1-The foster mother: It is haram
for a Muslim to marry a woman who has
suckled him during his infancy, for suckling
makes her like his real mother, since milk
has gone into the making of his flesh and
bones. Nursing consciously or unconsciously
produces feelings of motherhood in a woman
and of kinship in a child, and although
these feelings might seem to disappear as
the child grows and becomes a man, they
remain hidden in the unconscious.
However, the prohibition of marriage based
on fosterage is effective only if the
suckling occurred before the time of
weaning; that is, when milk was the primary
source of food. Another condition is that
the child has suckled his fill on five
separate occasions, a fill being defined as
when the child leaves off suckling of his
own accord. After a survey of all the
ahadith on this subject, the fixing of five
sucklings as the minimum seems to be the
preferred view. 2-Foster sisters:
Just as a woman become a mother to a child
by virtue of suckling, likewise her
daughters become his sisters, her sisters
his aunts, and so on. The Prophet (peace be
on him) said: "What is haram by reason of
genealogy is haram by reason of fosterage.''
(Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim.)
Thus the foster-sisters, foster-aunts, and
foster-nieces are all muharramat and
marriage to them is permanently prohibited. |
