What is the ruling regarding the retrieval and care of an abandoned infant (Laqit)?

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The retrieval (picking up) of the abandoned infant is obligatory (*wajib*). This obligation is based on the Divine command to cooperate in righteousness and piety (Quran 5:2) and because it constitutes saving a life, making it necessary, similar to providing food during starvation or rescue from drowning. The obligation is one of collective sufficiency (*wajib 'ala al-kifayah*); if one person fulfills it, the obligation ceases for the rest. If the community knows of the infant and collectively neglects to take him when able, all become sinful. The case of the found infant being free is established; the general consensus of the scholars (*awam ahl al-'ilm*) is that the foundling is free. This view is reported from Umar and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them), and it is the position of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Al-Sha'bi, Al-Hakam, Hammad, Malik, Al-Thawri, Al-Shafi'i, Ishaq, and the companions of opinion (*ashab al-ra'y*). Evidence supporting the freedom of the foundling is the principle that the default state for human beings is freedom, as Allah created Adam and his progeny free, and servitude (*riqq*) only occurs due to an intervening cause; in the absence of knowledge of such a cause, the original ruling (freedom) prevails.