Wow. I just came upon this thread, and I must say that I am shocked by some of the responses.
Maybe I live in a never never land, but I was raised to respect the beauty and truth in all faiths. I read Umbilical Baby's original post slowly and carefully, and was delighted to learn about Muslim belief's concerning adoption. I live in a neighborhood with a significant South Asian population (Bangladesh, Pakistan, India-Hindu/Muslim/Sihk, Afghanistan), (as well as a lot of people from a lot of different places with a lot of different beliefs!!!), and I realized that I knew nothing about how Islam views adoption. My adopted daughter will go to school with Muslim children (and Catholic children and Jewish children and Hindus and Buddists and a wide range of Christians) and I hope that she will have friends whose families invite her to Temples and Mosques and Churches of all kinds. When she is old enough, we will read the Popul Vuh together, so that she knows the beautiful creation stories of her ancestors, the Mayan people.
It is important to me to understand how my friends and neighbors will see my new family, and I thank Umbilical Baby for her post!
I will share it with a Shi'ite friend and a Suni friend (who often have very different world views), and get even more insight!
My mother was raised Catholic (Italian/Irish-different interpretations of Catholosism) and my father had a Jewish mother and a Protestant father. As I said earlier in this post... I was raised to respect ALL beliefs. Now I am proud to live in an incredibly diverse community. I had no idea that such intolerance continued to exist. I suppose I am naive.
I know this is a very old thread, but I would like to thank Umbilical Baby for bringing the sacred words of the Qu'ran to this forum, and for sharing her interpretation of those words. Umbilical Baby, you have sparked my interest to learn more. And learning is always good!
