THE MILK TIE (I)

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.