Imam Luqman Ahmad Mosque Without Borders

The Rights of Children Over Their Parents: A Forgotten Area (a conversation that we’re afraid to have).

Islamic law grants children specific rights that are often unknown or ignored in communities without fiqh literacy:

• The right to be born into a valid marriage.

• The right to financial support from both parents.

• The right to a stable home environment.

• The right to religious education and moral upbringing.

• The right to fair treatment among siblings.

• The right to inheritance.

• The right to maintain ties with both parents.

When these rights are not upheld, children suffer consequences that last into adulthood—identity confusion, emotional instability, financial hardship, spiritual neglect, and generational trauma.

Why This Problem Is Especially Acute for Black American Muslims

Black Muslim families face unique pressures:

• high rates of incarceration and reentry

• economic instability

• fragmented community structures

• masjids without trained jurists

• charismatic leadership replacing legal scholarship

• lack of shared madhhab or legal standards

In this environment, custody disputes become chaotic and deeply damaging. Children are often the ones who pay the highest price for the community’s lack of fiqh.

I realize that in the United. States we don’t have courts in our institutions (masaajid) although nothing is stopping Muslims from establishing marriage, divorce, and custody courts as people of other religions have done. However we have to begin somewhere. The least we can do is have the conversation. How long will we collectively put up with a lawlessness Black Muslim America?

Imam Luqman Ahmad

Shaykh Luqman Ahmad, born and raised in Philadelphia Pa, and son of American converts to Islam, is an American Muslim thinker, scholar, writer, educator, and community leader with more than four decades of service. A graduate of the Islamic University of Omdurman, with time spent at Umm al-Qura University, and in classes at the Haram in Mecca. Imam Luqman, was first introduced to Islamic learning by his parents. He studied with numerous scholars, most notably the late “Sayyid Sabiq”, author of the book “Fiqh as-Sunnah”.  For a list of his teachers, consult his blog at imamluqman.wordpress.com. He served as the Imam of Masjid Ibrahim Islamic Center in California for 20 years, guiding one of the region’s most diverse Muslim communities with a blend of classical Sunni scholarship and deep awareness of American social realities. Over the course of his career, he has also served as an Imam and or resident scholar at several masaajid across the country, including in Philadelphia, Toledo, Sacramento, and Folsom, California.