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What is your name?: Shifa Mohiuddin
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Divine Guidance for Caring: The Quran and Sunnah emphasize and regulate orphan and foster care
BY SHIFA GHIZIA MOHIUDDIN
In the spring of 2015, a close friend introduced me to Aisha, a young Afghan refugee who had survived a drone strike that left her orphaned and severely wounded. In the aftermath of that incident, the U.S. government sponsored her to receive medical treatment at suburban Washington D.C.’s Bethesda Naval Medical Center.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to teach her basic Quran memorization over the weekends at my home, not far from where her Muslim foster parents lived. We started reading from the shorter and easier-to-memorize end chapters and moved forward slowly. I was impressed with how beautifully she could repeat the Arabic recitation after me, for the drone strike had rendered her blind. She was positive, full of spirit, confident and committed to learning the Quran.
Aisha’s resiliency reminded me that Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) grew up without a biological father and that, during his infancy, his wet nurse Halima in effect became his foster mother. This relationship allowed him to regard Harith as his father and the couple’s children as his real siblings. Thus he could not marry them, for the woman who nurses a child more than five times before the age of two becomes his or her nursing mother. No other religion accords such a status to suckling mothers.
After his mother Amina’s death, Muhammad was taken in by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib. Upon his demise, he entered the household of his uncle Abu Talib (radi Allahu ‘anh). As an adult, Muhammad freed, adopted and treated his wife Khadija's (radi Allahu ‘anha) household slave Zayd ibn Haritha like his own son (33:37). Later verses revealed prohibited adoption by name so that a person’s lineage would not be lost (33:4-5).
Another strong foster mother is Aasiya (radi Allahu ‘anha), the wife of Pharaoh, who raised the infant Moses in her tyrannical spouse’s palace. The Quran relates that Pharaoh had ordered the killing of all sons born to the Children of Israel. Naturally, his mother feared for his life: “And We inspired to the mother of Moses, ‘Suckle him; but when you fear for him, cast him into the river and do not fear and do not grieve. Indeed, We will return him to you and will make him [one] of the messengers’” (28:7).
One day, Aasiya was walking along the Nile with some of her maids and saw a basket drifting on the water. Upon opening it, she saw and fell in love with the infant: “And the wife of Pharaoh said, ‘[He will be] a comfort of the eye for me and for you. Do not kill him; perhaps he may benefit us, or we may adopt him as a son.’ And they perceived not” (28:9). As he matured, Moses considered Aasiya as his mother, while his birth mother became his wet nurse and thus could watch him grow and help raise him. Moses therefore provided Aasiya the happiness and contentment for which she was looking in a foster child.
Amidst these historical examples, contemporary Muslim communities in the West have struggled to bring foster children into their own homes.
According to the Muslim Foster Care Association (MFCA; https://muslimfostercare.org), the shortage of licensed Muslim foster homes causes most Muslim children in foster care to be placed with non-Muslims. Outcomes for children and families improve when Muslim children are placed in Muslim foster homes. Although Aisha’s foster parents were not Muslim, they arranged for her to learn the Quran with people in her local community so that she would not lose touch with Islam.
Many Muslims mistakenly believe that Islam prohibits fostering. As not enough imams and community leaders address this issue, we must become fully educated about orphan and foster care, especially its legal and social implications.
The child’s well-being must be the foremost consideration in all relevant decisions:
“And they ask you about orphans. Say, “Improvement (islah) for them is best. If you mix your affairs with theirs — they are your brothers. Allah knows the corrupter from the amender. If Allah had willed, He could have put you in difficulty. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise” (2:220). The Arabic root word for orphans is yatim, “something that is singular.” In the context of a human being, it means “a minor who has lost his or her father.” Here, islah means “in the child’s best interests.” The Quran repeatedly emphasizes the importance of caring for orphans and safeguarding their rights, as one can see in 2:67, 4:36 and 6:152. God allows the orphan’s guardian to spend a reasonable amount of the latter’s estate on the condition that he/she intends to compensate the orphan later on.
According to the Orphan Care Project, Muslims need to ensure that the most appropriate and effective model for orphan and foster care is available, accessible and correctly instituted. Collaborative discussions across civil society should encourage holistic and productive debate on the history and future of orphans, familial ethics and law. Muslims should be actively engaged in working to improve such institutional frameworks seeking to secure justice.
“Do what is beautiful. Allah loves those who do what is beautiful.” (Quran 2:195)
“We pass through this world but once. Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.” Stephen Jay Gould
For more information:
Nagamia Institute of Islamic Medicine and Science: https://www.niims.org
1001 Inventions: the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization: http://www.1001inventions.com