Islam and children

Islam identifies three distinct stages of child development, each lasting 7 years, from age 0-21.

[8] Children have the right to equal treatment with respect their siblings in terms of financial gifts.

[10] In addition, Muhammad gave women the power to annul their marriages if it was found that they had been married against their consent.

[11] No age limits have been fixed by Islam for marriage according to Reuben Levy,[12] and "quite young children may be legally married".

[12] The Hanafi madhhab of Islamic fiqh maintains that a wife must not be taken to her husband's house until she reaches the condition of fitness for sexual relations.

Levy adds: "In case of a dispute on the matter between the husband and the bride's wali (her nearest male kinsman and her guardian), the judge (qadi) is to be informed and he is to appoint two matrons to examine the girl and report on her physical preparedness for marriage.

Legal theorists assign different ages and criteria for reaching this state for both males and females.

However, only after a separate condition called rushd, or intellectual maturity to handle one's own property, is reached can a girl receive her bridewealth.

[15] Islam highly recommends the "fostering" of children, defined as "assuming partial or complete responsibility of a child in lieu of the biological parents".

[16] Traditionally Islam has viewed legal adoption as a source of potential problems, such as accidentally marrying one's sibling or when distributing inheritance.

This practice was sometimes done for emotional reasons, such as pity, but adoption was also a means through which slaves were stripped of their identities and given the name of their enslaver.

[16] The Quran replaced the pre-Islamic custom of adoption by the recommendation that "believers treat children of unknown origin as their brothers in the faith".