then the child who nursed from the milk of the woman with whom he had intercourse cannot be ascribed to him. Accordingly, this child has a mother but no father, just as the child of fornication has a mother but no father.

“The converse is the case with an animal, or with a woman who is neither pregnant nor has been intercourse with. Whenever a woman nurses a child, he becomes her child with respect to marriage, looking, seclusion, and unmarriageability, …”

His statement, “The converse is the case with an animal,” means that an animal’s milk does not establish marital prohibition. If, hypothetically, two children were to nurse from an animal, each nursing five times, would they become foster siblings? No. Otherwise, everyone in a household who drank the milk of one cow would become siblings.

From this, we understand that the milk must come from a human female. The phrase “from a human female” excludes other animals, such as livestock, and also excludes a man. Thus, if two children were to nurse from a man, they would not become siblings. The scholars have mentioned that this is conceivable; yet they would not become his children, because Allah says: “Mothers shall nurse their children,” and he is not a mother.

His statement, “nor with a woman who is pregnant,” means that if a woman nurses a child without having been pregnant—and this occurs frequently, for a child may cry and a woman who has no milk and has never married may come and put her breast in his mouth, intending to quiet him; then, through his suckling, milk begins to flow, and he nurses five times or more—does he become her child? The author says: No, because it occurred without pregnancy. But this reasoning is insufficient to negate this important ruling. The sound view, held by the three imams, is that it does establish marital prohibition: if a child drinks from a woman five times, he becomes her child, whether she is a virgin, past menopause, or married. It establishes prohibition both by textual evidence and by sound reasoning.

The textual evidence is the general meaning of Allah’s saying: “And your mothers who nursed you.” Neither the Quran nor the sunnah stipulates that the milk must result from pregnancy, so the texts remain upon their general meaning.