Dr. Hüseyin Kâmi BÜYÜKÖZER…
Mothers and the fetuses in their wombs are also addressed to the orders that our religion informs all people.
“O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth [that is] lawful (halal) and good (tayyib) and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy. (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 168)
“Also forbidden to you for marriage are …your [milk] mothers who nursed you, your sisters through nursing.” (Surah An-Nisa Ayat 23)
“And We have commanded people to honour their parents. Their mothers bore them through hardship upon hardship, and their weaning takes two years. So be grateful to Me and your parents.” (Surah al-Luqman, Ayat 14)
Nowadays, the issue that our society is engaged in by some circles is “Being wet nurse and the sale of breast milk.”
WET NURSE AND MILK SIBLINGS ARE OBSTACLES TO MARRIAGE
The Islamic Religion has made wet nurse and milk siblings an obstacle to marriage with the 4/23rd verse of the an-Nisa Surah of the Holy Qur’an. In the aforementioned verse “… It is also forbidden for you to marry your wet nurse who breastfeed you and milk siblings…” is commanded.
THE WAY OF FORMING MILK KINSHIP, HARAM AND DEVIANT RELATIONSHIP IN THE FAMILY
A baby breastfed by a woman becomes the fosterling and the milk sibling of all the children that woman has given birth to and will give birth.
For example: Just as a girl cannot marry her siblings and uncles, a fosterling also cannot marry her milk siblings and milk uncles.
Marriages to be made with the knowledge of milk kinship are invalid according to our religious standards because they are forbidden. Sexual relations also take on the nature of a perverse relationship within the family, which is the most severe type of adultery. The “marriage obstacle milk kinship” that will arise after the marriage and be proved by one or two witnesses to be accepted by the spouses will reduce the marriage. Spouses need to be separated. The Prophet ﷺ pointed out the need for the separation of spouses. However, in families that marry as milk siblings and have children before becoming Muslims, the marriage does not fall, especially in cases where the woman is a Muslim. Here, the rule of “except for what was done before Islam” must be current.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE FORMATION OF MILK KINSHIP
According to Ayat 2/233 of the Baqarah which declares that “mothers can breastfeed their children for two years” and Ayat 31/14 of Surat al-Luqman, which explains that “weaning can be two years”, The breastfed child must not have completed two years of age. There is no milk kinship with breastfeeding a child older than two years of age.
Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“The haram that will occur by sucking milk must have been sucked from the woman’s breast in such a way that it will have an effect on the baby’s intestines, and this must have been done before the age of ablactation.”
A child who sucks or drinks more than one woman’s milk becomes more than one wet nurse.
We have to accept the orders of our religion in every matter and apply these orders in our daily life with ikhlas (sincerity).
