Title: Keeping a Promise vs. Saving Your Child Question: Consider the following ethical dilemma. What, as a Muslim, would you do? You are bound by a promise, a financial contract, with someone to whom you owe money according to the terms of this contract. The deadline for the payment is fast approaching, but you are in the midst of previously unforeseen financial destitution, such that if you fulfill the terms of the contract prior to the deadline, the consequence is that your 3-year old son will lose a meal, and die. On the one hand, it is a basic, universal ethical value to fulfill promises, commitments, and agreements. On the other hand, it is a basic, universal ethical value to love and provide for those around you, including your children. Do you break your promise and save your child, or do you fulfill your promise and lose your child? If you choose the former, what are the grounds for lending it more weight than the latter choice? Omar Sarwar Singapore Answer: Real life is not as simple as one may sometimes assume it to be. There are innumerable factors that can affect and influence our choices and the outcome of these factors can completely change the whole scenario for us. Thus, for instance, in the situation that you have mentioned, the availability or the non-availability of the options of requesting for rescheduling the repayment of the loan on humanitarian grounds, the potential availability or otherwise of any financial support from other sources etc. can completely alter the limited options that you have mentioned. However, if one has actually exhausted all alternatives and is ultimately faced with either of the two options that you have mentioned, then merely because of the reason that both the options entail a moral and ethical basis, one may opt for either of these options, in the hope that God shall forgive him for his unintentional, emotional and human error of judgment. I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad November 25, 2002