Bismillaah Assalaamu Alaikum Warahmatuhlahi Wabarakatuh! My five children were taken away by child protective services, they are an American corporation that earns incentives for every child they remove from it's home earning about seventy thousand dollars from the Federal government per year per child. My Muslim children currently stay with my Aunt and uncle who hate Islam and promote Taghut. My aunt is planning to leave for vacation and will travel far away for one week. She wants to take my children with her, usually we visit with our kids three times a week. We are concerned the kids will be molested or abused during this one week if we let allow child protective services to place the kids in different strange homes. And we dislike the aunt taking the kids because her kids fill our children's minds with hurtful thoughts and ideas. Please advise us what to do.

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.

The children are the responsibility of the parents, and the latter are not permitted to be negligent about them or to expose them to harm. Ibn ‘Umar said: “I heard the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, saying: “Every one of you is a guardian and is responsible for those under his guardianship: the Imaam (Muslim ruler) is a guardian and is responsible for those under his guardianship, a man is a guardian in his house and is responsible for those under his guardianship, and a woman is a guardian in her husband’s home and she is responsible for those under her guardianship, and the servant is a guardian over the property of his master and he is responsible for what is under his guardianship.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Therefore, you should exert all possible effort to free your children from the responsibility of this authority over them, and to free them from the care of your aunt, and make every effort so that they would not travel with her to a place where they could be harmed.

Hence, what is required is to make every effort in this regard and seek the help of Allaah. Abu Bakrah narrated that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Be keen on that which gives you benefit (in the Hereafter) and seek help from Allaah and do not despair or be lazy.” [Muslim]

Finally, a Muslim should be clever and careful not to fall into the traps made by such people to snatch children from their parents. Kindly refer to Fatwa 249256.

For more benefit on residing in a non-Muslim country, please refer to Fataawa 81642, 179175 and 86405.

Allaah Knows best.