What is Kafalah?

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Kafalah emphasizes fostering children in need of care but forbids calming adoptive children as blood relatives. Because of this, adoption presents some unique challenges
for Muslims who wish to comply with Islamic Law. For example, Islamic inheritance law only permits blood relatives to holds rights to an estate. The only way for adopted children to receive an inheritance is if it’s given to them as a gift.

Islam also maintains that every child should have a legal connection to their birth family and that adoptive families shouldn’t claim the child as part of their lineage, either through explicit statements or through naming of the child after the adoptive father.

Although they may initially seem negative, these religious rulings essentially emphasizes the right of their child to know about their birth family—a very contemporary perspective, and one that we appreciate.