1- In Turkistan, the Chinese government has limited the number of offspring born to peasants and carpenters to three children spaced over a period of nine years. The parents pay an outstanding fine if the number of their offspring exceeds this or if they are born within a short period of each other. However, individuals engaged in civil service jobs are entitled to only two children over a period of six years. In the context of this law, God blessed a couple with two children and the wife is pregnant with their third. The government issued a resolution to fire them both if she does not terminate the pregnancy. The fetus is three and half months.
Is it permissible for them to abort the fetus, or should they be fired? They have no other means of income.

2- A person owns a building whose ground floor is suitable for shops, but not the top floors. Is it permissible for him to rent the top floors to be used as restaurants? He was informed by several pious and trustworthy people that many immoral activities occur in such places.

1- It is established in the Shari‘ah that necessity renders forbidden acts lawful. There is no objection to conducting an abortion if this couple is forced to terminate the pregnancy to keep their jobs and if they have no source of income other than their wages. God Most High says,
“But if anyone is forced to eat such things by hunger, rather than desires or excess, he commits no sin: God is most merciful and forgiving” [2: 173].

Commenting on the Hanafi opinion on the permissibility of abortion before 120 days of gestation i.e. before the fetus is ensouled, Ibn Abidin said that no compensation is owed when a woman [who has been injured] passes flesh without discernible human features and she is not blameworthy.

2- The Shari’ah has established that it is permissible to use an object that can be used for unlawful purposes provided it is not restricted to unlawful usage. Based on this, it is permissible to deal with anything that has dual-purpose, whether through selling, renting, or so forth. The onus for its use is on the user—if he uses it for lawful purposes, then it is permissible; if he uses it for prohibited purposes, the prohibition applies to him.