Allah (S.W.T.

) says, It is He Who has created man from water; then He has made for him blood-relationship and marriage-relationship. And your Lord is ever Powerful.. (Ayah 54, Surah 25, Al-Furqan, page 581 of Quran translation by Abul A`la Maududi.) Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, and distinguished guests: I am very thankful to be given this opportunity to present you my paper regarding human cloning. I present my humble appreciation to H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al-Mohsin Al-Turki, Secretary-General of Muslim World League, H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Muslah, Secretary-General of The Commission of Scientific Signs of Quran and Sunnah, and H.E. Dr. Abdullah bin Omar Nasseef, President of World Muslim Congress, for providing me the opportunity to present this paper. Cloning is different from the natural way of reproduction. Matrimonial relationship, including sex, is a sacred and private activity according to the Quran. Allah (S.W.T.) says, They (wives) are (like) a garment to you, and you are like a garment to them. (Ayah 187, Surah 2, Al-Baqarah). When Allah (S.W.T.) cursed Satan, Satan said, I will most surely take due share from thy servants and will mislead them; I will entice them by vain desires; I will command them and they will slit the ears of the cattle by my order, and I will command them and they will make alterations and corrupt Allahs creation. (Ayahs 118 and 119, Surah 4, Al-Nisa, page 143.) Therefore, cloning is haram and it has no provision in Islam. It is a misguidance ordered by Satan, though it appears to be a use of an advanced human knowledge. No doubt, it is a misuse of knowledge and technology, like use of mathematics in gambling, art of photography for pornographic pictures and indecent activities, etc.

As Muslims it is our belief that Allah (S.W.T.) is All-Wise and Rasulullah (S.A.W.S.) had prophetic wisdom given by Allah (S.W.T.). Therefore, every order of Allah has wisdom and every order of Rasulullah (S.A.W.S.) has wisdom. Allahs orders and the Prophets orders are for our own good. Rasulullah (S.A.W.S.) cursed the women who practice tattooing, who remove hair from the eyebrows (it is to be noted that artificial eyebrows were nonexistent during that period; just trimming of eyebrows was a fashion) and making an artificial gap between their teeth, referring to these ayahs of Surah Al-Nisa (using the three words of the second ayah, meaning to alter the creation of Allah). For your convenience copies from the Quran and Hadith are attached. You can imagine that if the change in appearance was cursed, then where is the question of cloning? The world today is encountering a new Pandoras box. This Pandoras box is about to open its lid to a billion-dollar industry for doctors and lawyers. But unfortunately it is going to destroy the fabric of the family, resulting in criminal and ethical chaos. 191 nations at the United Nations all are also debating which side of the coin they are on as to whether to support or prohibit human cloning and its applications, such as stem-cell research for curing diseases and repairing defective human parts. But it all boils down to haram and halal, which we have to look at from the Islamic perspective. Unfortunately, under the umbrella of fertility the big semen banks are geared to make the so-called supermen with pre-designed gene structure. The semen bank will provide semen for women to choose the fathers side of the offspring. The woman may or may not use her own egg. It will be very dangerous for those who will wipe out races from the world.

The idea behind it is to choose the color of the skin, the color of the eye, the color of the hair, the height, and everyone to have a macho generation, a sportsman-type creature to be produced. It is like reproduction by group sex (combining genes of a few or many persons). It is fornication in the laboratory. Probably, it may be permissible in a non-Islamic society. However, this misuse of knowledge and technology can create new social and legal problems. There is a case, for instance, where a woman took the stored semen of her deceased husband and made herself pregnant to claim inheritance. The surrogate mother and the biological mother fighting for custody of the baby is another case. Who is the mother of the baby in society? By cloning, there would be no biological father or mother. Custom designing from a legitimate married couple is also a Satanic and sinful activity. Handling of semen and eggs, genes, etc. by others in a laboratory can never be reliable, and there is always a risk of intentional and unintentional errors (change of labels, etc.) There has been an incident in the U.S.A. that a doctor used his own semen for eight eggs of different women, and he admitted that. (This incident was published in a newspaper.) The clone of a human creating a copy of himself to carry on his inheritance will create conflict of the children with his wife. Now the emergent phenomenon of cloning will produce all same-looking humans, which will create new chaos. One aspect of the issue is stem-cell research, and another is using adult cells to produce embryos for harvesting body parts.

There is Allahs wisdom in the individuality of humans facial features, physical features, voice, fingerprints, skills, knowledge, etc. If Allah (S.W.T.) willed, He would have created all human beings alike and with the same skills or level of skills, but He did not. Otherwise, the world affairs would not run. There is His wisdom. Allah (S.W.T.) says, Glorified is He Who created in pairs all species that the earth produces, as well as of their own (humankind) (male and female), and of those which they know not. (Ayah 36, Surah 36, Ya-Sin). True cloning is still not possible because, though they may produce a clone specimen in physical looks, but with spirituality, emotions, personality, and other features it may always lack. At the time of conception, the conditioning process, the feeling of the mother and father, passes on to the baby, giving it its personality and behavior in life, as mentioned by Imam Ghazali and confirmed by todays scientific evidence. Contrary to that, the cloned baby will be machine-made with the traits to be a druggie, alcoholic, gambler, adulterer, or other. Therapeutic cell treatment is the name for the scientific research involved in curing diseases or making the defective organ workable again. We have to look from the perspective of using the technology to repair the organ by growing cells in the laboratory. For instance, creating for a diabetic person a pancreas in the laboratory and injecting the cells of that healthy pancreas into the diabetics defective pancreas to repair the pancreas so the person will no longer be diabetic. It can be halal only if the person is given from the fair and square means of this 4 laboratory growth.

In the Western world today mother, grandmother and grandchild are producing babies and parts for each other. In the Islamic sense it will be zina for a woman to carry her daughters fertilized egg. That will be an illegal conception. At the same time, it is not allowed in Islam to make an abortion of a baby in order to use the organ or tissues for another person, though a therapeutic abortion to save the life of the expectant mother is permitted in Islam. Islam allows saving the life, but the concept of haram and halal prevails. At the same time, Islam does not allow trade in human organs. Nuclear somatic cell transfer is prohibited in Islam. Islam also does not allow the taking of any part of, or tissue of, any human embryo for someone else. The halal and haram concept restricts the tissues and body parts, semen and egg, to be utilized between husband and wife and for the baby, but cannot take to the grandparents and to the grandchildren in any form. Simultaneously, it is the matter of shariah to point out to you that in Islam a baby who drinks the milk of a woman other than his biological mother is considered to be the brother or sister of the milk mothers children and cannot marry his or her milk siblings. Organ transplants among family members are often successful because the genetic similarity reduces the chances of the organ being rejected. But at the same time, if the organs or the therapeutic cells are produced, we are limited only by the haram and halal concept. Shariah will allow 5 only to a certain extent. To create tissue or organs by a non-sexual

process from the cells of a body for the same bodys benefit may be allowed. But shariah will not allow the creation of stem cells by sexual reproduction for other members of the family or other persons, because it will be a violation.

Cracking the human genetic code is the most advanced scientific progress the human race has achieved. It might or might not result in a breakthrough against AIDS, Alzheimers disease, cancer, and other diseases. But the advancement in biomedical technology has come at the expense of the human conscience. Science has set before us decisions with immense consequences. We can pursue medical research with a clear sense of moral purpose, and we can travel only through the ethical and moral process that we have to live by as for thousands of years the human family has survived on Planet Earth and must keep the sanctity of the sacred bond between husband and wife. Today the West has used its cloning methods to achieve and put genetic material from a donor into a womans egg which has had its nucleus removed. As a result, the new or cloned embryo is an identical copy of only the donor. Human cloning has moved from science fiction to scientific possibility. It has no place in Muslim society. Some of this bio-tech mishmash play with embryonic human clone and animal eggs mixing has given rise to antibiotic-resistant diseases. Cloning is an area that needs more research under the auspices of haram and halal. We may be able to draw our lines to ascertain how far and in what way we will be able to cure certain diseases or treat certain 6 diseases. As you know, Islam allows the reproduction of human beings

through the marriage concept where the limitations are very well defined, and our Muslim medical practitioners have achieved and marked their boundaries not to cross. They produce positive results. Today we are involved in an arena where people are trying to create human beings through human cloning. They have no morals. They will create monsters.

They will create their own so-called supermen. Then the world will go into criminal chaos. It will be difficult to control the identity of human beings. Remaining with Islam in the haram and halal concept, the Islamic nations are blessed today by not having AIDS at a chaotic rate as compared to all others, who are on a disaster course. Soon many will be wiped out. It is my opinion that the `ulema and scientists must work together in a team and teach each other and bring the benefits by creating positive, productive, saleh, nek, God-fearing, law-abiding, gambling-free, AIDS-free, adultery-free, crime-free, divorce-free individuals for our society by practicing the Islamic method. The Quran orders that a child should be called by his or her fathers name. Even an adopted child cannot have the name of the adoptive father as Islam protects the rights of the child and the childs parents. Islam also requires a Muslim woman after the divorce or death of her husband to wait an `iddat (waiting period) to remarry, in order to determine if she had gotten pregnant during her marriage. In case of death, the `iddat is four months and ten days and in case of divorce, 7 in order to protect the identity three months or three menstrual periods, and inheritance of the child.

The twenty-first century legacy of Islam will continue. We must research and look for scientific evidence and read it inside the Quran and enforce it in our way of life to make the `ummah receive its maximum benefit. Also, Islamic da`wah and irshad in the world through scientific evidence and the scientific method will provide an opportunity for non-Muslims to seek guidance and govern themselves and their behavior in a manner in which they will seek their own salvation.

I am pleased to present to this Assembly that H.E. Dr. Abdullah bin Omar Nasseef, President of World Muslim Congress, H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al-Mohsin Al-Turki, Secretary-General of Muslim World League, H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Muslah, Secretary-General of The Commission on Scientific Signs of Quran and Sunnah, the Fiqh Council of the Islamic world, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Islamic countries of the world jointly and unanimously have condemned human cloning and would like to see a ban on human cloning. Simultaneously, they are postponing at the United Nations any resolutions regarding cloning. We will present documentation on cloning research from different sources in the form of a CD, pamphlets, magazines, documents, newspaper articles, and Internet articles as a Powerpoint presentation for any questions to give the pros and cons from different parties.