A Wife Taking Her Husband’s Surname
Question: Dear scholars, As-Salamu `alaykum. Concerning names, is a woman supposed to change
her family name to her husband's name after marriage as it is in the West?
Name of Mufti A Group of Islamic Researchers
Content
of
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful.
All
praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His
Messenger.
Dear
sister in Islam, we commend your pursuit of knowledge and your keenness to seek
what is lawful and avoid what is not. We earnestly implore Allah to bless your
efforts in this honorable way.
As
regards your question, the adoption by a woman of her husband's family name is
a purely cultural practice that has nothing to do with Islam. It should be
known that, "the adoption by a woman of her husband's family name when she
marries him is a token of her being subordinate to him. Historically speaking,
a woman was in a position of total subordination to her husband. In Islam, she
suffers nothing of the sort. She retains her own family name because she is
allowed to act independently of him. If divorce takes place, she returns to her
own family. In Western countries, even after divorce, she continues to be known
by her husband's family name. This is strange indeed."
(Source:
www.islamicity.com)
However,
as far as Islam is concerned there is nothing wrong if the wife uses or be
referred to with the surname of her husband.
In
this context, Dr. Muzammil
H. Siddiqi, former President of the Islamic Society
of
"There
is no specific tradition of last name among Muslims. Sometimes the people take
the last name of the family (Qurashi, Hashimi), sometimes they take their last name from their
profession (Qassab, Najjar),
sometimes they take their last name from the city in which they are born (Makki, Madani, Shami, Masri) and many other ways.
The proper way in Islam is that the person should be known by his/her name and
the name of his/her biological father. It is not required for a woman to take
the name of her husband, but it is also not forbidden if she is recognized as
the wife of so-and-so."
Dr.
Siddiqi further adds:
"It
is permissible for a woman to change her last name after marriage. A woman can
introduce herself or others can introduce her as the wife of so and so. In the ahadith, we see that the Prophet's wives were sometimes
referred to with the names of their fathers and sometimes as "wife of the
Prophet". These things are more based on cultural practices and whatever
is convenient can be done. What is forbidden in Islam is that a person refers
to him/herself as the son or daughter of someone other than the real biological
father. Allah says in the Qur'an, "Proclaim
their parentage; that is more equitable in the sight of Allah." (al-Ahzab: 5) The Prophet (peace
and blessings be upon him) said, "Whosoever will claim the name of anyone
other than his father will not even get the smell of
Excerpted,
with slight modifications, from: http://pakistanlink.com
Allah
Almighty knows best.