Does Feeding a Child Expressed Breast Milk Before 2.5 Years Create Mahram Relationships, and With Whom?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Does Feeding a Child Expressed Breast Milk Before 2.5 Years Create Mahram Relationships, and With Whom?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
I hope you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.
According to the Hanafi School, when a baby under two lunar years is fed breast milk, they become the milk son/daughter of the woman who fed them, and she thus becomes their milk mother, etc.
The mahram relationship and prohibition (hurmat) arising from breastfeeding only applies if the baby is less than two lunar years old.
The milk-child is similar to other children in that the same blood relationships with relatives are established and maintained.
Therefore, the milk-son cannot marry the maternal aunt, just as his milk-brother, the nephew, cannot marry her.
So the baby may not marry its nursing parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc. Also, the obligation of covering (hijab) would not apply between the baby and the opposite gender relatives of the nursing family. However, wisdom and caution do entail modesty in dress and interaction, since they are not actual blood relatives.
Finally, no relation is established between members of the baby’s new nursing family and the actual blood relatives of the baby. For example, if the baby’s new brother, born through nursing, were to marry the baby’s actual sister, the obligation of covering would apply between the two families.
[Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
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Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel has received a traditional education in various countries. He started his schooling in the UK and completed his hifz of the Quran in India. After that, he joined an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied secular and Aalimiyya sciences. Later, he traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries to further his education. Mawlana has served as an Imam in the Republic of Ireland for several years and taught the Quran and other Islamic sciences to both children and adults. He also worked as a teacher and librarian at a local Islamic seminary in the UK for 12 years. Presently, he lives in the UK with his wife and is interested in books and gardening.
