Section
If a person acknowledges a lineage and attaches it to himself, the acknowledgement is valid only when it is not belied by obvious fact or by the Law—such as the child’s already being known to belong to someone else—and when the person whose lineage is being claimed affirms the claim, provided he is competent to do so. Thus, if the claimed person is an adult and denies the claim, lineage is not established unless independent evidence is produced. If the claimant attaches a minor to himself, the claim stands; and should the child reach majority and then deny it, the acknowledgement is not revoked according to the sounder opinion.

One may likewise acknowledge a deceased child—and, on the stronger view, even a deceased adult—and in that case he inherits from him. If two individuals should claim an adult, lineage is confirmed for the one whom the adult endorses, while the ruling for a minor will be discussed under the chapter on the foundling, Allah willing.

Should a man say of a child born to his slave woman, “This is my son,” the child’s lineage is affirmed, but the status of isti​lād (whereby the slave woman becomes an umm walad) is not established, according to the more authoritative view. The same ruling applies if he says, “This is my son; she bore him while she was in my ownership.” If, however, he says, “She conceived him while she was in my ownership,” the status of isti​lād is established.

If the woman was his firāsh—meaning she was in lawful conjugal relation with him—the child is his by the bedding rule without any need for formal acknowledgement. If, on the other hand, she was married to someone else, the child belongs to her husband and the master’s acknowledgement is invalid.

When a person attributes lineage to someone other than himself—saying, for instance, “This is my brother” or “my paternal uncle”—the lineage is confirmed to that third party under the same conditions, with the additional requirement that the person to whom lineage is attached be deceased. According to the sounder view, it is not required that the deceased had never disowned the child.

The acknowledgor must also be an heir already in possession of his share. The stronger opinion is that the person thus attached does not inherit, nor does he share in the acknowledgor’s portion. A single adult heir may not make such an acknowledgement on his own, yet if one heir affirms it while another denies it and later dies, so that only the affirming heir remains, the lineage stands.

Likewise, if a son who has taken possession of the estate acknowledges an unknown person to be his brother, and that unknown person denies the son’s own lineage, the denial does not affect the son, and the brother’s lineage is nevertheless confirmed. Whenever the apparent heir would be displaced by the person whose lineage is being claimed—for example, when a brother acknowledges that the deceased left a son—the lineage is confirmed but no inheritance is transferred.