ISLAMIC SOCIETY

The Rights of the Orphan

THE QURAN says: ‘Do not oppress the orphan.' (93: 9). God has commanded all believers to treat the orphan with love and affection. Orphans need our special care and attention. We need to give them our best help and support so that they may not end up being exploited. Prophet of Islam said ‘Even passing a hand over the head of an orphan with love and affection is an act of charity’.

The Quran is full of injunctions on the fair treatment of the orphan. On innumerable occasions the Quran has exhorted Muslims to take great care of the orphans in society, and especially if an orphan is one of their own relatives. Then it becomes the moral and religious duty of every member of the family in question to take care of the orphan. The following verse of the Quran equates those who deny the Day of Judgement with those who reject orphans. “Have you seen one who denies the Day of Judgement? Who turns away the orphan".

It can be inferred from the above verse that God abhors those who repel orphans as much as He abhors those who deny the Day of Judgement—one of the fundamentals of Muslim faith. Denying the Day of Judgement amounts to unbelief and God has likened the oppressor of the orphan to an unbeliever.

Exploitation of the orphan can lead to serious evils in the society. In more than one place in the Quran, God has mentioned general commandments regarding orphans. For instance, (4: 36) ‘Show kindness to parents, and to near kindred, and orphans, and the needy.’ The virtuous are those who, despite their love for it, give away their wealth to their relatives and to orphans and the very poor. (2: 177)

The rights of an orphan are considered sacrosanct in Islam. Those who do not honour the rights of the orphan will bring down upon themselves the wrath of God both in this world and in the Hereafter. “Those who devour the wealth of orphans wrongfully, do but swallow fire into their bellies’ is the warning mentioned in Quran (4: 10). Another of the verse asks the believers to ‘Restore the property of the orphans to them (when they reach maturity) and do not devour their wealth by mixing it up with your own. For this indeed is a great sin’.