Intimacy between husband and wife and the ruling on drinking breast milk
According to Islamic teachings, it is permissible for a husband to have physical relations with and enjoy his wife, except for a few specific prohibitions, such as intercourse in the anus (the place of excrement), intercourse during menstruation and postnatal bleeding (nifas), and intercourse while in the state of ihram for Hajj or Umrah. Apart from these prohibitions, it is permissible for a husband to enjoy his wife’s body, such as kissing, embracing and other physical closeness.
➊ A husband drinking his wife’s breast milk
If a husband drinks his wife’s breast milk, whether accidentally or deliberately, no legal prohibition (hurmah) is established by it, because the suckling (rada’ah) of an adult person does not create a prohibition. A prohibition is established only when a child drinks milk five or more times before the age of two years. The drinking of an adult person has no effect in the prohibitions under the Shari’ah rulings.
➋ The opinion of the scholars
The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta said: “It is permissible for a husband to enjoy every kind of physical contact with his wife, except intercourse in the anus, intercourse during menstruation and nifas, and intercourse in the state of ihram. If the husband drinks his wife’s milk, no prohibition will arise from it.”
Shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Uthaymin (may Allah have mercy on him) also said: “The suckling (rada’ah) of a grown person has no effect, because the suckling that has an effect is that which occurs five or more times at the age of two years. If a husband drinks his wife’s milk, he will not become her son.”
Summary
➊ It is permissible for a husband to enjoy his wife’s body, except for a few prohibitions.
➋ Drinking a wife’s breast milk does not create a prohibition or a relationship of mahram between husband and wife.
➌ The suckling of an adult person has no effect in prohibitions, because this rule is limited to the age of two years only.
