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If a foundling is discovered in Muslim territory that also contains People of the Covenant, or in a land that the Muslims conquered and then left in the hands of unbelievers by treaty, or in a land that later came under Muslim rule through the jizya while a Muslim still resides there, the child is ruled Muslim.
When he is found in non-Muslim territory, he is deemed an unbeliever—provided no Muslim actually lives there; the transient presence of a captive or passing merchant does not count. If a Muslim does reside there, the sound opinion is that the child is Muslim.
If his Islam was judged solely on the basis of the land, and a dhimmī then produces valid evidence of kinship, the child is affiliated to him and follows him in unbelief. If the claimant offers only a bare assertion, the authoritative view is that the child does not follow him in disbelief.
A child’s Islam can also be affirmed on two other grounds that normally are not presumed in a foundling.

1. Birth: if at the moment of conception one of his parents was Muslim, the child is Muslim. Should he reach puberty and profess unbelief he is an apostate. Even if he was conceived between two unbelievers and one of them later embraces Islam, the child is still judged Muslim; if, on attaining puberty, he professes unbelief he is an apostate—though another opinion calls him an original unbeliever.
2. Capture: when a Muslim captures a young child in war, the child follows the captor in Islam provided neither parent is with him. If the captor is a dhimmī, the child is not deemed Muslim on the soundest view. According to the correct opinion, a discerning minor cannot validly embrace Islam on his own initiative.
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   Unless the foundling himself admits to being a slave, he is regarded as free—unless someone produces evidence to the contrary. If he acknowledges enslavement to a particular person and that person accepts the claim, the confession is accepted, provided he has not previously declared himself free.
   The preferred view is that it is not a condition that he have refrained from earlier legal acts valid only for a free person, such as selling property or contracting marriage. His confession is accepted with respect to the underlying status of slavery and its future consequences, but not with respect to past transactions that would harm others. Thus, if he owed a debt and then acknowledged slavery while property remained in his hand, the debt would be paid from that property.
   If someone who does not possess him claims him as a slave without proof, the claim is rejected; the same applies—on the preponderant view—when the finder himself makes the claim. If we see a discerning minor (or anyone else) in the possession of someone who treats him as a slave, and we have no reason to think he came to him as a foundling, the presumption is that the child is a slave. If, upon reaching majority, he says, “I am free,” his word is not accepted on the sound view unless he presents evidence.
   Whoever produces proof of the child’s slavery has that proof enforced; the testimony must indicate the cause of ownership, although another opinion considers a bare assertion of ownership sufficient.
   If a free Muslim claims the child as his own son, the boy is affiliated to him and he becomes the one most entitled to raise him, and if—