The care of orphans in the Islamic tradition, vulnerable children, and child sponsorship programs

Abstract

One of the most favored objects for Muslim charitable works is the care of orphans. The Prophet Muhammad was an orphan himself: his father died either just before or just after he was born; his mother died when he was only six and he was taken into the family of his paternal uncle. Several passages in the Qur’an condemn those who misappropriate orphans’ property. The result is that there can be few Islamic welfare organizations that do not include orphans among their beneficiaries, and emotive appeals on their behalf are disseminated to the public. Muslims generally define “orphan” as a child who has lost his or her father, i.e. the family breadwinner. The term “orphan” is held to include foundling infants and street children as well as those with known relatives, and is also in practice sometimes used as a euphemism for a child born out of wedlock who is rejected by a family. The last few years have seen a flowering of research on Muslim philanthropy as one aspect of a broader research interest in charity and humanitarianism. This article confines itself to some programmatic suggestions, juxtaposing the Islamic predisposition in favor of orphans with current trends in child-centered research, and thereby revealing what could be a remarkably fruitful field for empirical enquiry. The practice of international one-to-one “child sponsorship,” now a staple of many Islamic charities, brings to a head some key issues relating to the care and protection of vulnerable children.