As is stated in the
Persian commentary to the book entitled Nikâya[1], sucking milk from
the breast is called ridâ’. If a child below the age of two and a half sucks a mouthful of
milk from one or more women outside of its family, these women will become the
child’s milk-mothers (wet nurses), in the Madhhabs of Hanafî and Mâlikî. The
mahram relatives of these women are now the child’s mahram relatives, too; that
is, it is harâm for the cihld to enter into a marriage with any one of them.
The milk mother’s own brother is the child’s milk uncle maternal. And the milk
mother’s husband, who has caused milk formation in her body, is the child’s
milk father. The man’s own brother is the child’s milk uncle paternal. However,
the mahram relatives of the radî’, (i.e. the child that has been breastfed,)
will not become mahram relatives for the milk mother and her husband. In the
Madhhabs of Shâfi’î and Hanbalî, the child will not become a milk baby unless
it is breastfed at five different times, being completely fed at each time.
Imâm Abû Yûsuf and Imâm Muhammad and Imâm Shâfi’î ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim
ajma’în’ stated that if the child is more than two years old it will not become
the milk child of the breastfeeder and her husband. A child that is breastfed
after the age of two and a half will not become a milk child, according to the
unanimity of the scholars of Hanafî Madhhab. It was stated (by those scholars)
that it is not permissible to berastfeed a child that has reached that age
because there is not a darûrat to do so. For, it is harâm to exploit a human
limb if there is not a darûrat to do so. (Please see the fourth chapter of the
fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss for the term ‘darûrat’.)
[It is stated in Durr-ul-mukhtâr: “Unless there is a
darûrat, it is harâm to use the human organs. When it is harâm to use
something, it is harâm as well to eat or drink it as a medicine.” Ibni ’Âbidîn
explains this statement as follows: “Something that is harâm to use is also
harâm to use as a medicine, regardless of whether it is something tâhir, i.e.
clean, or najs, i.e. dirty, foul. A
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[1] Please
see footnote [1] on the two hundred and twenty-second page of the thirteenth
(January 2007) edition of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss.
permission to use it as a medicine has been given only on the
condition that it be known for certain that it will be good for the patient and
that there be no other medicine. A Muslim who is not (one of those profound
Islamic scholars called) mujtahid is called a muqallid. It is wâjib for
muqallids to adapt their acts and deeds to the words of a mujtahid. He has to
follow the mujtahid even if he does not know the proof-text and documents
(whereon the mujtahid has based his ijtihâd.) As far as this translator the
faqîr[1] is concerned, in case
the patient is in danger of death and there is no other way out, it is
permissible for a person, men and women alike, to be given blood. Muslim blood
should be preferred. Shaikh Tâhir-uz-Zâwî, the grand Muftî of the Libyan
government, states as follows in his fatwâ: “The Islamic religion commands
hygiene and physical well-being. It is a humanitarian duty to give blood to
invalids (who need it). For, in some cases blood transfusion is of vital
importance. Blood transfusion does not cause milk tie. Nor does it cause an
abrogation of nikâh (between a married couple). (Please see the twelfth chapter
of the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss for ‘nikâh’.) The aforesaid fatwâ is
written in the April-1973 issue of the periodical that is entitled Hedy-ul-islâmî, and which is being
published in Libya.] (For the word ‘fatwâ’, see the footnote on the hundred and
forty-first page of the thirteenth-2007 edition of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss.)
It is eternally harâm
for the milk child to marry its milk mother or milk father or their mother or
mother or siblings or children or grandchildren of any generation. The same
restriction would apply if those people were related to it by blood. The milk
child’s offspring cannot marry its milk mother or milk father. The milk child’s
wife cannot marry the (same) child’s milk father, and the milk child’s husband
cannot marry the (same) milk child’s mother. A boy and a girl who have been
breastfed by the same woman cannot marry each other or each other’s children or
grandchildren, even if each had a different milk father or the years in which
they were breastfed differ. The author ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ of the book
entitled Durer
states:
“It is harâm for a male to marry his own sibling’s milk daughter or his milk
sibling’s own daughter or his milk sibling’s milk daughter.” A man may marry
the mother or sister of his milk sibling who was milked by his own mother.
However, he cannot marry the mother of his sibling from the same
---------------------------------
[1] Hadrat Hüseyn Hilmi bin Sa’îd Işık ‘quddisa
sirruh’ means himself.
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father. In other words, a person can
marry their own sibling’s milk sibling born from a different mother. Likewise,
a man can marry the uterine sister of his brother from the same father. A man
can marry his milk child’s sister. Yet he cannot marry his own child’s uterine
sister. A man cannot marry his milk father’s other wives or his milk son’s
wives. These two kinds of marriage are unsuitable also in cases where the
father and the son in question are the man’s own father and son, respectively.
The following couplet formulates the mahram kinships by way of milk tie:
The milk parents’ kinsfolk, collectively;
Milk child’s husband or wife, and progeny.
Application of an
enema with a woman’s milk will not bind a child with a milk tie. Nor will a
person be a milk child by eating food cooked with a woman’s milk. If the food
eaten was not cooked, it will cause a milk tie when the amount of the milk is
more than fifty percent. According to Imâm Shâfi’î ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ
’alaih’, the person concerned will become a milk child even when the milk is
less than fifty percent. If the woman’s milk is dropped into the child’s
nostrils, the child will become a milk child. A dead woman’s milk, as well as
milk of a girl over the age of nine, will cause a milk tie.
The event of having
been suckled (by a certain woman) becomes a proven fact when the man who is to
become married or who is married avows it insistently, like a declaration of
ownership, or when two ’âdil men or one man and two women testify to it. The
couple will become divorced by the decision of law court or by a bilateral
agreement reached by the couple. If the two male witnesses are not ’âdil
Muslims or if there have been only two women or one man and one woman as
witnesses or if the only witness has been the ’âdil milk mother herself, and
yet if the husband acknowledges it, the nikâh will become fâsid and the couple
will become separated [Ibni Nujaym ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’]. Please see
the final part of the sixth chapter of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss!
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