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Who is responsible for a child in a marriage born from adultery?

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by TheMufti.com

Q. If a couple married in Nikah for 10 years have children of their own and the wife had an affair through which a child was born, who is the child attributed to and who is responsible for the child? The husband is not denying the child as his own.


A. If whilst in Nikah, a woman has an affair and commits adultery (Zina) through which a child is born, the child will be attributed to the woman’s husband and the woman’s husband will be responsible for the child.

The child will not be attributed to the one with whom the woman had an affair and committed adultery and neither would he be responsible for the child. (Hidaayah 2/281)

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah Radhiyallahu Anhu reports that Nabi Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said:

“The child (born out of wedlock) belongs to the one on whose bed (in who’s marriage) it is born” (Bukhari)

Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Mufti Ismaeel Bassa

This answer was collected from TheMufti.com, which is a fatwa portal managed by Mufti Ismaeel Bassa from South Africa.

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