| Part of a series on |
| Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) |
|---|
|
Contract · Mahr Marriage in Islam Misyar · Halala · Urfi Nikah mut‘ah Polygyny · Divorce · Iddah Ma malakat aymanukum Adoption |
| Islamic studies |
Islamic regulations regarding adoption are generally distinct from practices and customs of adoption in the other non-muslim parts of the world like Western or East Asian societies. Contrary to what happens in the Western world, the social and jurisprudential understand is not that child formally leaves behind his or her identity as a member of his or her biological family and enters the one that raises them (the adoptive family). While raising a child who is not one's genetic child is allowed and, in the case of an orphan, even encouraged, the child does not become a child of the "adoptive" parents. it is forbidden by Islamic law to adopt a child (in the common sense of the word). instead, children retain membership to their original family. this is called in Arabic: kafala. This means, it is forbidden by Islam that the new father name the son after himself, and that the child is counted as a non-Mahram.[1] This can be sidestepped by having the child breast-fed by the adoptive mother in the first two years of life (see milk kinship).[2] There can also be confusion between a child that has been orphaned and one who has been abandoned but is presumed to have living parents[3].
A hadith involving Aisha and Abu-Hudhayfah ibn Utbah's adoptive son Salim mawla Abu Hudaifa states:
An important fact to keep in mind is that Muhammad himself had adopted a child, and Muhammad himself was fed by an adoptive mother during the first two years of his life.
Relevant issues include the marriage between Zayd ibn Harithah's ex-wife and Muhammad.