Pre-Islamic Age of Ignorance: In the Jahiliyya period, when a person had a daughter, they would feel ashamed and feel the need to distance themselves from people. Some of them would kill these girls by burying them alive. The reason for this was their fear that their daughters would be abducted and raped, or their concern that their population would increase and they would become impoverished. When one of them was given the news that he had a daughter, his face would turn black with grief. He would avoid being seen by his acquaintances because of the bad news he had received. They would ponder whether to endure the humiliation and keep her, or bury her alive. Look at the terrible judgment they make!([482]) This verse highlights the ugly customs of the polytheists and draws attention to how terrible this judgment is. ([483])

If a person had decided to kill her (his daughter), he would not touch her until she reached six cubits in height. Once she reached that height, he would say to her mother, “Adorn the child and dress her in beautiful clothes. I will take her to her relatives.” However, he had dug a pit in the desert for this child. When he brought the child to the edge of the pit, he would say to her, “Look there,” then push her into it from behind, throwing earth into the pit until it was level with the ground. It has also been suggested that when a pregnant woman was about to give birth, she would dig a hole. Then she would endure the birth pains in that hole. If she gave birth to a girl, she would throw her into that hole; if it was a boy, she would keep him and protect him…([484])

Among the Arabs, there were two customs that forced a woman to remain under her husband’s marriage contract and in his house even though he had abandoned their marital relations. One of these was zihar. The husband would say to his wife, “You are to me like my mother’s back.” Thus, the woman did not leave the marriage contract but remained in a state of mullak. According to the opinions of exegetes and narrators, they did this out of anger when their wives gave birth to girls. When a woman gave birth to a girl, they would order her to bury the child. If she did not, they would say, “You are like my mother’s back to me (you are my sister in this world and the hereafter).” ([485])

In a narration from Katâde, the reason why the men of that tribe buried their daughters alive and killed them is given as “the fear that if girl children were left alive and grew up, they would be taken captive, their honor and modesty trampled underfoot, and the fear of poverty”; it is recorded that in order to avoid this situation ( ), they killed their daughters when they were younger and kept dogs instead. [486]

ISLAM: The news of this behavior, which shows that the people of the Jahiliyyah had strayed from their natural disposition, and the responses to their own justifications are reported as follows:

News: If one of them were told that they would have a daughter, whom they attributed to Allah, the Most Gracious, their face would turn black with rage. [487]

Concern for sustenance: Do not kill your children out of fear of poverty. We provide sustenance for them and for you. Killing them is a grave sin. [488]

Creator of the female: It is He who gives you the form He wills in the wombs. There is no god but Him. He is the All-Powerful, the All-Wise. [489]The dominion of the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. He creates what He wills, gives a daughter to whom He wills, and a son to whom He wills. Or He gives both daughters and sons. He renders barren whom He wills. He is the All-Knowing, the All-Powerful. ([490])

Question: When asked what crime the girl child buried alive was guilty of… [491]

Foolishness: Those who foolishly kill their children without any knowledge and forbid themselves the sustenance Allah has provided, slandering Him, have truly lost. They have certainly gone astray, and there is no way for them to return to the right path. [492]

Nowadays: This is probably the most despicable situation that a single-worldly life has brought about by distancing people from their nature… Naturally, this is also the most enlightened level reached as a result of people determining their own rules… A verse of the Quran mentions the corruption of natures and the resulting distortion of people’s own religions, stemming from these baseless fabrications, as follows.

ALLAH (c.c.) says:

Just like this, these fabricated partners have made killing their own children seem attractive to most polytheists, so that they may both corrupt their natures and distort their religions. If Allah had willed, they could not have done this. So leave them alone with their baseless fabrications. [493]

The human being who uses their brain only to pursue instinctive actions becomes so foolish. So, you will take advantage of those who are mothers at that moment in an unlimited and reckless manner, but you will kill the future mothers of the next generation because they are of your own bloodline, saying, “We will engage in prostitution or suffer hardship,” is that right? How fair is that? This thought contains two mindsets at once. The first is the mentality of “I will do it, but it should not be done to me,” which is also the understanding of justice in a life without Islam. The second is the goal of living a life without question or reckoning in order to be powerful, saying, “Life is what I see,” which is the way of life of the materialist and capitalist mentality that continues to exist as ideological . Are these not the very areas of struggle in Islam? The ego and a life focused solely on this world… When people with such mindsets govern a society, the result is disastrous. Thankfully, we do not live in the age of ignorance. Or do we?

The ongoing incidents of live burials in China or India today provide a clear answer to this question. At a seminar held at Delhi University in India, Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of Women and Child Development, revealed that in her country, over the past 20 years, approximately 10 million baby girls were killed by their parents either before birth or immediately after birth. Chowdhury reported that these newborn girls were killed by stuffing tobacco into their mouths.

Should we assume that abandonment to death does not exist in our time because there are no people around us who take girls to a dug-up hole, push them inside, and then cover them with soil? Or should we say that death occurs in the formation of individuals, in their mindsets, in their lives, in their uses? Does how it happens or why it happens lead us to the correct information we need? If we take how it happened as our basis, then because these people were in the desert, the killing of girls was carried out by burying them in the ground. If we take why it happened as our basis, then it was one of the actions that emerged as a result of the society’s acceptance. Since actions create causes, we believe that examining the causes of abandonment to death will also lead us to a separate truth.

In the days of ignorance, they buried girls in the ground, but this necessity stemmed from poverty and the fear that girls would become prostitutes or slaves. But what about today? Today, are there not lives lived as slaves to others for these reasons, children sold out of fear for their livelihood, young girls turning to or being pushed into prostitution because of poverty? No girl says, “I will become a prostitute when I grow up.” Life brings them here. As we discussed earlier, some have no opportunity to determine their destiny. Because there are other uncertainties that determine their destiny. A typical example of this is present in this case; that is, young girls have their right to life taken away even before they reach puberty. In this sense, because they consider themselves living dead, they are buried alive. Even more painfully, they exist as abandoned corpses before being buried.

On this subject, the author of Asr’s Quranic Commentary states the following: “Similar events today stem from the same things, and many evils are committed in the different atmosphere of the age of ignorance. For example:

a) Materialism is accepted as the basis, and sacred values are pushed aside.

b) Women are used for commercial purposes in the name of equality and civilization, and their bodies are exposed and used as advertising tools.

c) Girls, separated from their families, wander in secluded places with men they are not married to.

d) Under the guise of beauty contests, women and girls are judged according to predetermined measurements of their hips, legs, and other specific body parts and presented to lustful men.

e) All kinds of immoral behavior and speech are allowed on stage under the guise of dancing and singing.

f) Entertainment nights are organized to dance with and satisfy oneself with other people’s girls, women, or men, and all of this is labeled as “civilized living.” Those who oppose it are branded as reactionaries and bigots, and hell breaks loose.

g) Under the guise of so-called sects and spirituality, women are promised abundant paradises in the name of religion, suggesting that many evils are permissible in this world. It is argued that prayer and similar acts of worship are unnecessary, and a new, fabricated religion, disconnected from divine religions, is introduced, sometimes labeled “sect,” sometimes “Islam,” and sometimes “mediumship.” ”([496])

Has Allah preferred daughters over sons?

What are you doing?

How do you judge?

Do you not think at all?

Or do you have clear evidence?

If you are right, bring your book. [497]

[482]  Surah Nahl, verses 57–59.

[483]  Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Tabari’s commentary, Hisar Publishing: 5/211.

[484]  Fahreddin ar-Razi, Tefsir-i Kebir Mefâtihu’l-Gayb, Akçağ Publications: 22/527–528

[485]  Izzet Derveze, The Life of Muhammad According to the Qur’an, Yöneliş Publications. Vol. 1, p. 130

[486]  Bedreddin Çetiner, Esbab-ı nüzul, Çağrı Publications: 1/385–386

[487]  Surah Zuhruf, Verse 17

[488]  Surah Isra, Verse 31

[489]  Surah Ali Imran, Verse 6

[490]  Surah Shu’ara, Verses 49–50

[491]  Surah At-Takwir, Verses 8–9

[492]  Surah Al-An’am, Verse 140

[493]  Surah Al-An’am, Verse 137

[494]  One who is excessively addicted to lust and sexual desires

[495]  Female singer

[496]  Celal Yıldırım, Asr’s Exegesis of the Qur’an in the Light of Knowledge, Anadolu Publications: 7/3336

[497]  Surah Saffat, Verses 153–157