Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > Hadana (child custody)
Child custody: mother's priority, transition by age, guardian conditions, child's nafqa, and custody-loss cases.
Hadana distinguishes custody from spending: the father finances the child, lodging included, even when the mother keeps him. The mother has priority, but the duration varies among the schools: around 7 years for the boy among the Hanafis and the Shafi'is, up to 12 years and majority among the Malikis, the child's interests remaining the governing criterion. On the mother's remarriage, divergence: Malik maintains her custody, others transfer it if the new husband is not a mahram of the child, the judge ruling according to the child's interest.
Contents
Updated on 07 October 2026 at 6:42 PM
This dossier brings together nineteen fiqh leaves: five on marriage concluded without a named dower (al-mufawwada) and the consolatory gift (mut'a), and fourteen on the custody of the child (hadana) and its rules. Each leaf sets out the exact positions of the four schools, the texts of the Quran and the Sunna with their degrees of authenticity, and the classical references. It covers: the validity of a marriage without a dower, the mut'a, inheritance between spouses before consummation, then the conditions of custody (reason, upright conduct, Islam, residence, freedom from marriage), the mother's remarriage, the return of custody, the child's choice at the age of discernment, the minor come of age, the rent of the custody lodging, and the recovery of expenses.
Bada'i al-Sana'i by al-Kasani · Hanafi school
because that would be a bribe, and because she already deserves the maintenance of marriage and the wage of nursing, and the wage of nursing has the standing of maintenance: she therefore does not deserve two maintenances. And because the wage of nursing is due against the cleanliness of the house (washing the child, bathing), and the benefit of the house accrues to both spouses: she may not therefore take compensation for a benefit she already enjoys, to the extent that were he to hire her for nursing his child from another, that would be permitted, for that is not obligatory upon her.
Per schools: around 7 for the boy (Hanafis, Shafi'is) up to 12 and majority (Malikis); for the girl until marriage with some: the child's interest remains the sovereign criterion.
Divergence: Malik maintains her, others transfer if the new husband is no child-mahram; the judge rules by interest.
Yes: custody and spending are separate: the father finances the child (housing included) even when the mother keeps him.
At discernment stage (around 10 per scholars), his wish is consulted and weighed without deciding alone.