❖ Source:
Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
❖ Question:
If a marriage unknowingly takes place between individuals who are prohibited to each other due to milk-relationship (raḍāʿah), must they separate upon learning the truth, or is the marriage automatically annulled?
✿ Answer:
A marriage between prohibited relations due to breastfeeding does not come into effect at all (it is void from the outset).
If such a marriage was conducted unknowingly and later the truth is discovered, then the couple must immediately abandon the spousal relationship.
It is absolutely impermissible to continue such a marriage.
❖ Evidence from Hadith:
❀ Sayyidunā ʿUqbah bin Ḥāriṯ رضي الله عنه narrated:
“I married the daughter of Abū Ihāb (Umm Ihāb). A black woman came and said: I have breastfed both of you. I went to the Prophet ﷺ to ask him about it. He turned away from me. I approached him again, and he again turned away. On the third or fourth time, the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘How can you continue to live with her after it has been said (that she is your milk-sister)?’
So the Prophet ﷺ forbade me from staying with her.”
(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 2659)
Summary:
- A marriage between milk relations (raḍāʿī maḥārim) is invalid (bāṭil) from the start.
- If such a marriage takes place out of ignorance and the truth is later revealed, the couple must immediately separate.
- Continuing such a marriage is strictly forbidden.
- This ruling is based on clear Hadith evidence and the universal legal principle:
“Breastfeeding prohibits what lineage prohibits.”
