Al-Qur'an Surah Al-Isra Verse 31

Mufti Taqi Usmani

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide sustenance to them and to you, too. Killing them is a great sin indeed.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Surely killing them is a heinous sin.

Ruwwad Translation Center

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty, for We provide for them and for you. Indeed, killing them is a great sin.

A. J. Arberry

And slay not your children for fear of poverty; We will provide for you and them; surely the slaying of them is a grievous sin.

Abdul Haleem

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty––We shall provide for them and for you––killing them is a great sin.

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

And saly not your offspring for fear of want; We provide for them and for yourselves; verily their slaying is a great crime.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Kill not your children for fear of want; We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a great sin.

Abul Ala Maududi

(vii) Do not kill your children for fear of want. We will provide for them and for you. Surely killing them is a great sin.

Ahmed Ali

Do not abandon your children out of fear of poverty. We will provide for them and for you. Killing them is certainly a great wrong.

Ahmed Raza Khan

And do not kill your children, fearing poverty; We shall provide sustenance to them as well as to you; indeed killing them is a great mistake.

Ali Quli Qarai

Do not kill your children for the fear of penury: We will provide for them and for you. Killing them is indeed a great iniquity.

Ali Ünal

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty; it is We Who provide for them as well as for you. Killing them is surely a grave sin.

Amatul Rahman Omar

And do not kill your children for fear of want. It is We Who provide for them as well as for you. Indeed, the killing of them is a great sin.

English Literal

And do not kill your children fearing poverty, We provide for them and you, that truly killing them was/is a great/large sin/crime/wrong .

Faridul Haque

And do not kill your children, fearing poverty; We shall provide sustenance to them as well as to you; indeed killing them is a great mistake.

Hamid S. Aziz

And slay not your children for fear of poverty; We will provide for them and for you. Beware! For to slay them is ever a Great Sin.

Hilali & Khan

And kill not your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Surely, the killing of them is a great sin.

Maulana Mohammad Ali

Surely thy Lord makes plentiful the means of subsistence for whom He pleases, and He straitens. Surely He is ever Aware, Seer, of His servants.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We give them sustenance and yourselves (too); surely to kill them is a great wrong.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

Slay not your children, fearing a fall to poverty, We shall provide for them and for you. Lo! the slaying of them is great sin.

Muhammad Sarwar

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We will give sustenance to all of you. To kill them is certainly a great sin.

Qaribullah & Darwish

Do not kill your children because you fear poverty. We will provide for you and them. Killing them is a great sin.

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

And kill not your children for fear of poverty. We shall provide for them as well as for you. Surely, the killing of them is a great sin.

Wahiduddin Khan

You shall not kill your offspring for fear of want. It is We who provide for them, and for you. Indeed, killing them is a great sin.

Talal Itani

And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them, and for you. Killing them is a grave sin.

Tafsir jalalayn

And do not slay your children, by burying them alive, fearing penury, poverty. We shall provide for them and for you. Slaying them is truly a great sin.

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

Prohibition of killing Children

This Ayah indicates that Allah is more compassionate towards His servants than a father to his child, because He forbids killing children just as He enjoins parents to take care of their children in matters of inheritance.

The people of Jahiliyyah would not allow their daughters to inherit from them, and some would even kill their daughters lest they make them more poor. Allah forbade that and said;

وَلَا تَقْتُلُواْ أَوْلادَكُمْ خَشْيَةَ إِمْلقٍ

And kill not your children for fear of poverty.

meaning, lest they may make you poor in the future.

This is why Allah mentions the children's provision first;

نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُهُمْ وَإِيَّاكُم

We shall provide for them as well as for you.

In Surah Al-An`am, Allah says;

وَلَا تَقْتُلُواْ أَوْلَـدَكُمْ مِّنْ إمْلَـقٍ

kill not your children because of poverty. (6;151)

نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُهُمْ وَإِيَّاكُم

We provide sustenance for you and for them. (6;151)

and,

إنَّ قَتْلَهُمْ كَانَ خِطْءًا كَبِيرًا



Surely, the killing of them is a great sin.

means, a major sin.

In Two Sahihs it is recorded that Abdullah bin Mas`ud said;

"I said, `O Messenger of Allah, which sin is the worst?'

He said,

أَنْ تَجْعَلَ لِلّهِ نِدًّا وَهُوَ خَلَقَكَ

To appoint rivals of Allah when He has created you.

I asked, `Then what?'

He said,

قَالَ أَنْ تَقْتُلَ وَلَدَكَ خَشْيَةَ أَنْ يَطْعَمَ مَعَكَ

To kill your child lest he should eat with you.

I asked, `Then what?'

He said,

قَالَ أَنْ تُزَانِيَ بِحَلِيلَةِ جَارِك

To commit adultery with your neighbor's wife.