I understand the punishments of Zina in Islam for its actively involved parties i.e. man and woman (both in this world and hereafter). As a result of such act woman can give birth to a child (which is referred to as illegitimate in society), I have multiple questions regarding that child:
1. After such act, in many cases, involving parties foresees the drastic consequences of giving birth to such child and use the method of “abortion”. Is this “abortion” act is legal/illegal and what should be done in reference to Islam?
2. Secondly, I need to know that how a known illegitimate child should be treated in the society and what if someone else adopt the child as family, if yes then will this child be remain “illegitimate”.
3. Now lastly I want to ask that how do you justify that a child born due to the wrong act/sin of two more other persons and he/she has nothing to do with that sin and bear all hatred in society.
Answer
After the fact that Zina is forbidden is clear, the following are the answers to your questions:
i) Doing Zina is a huge crime; aborting a child within the first 120 days of pregnancy is not a great idea but a lesser crime compared to Zina. I would count resorting to it after Zina as a double fault.
ii) Any family can adopt a child resulting out of extra-marital sex. The only condition is that the child should not carry the name of the foster father. He/she should get a name which should be general, like ‘son or daughter of a slave of God: Abdullah etc’.
iii) It is none of the faults of the child that he/she came to this world through an illegitimate physical relationship. Therefore whoever doesn’t respect the child because of that reason is being unfair and shall be held responsible for that discrimination and arrogance.