Ruling on using tables based on the Chinese calendar to determine the sex of the foetus
Question

                What is the ruling on using tables based on the Chinese calendar to determine the sex of the foetus?.
Praise be to Allah.These so-called “tables 
    based on the Chinese calendar” are a kind of soothsaying and charlatanry. 
    They claim that it is possible to determine the sex of the child by finding 
    out the mother’s age and the date the pregnancy began. By finding out the 
    mother’s age – although the mother has to add a year to her real age because 
    this is her age according to the Chinese calendar! – she can try to choose 
    the month to get pregnant when the foetus will be either male or female. So 
    there are two reservations concerning this: 

    (i)Their claim that the woman 
    whose age is such and such and gets pregnant in a particular month, will 
    have a boy or a girl, according to the tables.

    (ii)It can be used for one who is 
    already pregnant to find out the sex of her baby.
The mother’s age and the 
    date of conception have nothing to do with determining the baby’s sex in the 
    world of medicine. It seems that these tables have some connection to the 
    Buddhist religion and astrology and horoscopes. Finding out the sex of the 
    foetus before conception is a matter of the absolute unseen which no one 
    knows except Allaah.  
These tables have been 
    proven false on many occasions. If anyone has been deceived by them turning 
    out to be correct in a particular case, this is only because it happened to 
    coincide with the decree of Allaah, and there can only be two 
    possibilities.  Hence the likelihood of them being correct is high. Whether 
    the baby is male or female is knowledge of the unseen, and anyone who claims 
    to have knowledge of that is an evil liar, because the angel who is 
    commanded to breath the soul into it does not know what gender it is until 
    he receives the command from his Lord, so how can these people know its 
    gender before it has taken shape? 
The Chinese are in the 
    greatest need of these tables in order to determine the sex of their 
    children, because their government has forbidden them to produce more than 
    one child, and most of them want males. Abortion of females has become 
    widespread among them, because they do not want a pregnancy to continue 
    unless it is the gender they want. 
Our Lord has told us that 
    He alone, and no one else, is the One who gives what He wills of males and 
    females. He is the Sovereign of heaven and earth; He alone is the Creator, 
    with no partner or associate. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“To Allaah belongs the 
    kingdom of the heavens and the earth. He creates what He wills. He bestows 
    female (offspring) upon whom He wills, and bestows male (offspring) upon 
    whom He wills.
50. Or He bestows both 
    males and females, and He renders barren whom He wills. Verily, He is the 
    All‑Knower and is Able to do all things”
[al-Shoora 42:49, 50]
Undoubtedly the inventor of 
    these tables does not believe or think that Allaah is the One Who creates 
    whatever He wants and that He gives whatever He wills of males or females; 
    rather the one who invented them based them on his own mythical beliefs. 
There are several other 
    things wrong with these tables: 
(a)
They stipulate the ages of 
    mothers as being between 18 and 45 only! What about those who bear children 
    before or after those ages? 
(b)
What about the thousands of 
    women who get pregnant with twins or more? Oftentimes a mother gives birth 
    to twins, one boy and one girl. What do these tables have to say about 
    that?! It does not mention twins at all. 
The scholars of the 
    Standing Committee have issued a fatwa warning against being deceived by 
    these tables, and forbidding spreading them among people. 
The scholars of the 
    Standing Committee were asked: A piece of paper is being spread among some 
    women, on which there is what is called “the Chinese tables” (or tables 
    based on the Chinese calendar), which specifies the gender of the baby, male 
    or female, by finding out the mother’s age and the Gregorian month in which 
    the pregnancy began, according to the attached pictures. 
Can the doctors determine 
    this? And what is the shar’i ruling in your opinion on these tables and 
    others like them? 
They replied: 
Knowledge of whether the 
    foetus is male or female before it has takeb shape is something that no one 
    knows except Allaah. After it has taken shape, it may be found out by means 
    of ultrasound, which Allaah has enabled His creation to do. 
As for determining the 
    gender by means of the tables referred to here, this is a lie, because it is 
    claiming to have knowledge of the unseen which no one knows except Allaah. 
    These tables should be destroyed and not circulated among people. End 
    quote. 
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez Aal 
    al-Shaykh, Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan, Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Ghadyaan 
Fataawa al-Lajnah 
    al-Daa’imah, vol. 2 (2/17). 
And Allaah knows best.