Dalīl al-Ṭālib - Marʿi al-Karmi - (182)

Chapter on the Foundling

A foundling is a child who is discovered with no knowledge of his lineage or of whether he is free or enslaved. Taking him in and providing for him is a communal obligation. He is ruled to be both Muslim and free. His maintenance is paid first from whatever is found with him; if he possesses nothing, it is drawn from the public treasury. If that is not possible, the judge borrows on his behalf; should this too be impossible, the responsibility falls upon whoever is aware of his situation.

The person with the strongest claim to his custody is the one who found him, provided the finder is free, legally competent, of sound judgment, trustworthy, and outwardly upright.

Section

The foundling’s estate, as well as the blood money due if he is killed, revert to the public treasury1. If anyone—male or female—who could conceivably be his parent claims him, the child is affiliated to that person, even if the claimant has already died, and both his lineage and his rights of inheritance are thereby established.

(1) This is the standard doctrine. Yet Ibn Abi Musa reports in al-Irshad, citing one of his teachers, a narration from Ahmad which states that the person who finds and raises the abandoned child inherits from him. This opinion was preferred by Shaykh Taqi al-Din and championed by the author of al-Faʾiq; al-Harithi adds that it is the correct view. See Hashiyat al-Labadi, pp. 237–238.

باب اللقيط وهو طفل يوجد لا يعرف نسبه ولا رقه والتقاطه والإنفاق عليه فرض كفاية ويحكم بإسلامه وحريته وينفق عليه مما معه إن كان فإن لم يكن فمن بيت المال فإن تعذر اقترض عليه الحاكم فإن تعذر فعلى من علم بحاله والأحق بحضانته واجده إن كان حرا مكلفا رشيدا أمينا عدلا ولو ظاهرا. فصل وميراث اللقيط وديته إن قتل لبيت المال١ وإن ادعاه من يمكن كونه منه من ذكر أو أنثى ألحق به ولو ميتا وثبت نسبه وإرثه.

١ هذا المذهب وحكى ابن أبي موسى في الإرشاد عن بعض شيوخه رواية عن أحمد: أن الملتقط يرثه. واختار الشيخ تقي الدبن ونصره صاحب الفائق قال الحارثي: وهو الحق. حاشية اللبدي "ص: ٢٣٧-٢٣٨".