Adoption in Islam
13-11-2001 | IslamWeb
Question:
If someone doesn't have baby can he adopt an orphan baby? Cite Fatwa regarding this?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
If the questioner means by “Adopting an orphan” taking care of him, looking after his affairs, raising him, bearing his expenditures and tracing him back to his original father, then this is a very desirable act. Allah promises a great reward for the one who does so, Allah Says (what means): {Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, and to parents do good, and to relatives, orphans, the needy, the near neighbor, the neighbor farther away, the companion at your side, the traveler, and those whom your right hands possess. Indeed, Allah does not like those who are self-deluding and boastful.} [Quran 4: 36]
The Prophet said: “I and the person who looks after an orphan and provides for him, will be in Paradise like this (putting his index and middle fingers together).” Among the best and loveliest house of Muslims near Allah is a house in which an orphan lives and the householders deal with him kindly and respectfully. The Prophet said: “The best house of Muslims is the house where an orphan lives in kindness and respect. The worst house of Muslims is the house where an orphan lives and he is ill-treated.”
The Prophet also said: “The most desirable house to Allah is the one where an orphan lives with respect.”
However, if by adoption the questioner means that the adopting parent may claim the child as his natural born child, then such practice is forbidden in Islam. Allah Says (what means): {Allah has not made for a man two hearts in his interior. And He has not made your wives whom you declare unlawful your mothers. And he has not made your adopted sons your [true] sons. That is [merely] your saying by your mouths, but Allah says the truth, and He guides to the [right] way.} [Quran 33:4]
Allah establishes in this verse that adopting a child does not make him the child of the one who adopts him and that this practice does not have any weight in the Sharee’ah.
In the following verse, Allah commands the Muslims to trace back every child to his original father. Allah Says (what means): {Call them by [the names of] their fathers; it is more just in the sight of Allah. But if you do not know their fathers - then they are [still] your brothers in religion and those entrusted to you. And there is no blame upon you for that in which you have erred but [only for] what your hearts intended. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.} [Quran 33: 5]
For more benefit on adoption, please refer to Fataawa 119119, 139996, 84422, and 241351.
Allah knows best.