Adoption or Having a Baby?

What are the Islamic implications of deciding to not have children but instead take in an orphan. I think in this age where there are millions of orphans (15 million double-orphans as of 2015) it is our duty and responsibility to do everything we can to alleviate this issue and do what we can to help those kids find a loving home. Isn't it morally better to "adopt" an orphan instead of having our kids? What do you guys think?

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Raising kids are relatively expensive, and hence is it not better to spend it raising a child who otherwise would have no home, no parents, no love, often no food, etc. I'm fairly convinced that objectively and morally helping an orphan is better than having a child. What I want to know from this post is if this deliberate decision is somehow un-Islamic? Or if there are serious implications.

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I am rather convinced that adopting an orphan is a good thing to do in Islam, but I'm unclear if deciding to not have my own kids because I'll be adopting somehow becomes un-Islamic?

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Other implications I'm aware of:

1. I can't change the child's surname unless there is no way of identifying it - think a child abandoned with no known next of kin.
2. I'm not allowed to usurp any property they have, which obviously I wouldn't want to either.
3. They do not have the right for my inheritance unless I explicitly give them the right (?), which I intent to give them.
4. They are not muhram unless they are breast-fed as a baby, but this only affect marrying rights and hence is irrelevant as we won't be having them marry any other siblings. I'm aware of the opinion that the child won't be allowed to see the opposite sex parent, but for me this is not an issue as I don't subscribe to that opinion. PS I'm not looking for a discussion on this specific matter. I think on balance it is better to radically help an orphan's life than to succumb to an opinion.

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Evidence in Quran supporting orphans

• "And they feed, for the love of God, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive," - (The Quran, The Human: 8)
• "Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness," (The Quran, The Morning Hours: 9)
• "Have you not seen those who deny the faith and the Day of Judgment? Those are people who drive orphans away harshly, and do not encourage feeding the indigent. So woe be upon those who do prayer but are neglectful of it or show it off out of vanity, and those who deny even small kindnesses to others." - (The Quran, Small Kindnesses: 1-7)
• "(Be good to) orphans and the very poor. And speak good words to people." (The Quran, The Heifer: 83)
• "…They will ask you about the property of orphans. Say, 'Managing it in their best interests is best'. If you mix your property with theirs, they are your brothers…" (The Quran, The Heifer: 220)
• "Give orphans their property, and do not substitute bad things for good. Do not assimilate their property into your own. Doing that is a serious crime." (The Quran, The Women: 2)
• "Keep a close check on orphans until they reach a marriageable age, then if you perceive that they have sound judgement hand over their property to them..." (The Quran, The Women: 6)

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Edit: couple typos and edits

submitted by /u/leviathanawakes
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