salam taj. i agree with you that an adopted child should not be named after the adoptive parent. i have read all the verses cited in this thread, and read the analysis of the posters on this thread.
it is of no small significance that allah put the requirement of naming an adoptive child after the adoptive childs real father, first and not last. it is also not of small significance that allah states that an adoptive child is not your child, and to claim the adopted child is yours is not permitted.
naming the adopted child with your surname, is an attempt to make that child your child, or at least imply they are your child, when allah states they are not. when that conduct is disallowed, using the "i dont know the name of the real father" cannot turn into "i will give the adopted child my name" and mislead or deceive either explicity or implicitly, the child and society.
underlying this debate is the following the determining factor is not "what will make me feel better" it is "what is better for the child" to foist your probable embarassment at the adopted child not being yours, or a misguided attempt to be politically correct, may assuage your feelings, however, they will be severely damaging to the adopted child.
you must accept the wisdom of allah, when allah in his wisdom places a child with certain parents, this is in allah's wisdom that he has made this decision. to try and circumvent allah's will by giving the adopted child another name is not permitted. the quran is full of people who lost their parents in various ways, musa was taken in by firaon, esa had no father, muhammad's parent passed away. never did firaon give musa his last name, nor did yusuf give esa his last name, nor did abu talib ibn abdul mutallib give muhammad his last name. we do not call muhammad, ibn abdul mutallib for any reason. nor do we call esa ibn yusuf, nor do we call musa ibn firaon. these are mathala/examples.
allah is the lawgiver.
