another man’s crop.”

He meant by this to prohibit intercourse with pregnant women, for the semen of the man having intercourse contributes to the fetus’s growth, just as water contributes to the growth of crops. Another authentic hadith states:

“I was about to invoke a curse upon him that would accompany him into his grave! How could he leave the child as property to be inherited from him when that is not lawful for him? And how could he enslave him when that is not lawful for him?”

Since the child belongs to the father and is his crop, this accords with the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“You and your property belong to your father.”

And his words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“The best of what a man eats is from his own earnings, and his child is part of his earnings.”

The child thus results from his earnings, as this verse indicates. The crop growing in the ground is the earning of the cultivator who sowed it, watered it, and paid the rent for the land. Likewise, the man paid the woman her dowry, which is the payment for intercourse, as Allah Most High says:

“There is no blame upon you for marrying them if you give them their due dowries.”

This also accords with His words, Most High:

“His wealth will not avail him, nor what he has earned.”

“What he has earned” has been interpreted as referring to his children. The mother is therefore the cultivated land—the soil in which the crop grows—and the father has rented her through the dowry, just as one rents land. He supported the crop by providing for her during pregnancy, then provided for the nursing child, just as a tenant cultivator spends on crops and fruit both while they are concealed and after they emerge. The crop is the child, and he is part of the father’s earnings.

This indicates that a father may take from his son’s property so long as this does not harm the son, as established by the Sunnah. The son’s property is lawful for the father to use, even though it belongs to the son. The father may take ownership of it; otherwise, it remains the son’s. If the son dies without the father having taken ownership of it, it passes by inheritance from the son.

The father may also require his child to work for him, provided this does not harm him. This entails that the son must obey his father when the work is lawful and does not harm the son. For even if a man were to employ his slave in disobedience to Allah or wrong him, that would be impermissible; this applies all the more to his son.