The Supreme Court of India Approves of Muslims Adopting

“After six-year marriage, 32-year-old Fatima hope of adopting a child has revived after the Supreme Court of India made it possible for non-Hindu minority communities to adopt children as natural parents, defying an old law that imposed a ban on Muslims.

“I am happy that finally the Supreme Court has allowed Muslims to adopt a child,” Fatima told OnIslam.net.

“I can never become a biological mother, so my only hope is adoption. But the law was such that as a Muslim I was not allowed to adopt a child.”
Fatima’s hopes revived after the Supreme Court of India ruled that any person can adopt a child under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 irrespective of religion he or she follows and even if the personal laws of the particular religion don’t permit it.

Social activist Shabnam Hashmi had approached the apex court in 2005 after she was denied permission to adopt a child.

She has been fighting for the legal rights of a girl she adopted from an orphanage.

There are many other Muslim couples who now hope to become parents through adoption.

The law as practiced in India, before Supreme Court ruling, was that only Hindus and their sub-caste like Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists, which constitute almost 85 percent of the population, were allowed to adopt minors.

It is believed that there are millions of orphans in India and only a few thousand are adopted each year.

The apex court judgment will benefit other minority communities such as Christians and Parsis.

Naziya and Ahsan Ahmed is another childless couple. They had never thought of adopting a child. But after the apex court verdict they are thinking of adopting one.

“After all we wanted a child of ours. There is no harm if we adopt a girl or a boy,” Ahsan said.

“I don’t think it will be against Islam. If we want to raise an orphan, then we are doing a good job.

“We have decided to register ourselves at the orphanage, so that we can adopt a child.”

Controversy

The ruling of the Supreme Court has sparked controversy among India Muslim scholars, with some regarding it against Islamic Shari`ah.

“Like divorce and inheritance cases, many Muslims are resorting to civil laws instead of Muslim personal law,” Muslim scholar Rasheed Kidwai told OnIslam.net.

“Islam is not against issueless couples raising orphans and bequeathing property to them (not exceeding one-third of their total assets). It’s just that giving legal status to an adopted child interferes with Muslim law of inheritance as envisaged in Quran,” he added.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has been opposed to this judgment.

They termed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the Supreme Court over this issue as an attempt to interfere in the Sharia`h law of the Muslims in India.

“Islam doesn’t stop anyone from adopting a child. A person can adopt a child if he wants, but he will not have any right to be called the father of that child,” Mufti Shees based in Bhopal city of central India said.

“Only natural father can be called child’s father. Besides the adopted child doesn’t have rights to the adoptive parents’ property and assets. An adopted child can have a claim only against his biological parents’ property.”

Another Muslim priest Mufti Salman asserted that Islamic Shari`ah law does not prohibit Muslims from adopting children.

“Sharia`h law does not stop anyone from adopting a child,” he told OnIslam.net.

“But we see lot of disputes arising after adoption of a child. That is why it is not advisable for a Muslim to adopt a child.

“Even after adoption in Islam, biological father will remain the real father of the child and he would not lose his rights.”

Muslims account for 160 million of India’s 1.1 billion people, the world’s third-largest Muslim population after those of Indonesia and Pakistan.

In Islam, Muslim parents are urged to treat children with respect and to nurture, love and educate them.

Islam gives children many rights and is concerned with their spiritual, physical, and emotional well being.

Muslims are ordered to offer children physical needs, such as food, drink and sleep as well as taking care of their children’s emotional and spiritual needs.

Islam also endorses fostering orphan kids, allowing Muslims to a boy or a girl and takes care of him or her as a real father or mother would do to their child, while keeping in mind that the child should be named after his/her biological parents.

Yet, Islam makes it impermissible to adopt a child and name him after his adoptive parents, while denying his real parents.””
Adoption Right Relieves India Muslims[OnIslam.net 3/6/14 by Shuriah Niazi]

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