What does Islam say about cloning humans?

Islam rejects the cloning of human beings. It interferes with the order God created for bringing people into the world, solves no problem and carries great dangers.

God has created an order for how human beings come into the world. A child has a mother and a father and grows up in their love and care. From this bond come affection, compassion and a sense of responsibility. It holds the family together, and in the end the whole of society.

A cloned human being would lack this bond. He would not know whom he belongs to or whom he owes anything. Imagine a powerful state copying unusually strong people thousands of times over, perhaps for an army. Without parents and without love that has grown over years, such people could become cold and unfeeling. Instead of serving, they might want to rule, and become a danger to everyone.

Then there is diversity. God created people in different colours, languages, shapes and characters, as the second verse above says. This variety is what makes life beautiful and worth living. Cloning produces sameness and takes away something of life’s meaning.

Nor does a human being actually create anything by cloning. He only uses cells that God has made and puts them to a purpose they were never designed for. The first verse above warns against exactly this kind of change to God’s creation.

Experience also calls for caution. With some medicines, people realised only much later how much harm they caused, for example to unborn children. Our knowledge is limited. Cloning is therefore not the answer to any problem. It only creates new ones.