determine the sex of the fetus because the rule states that things are permissible unless there is evidence to suggest otherwise. This view is corroborated by the fact that Allah has not objected to the wish of some of His Messengers who asked Him for sons. For example, Allah, the Most High, has mentioned to us the supplication of Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) who said (interpretation of the meaning): {My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous."} [Quran: 37:100] and Prophet Zachariah (peace be upon him): {At that, Zechariah called upon his Lord, saying, "My Lord, grant me from Yourself a good offspring. Indeed, You are the Hearer of supplication.} [Quran 3:38] However, the methods followed to determine the sex of the fetus are of two types; general non-medical methods and medical methods. The general non-medical methods do not require any medical intervention such as: diets, chemical lotions, timing of the sexual intercourse considering the time of ovulation and etc. These ways are permissible and do not include anything prohibited as they are followed with the hope to achieve a permissible purpose. However, other ways such as timing of the sexual intercourse according to the moon circle or according to the Chinese table and calculation methods, they are not allowed because they are based on guessing that is associated with fortune-telling and claiming of knowing the future. Despite the differences between the medical ways followed to achieve this purpose, all of them aim to fertilize an egg by a sperm carrying the desired sex. These methods are permissible when there is a necessity though we would like to emphasize the need to follow the controls and procedures needed to avert any consequent confusion and corruption that have been warned against by those who work in this field from different religions and countries. The guidelines that govern this process can be summarized as follows: 1-     Determining the sex of the baby must not be a public policy so that it does not create imbalance in the rates of males and females. 2-     This method should be resorted to when there is a necessity. 3-     The husband and wife must have mutual agreement on determining the sex of the baby. 4-     Ensuring the sperm is not switched or mixed to avoid mixing of lineages. 5-     Ensuring the awrah is covered by limiting the uncovering to the area needs to be uncovered. 6-     To believe that these ways are only causes to achieve the desired results and that praying to Allah is the most effective means to achieve these results.  And Allah knows best. Your brother, Khalid al-Mosleh   7/10/1428 H.