No Adoption, and the Name

There is no adoption in Islam. There is what is called wakālah, which is where you take care of a child, and which is highly encouraged. But the child never takes the name. Ever. It is prohibited. And this is because one of the things the sharīʿah came to do was to preserve lineage: that people should know where they come from. And this is why it is prohibited for women to change their names in Islam. A woman does not take the name of her husband, because it changes lineage — because within any culture you have honour that relates to lineage.

A child born out of wedlock in Islam is not in the same position as a child born in wedlock. But life stands above lineage: that is why a child is not aborted, even if it is a child born out of wedlock. He does not bear the stigma. It is not on the child; it is on the parents. No child bears the wrong actions of the parents. And that is why the child is not aborted. The mother, if it was born out of wedlock, goes under the category of zāniyah, a fornicator — definitely. There is definitely stigma within culture. But by the sharīʿah, the child is not supposed to suffer for it. There is definitely a human failing here: you do have stigma related to it in Muslim cultures, but there is not supposed to be.