Islamic views on adoption are generally distinct from practices and customs of

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...

in other non-Muslim parts of the world like

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

n societies. Adoption in the western sense of the word is not recognized in Islam.

Description

Raising a child who is not one's genetic child is allowed and, in the case of an orphan, even encouraged. But, according to the Islamic view, the child does not become a true child of the "adoptive" parents. For example, the child is named after the biological, not adoptive, father. This does not mean raising a non-biological child is not allowed. It means that the sponsored child doesn't carry the same name as its sponsoring parents. In Islam it is considered a blessing to take care of an orphan, in fact it is considered a duty to some. Thus many Muslims say that it is forbidden by Islamic law to adopt a child (in the common sense of the word), but permissible to take care of another child, which is known in Arabic as (''kafāla''), and is translated literally as ''sponsorship''. A

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

involving

Aisha Aisha bint Abi Bakr () was a seventh century Arab commander, politician, Muhaddith, muhadditha and the third and youngest wife of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. Aisha had an important role in early Islamic h ...

and Abu-Hudhayfah ibn Utbah's adoptive son Salim mawla Abu Hudaifa states:

Abu Hudhaifa, one of those who fought the
battle of Badr The Battle of Badr or sometimes called The Raid of Badr ( ; ''Ghazwahu Badr''), also referred to as The Day of the Criterion (, ; ''Yawm al-Furqan'') in the Qur'an and by Muslims, was fought on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan, 2 AH), near the pre ...
, with Allah's Apostle adopted Salim as his son and married his niece Hind bint Al-Wahd bin 'Utba to him' and Salim was a freed slave of an Ansari woman. Prophet Muhammad also adopted Zaid as his son and after Zaid divorce his wife, in order to remove any hesitance that adopted people are not biological sons / daughters of their adopters, prophet Muhammad married her. And thus the prohibition banning fathers marrying their sons’ wives after the wives are divorced does not apply between adoptive parents and their children.

In the Pre-Islamic period the custom was that, if one adopted a son, the people would call him by the name of the adopted-father, till Allah revealed: "Call them (adopted sons) By (the names of) their (biological) fathers" (33.5).

Discussion

Some modern Muslim activists have argued for changing the traditional Islamic view on adoption. A study was done by the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality in August 2011 which examined Islamic sources and concluded "adoption can be acceptable under Islamic law and its principal objectives, as long as important ethical guidelines are followed." The study is a form of independent reasoning (''

Ijtihad ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ' , ) is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with '' taqlid'' ( ...

'') and is not agreed upon by the majority of ''

Ulama In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

'' and theres no ''

Ijma Ijma (, ) is an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law. Sunni Muslims regard it as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur'an, and the Sunnah. Exactly what group s ...

'' (consensus) on it. Muslim lawyer and activist Faisal Kutty argues that the belief that closed adoption, as practiced in the West, is the only acceptable form of permanent childcare is a significant obstacle to its acceptance among many Muslims. Kutty believes that there is sufficient basis in Islamic jurisprudence to argue for qualified support of adoptions and even international adoptions as taking care of orphans and foundlings is a religious obligation, provided that a child's lineage is not intentionally negated or concealed.

References

Bibliography

* Pastena, Adele. Recognition of Kafala in the Italian Law System from a Comparative Perspective. United Kingdom, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020.

External links

kafala.fr helps orphanskafala.fr petition

Special upbringing of special children

"Kafala" from the Global Legal Information Network Subject Term Index
{{Adopt Adoption and religion Adoption law Islam and children Islamic family law

Description

Discussion

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