Wife taking husband’s surname after marriage

Walekumussalam warahmatullahi wabaraktuh,

This is not an issue that violates any Islamic legal principle. The purpose here is identification and recognition. Therefore, after marriage, whether a woman keeps her father’s name with her own or adopts her husband’s name for identification—both are permissible. In the Indian subcontinent, it is a common practice that after marriage a woman uses her husband’s name for identification, and there is no harm in this.

As for the doubt that some Ahadith prohibit attributing oneself to someone other than one’s father, and that there are warnings regarding this—its answer is that the intent of those Ahadith is to forbid a person from abandoning their real father and attributing themselves to another in such a way that the latter is considered their actual father, or denying one’s real father and calling someone else their father. Where such confusion does not exist, there is room for attributing oneself to someone else in a non-literal, affectionate, or associative sense.

For example, it is established in the blessed Ahadith that the Prophet ﷺ addressed Hazrat Anas (RA.) as “my dear son.” It is clear that in attributing a wife’s name to her husband, there is no implication of biological lineage. Therefore, this kind of attribution does not fall under the prohibition mentioned in those Ahadith.