OverviewAcross cultures, adoption and fostering take dif-
ferent forms. In the Arabic language, adoption
(tabannà) signifies the creation of a fictive relation-
ship of parent to child, by naming the child as one’s
own and by endowing him or her with rights and
duties identical to those of a biological child.
Fostering (kafàla) is the act of assuming partial or
complete responsibility for a child whose parents
are temporarily or permanently unable to care for
him or her. Adoption in the former sense is forbid-
den in Islam, while fostering is highly recom-
mended. Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to say
that “Islam forbids adoption,” since some forms
of adoption, like “open adoptions,” which are be-
coming more popular in Western societies, are sim-
ilar to Islamic foster arrangements. In addition,
some societies use the term “partial adoption” to
signify the Islamically validated foster relationship.
At the same time, in examining the practice of
adoption in Muslim societies, it must be recognized
that legal norms are not definitive in influencing
social practice. Extra-legal practices like secret
adoptions and various accommodations leading to
ambiguous foster relationships can be found in
diverse Muslim societies.
The primary textual reference prohibiting the
creation of fictive biological relationships, includ-
ing adoption and the practice known as Ωihàr, by
which a man divorces his wife by calling her his
“mother,” is Qur±àn 4:5. Before the implementa-
tion of this prohibition, early Muslims continued
the pre-Islamic form of adoption that could entail
“an erasure of natal identity” (Bargach 2002, 27).
References to this practice indicate that adoptees
were usually, if not always, male. In Arab tribal
society, dominance was achieved by being able to
martial large numbers of fighting men. The adop-
tion of male children and even adults was one way
to increase this number, in addition to fathering
large numbers of children by multiple wives and
concubines, or acquiring male slaves. In many
cases, adoption was closely linked to enslavement,
which gave captors the power to strip captives of
their natal identities and appropriate them into
their own families.
Children in pre-Islamic Arabia were also adopted
for typical emotional reasons, such as pity for a
Adoption and Fostering
needy child or because of an inability to bear chil-
dren. Before the Qur±ànic verse prohibiting adop-
tion was revealed, the Prophet Mu™ammad himself
freed and adopted a slave boy given to him by his
wife, calling him “the son of (ibn) Mu™ammad.”
After the revelation, Zayd took the name of his bio-
logical father, and was henceforth known as “Zayd
ibn £àritha.” There are reports that this change
took place in connection with Zayd’s divorce of his
wife, whom the Prophet then married. This action
emphasized the difference between real parenthood
and adoption, since marriage to a woman who has
ever been married to one’s son is forbidden by Qur±àn
4:22–4. Nevertheless, as Bargach argues, the prohi-
bition on adoption cannot be linked to an isolated
event in the Prophet’s life, since it was clearly neces-
sitated by the importance placed on lineage (nasab)
in the Islamic revelation (Bargach 2002, 56–62).
Fostering is an important theme in the biography
of the Prophet. Since his father died before his
birth, the Prophet’s grandfather assumed guardian-
ship (walàya) over him. When ≠Abd al-Mu††àlib
died, the Prophet’s uncle, Abù¢àlib, became his
guardian. A custom in pre-Islamic Arabia, Islam
made it a legal obligation for male relatives to
provide maintenance (nafaqa) and protection for
orphaned children. A fatherless child is considered
an “orphan” (yatìm) even if his or her mother is still
living. The duty to care for orphans is a significant
theme of the Qur±ànic and Prophetic sayings. Oft-
cited is the Prophetic saying, “I and the sponsor
(kafìl) of an orphan will be like this in Paradise
(and he held up two fingers close together)”
(Bukhàrì1997, viii, 34).
In most schools of Islamic law, a needy orphan
has the right to maintenance from a male relative
even if the mother retains custody (™a∂àna) of the
child (Nasir 1990, 173–89 197–200). It is not
uncommon for the brother of a man who has died
leaving children to marry his brother’s widow in
order to provide the kind of support and supervi-
sion for his nephews and nieces that he would for
his own children. In traditional societies, if such a
man is already married, a polygamous marriage is
usually the result. As polygamy becomes less com-
mon in modern societies, the uncle’s support may
be limited to financial assistance.
Children whose fathers are poverty-stricken
or unable to adequately care for them also have a