www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 7, No.

7; July 2011

Status of Child in Islamic Society

Dr. Hafiz Hifazatullah

Assistant Professor in Theology, Islamia College Peshawar, Chartered University, Pakistan
E-mail: hifazat786@yahoo.com

Dr. Hussain Farooq

Assistant Professor in Theology, Islamia College Peshawar, Chartered University, Pakistan

Dr. Syed Naeem Badshah

Assistant Professor in Theology, Islamia College Peshawar, Chartered University, Pakistan

Dr. Shafiq ur Rahman

Assistant Professor in Arabic, Islamia University Bahawul Pur, Pakistan

Received: January 5, 2011 Accepted: February 15, 2011 doi:10.5539/ass.v7n7p199

Abstract
The PARADOX of human society – that it has unity and continuity of its own and yet exists solely in the minds
and action of its members – can be resolved only by understanding how the NEWBORN individual is molded
into a social being. Without this process of molding the society could not perpetuate itself beyond a single
generation and culture could not exist. Nor could the individual become a person; for without the ever-repeated
renewal of culture within him there could be no human mentality, no human personality. Both the person and the
society are alike dependent on this unique process of molding.
Each society tries to mold his newborn individual according to his own needs and requirements. Beside family
and school, social environment and social laws of the society plays vital role in laying the foundations of the
newborn individual. In Islamic society the newborn individual is molded according to the teachings of the Holy
Quran, which regards the child as a respectable being because of his humanity (Note 1) and sinlessness. (Note 2)
In the light of Quranic teachings the Muslim Scholars framed a system of rules concerning the social and legal
status of the child in Islamic Society as Robert Roberts writes:
One of the most commendable things which one finds in the reading of the Quran is the Solicitude which
Muhammad shows for the young and especially for such as has been deprived of their natural guardians. Again
and again he insists upon a kind and just treatment being accorded to children. And working upon his words, the
Mohammedan doctors have framed a system of rules concerning the appointment and duties of guardians which
is most complete, and extending to the most minute details.
This paper focuses on social laws of Islamic society regarding the child. It discusses the legal aspect of the
newborn individual. It also explains the laws of paternity, guardianship, inheritance, wills and adaptation.
Keywords: Islamic society, Social laws, Paternity, Guardianship, Inheritance, Wills and adaptation, Different
school of thoughts
LEGITIMACY AND PATERNITY
Within the tribal organization of Arabia the smallest unit is that of the ahl, “the tent” or household. It consists of
a single family, of which the father is the head and the other members are his direct descendants. In their own
interest and that of the society amongst whom they live they are reckoned as belonging to his stock, and his
actual physical paternity therefore is matter of importance. In the pre-Islamic time the principle ruled that “the
child follows the bed”, i.e. that the child reckoned paternity from the man, whoever he might be, who was
married to its mother at the time of its birth. Islam modified the principle by declaring that a pregnant woman,

Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 199

www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 7, No. 7; July 2011

when her husband dies or divorce her, cannot be remarried until the birth of her child (Note 3) which is reckoned
by Islamic law as begotten by him and as legitimate.
As a general principle a child born in wedlock is regarded in Islam as legitimate and as being the child of the
wife’s husband provided it’s born less than six months after cohabitation of husband and wife. However, if the
father wishes to acknowledge a child born less than six months after his cohabitation with his wife, it is
legitimate. The extreme limit of four years after cohabitation is allowed for the birth of a child by Shafi’ite and
Malikite codes, which within that limit would regard such a child as legitimate, provided, of course, that the
mother had not in the meantime contracted another union. (Note 4) Hanifi law makes the limit two years.
The principle that the “child follows the bed” is coupled in the hadith with the declaration that “the adulterer gets
nothing. (Note 5) that is that the child belongs to its mother’s husband at the time of its birth even if he should
not be the father. Shi ite law goes so far as to say that the paternity of a child conceived adulterously is attributed
to the husband unless he disavows it formally by pronouncement of the li’an against his wife. If a father repent
of his disavowal later and desires to acknowledge his paternity, that is permitted. In any event, the adulterer
cannot claim paternity of the child.
In Islamic law it is sufficient for the father to acknowledge cohabitation with his wife or slave girl to establish
the legitimacy of the child. If circumstances (such as the question of succession) require the mother to prove a
child to be hers, her statement must be supported by that of midwife or some other respectable Muslim woman
present at the birth. As concubinage is lawful in Islam, therefore, it is not necessary for the mother of a child to
be married to its father in order for it to be declared legitimate. Children born of a marriage which is
subsequently declared irregular remain legitimate if the parents can prove they contracted the marriage in good
faith and believing they were entitled to be married. Also, in case of error, or where there is a doubt that the child
was begotten in wedlock or during a master’s lawful ownership of a slave- girl, the child is declared legitimate.
In case of repudiation of children by parents, if a husband suspects that the born by his wife is none of his, and
he does not wish to acknowledge it, he is must denounce it immediately it is born, follow up his denunciation
with an accusation of adultery against his wife in accordance with the procedure of Li’an. He cannot, however,
denounce the child simply on ground that it does not resemble him in appearance. As quoted that a Bedouin
came to the Prophet declaring that his wife had given birth to a negro child, and hinting that he wish to repudiate
it. The Holy Prophet, however, refused him permission to do so, and remarked that the differences even of the
colour do not prove adultery, and the woman’s husband is not entitled to divorce her. (Note 6)
If a child is disavowed by the husband of the mother it reckons descent from her alone; and similarly if the
husband’s kinfolk dispute, with a show of proof, that the child is his. Normally, indeed, the legitimacy of the
child is a matter of some concern to the father’s family or tribe, and where there is a special reason for guarding
the purity of the family, claims to belong to it is scrutinized with some care. The following example from the
early of Islam is quoted from the Kitab-al-Aghani. The family of ‘Ali b. Jahm al-Sami, court poet to the Caliph
Mutawakkil, claimed that they were descended from a member of the Quraysh known as Sama. The genealogists
of the Quraysh, however, refused to accept the family of the poet as kin to them, saying that when Sama died his
widow married a man from another tribe, and that the person from whom the poet’s family claimed descent was
a child of this second marriage. (Note 7)
The law refuses to recognize external claims to paternity of a child which its mother’s husband has disavowed,
and in such case no blood relationship between the child and the person claiming to be its father is in law
recognized.
GUARDIANSHIP
On the question of responsibility for the support of the children the Holy Quran makes very valuable regulations.
It is conceivable that where the parents live together there remains no need to formulate any laws on the subject,
particularly where children are regarded as precious possessions. The need arises when matters become
complicated by the divorce of the mother. In this regard the two sections of the Holy Quran, dealing with divorce
and related matters, are noteworthy. In these two sections it is laid down that a mother should suckle her child
for two full years at least, during which time she should be fed and clothed by the father, though neither parent
can be unduly pressed for the support of the children. (Note 8) The earlier passage, related to the maintenance of
children definitely impose no compulsion on the divorced mother to suckle her child, and if she undertakes it she
is entitled to a fee for her services likely any other wet-nurse who may be hired. This is the openion of Hanafi
school of thought. (Note 9) Others, basing their opinion on the later passage, hold that mothers, married or
divorced, are compelled to suckle their children. Still others, for example the Malikites, are of the opinion that a
married mother is compelled to suckle her child for the specified period, but a divorced mother need not. (Note

200 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025

www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 7, No. 7; July 2011

10) It is to be mentioned too, that the period of two years laid down by the Holy Quran may be lessened to a time
agreed upon by both parents. (Note 11)
When parents are living together they are jointly responsible for upholding of their children, the father providing
material necessities, and the mother caring for the welfare of their bodies and for their mental and religious
training. (Note 12) In case of dispute the mother has the right to custody of the children during their infancy.
How long that period may extend is not specified in the Holy Quran, and the various schools of law accordingly
provide their own ideas on the subject. In the view of the Shi,`ites, the mother, provided she is a free woman and
a Muslim, has a charge of child for the first two years of its life while it is at the breast. After weaning the child
is to be entrusted entirely to the custody of his father, a girl until she is seven years old to that of her mother.
After that age the father takes charge of the daughters too. If the mother dies before the boy is of two years old or
the daughter of seven years, then the father takes charge; as he does also if he divorce the mother of the child. If
the father dies, the mother takes charge.
The Shi,`ite school agrees that the mother has first right to the custody of the child until the age of seven years. It
is considered that at that age the child has the power to discriminate, and it can then chose with which parent it
live for the future. However, the mother must be a free Muslim woman, in full possession of her senses, innocent
of misdemeanor, trustworthy; having a fixed abode and not married to a man other than the child’s father.
According to the Malikitees, guardianship of a boy continues with his mother until his puberty; of a girl, until the
obligation to maintain her ceases i.e. until the consummation of her marriage. The mother even is an infidel, a
divorced woman or a widow. (Note 13)
The age of puberty is not fixed in the Holy Quran, although it is indicated that a youth reached manhood when
nocturnal emissions began. The majority of the legal schools agree upon the age of fifteen as being for a boy the
age when he reaches manhood. A hadith narrates that ‘Abdullah ibn Omar, once told a freedman of his that the
Prophet, after the Uhad, had refused him a share of the spoils because he was too young to participate, he being
then fourteen years old. But a year later, after the battle of the Trench, he was granted his share. (Note 14)
The particular age of fifteen years is set as the legal term of manhood if there is doubt about the physical signs of
puberty. If these physical signs can be proved, then an earlier age may be accepted; though nine years is the
lowest limit. For a girl similarly, either the legal age of fifteen years or the regular indication of puberty is taken
to mean the definite attainment of womanhood. Abu Hanifa preferred the age of eighteen as the legal of
manhood, and declared that where a youth was in the care of a guardian whom he could not satisfy about his
capacity to have the disposition of his own property, the period of minority might be deferred for seven years
longer, i.e. until the age of twenty five. (Note 15)
During the period of their minority, children have no power to dispose their persons or their property.
Accordingly they are then nominally in the charge of an elder whose tutelage may be of three kinds. The firs
kind is that concerned with the care of the infants, and here the parents are jointly concerned. If the mother is
divorced, it is she who is entrusted with their care until they reach a particular age – either two years old or seven,
according to different schools. If the mother dies before the child has reached the age of seven, her maternal
grand mother takes charge. Only if these relatives are not available is the father entrusted with the care of the
child up to age of seven. If the parents are both living but are divorced, those schools of law which consider
seven years to be an age at which has a power to discriminate, permit it then to choose whether it will live with
its father or mother. Only if the parent chosen is a Muslim of full age and free can he or she undertake the
guardianship of the child. If the mother marries a man outside the circle of child’s kinsfolk she is incapacitated
from acting as guardian.
Closely bound up with the first form of guardianship is the second, which is concerned with providing children
with spouse when they have reached the right age. The guardian from this aspect is the Wali. It is the father here
who has the first right to the office and then the nearest male kinsman. As wali the guardian must be a Muslim of
full age. A Christian father who has a Muslim daughter could not dispose of her in marriage.
The third form of guardianship is that which is concerned with the care and management of the property of
minors. Here too, it is the privilege of the father to exercise guardianship failing him; it falls to the grandfather’s
will. Males alone have the right to the office, but some legists consider that the claim of an infant’s mother to be
the guardian is entitled to consideration.
The guardian of an orphan has the power which are similar to, though less extensive than, those possessed by a
father. A marriage contracted by the latter for his infant son is valid when the latter reaches marriageable age;
but any other wali’s contract could be set a side by a ward at coming his age. A minor, however, may not

Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 201

www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 7, No. 7; July 2011

alienate his property without permission of his guardian, which himself may have no dealings with the property
of his charge except it be in the interest of the ward (Note 16), but the Holy Quran permits a guardian who is in
need to use for his own purpose a portion of his ward possession. (Note 17) When he reaches the age of marriage,
the orphan after being tested with respect to his fitness to manage his property, should be given his possessions if
the test is found satisfactory. (Note 18)
According to Abu Hanifa, the orphan’s property whatever the results of the test, must not be retained after he has
reached the age of twenty five, and provided he is not mentally deficient. (Note 19)
INHERITANCE
In pre-Islamic era the system of inheritance was confined to the male agnate relatives ("asaba") of the deceased.
The Quranic regulations on this subject introduced the novel and outstanding reforms of permitting woman to
inherit from their kinsmen. The details of Islamic laws of inheritance may be studied under the subject of
INHERITANCE in law books of Islamic jurisprudence. Our concern here is only with the rights of sons and
daughters. A testator may make bequests to the extent of not more than one third of his or her property remaining
after payment of all debts. (Note 20) Out of the rest, or if he dies intestate out of the balance left after payment of
all debts, the persons mentioned in the Holy Quran as being entitled to “shares” receive them, and the remainder
then goes to the sons, if there are any. There is no mentioned in the Holy Quran of any right accruing to a
first-born son and all sons inherit equal portions of their father estate. Where, in addition to sons there are alsi
daughters, the latter, by the Holy Quran, receive “shares” in the proportion of one to every two received by the
sons. (Note 21)
Daughters are amongst the persons who are especially mentioned in the holy Quran as entitled to “shares.”
Where there are no sons, an only daughter receives one half of the estate after the necessary deductions have
been made for debts, etc., and two or more daughters receive between them two thirds. Where there is no other
legal heir, some codes assign the remainder of the estate also to the daughter of the daughters, though other deny
their title to it. According to Islamic law of inheritance no son or daughter can be excluded from inheritance by
any mistaken calculation of the amount of the “shares” allotted by the testator or by any law.
However, certain disabilities have been regulated by the legists and the interpreters of the Holy Quran, to
preclude undesirable persons from inheritance. Thus no person can inherit from another whom he has slain,
either by design or by accident. (Note 22) The apostasy of an heir exclude him from any legacy, and so also
would the fact of his being a slave or an unbeliever. Bastardy only excludes from the father but not from the
mother, between whom and whose children, however begotten, the ordinary rules of kinship hold. The child,
therefore, can also inherit from its mother’s kinsfolk. This is the law according to the Sunni schools. (Note 23)
ADOPTION
Adoption gives no right to inheritance in Islamic society. In pr-Islamic times, an adopted member of a clan or
family stood on equality with true-born members of it, sharing in booty and inheritance as well as in the duties of
raid. Even women could be legally adopted and share in inheritance, some times in face of the opposition of
other heirs. (Note 24) Since adoption also gave a clan the right to inherit from an adopted member, persons who
owned property were sometime invited to membership, even though they were regarded as of humble status.
Occasionally such a person, suspecting the motives of the invitation, would refuse. (Note 25) In Islamic society
adopted son was excluded from inheritance declaring that Allah had not made adopted sons real sons and they
were to be called by the name of their father. (Note 26)
References
Abul-Faraj Asfahani & Kiata ul- Aghani. (1887). Bulaq, Vol. 9, p.104.
Laila Bakhtiar. (2009). encyclopedia of Islamic Shariah (Urdu translation by yasir Jawad) Nigarashat publishers,
P.387-388.
Reuben Levely. (1957). The Social Structure of Islam. Cambridge University Press, p.135.
Robert Roberts. (1925). Social Laws Of Quran. Williams and Norgate, Ltd, p.40, 41.
Shaybani, Jami al-Saghir & Kitabu-wasaya. (1990). Idartul-qura’n wal- Uloom-l-Islamia, Karachi, p.520.
Notes
Note 1. Al-Quran,Surah Al-Isra, 17 :70
Note 2. Al-Quran,Surah At-tin, 95: 4
Note 3. Al-Quran,Surah Al-Baqarah, 2: 228, 234.

202 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025

www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 7, No. 7; July 2011

Note 4. Ibn-e- Qudama, Al-Mughni, vol: 7, 3rd edi, Darul-Fikr, Beirut, p477
Note 5. Abu Dawood, Sunan-e- Abi Dawood, kitab-ul-Li’an, Hadith No 496
Note 6. Muslim bin Hijjaj, Sahih-ul-Muslim, kitab-ul-Li’an, Hadith No 2757
Note 7. Abul-Faraj Asfahani, Kiata ul- Aghani,, vol: 9, Bulaq, 1887 p.104.
Note 8. Al-Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah, 2: 228- 234.
Note 9. Amir Ali, A’i-nul-Hidaya, part 2 Kitab-ut-Talaq, p409,410.
Note 10. Abu Muhammad Abdu-Wahab, At-Talqeen, Maktaba Nazar Al-Riadh, p348.
Note 11. Al-Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah, 2: 228- 234.
Note 12. This kind of charges is technically known as HADANA.
Note 13. Bukhari, Sahih-ul-Bukhari, Kitab-ul-Maghazi, Hadith No 3871
Note 14. The legal punishment for theft (cutting of the hand) is not inflicted on a youth below the age of fifteen.
(Abu Yusuf, Kitabul Kharaj, p 106).
Note 15. Al-Quran, Al-Quran, Surah Al -An’am, 6: 152
Note 16. Al-Quran, Surah Al –Nisa, 4: 6
Note 17. Al-Quran, Surah Al-Nisa, 4: 5
Note 18. Muhammad Shafi, Mufti, Tafseer Maraif-ul-Quran, ed 2nd , Vol: 2, Idara-tul- Marirf, Karachi, p 305
Note 19. Ibid,p 318-331.
Note 20. Ibid.
Note 21. Ibid.
Note 22. Ibid.
Note 23. The Story of Suraym’s slave girl (Kitab-ul-Aghani, Vol:17, p94).
Note 24. Ibid, Vol. 1, p134.
Note 25. Al-Quran, Al-Quran, Surah Al-Ahzab 33: 4.

Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 203