ḤIẒĀNAH (حضانة). Al-ḥiẓānah is the right of a mother to the custody of her children. “The mother is of all persons the best entitled to the custody of her infant children during the connubial relationship as well as after its dissolution.” (Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, vol. i. p. 728.)
When the children are no longer dependent on the mother’s care, the father has a right to educate and take charge of them, and is entitled to the guardianship of their person in preference to the mother. Among the Ḥanafīs, the mother is entitled to the custody of her daughter until she arrives at puberty; but according to the other three Sunnī sects, the custody continues until she is married.
There is difference of opinion as to the extent of the period of the mother’s custody over her male children. The Ḥanafīs limit it to the child’s seventh year, but the Shāfiʿīs and Malakīs allow the boy the option of remaining under his mother’s guardianship until he has arrived at puberty. Among the Shīʿahs, the mother is entitled to the custody of her children until they are weaned, a period limited to two years. After the child is weaned, its custody, if a male, devolves on the father, if a female, on the mother. The mother’s custody of the girl continues to the seventh year.
The right of ḥiẓānah is lost by the mother if she is married to a stranger, or if she misconducts herself, or if she changes her domicile so as to prevent the father or tutor from exercising the necessary supervision over the child.
Apostasy is also a bar to the exercise of the right of ḥiẓānah. A woman, consequently, who apostatizes from Islām, whether before or after the right vests in her, is disentitled from exercising or claiming the right of ḥiẓānah in respect to a Muslim child.
The custody of illegitimate children appertains exclusively to the mother and her relations. (Personal Law of Muḥammadans, by Syud Amīr Ali, p. 214.) [[GUARDIANSHIP].]
HOLY SPIRIT. Arabic Ruḥu ʾl-Quds (روح القدس). The Holy Spirit is mentioned three times in the Qurʾān. In the Sūratu ʾn-Naḥl (XVIth, 104), as the inspiring agent of the Qurʾān: “Say, The Holy Spirit brought it down from thy Lord in truth.” And twice in the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (IInd, 81 and 254), as the divine power which aided the Lord Jesus: “and We strengthened him by the Holy Spirit” (in both verses).
The Jalālān, al-Baiẓāwī, and the Muslim commentators in general, say this Holy Spirit was the angel Gabriel who sanctified Jesus, and constantly aided Him, and who also brought the Qurʾān down from heaven and revealed it to Muḥammad.
For a further consideration of the subject, see [SPIRIT].
HOMICIDE. [[MURDER].]