7. ADOPTION IS NO NO IN ISLAM

Islam prohibits adoption of children. Adoption in the technical sense is not allowed in Muslim Sharia law. This is because Allah does not like this gesture of adopting orphan children. Barbaric Arabs practiced adoption which was wrong. Allah declared in Quran, "Allah prohibits adoption in Islam and annulled all the judgements pertaining to adoption.”Adopted daughter must put hizab on her face in presence of her foster father and brothers from age 9 and vice versa. The old concept of prohibition of marriage of foster father with divorced wife of the adopted son as though he is the natural father was annulled.  So Allah commanded his prophet to marry Zainab Bint Jahsh, wife of Zaid, who was adopted son of Muhammed, in order to abolish this pagan custom (Fatawa al-Imam). Islamic sources state, "As to Zainab Bint Jahsh, the Messenger of Allah married for no higher wisdom than to abolish the heresy of adoption." 

In pre-Islamic Arab society adoption of orphan/helpless child was a very popular and moral practice. Arabs used to consider adopted child as their own. And they used to pass onto them the adopter's genealogy and name. The adopted child used to have all the rights of the legitimate offspring including that of inheritance. Marriage between adopted child and other member of adopter’s family was considered sin. Surely adopter cannot marry adopted daughter or for that matter divorced wife of an adopted son.

Now how this rule came into being?

Mohammed adopted Zaid Ibn Mohammed after his marriage with Khadija. Zaid Ibn Haritha  then became Zaid Ibn Mohammed after the name of the Prophet. Incidentally Zaid was one of the first people to accept Islam along with Mohammed’s nephew Ali, wife Khadija and friend Abu Bakr.

The place was Medina. Islam had taken root. Mohammed had already married seven of his fifteen wives after death of his first wife Khadija in Mecca. One day Mohammed wanted Zaid Ibn Mohammed for some purpose. The Messenger of God came to house of Zaid Ibn Mohammed seeking him. Zaid was not in the house. Mohammed called out,“Where is Zaid?” When he did not find him, he went inside Zaid’s house, seeking him. Zainab Bint Jahsh, wife of Zaid, stood up to meet Mohammed in a housedress. She said, 'He is not here, Messenger of God, so please come in; my father and mother are your ransom.' The Messenger of God refused to come in. So Zainab had hurried to dress herself and she leapt in a hurry. Mohammed liked her when she did that. The heart of the Prophet was filled with appreciation for her. The Messenger of God turned away from house of Zaid. He went away muttering something that was hardly understandable but for this sentence: 'Praise be to God who disposes the hearts.' When Zaid came back home, she told him that the Messenger of God came. Zaid asked, 'You asked him to come in, didn't you?' She replied, 'I bade him to, but he refused.' He said, 'Have you heard [him say] anything?' She answered, 'When he had turned away, I heard him say something that I could hardly understand. I heard him say, "Praise be to God who disposes the hearts." Zaid went out to the Messenger of God and said, “O Messenger of God, I learned that you came to my house. Did you come in? O Messenger of God, my father and mother are your ransom. Perhaps you liked Zainab. I can leave her.” The Messenger of God said, 'Hold on to your wife.' Zaid said, “O Messenger of God, I will leave her.”

Thereafter Zaid gave Talak to Zainab. She finished her legal period of three months after she had isolated herself from Zaid. In the meantime the Messenger of God went to a trance in presence of Aisha while talking to her and when it lifted, he smiled and said, “Who will go to Zainab to tell her that God wedded her to me from heaven?” The Messenger of God recited; “Thus you told someone whom God had favoured and whom you yourself have favoured: "Hold on to your wife." Salma, the sex slave of the Messenger of God, hurried to tell Zainab about God’s ordain. She gave her some silver jewelry that she was wearing.

There was disbelief among faithful. Aisha could see through, 'I heard much about her beauty and moreover, about how God wedded her from heaven.” She could do nothing but was apprehensive of her position. She said, "For sure she will boast over this with us."

Then Mohammed came up with the following verses of Quran."God did not make your adopted son as your own sons. To declare them so, is your empty claim. God's word is righteous and constitutes true guidance." It follows from this revelation that the adopter may marry the ex-wife of his adopted son and vice-versa. Thus Muhammad married Zainab in order to provide a good example of what the All-wise Allah was seeking to establish by way of rights and privileges for adoption. In this regard God further said: "After a term of married life with her husband, Allah permits you to marry her so that it may hence be legitimate and morally blameless for a believer to marry the wife of his adopted son provided that wife has already been divorced. That is God's commandment which must be fulfilled.”  Who, among the Arabs, could implement this noble legislation and thereby openly repudiate the ancient traditions? Naturally, Muhammad, the exemplar of obedience to God; had to marry Zainab to establish God’s command. His life was the implementation of that which he was entrusted to convey to mankind. His life constitutes the highest ideal, the perfect example, and the concrete instance of his Lord's command.

The truth

Muhammad fell in love with Zainab, daughter of Jahsh, while she was the wife of Zayd bin Mohammed, his own adopted son. Once, when he passed by the house of Zayd in the latter's absence, he was met by Zainab wearing clothes which exposed her beauty. Muhammad's heart was inflamed. It is reported that when his eyes fell upon her, he exclaimed, "Praise be to God who changes the hearts of men" and he repeated this expression at the time of his departure from her home. Zainab heard him say this and noticed desire in his eyes. Zainab proudly reported this happening to her husband. Zayd immediately went to see the Prophet and offered to divorce his wife. Muhammad answered, "Hold on to your wife and fear God." Thereafter, Zainab was no longer a docile wife and Zayd had to divorce her. Prophet Muhammad married Zainab Bint Jahsh who was his daughter-in-law. That was a taboo in pre-Islamic Arabia, and the Prophet of Islam lifted this taboo in order to satisfy his own lust and fulfil his own desire. For satisfying his lust he secured several verses of Quran for which believers of Islam would shun adoption next fourteen hundred years.

Sura al-Ahzab  "Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but [he is] God's Messenger and the Seal of the Prophets. God is Aware of everything!" 

"We married her off to you so that there would be no objection for believers in respect to their adopted sons' wives once they have accomplished their purpose with them. God's command must be done!" 

In the verse, it is stated that there is a particular purpose for the revelation and action of Muhammad. It is not for himself, but it is for the future of the Muslim community. It is so that in future there may not be a problem if anybody (father-in-law) wants to marry the divorced wife of an adopted son. “We permitted you to marry her so that it may hence be legitimate and morally blameless for a believer to marry the wife of his adopted son.” Without adoption, there cannot be any adopted son either.

There was other ramification of this marriage of lust. Zaid Ibn Mohammed was then reverted back to Zaid Ibn Haritha, on his mother’s name. Mohammed also clarified that such adopted children cannot get any share of inheritance as a matter of right. On the other hand, Arab custom and tradition demanded that the adopted son inherit from his adopted father, like the latter's legitimate children. And since this custom too was the object of Muhammad's attack, his choice of Zayd as the spear point of the first reform, would actually make of him -- if he were prepared to give up the inheritance to which Arabian custom gave him title -- the spearhead of another Islamic legislation prohibiting inheritance to any but the blood heirs and relatives of the deceased. This indeed furnished the revelation: "No believer, whether man or woman, has the freedom to choose otherwise than as God and His Prophet have resolved in any given case. To do so is to disobey God and His Prophet, to err and fall into manifest misguidance.”  Later on Mohammed did try to help out orphans by telling that anybody who helps orphans will go to Heaven along with him. But the damage was done.

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