What Are the Conditions for Establishing Milk Kinship in the Hanafi School?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

What are the conditions for establishing milk kinship in the Hanafi School, and does it include expressed milk? If milk expressed while one’s own child was under two is later given to another child born after that time, does milk kinship apply?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.

Jurists differ on the suckling period. Most scholars—such as Shafi‘i, Maliki, Hanbali, and Hanafi scholars, including Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad (Allah be pleased with them all)—agree that it is two years. Suckling after that is insignificant. Imam Abu Hanifa believes it lasts two and a half years.

So, according to the preferred position of legal verdict (fatwa), the appointed time period is two lunar years (24 lunar months).

[Ibn Humam; Fath al-Qadir; Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; Maydani, al-Lubab fi Sharh al-Kitab]

Expressed Milk

Islam permits a woman to breastfeed a child who is not her own, as practiced historically and supported by the Quran and the Sunna. This breastfeeding must occur before the child reaches two years of age to establish foster (mahram) relations, and it does not require direct nursing; expressed milk also suffices.

It is permissible to freeze breast milk and later use it for one’s own or another child, provided the milk comes from one identifiable woman and is not mixed with others’ milk.

Islam gives permission to a woman to breastfeed a child that is not her own. This is something that is agreed upon by the scholars. Allah Most High says:

“If you decide to have your children nursed by a wet-nurse, it is permissible as long as you pay fairly. Be mindful of Allah, and know that Allah is All-Seeing of what you do.” [Quran, 2:233]

I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. In sha Allah, you will receive guidance and direction.

Related 

• Freezing breast milk to establish nursing relationships
• Breastfeeding Leading to Mahram Relationship – SeekersGuidance
• Breastfeeding Archives – SeekersGuidance

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I pray this helps with your question.
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.