Abstract
While the care of orphans is a much lauded form of giving, precisely what care should look like is highly contested. This is due, in large part, to a consensus among the Islamic legal schools that adoption (tabanni) is prohibited. This article explores contemporary Muslim Americans’ negotiations of Islamic law to find ethical ways to care for non-biological children within their household. Through Muslim American collaborations and contentions over the regulation of orphan care, including the interventions of Islamic scholars and scholar-activists, as well as the intimate reflections of adoptive and foster parents, I demonstrate how Islamic law is not the exclusive domain of jurists, but of Muslim American communities forging new notions of care, kinship, and family as they draw together distinct legal bodies, traditions, and values.