i have a girl in my family whose father died when she was 2 years old…her mother re-married and her step father is also very nice…right now she is 26 and unmarried… Islamically,would she be considered as an orphan? could u please narrate some ahadees related to the help of orphans…plz reply..thanks…
Re: who is an orphan?
Dear cute annie, word yataamaa is from root YAA, TAA and MEEM. The concrete meaning of this root is detachment. The idea is that when a branch breaks off a tree, it no longer can get its nourishment so that it could continue its life and growth. In the quranic context it means a person isolated from community due to which his needs remain unfilled because there is none to help him live and grow and that is why one is called orphan or lonely regardless of age. It is because community is mother of a person ie concepts of ummah and imaam and ummi etc are very important in islam ie individuals need community and community needs leadership that is consistent with teachings of the quran so that no person remains unfulfilled or that each member of the community is given the chance to grow to his or her full potential.
The concepts given by the quran need to be understood in context of the quran rather than in isolation or in a way that they make no sense at all eg have some make beliefs and then sit and argue over them endlessly or run to this mullah or that mullah as if we have no brains ourselves. We need to stop all this carry on and try helping each other find out the real truth behind all these senseless disputes that we find between sects.
Today all of us have become orphans because we have lost our God given community spirit. No weak member of our own communities is safe from others. We have become predators and rivals and enemies of each other. All due to our mindsets, attitudes and behaviours towards learning in order to discover the truth. We argue from a particular belief rather than thinking through the whole thing to see how things fit together. This is major obstacle in the way of our understanding of the divine message. If anyone tells us anything different from whatever we have been brought up to believe, we don't think before condemning such people that they may be the beacon for the right direction. Result is before our eyes ie each person is fighting with the next person and things that really need to done are left undone.
For centuries muslims have become stuck with their silly concepts of islam knowing well that they cannot be defended yet we continue following the same and expect that we will get a different outcome each time. The truth is if we want things to change for the better then we need to let quran guide us rather guiding the quran.
We are all supposed to look after each other and help each other live and grow regardless of age or place etc. If instead we are making life of each other hell then we are not doing things the right way.
I do not wish to go into too much detail because I have already posted a lot of very useful material for us to benefit from and hope you have time to learn tyhings for your own good as well as for the good of us all.
God bless you with all the best.
Re: who is an orphan?
i have a girl in my family whose father died when she was 2 years old...her mother re-married and her step father is also very nice...right now she is 26 and unmarried.... Islamically,would she be considered as an orphan? could u please narrate some ahadees related to the help of orphans...plz reply..thanks...
Peace cute ainee,
Yes, the girl will remain considered as an orphan and her step father will remain for her as 'legal gurdian' not a 'real father'. Some scholars said that such step father/mother for male/female orphan is considered as 'Na-mehram' too, b'coz step parents can marry orphan female/male under prescribed conditions that cleary stated in Surah Al Nisa and proven by Hadiths. Also if I remember it correctly then orphan male/female have rights to marry by their own choice and there is no restriction on that.
For Example: A widow mother raised her child and the child at the age of puberty got married. Now the mother of orphan (that child) re married (Islamically there is no restriction on her second marriage). In official documents of that child, the deceased (real) father name will be written not his step father.
I will explain it with another example: A female name is written along with his father name before her marriage. After marriage her husband name is added in legal documents. Now the female got divorced or became widow due to death of her husband. In her legal documents, her husband name will remain which will be replaced with new husband name i.e., on her second marriage and this is because if she changes her name again to her father name after divorce/death of her husband, then she will face difficulties while processing documents of her child b'coz child name can't contain maternal grand father/mother name.
Kindly note that some law may vary as per country.