Is It Haram to Take Your Husband’s Last Name?

 

Your wife may take your surname if she needs it for legal reasons. It’s not the same as the practice of claiming a false filial lineage, which is haram.

Islam considers the customs and conventions as long as they do not contradict the categorical imperatives of the Shariah. 

Our scholars have already established the rule that fatwa changes according to time. 

A wife taking on her husband’s family name in cultures where the practice is prevalent does not fall in the category of prohibition. The prohibition aims at claiming a false parentage; no one in these cultures ever thinks of such changes as false attribution of parentage.

Allah says, “Call them after their fathers. That is more equitable before God. And if you do not know their fathers, then they are your brethren in religion and your clients. There is no blame upon you for being mistaken therein, but only for what your hearts intended. And God is Forgiving, Merciful.” (Al-Ahzab 33:5)

Ibn Ashur, the eminent scholar, and Mufassir, explains this saying:

“This verse proceeds to abolish the practice of adoption prevalent at the time whereby a false filial lineage was practiced as the adoptive parents claimed the adopted child as their offspring.”

So the verse was revealed to correct this corrupt practice. It established that adoption does not change the reality of the biological lineage.

That does not apply to a wife taking on her husband’s family name, for it is not a false claim of change of lineage; it is simply an affiliation. 

We have precedents that show affiliation as opposed to a change of filial lineage is acceptable in Islam. For example, Wala, or affiliation to a person or a clan, was a common practice among Arabs; it continued in Islam. According to this practice, it was common for a freed person to take on the clan name of the ‘master.’ 

Another example is the practice of adopting a Kunya. Aishah, the beloved wife of the Prophet (peace be upon him), had the Kunya of Umm Abd Allah. However, she never had a son or daughter; Abd Allah was her nephew. Nevertheless, the Prophet (peace be upon him) called her Umm Abd Allah. No one mistook it as Aishah making a false claim of being the mother of Abd Allah. 

Still another example is the Prophet’s statement referring to Umm Ayman, his foster mother. He said she was ‘my mother’ after my mother. He did not mean to imply that Umm Ayman was his birth mother in any sense of the word. 

In light of the above, it is not objectionable for your wife to add your family name along with her own. 

I pray to Allah to bless us with discernment and rectitude in words and deeds.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Source: Askthescholar.com