”Giving” a Child to Someone Else to Raise
Question

                My sister is barren, she is 40 years old. Is it permissible for me to give her one of my sons, knowing that he will keep my name and have all his rights in terms of name, heritage, and all other rights? She will just bring him up with her husband.
Praise be to Allah.We ask Allaah to honour you 
    with great reward for upholding ties of kinship with your sister and 
    honouring her, and we ask Him to decree good and happiness for you in this 
    world and in the Hereafter. 
We should point out to you 
    that what is haraam with regard to lineage and children is attributing a 
    child to someone other than his father and regarding that false lineage as 
    binding with regard to other shar’i rulings such as inheritance, marriage 
    and rights. 
As you intend to avoid 
    these haraam things, there is nothing wrong with you doing what is 
    permissible, in sha Allaah. If your sister wants to raise your son and keep 
    him with her to ease her loneliness and make up for the blessing of having a 
    child that she has missed out on, that is permissible, in sha Allaah, and 
    you will have reward for that with Allaah.  
It is well known that 
    adoption was permitted at the beginning of Islam, then there came the texts 
    which prohibited it and enjoined that children should be attributed to their 
    fathers, and it is haraam to attribute them to anyone but their fathers. But 
    that does not rule out love, brotherhood, care and upbringing. 
The scholars of the 
    Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas discussed the issue of adoption and 
    the fact that it is forbidden in sharee’ah, then they said:  
From the above it is clear 
    that banning adoption does not mean banning sublime feelings and Islamic 
    rights such as brotherhood, love, upholding the ties of kinship, kind 
    treatment and all other principle that have to do with noble characteristics 
    and inspiration to do good.  
(a)
A person may say to someone 
    who is younger than him “O my son” as a way of showing kindness to him and 
    expressing care and compassion, so that he may feel comfortable with him, 
    listen to his advice or get him to do something for him. And he may say to 
    someone who is older than him, “O my father” by way of honouring him and 
    softening his heart towards him so that he may receive kind treatment and 
    sincere advice from him, and he may get his support and help. Thus good 
    manners will prevail in society and the ties between people with be 
    strengthened, and all people will feel a sense of sincere brotherhood in 
    humanity and faith.  
(b)
Islam encourages us to 
    cooperate in righteousness and piety, and it exhorts all people to love one 
    another and treat one another kindly. Allaah says (interpretation of the 
    meaning):  
“Help you one another in 
    Al‑Birr and At‑Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety); but do not help one 
    another in sin and transgression”
[al-Maa’idah 5:2]
and the Prophet  (peace 
    and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The likeness of the believers in 
    their mutual love, mercy and compassion is that of the body; if one part of 
    it feels pain, the entire body joins it in fever and sleeplessness.” 
    Narrated by Ahmad and Muslim. 
And he said: “The believers 
    are like a single structure, parts of which support others.” Narrated by 
    al-Bukhaari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi and al-Nasaa’i. 
That includes taking care 
    of orphans, the needy, those who are unable to earn a living and those whose 
    fathers are not known, by looking after them, bringing them up and taking 
    care of them, so that there will be no one in society who is suffering or 
    neglected, and that will help the ummah (wider community) to avoid the bad consequences of 
    children being brought up in a very bad way, who may rebel against society 
    because they feel that they have been harshly treated or ignored by society. 
    Muslim governments should set up homes for the unemployed, orphans, 
    foundlings and those who have no breadwinner, and those who come under the 
    same rulings as them. If the bayt al-maal (treasury) does not have enough funds to take 
    care of their needs, then they should seek help from those members of the 
    ummah who are well off. The Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be 
    upon him) said: “Any believer who leaves behind wealth, it is to be 
    inherited by his kin if he has kin, and whoever leaves behind a debt or 
    dependents, let them come to me for I will take care of them.” Narrated by 
    al-Bukhaari. End quote. 
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn 
    Baaz, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Razzaaq ‘Afeefi, Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Ghadyaan, 
    Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Qa’ood. 
Fataawa al-Lajnah 
    al-Daa’imah (20/357-359). 
Secondly: 
We should point out two 
    important matters with regard to this issue: 
1 – You should not call 
    this action “giving” (in the sense of giving a gift), because you do not own 
    yourself, let alone your son. All of creation belongs to Allaah and they are 
    His slaves, so no created being has the right to give that which he does not 
    own, and the one who does not own something cannot give it.  
Hence we think that you, 
    your sister and your family should use the word “bring up” or “looking 
    after”, and say that the paternal aunt of the child is the one who is 
    bringing him up and looking after him, and you are the one who has handed 
    over the child to your sister to look after him and take care of him, but it 
    is a not a gift or a present. 
2 – We do not think that 
    you should cut off ties completely with your son so that you forget him and 
    he forgets you and does not ask for you. Rather you should not deprive him 
    of the rights that he has over you as his father, and you should take an 
    interest in him and ask about him, so that the bonds of love that Allaah has 
    created in the hearts of the sons of Adam will continue over the years and 
    despite distance, because we are afraid that with the passage of time you 
    may become cut off from your son and that will cause him to feel hurt and 
    sad, and those feelings may lead to a real severance of ties or 
    psychological problems which you have no need of, and the main victim of 
    that will be this son. 
Or the opposite may happen: 
    when the child begins to understand and discern things, he may want to go 
    back to his parents and continue to live under their care, which will cause 
    a great deal of hurt to your sister who brought him up and became attached 
    to him and spent many years looking after him and taking care of him, then 
    suddenly she loses this hope after many years.  
If you think it most likely 
    that these things will happen, then we do not advise you to follow this 
    path, but we cannot forbid you or tell you not to do it, as there is no 
    shar’i evidence to that effect. But paying attention to the psychological 
    aspects of the matter and the possible negative consequences is essential to 
    avoid hurt and harm. 
We ask Allaah to bless you 
    with good and guidance. 
And Allaah knows best.