This appears somewhat contradictory: if it provides nourishment, then there is no difference between its effect on the fasting person and its effect on the child; but if it does not provide nourishment, then it should not invalidate the fast. For this reason, Shaykh al-Islam said: “An enema does not invalidate the fast, because it is neither eating nor akin to eating and drinking.”
His statement, “the milk of a deceased woman,” means that it establishes marital prohibition. Since we hold that nursing must consist of five separate feedings, how can this occur from a deceased woman? It may occur if the woman had nursed the child four times before her death, leaving one feeding remaining. Then, after she dies, her breast is found full of milk, and the child is placed to it, sucks from it, and drinks. We say that this establishes marital prohibition just as it would if she were alive.
It remains to be asked: is this milk pure or impure? The answer is: is the deceased woman herself pure or impure? The answer is that she is pure; therefore, her milk is pure.
Some scholars have said that the milk of a deceased woman does not establish marital prohibition, because this is an uncommon occurrence. Allah, exalted is He, says: “And your mothers who nursed you.” The deceased woman does not nurse; thus, the verse indicates an act actually performed by the nursing woman. This view is closer to what is correct.
His statement, “and a woman with whom intercourse occurred under a mistaken belief of legitimacy”: the mistaken belief may relate either to the marriage contract or to one’s belief. A mistaken belief concerning the contract is where a man marries her under a contract that is invalid, though he believes it to be valid—for example, if he marries her with her maternal half-brother acting as her guardian, thinking that a maternal half-brother may serve as a guardian, when in fact he may not. The man then marries her, consummates the marriage, and has intercourse with her.
A mistaken belief based on one’s perception is where a man enters his home and finds upon his bed a woman who resembles