Islam and Children

The topic of Islam and children includes the rights of children in Islam, children's duties towards their parents, and parent's rights over their children, both biological and foster children. Also discussed are some of the differences regarding rights with respect to different schools of thought.

The Quran uses various terms for children (e.g. Arabic terms dhurriyya; ghulām; ibn; walad; walīd; mawlūd; ṣabī; tifl; saghir) but according to Avner Giladi, the context seldom makes it clear whether it is exclusively referring to the non-mature. The Quranic statements about children, Giladi states, are mainly concerned with "infanticide, adoption, breast-feeding, and fatherless children." These statements were of a normative-ethical significance for later Muslim jurists who formed the foundations of Islamic legislation.

Children in the Quran

Adoption

Pre-Islamic Arabia

Adoption was a common practice in pre-Islamic Arabia. According to this custom, the adopted son would take the name of his adoptive parent, and would be assimilated into the family in a "legal sense".

Islam

The Quran replaced the pre-Islamic custom of adoption by the recommendation that "believers treat children of unknown origin as their brothers in the faith".

Thus if a child is adopted he or she does not become a son or daughter, but rather a ward of the adopting caretaker(s). The child’s family name is not changed to that of the adopting parent(s) and his or her guardians are publicly known as such. Legally, this is close to other nations' systems for foster care. Other common rules governing adoption in Islamic culture address inheritance, marriage regulations, and the fact that adoptive parents are considered trustees of another individual's child rather than the child's new parents.

Breast-feeding

Pre-Islamic Arabia

In pre-Islamic Arabia, like the Jewish and Christian tradition, sexual relations between males and their milk-mothers or milk-sisters are looked upon as incest, also if they were adopted they couldn't breast feed.

Advent of Islam

The Quran forbade sexual relations between males and their milk-mothers or milk-sisters. According to Avner Giladi, verses 233 of sura 2 (Al-Baqara) and 6 of sura 65 (At-Talaq) aim at "protecting repudiated but still lactating women and their nurslings by guaranteeing them economic support from the father for at least two years and by sanctioning non-maternal nursing when needed."

Fatherless children

The Quran in 19 verses forbids harsh and oppressive treatment of orphaned children while urging kindness and justice towards them. Muhammad himself was an orphan and an early Quranic verse celebrates God's providence and care towards him. Other Quranic verses identify those who repulse the orphan as unbelievers, rebuke those who do not honor the orphans and encourage the unbelievers to feed the orphans. The Quran speaks of the reward waiting for those who feed orphans, poor and the prisoner for the love of God. It also warns those who wrongfully consume the property of orphans that they will be punished in the hereafter with "fire in their own bellies". The Quran also gives concrete instructions to guardians regarding the orphans, particularly on how to protect their wealth and property rights.

Islamic scholar and prominent thinker Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei, who is given the titles Allamah and Sayyid, renowned for his Quranic exegesis explains that verses 57 to 59 of sura 16 (An-Nahl) indicate how God admonished paganpolytheistic tribes for their sexism:

They used to assign girls to God and for themselves choose whatever they wanted, meaning that they would choose boys for themselves. For the same reason, they used to bury daughters alive. In conclusion, the things they did not prefer for themselves, they would prefer for God almighty. God admonishes them for this statement.