Commentary:

Perhaps he who learns of this terrifying fears on the harms of consanguineous marriage, he would say farewell to marriage between relatives, to the point of no return. Therefore I say: Slow down, brother! Not everything they said is true, and that is because:

Firstly: The texts with which they supported their views on consanguineous marriage have no basis, are not valid even when attributed to Omar.  But rather the authentic legislative texts stand contrary to what they resorted to. The Almighty said: "O Prophet! We have made lawful to you your wives to whom you have paid their dowers; and those whom your right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to you; and the daughters of your paternal uncles and aunts, and the daughters of your maternal uncles and aunts, who migrated with you" [Al Ahzab: 50].

And so did the Prophet, peace be upon him. He married from his relatives and got his daughters married to his relatives. Then again, if there was harm in consanguineous marriage, the Prophet, peace be upon him, would have elucidated it.

Secondly: What they mentioned of harms and diseases resulting from consanguineous marriage is not admitted by a number of their fellow physicians.
Dr. Ahmed Shawki Ibrahim, Dr. Mohamed Kamal Naguib and Dr. Sadika Ali Al-Awadi presented a research work to (The International Islamic Medical Conference on Islamic law and Contemporary Medical Issues)⁽¹⁾, entitled: (Consanguineous Marriage: what is for and what it against it ...)⁽²⁾, in which they said: "If we look at consanguineous the marriage, purely from the genetic side, we find that consanguineous marriage, in itself, is not considered an influencing factor on human health, but plays role like that of the detective Inspector in revealing the crime. The role of consanguineous marriage is the accumulation of defective genes [the existing ones]⁽³⁾ in family members, and showing their impact on the generation, which results from this type of marriage. "

Then they said: "Given the scientific importance consanguineous marriage has, the Centre for Genetic Diseases in Kuwait carried out two research works about it:

The first one: Determination of the size of the problem of consanguineous marriages in the State of Kuwait, and the impact of this type of marriage on abortion and foetal mortality, whether prior or after birth. The research resulted in the following:

Firstly: Among the (5007) Kuwaiti families surveyed, from different areas of Kuwait, representing the Kuwaiti family statistically, the proportion of consanguineous marriages was (54%), of whom (30.5%) first cousins and the like.

Secondly: The research has shown a slight increase in the proportion of child mortality, during the first week and month, resulting from consanguineous marriages (14.2%, 2.97%, respectively), compared to the ratio of child mortality within this age, resulting from marriages between non-relatives (13.97%, 2.54%). However, we note that the difference is not statistically significant.

Thirdly: There is no specific pattern in the increase in abortion, and the coming out of stillbirths, whenever the degree of kinship is greater. The conclusion from this research was: there is no pattern in the increase in abortion and foetal mortality, whenever the degree of kinship is greater.

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(1) Held in Cairo in 1987 - under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Egypt - in cooperation between Al Azhar and the Faculty of Medicine at Ain Shams University.

 (2) The remainder of the title: (... between prohibition and permission), and this sentence does not conform to the search, since they examined the harms of permitted consanguineous marriage.

 (3) Thus expressed, and the correct is (the existent); as the word “find” has the meaning of “intense feeling”, i.e. grief, according to Lisan Al ‘Arab (6/4770).