Kafala
From Islamic law
Religious and customary law
What it means
A way of taking in and caring for a child, who is not the carer's own, that does not make the child the carer's legal child. The child keeps their own family name and parentage, and has no rights of inheritance from the carer.
Why it travels badly
Many Islamic legal systems do not allow adoption in the Western sense, which creates a new legal parent-child tie and cuts the old one. Kafala is a guardianship, not an adoption. Western courts and officials have to decide how to treat it, for example in immigration and in the recognition of foreign orders.
How other systems say it
kafala
Regulated by statute and by courts. The child remains legally the child of the birth parents.
International law
Hague Child Protection Convention 1996 (Article 3(e))
Names kafala as a protective measure, alongside foster care.
United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 20(3))
Lists kafala of Islamic law among the forms of alternative care for a child deprived of family.
adoption or guardianship, case by case
Courts decide whether the foreign order can be recognised as a guardianship, since it is not treated as an adoption.
Tip for translators and students
Do not translate 'kafala' as 'adoption'. 'Legal guardianship under Islamic law' is closer.
Related: Sharia and fiqh, Waqf, Mahr
Updated October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
TheLawToKnow Tools’s glossary is an educational overview of the main differences between legal systems. It is not legal advice.
