❖ The Ruling on Placing a Child in the Bride’s Lap in Islam
Reference: Fatāwā ʿIlmiyyah, Vol. 1: Uṣūl, Takhrīj, and Ḥadīth Authentication – p. 667
❀ Question
When a new bride enters the household, some people place a small child in her lap with the belief that she will soon be blessed with children. Is this practice permissible?
(Questioner: Ḥājī Nadhīr Khān, Dāmān Ḥazro)
❀ Answer
Al-ḥamdu lillāh, waṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salāmu ʿalā Rasūlillāh, ʾammā baʿd!
This is a Hindu custom and has no basis in Islam whatsoever.
❀ Anecdote (Humorous Excerpt)
Aḥmad Razā Khān Barelwī wrote regarding this:
"When a bride is brought home after marriage, it is mustaḥabb to wash her feet and sprinkle that water in the four corners of the house, as this brings blessings. This water should remain valid for wuḍūʾ if the bride was in a state of purity or was a minor. This, and her previous customary acts, are not of the type of ʿibādāt, although the intention of following them may turn them into a means of nearness to Allah. Wa Allāhu Aʿlam."
( Fatāwā Riḍwiyyah, with verification and translation of Arabic passages, Vol. 3, p. 595, para 156 )
❀ Commentary
The statement of Aḥmad Razā Khān Barelwī:
"To wash the bride’s feet and sprinkle the water in the four corners of the house"
is baseless and unacceptable.
It seems more like the sayings and idle talk of common folk, which, without investigation, were included in Fatāwā Riḍwiyyah as if they were proofs.
واللہ أعلم بالصواب
