The decline in fertility rates and its social, economic, and cultural consequences has become a strategic challenge for many societies, including Iran. In this context, a systematic re-examination of religious heritage can provide an indigenous and sustainable foundation for strengthening the culture of childbearing. The present study aims to extract an Islamic model of childbearing from the perspective of Imam al-Ṣādiq (AS) through a thematic content analysis of his narrations in the Four Canonical Shiʿi Hadith Collections (al-Kutub al-Arbaʿa). Employing a qualitative thematic analysis method, the study analyzes data derived from 157 relevant narrations using a three-level coding process (sub-themes, main themes, and overarching themes). To enhance the methodological rigor of the findings, theme validity was assessed through the Content Validity Index (CVI) and the Content Validity Ratio (CVR), with the participation of experts in Qurʾanic and Hadith studies.

The findings indicate that the model of childbearing in the intellectual framework of Imam al-Ṣādiq (AS) is multidimensional and organized around three overarching axes: the nature (whatness), rationale (whyness), and process (howness) of childbearing. The nature of childbearing emphasizes the legitimacy of lineage and the fetus’s right to life; its rationale addresses the material, spiritual, individual, and social values and motivations underlying parenthood; and its process elucidates the legal, economic, cultural, and medical mechanisms facilitating childbearing. This conceptual framework can be synthesized through the metaphor of “childbearing as planting the tree of generations,” which establishes a systematic linkage among doctrinal foundations, legal requirements, and social needs.