المعنى الاصطلاحي :

Looking after a child, raising them, and doing what is in their best interest.

الشرح المختصر :

"Hadaanah" (child custody) is a legal guardianship, which requires looking after a child and protecting him from any harm and meeting his need for food, drink, clothes, habitation, education, etc. Child custody is the responsibility of both parents as long as they are married. If they are divorced, then the mother is more entitled to her child's custody, followed by her mother, then her grandmother, then the father, then his mother, then his grandmother, then the grandfather, then his mother, then the sisters, then the maternal aunts, then the paternal aunts, and so on. The person who is given child custody must fulfill the following conditions: 1. Being Muslim, for no custody is granted to a non-Muslim. 2. Being a sane adult, for the insane and the child are not given custody. 3. Honesty and uprightness, for no dissolute person is given custody. 4. Having the ability to undertake custody; hence, the old or sick person is not eligible. 5. Being free from contagious diseases.

التعريف اللغوي المختصر :

"Hadaanah": protecting something and maintaining it. Original meaning: taking something into one's "hidn", which means under the arm. "Haadinah": female protector.