CHAPTER: Who Has More Right To Take The Child?
Amr bin Shuaib on his father's authority said that his grandfather (Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As) reported: A woman said: Messenger of Allah, my womb is a vessel to this son of mine, my breasts, a water-skin for him, and my lap a guard for him, yet his father has divorced me, and wants to take him away from me. The Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said: You have more right to him as long as you do not marry.
Hilal ibn Usamah quoted Abu Maimunah Salma, client of the people of Madina, as saying: While I was sitting with Abu Hurairah, a Persian woman came to him along with a son of hers. She had been divorced by her husband and they both claimed him. She said: Abu Hurairah, speaking to him in Persian, my husband wishes to take my son away. Abu Hurairah said: Cast lots for him, saying it to her in a foreign language. Then her husband came and asked: Who is disputing with me about my son? Abu Hurairah said: O Allah, I do not say this, except that I heard a woman who came to the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم while I was sitting with him, and she said: My husband wishes to take away my son, Messenger of Allah, and he draws water for me from the well of Abu Inabah, and he has been good to me. The Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said: Cast lots for him. Her husband said: Who is disputing with me about my son? The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said: This is your father and this your mother, so take whichever of them you wish by the hand. So he took his mother's hand and she went away with him.
Narrated Ali ibn Abu Talib: Zayd ibn Harithah went out to Makkah and brought the daughter of Hamzah with him. Then Jafar said: I shall take her; I have more right to her; she is my uncle's daughter and her maternal aunt is my wife; the maternal aunt is like mother. Ali said: I am more entitled to take her. She is my uncle's daughter. The daughter of the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم is my wife, and she has more right to her. Zayd said: I have more right to her. I went out and journeyed to her, and brought her with me. The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم came out. The narrator mentioned the rest of the tradition. He (i. e. the Prophet) said: As for the girl, I decided in favour of Jafar. She will live with her maternal aunt. The maternal aunt is like mother.
This tradition has been narrated by Abd Al Rahman bin Abi Laila through a different chain of narrators. This version has “He decided that she would be given to Jafar and said “Her maternal aunt is with him (i. e., his wife).
Narrated Ali ibn Abu Talib: When we came out from Makkah, Hamzah's daughter pursued us crying: My uncle. Ali lifted her and took her by the hand. (Addressing Fatimah he said: ) Take your uncle's daughter. She then lifted her. The narrator then transmitted the rest of the tradition. Jafar said: She is my uncle's daughter. Her maternal aunt is my wife. The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم decided in favour of her maternal aunt, and said: The maternal aunt is like mother.