How does Islam view genetic engineering?

Genetic engineering is not forbidden in itself. It is good when it serves life, and dangerous when people use it to alter God’s creation without understanding the consequences.

The Holy Qur’an speaks of many future discoveries and inventions without condemning them. In one place, however, it gives a clear warning. People will alter the creation of Allah. For a long time no one could imagine how that might happen. Today, when we can intervene in the genetic make-up of living things, the warning takes on a clear meaning.

Genetic engineering is not wrong in itself. What matters is its purpose. Like medicine, it is good when it serves what God has created. If, for example, a woman cannot have children and a treatment helps her, that promotes life. No one can condemn that.

It becomes dangerous when people create new forms of life and rebuild genes they barely understand. Genes influence one another. Change something in one place and the whole system can be thrown off balance. Researchers have already seen altered bacteria turn out quite differently from what they predicted.

That is why many scientists themselves are raising the alarm. What looks useful today can do great harm tomorrow. What man creates as a servant may one day become his master. The Holy Qur’an pointed to this danger long before anyone could have pictured it.

So the measure is clear. Whatever serves God’s creation is good. Whatever works against it will in the end come back to harm humanity.