Child of Zina has nothing to do with his biological father Fatwa No: 214204
- Fatwa Date:1-9-2013
My young son was seduced by an older married woman. After 1 instance of intercourse she became pregnant and hid away. later she made contact with my son and allowed him to grow to love his daughter. She also asked him for money giving sob stories. She maintained secrecy over her identity - "Aishah". After the amounts of money and complications became too much my son confessed to me and asked for help. I met her, her husband, her father and her mother. First she tried a sob story but I did not fall for it. I only offered physical help and not large financial sums. Then they came to my husband and I and asked for a great amount of money to allow us to continue to see our granddaughter. They had binte her to the woman's husband. My husband and I believe that this woman engineered this situation or tried to take advantage of this situation and we worry for the safety of our granddaughter - yes I know that Islamically she is not considered our granddaughter but biologically she is. We secretly did a DNA test and this confirms so. Can you tell us if there are any Islamic grounds for us to claim our granddaughter? The woman's husband threatens to turn our granddaughter into a prostitute when she is older. What can we do? Currently we have stopped all communication but we know they are trying to use the baby for money by putting out for TV adverts. Our son is very hansom. Wasslams, Fatimah & Family
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger. Your son must repent to Allaah The Almighty from the sin of Zina (fornication/adultery). Repentance has certain conditions that we have clarified in Fatwa 86527. It is also incumbent upon him to guard himself against every means that may lead him to commit Zina again such as being in seclusion with a non-Mahram woman, prohibited mixing among men and women and the like. If he has not married yet, we advise and urge him to marry to protect himself from Zina and remain chaste and he should be helped in this regard if he needs help. Muslim jurists are of the opinion that it is obligatory to help the poor son to marry if he needs marriage. Ibn Qudaamah (from the Hanbali school of jurisprudence) said: "Our companions said: The father must keep his son chaste if he is obliged to spend on him and if he (the son) needs help to remain chaste (by getting married)." If that woman is married, then that girl will be attributed to her husband because he is the owner of the bed. The DNA analysis that you have conducted and the resemblance between her and your son do not count. For more benefit, kindly refer to Fataawa 122944 and 84301.
Based on that, her father (the husband) will be responsible for spending on her and taking care of her. If he carried out what he threatened to do, i.e. using her in prostitution or in anything which Allaah The Almighty has prohibited, surely he will get his punishment from Allaah The Almighty. Ibn ‘Umar said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah say, “Each one of you is a guardian and is responsible for the people under his guardianship, …..and a man is a guardian in his house and is responsible for the people under his guardianship." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
As for your son, he has no relationship with that girl at all and it is not obligatory upon him to spend on her. So, you should not become attached to her for she is an unrighteous deed (of your son). It is not permissible for that woman (her mother) or others to exploit and blackmail him to take money from him. In this case, he can threaten them to refer the matter to the concerned authorities if he expects that this will stop them doing so.
Allaah Knows best.