Adoption In Islam

Historical Aspects Of Adoption In Islam

Islam prohibits the same kind of adoption procedures prevalent in the society right now. Islam does support adoption by different way and by different procedures. Islamic way of adoption or protecting a child is a sunna done by Prophet Muhammed(pbuh). Islamic way of adoption is actually encouraged by Islam. Prophet Muhammed(pbuh) himself protected and adopted a child called Zaid, by feeding him and by changing his name into Zaid Bin Muhammed that remained so until muslims reached Medina. When the Prophet reached Medina, the legal system of Islam, were reavealed in Quran through arch angel Gabriel, then Allah corrected that and said call the adopted one with their biological fathers name, that is more

Islam doesn’t allow adoption and it does prohibit legal adoption. It doesn’t mean that a Muslim cannot protect a child or take of a child of other’s. Muslim scholars says that adoption is of two types. The first type is caring for the child, providing basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter and education etc, providing health care to the child, providing love and affection to the child, treating the child emotionally and giving affection same as a parent give to his/ her own child. The second type of adoption is to give the same legal status to the child that one would give to his/her biological child. In Islam the first type is not only allowed in Islam, but it is highly encouraged in Islam. Infact the Prophet Muhammed(pbuh) himself has adopted a child in the first typed mentioned above. Prophet Muhammed(pbuh) has talked about adoption of first kind mentioned above, “the one who takes care of orphans will enter into paradise.” Prophet has said that the person who take care of orphans will be having the same status as prophet in the paradise. Prophet Muhammed has adopted a child who was servant of his wife Khadeeja named Zaid. The wife of prophet was having a master servant relationship with Zaid, but Prophet had a similar relationship like father and son. Later Khadeeja also accepted him as an adopted child. The adopted child shall not use the name of adopting father as the name of his father. It is prohibited in Islam. A Muslim can take a child from street and take care of him as a child of himself but no legal status, legal adoption as prevalent in the modern society is not allowed in Islam. Islam doesn’t want to take away the genealogical and biological relationship between the biological parents. Islam wants to make a child remember about his biological lineage. Islam also allows a child to make informed about his biological parents. Islam does want a child to have good relationship between his biological