Question:
I adopted 2 girls – now 24 and 16.
What is the status of a woman who adopts daughters – in the eyes of Allah and Rasool (SAW)?
Answer:
In juristic terms it is a mawla-to-mawla relationship benefiting both the adoptive mother and the adopted child in terms of lifelong love, care, honor, protection, loyalty, rights and inheritance, but without blood-related marriage restrictions, all in the same way as the case of the Holy Prophet, upon him and his family blessings and peace, and his adoptive son Zayd b. Haritha. If the children are orphans (i.e. their father died when they were young) then the adoptive parents’ or parent’s reward is exponentially multiplied; likewise if such care, in the case of adopted girls, reaches the moment of their being honorably given away in marriage, which clinches great rewards for the adoptive parents in sha Allah. There are other aspects and details in the books of fiqh, and Allah knows best.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
