Islam gives great importance to lineage (nasab), the line a person is traced through. Lineage connects a person to their family and shows who their father and relatives are, and it matters for inheritance, marriage, and family rights. Because of this, Islam forbids a person from denying their real father or claiming to belong to someone else.
This page rests on Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged) and Tafsir as-Sa’di on the verse that protects lineage, and on Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen’s Sharh Riyaad as-Saaliheen, whose Chapter 367 gathers the narrations on attributing wrong fatherhood and whose commentary on another narration sets out how a child’s father is established.
Call Them by Their Fathers: The Verse That Protects Lineage
The Qur’an commands that children be attributed to their real fathers. Allah says:
Call them by their fathers, that is more just with Allah. But if you know not their father’s, your brothers in faith and Mawalikum (your freed servants). And there is no sin on you concerning that in which you made a mistake, except in regard to what your hearts deliberately intend. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
(Qur’an, Surah Al-Ahzab 33:5)
This verse commands that people be attributed to their real fathers. If a person’s father is not known, they should simply be treated as a brother in faith.
Ibn Kathir and as-Sa’di explain that with this verse Allah put an end to the earlier practice of false lineage, by which an adopted child was called by the name of the man who had adopted him rather than by the name of his real father. Ibn Kathir records that the passage was revealed concerning Zayd ibn Harithah, who had been known as Zayd bin Muhammad [son of Muhammad]; after it, adopted children are called by the names of their real fathers, because this is more just and correct with Allah.
If the real father is known, the child must be attributed to him. If the father is unknown, the person should be referred to as a brother in faith. A person is not blamed for mistakes made unintentionally, but a person is accountable for what they knowingly and deliberately intend.
As-Sa’di stresses that it is essential to stop attributing children to their adoptive fathers, and that not knowing who a child’s father is gives no excuse to call the child after the man who adopted him; the child is called a brother in faith instead.
How a Child’s Father Is Established
The verse settles whose name a child carries. Who a child’s father is in the first place is settled by a narration of the Prophet ﷺ which Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen quotes in his commentary on the narration of Jurayj in Sharh Riyaad as-Saaliheen:
The child is for the bed (that is the father who is legitimately married to the mother of the child) and the stone is for the adulterer.
[Al-Bukhari 2218 and Muslim 1407, as the book’s footnote prints them]
The child born within a marriage belongs to the husband, the man lawfully married to the child’s mother, and the adulterer [a man who has unlawful sexual relations outside marriage] has no claim to the child. The scholars differed over a child born outside marriage where the adulterer acknowledges the child as his: a small number of scholars hold that such a child may be ascribed to him, while the majority hold that the child is not ascribed to the adulterer, on the basis of this narration.
The Serious Sin of Claiming Another Father
Knowingly claiming a father other than one’s real father is a serious sin. The narrations on this sin are gathered by Imam an-Nawawi in Riyaad as-Saaliheen, in the chapter on the prohibition of attributing wrong fatherhood, and Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen explains them in his commentary on that chapter.
Sa’d bin Abu Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:
He who (falsely) attributes his fatherhood to anyone besides his real father, knowing that he is not his father, will be forbidden to enter Jannah [Paradise].
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, in a longer narration:
A person who attributes his fatherhood to anyone other than his real father, knowing that he is not his father, commits an act of disbelief.
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
The same chapter carries the narration of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), from the scroll he read out in his sermon: whoever attributes his fatherhood to someone other than his real father will incur the curse of Allah, the angels and all the people, and Allah will accept from him neither repentance nor a ransom on the Day of Resurrection.
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen opens his explanation of the chapter with the ruling itself:
As for lineage, it is obligatory for a person to attribute himself to his family: his father, grandfather, great grandfather and his lineage.
He explains that it is not permissible for anyone to attribute his paternity to anyone besides his real father, knowing that he is not his real father. He gives the example of a man whose father is from a tribe he considers inferior, who affiliates himself to another tribe he considers superior in order to distance himself from the defects of his tribe; this person, he says, is cursed, and has incurred the curse set out in the narration of ‘Ali. He also explains that there is no harm in a person attributing himself to his famous grandfather or great grandfather without disowning his father, as the Prophet ﷺ attributed himself to his grandfather ‘Abdul-Muttalib, and that people likewise attribute themselves to the name of their tribe. The one liable to the threat, he explains, is the one who attributes himself to someone other than his father because he is not pleased with his status and lineage, and some people do this for worldly benefits, attributing themselves to their uncles rather than their fathers, which is forbidden and not permissible. It is obligatory for whoever is in this situation, he says, to correct his affiliation.
What These Narrations Establish
These narrations show how serious this sin is. The one who knowingly attributes himself to a father who is not his is described in the narrations with the wording of disbelief, is forbidden Paradise in the narration of Sa’d, and falls under the curse of Allah, the angels, and all the people in the narration of ‘Ali. The condition running through the narrations themselves is knowledge: the sin is in claiming another father while knowing he is not one’s father. A mistake made without knowledge is not what these warnings address, just as the verse above excuses what is done by mistake and holds a person to account only for what his heart deliberately intends.
Key Lessons
- Children are to be called by their real fathers, and a person whose father is not known is treated as a brother in faith.
- There is no blame for an unintentional mistake in attribution; accountability is for what the heart deliberately intends.
- A child born within a marriage belongs to the husband; the adulterer has no claim to the child.
- Knowingly attributing oneself to a father who is not one’s own is a serious sin, warned against with the wording of disbelief, being barred from Paradise, and the curse of Allah, the angels, and all the people.
- A person may name himself after a famous grandfather or after his tribe without disowning his father.
- Whoever has attributed himself wrongly must correct his affiliation.
References
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged), English translation, all 10 volumes: Surah Al-Ahzab 33:4-5, the section “Abolition of Adoption”, compilation PDF pp. 3973-3974.
Tafsir as-Sa’di, by Shaykh ‘Abdur-Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di, International Islamic Publishing House (IIPH), English Edition 1, 2018, translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab, edited by Huda Khattab: Vol. 7 (Juz’ 19-21), on Surah Al-Ahzab 33:4-5, printed pp. 385-388.
Sharh Riyaad as-Saaliheen, by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, Darussalam, 2018: Vol. 6, Chapter 367, Hadeeth 1802, 1804, and 1805 and commentary, printed pp. 643-647.
Sharh Riyaad as-Saaliheen, by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, Darussalam, 2018: Vol. 3, commentary on the narration of Jurayj, printed p. 97.
Verified on 2026-10-25 against the books listed above.
Further Reading
- The Rights of Children Upon Their Parents in Islam: what parents owe their children, from before birth onward
- The Mother’s Right to Child Custody (Hadanah): who has first right to a young child when parents separate
- Abortion (Ijhad): the rulings on ending a pregnancy, before and after the soul is breathed in
- The Purpose of Marriage in Islam: the page that names protection of lineage among the purposes of marriage