this son of mine had my womb as his vessel, my breast as his source of nourishment, and my lap as his shelter, and I would give my life for him. Yet his father claims that he will take him away from me.’ He replied, ‘You have a greater right to him as long as you do not marry.’” Another example is his awarding custody of Hamza’s daughter to Jaʿfar because her maternal aunt, Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, was with him.
Section
As for consensus, no one in the Muslim community disputes that providing care for young children is obligatory. Human beings are created weak, needing someone to care for them and raise them until they can fend for themselves and become self-sufficient. This is therefore a collective obligation: a young child must not be left without care or upbringing to perish through neglect. Once someone undertakes this duty, the others are relieved of it. It is not an individual obligation upon anyone other than the father alone. It becomes obligatory upon the mother during the child’s two years of nursing if the child has neither a father nor funds from which a wet nurse can be hired, or if the child refuses any breast but hers. In such circumstances, she is compelled to nurse the child.
Section
People differ only over which guardian has the stronger claim when they disagree over the child’s care and compete for it. The guardians entitled to custody are the child’s male residuary heirs, female relatives on both the mother’s and the father’s sides, and appointed guardians, whether men or women.
Section
Female relatives qualify for custody on two conditions: first, they must be related to the child by blood; second, marriage to them must be permanently forbidden to him. If they are blood relatives whom he is not forbidden to marry, such as the daughters of his maternal or paternal aunts and similar relatives, they have no right to custody. Likewise, women whom he is forbidden to marry but who are not his blood relatives—such as those forbidden to him through marriage or breastfeeding, and similar women—have no right to custody.
His male residuary heirs, however, qualify for custody by virtue of their residuary status alone, whether they are blood relatives within the prohibited degrees of marriage, such as his grandfather, paternal uncle, brother and brother’s son, or blood relatives who are not