Is it haram not to have children?

Sources

• ✓ Sunan an-Nasa'i 26:32

  Sunni Hasan Sahih (per Al-Albani)

  Sunan an-Nasa'i · Book 26, Hadith 32 · Narrated by Mu'aqil ibn Yasaar

  A man came to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and said, “I have found a woman of noble lineage and status, but she does not bear children. Should I marry her?” The Prophet forbade him. The man came a second time, and the Prophet forbade him again. Then the man came a third time, and the Prophet still forbade him, saying, “Marry those who are fertile and affectionate, for I will be proud to have many children through you.”

• ✓ Al-Kafi 1:7

  Shia

  Al-Kafi · Book 1, Hadith 7

  God will hold His servants accountable on the Day of Resurrection according to the measure of intellect He gave them in this world. — OR — I asked Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) about water in which animals urinate, dogs defecate, and junub (ritually impure) persons wash themselves. He said: If the water reaches the amount of a 'kurr', nothing defiles it. — OR — I heard Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) say: Charity given by hand protects against a death due to evil and prevents seventy kinds of afflictions and releases seventy devils from between the jaws, all of whom command the person not to do good. — OR — God, the Mighty and Majestic, sent His Messenger with Islam to the people for ten years, but they refused to accept it until He commanded fighting. Good lies in the sword and under the sword, and command returns as it began. — OR — I wrote to Abu al-Hasan (peace be upon him) saying that I have refrained from seeking offspring for five years because my family disliked it and said that raising them would be difficult due to scarcity. What do you think? He wrote back: Seek offspring, for Allah, the Almighty, will provide for them. — OR — I asked him, 'Is the testimony from people of one religion valid if given by people who are not from that religion?' He said, 'Yes, if there are no people of their own religion available, the testimony of others is permissible. This is because it is not correct for a person's right to be neglected.' — OR — Allah, Glorious and Exalted, when He intended to create Adam (peace be upon him), sent Gabriel (peace be upon him) in the first hour of Friday. He took in his right hand a handful of soil whose extent reached from the seventh heaven to the world and took from each heaven a dust. He also took another handful of soil from the highest earth to the lowest earth. Allah commanded His word and held the first handful with His right hand and the other with His left hand, then he cleaved the clay into two pieces, scattering from the earth a dust and from the heavens a dust. He said to what is in His right hand: From you are the messengers, the prophets, the chosen, the truthful, the believers, the fortunate, and those I will honor. What you said is obligatory for them, as He said. And He said to what is in His left hand: From you are the tyrants, the polytheists, the disbelievers, the oppressors, and whomever I will disgrace and afflict. What you said is obligatory for them. Then the two clays were mixed together. This is as Allah said: "Indeed, Allah is the Splitter of the grain and the date-stone." The grain is the clay of the believers on which Allah projected His mercy, and the date-stone is the clay of the disbelievers who keep away from all good — it is called the date-stone because it is distant from all good and separated from it. Allah, Glorious and Exalted, said: "He brings the living out of the dead, and brings the dead out of the living. The living believer whose clay is from the clay of the disbeliever and the dead disbeliever who comes out of the living is the disbeliever who emerges from the clay of the believer. The living believer and the dead disbeliever." That is Allah’s saying: "And whoever was dead and We gave him life..." The death was the mingling of his clay with the clay of the disbeliever and his life was when Allah separated them with His word. Thus Allah brings out the believer at birth from darkness after his entering it into the light and brings out the disbeliever from the light into the darkness after his entering the light. That is Allah’s saying: "To warn those who were alive and make the word come true against the disbelievers." — OR — I traveled with Abu Ja'far al-Mansur while he was on his procession, mounted on a horse surrounded before and behind by cavalry, and I was riding a donkey beside him. He said to me, "O Abu Abdullah, you should rejoice in the strength and honor God has granted us, but do not tell people that you are more entitled to this leadership than us and your household, lest you incite us and them." I replied, "Who has told you this about me? He has lied." He asked, "Will you swear to what you say?" I said, "People are magicians; they like to corrupt your heart about me, so do not let them hear you. We need you more than you need us." He said, "Do you remember when I asked you if we will have a kingdom and you said yes? A long, wide, harsh one? You will remain granted respite in your affairs and plenty in your worldly life until you unjustly shed our forbidden blood in a forbidden land during a forbidden month." I realized he had memorized the statement, so I said, "Perhaps God Almighty will suffice you, for I did not disclose this to you privately; it is a narration I have reported. Perhaps someone else from your household will take over." He was silent towards me. When I returned home, some of our clients came to me and said, "May I be your ransom! By God, I saw you in Abu Ja'far’s procession, you on a donkey and he on a horse. He looked at you and spoke as if you were beneath him." I said to myself, "This is God’s proof upon creation and the leader of this matter, who is to be followed, and this other one acts unjustly; he kills the children of the prophets and sheds blood on earth in ways God does not love. He is in his procession and you are on a donkey." This caused me doubt, and I feared for my religion and self. I said, "If you had seen the angels surrounding me from in front, behind, right, and left, you would have despised him and what he is upon." He said, "Now my heart is at rest." Then he asked, "Until when will these people prevail, or when will the respite from them come?" I said, "Do you not know that everything has a term?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Will your knowledge benefit you? When this matter arrives, it will come faster than the blink of an eye. If you knew their status before God Almighty and how it is, you would hate them the most, and if you and the people of the earth strove to make them fall into the worst sins, they would not be able. Do not be provoked by Satan. Honor belongs to God, His Messenger, and the believers, but the hypocrites do not know. Do you not know that whoever awaits our matter and patiently endures the harm and fear, he will join our group tomorrow? When you see the truth perish and its people vanish; injustice spreading over the lands; the Qur’an altered with additions not from it, directed towards desires; religion retreating like water receding; the people of falsehood prevailing over people of truth; evil appearing unrestrained, its adherents excused; corruption manifest and men satisfied with women and women with women; the believer silent and not heard, the wicked false and not challenged; the young belittling the elders; kinship ties severed; those who praise wickedness laughing unchallenged; boys resembling women and women marrying women; commendations multiplying; men spending money in disobedience to God and not rebuked; those who seek refuge from what the believer struggles with; neighbors harming neighbors with no deterrent; the unbeliever rejoicing in what he sees among the believers; public drinking of wine with those unafraid of God gathering; the enjoiner of good humiliated; the wicked in what God dislikes strong and praised; the companions of the signs despised and those who love them despised; the path of good deserted and the path of evil taken; the House of God neglected with orders to abandon it; men boasting what they do not do; men courting men and women courting women; men living in disgrace sustained by their backsides, women by their private parts; women adopting sitting places as men do; femininity manifest in the descendants of al-Abbas; men dyed and styled as women do for their husbands; giving men wealth on their private parts; jealousy surging among men; owners of wealth esteemed above the believer; usury widespread not despised; adultery commended by women; women contending with their husbands over marriage to men; most people assisting women in their vice; the believer sad, despised, and humiliated; innovations and adultery prevalent; people relying on false witnesses; the forbidden made lawful and the lawful forbidden; religion overturned with opinions and the Book and its rulings abandoned; night passages daring towards God unchecked; the believer unable to refute but with his heart; great wealth spent in God’s displeasure; rulers favoring disbelievers and distancing the good; rulers bribed in judgment; governance granted to bribe-givers; relatives marrying to suffice; men killed over accusations and suspicions; jealousy leading men to sacrifice themselves and their wealth for others; men reproached for visiting women; men consuming their wives’ illicit earnings knowingly and maintaining it; women harsh towards their husbands, acting in ways they dislike but spending on them; men renting their wives and slave girls accepting poor food and drink; oaths by God frequently violated; gambling and alcohol widespread; women offering themselves to disbelievers; public amusements unrestrained; nobility humbled by those who fear their power; supporters of rulers praising those who insult us, the Ahl al-Bayt; those who love us falsified and their testimony rejected; verbal falsehood competed over; the Qur’an heavy and hard for the people to listen to, while falsehood is light and easy; neighbors honoring neighbors out of fear of their tongues; limits abolished and ruled by whim; mosques decorated but filled with those unafraid of God gathering for gossip and consuming the flesh of the people of truth, sharing intoxicating drinks; drunk persons leading prayers senseless and unashamed; when drunk honored, avoided, feared, and excused for their drunkenness; those consuming orphan’s wealth praised for their good deeds; judges ruling contrary to God’s commands; rulers entrusting traitors for greed; inheritance given by rulers to sinners and bold ones who take from God, leave them, and desire; pulpits ordered to be just but speakers neglect what they command; prayer disregarded in times; charity given for intercession, not for God’s sake, given to seek people's favor; people focused on stomachs and genitals without care for what consumed or married them; the world facing them; flags of truth trampled; be cautious and seek salvation from God Almighty; know that people are in God’s wrath but given respite for a purpose; be vigilant, strive to be seen by God Almighty opposed to their conduct; if the punishment descends and you are among them, hasten to God’s mercy; if delayed, endure, having left their audacity against God; know that God does not waste the reward of the good and that His mercy is near the good.