This is where Allah’s statement applies: “And if you disagree, then another woman will breastfeed the child for him.” [Surah al-Talaq 65:6] Thus, if she asks for less than the customary wage, while he insists on paying only the customary wage, the husband is not obliged to accept her concession, because it would leave her with a claim of favor over him, even in the future. One day she may say, “Yes, this is how I was repaid: women nurse for one hundred riyals, while I nursed for eighty.”

His statement, “even if another woman would nurse him free of charge,” means that if the child’s mother—whether we hold, according to the madhhab, that she remains in the marital bond, or, according to the stronger view, that she is divorced—refuses to nurse him except for the customary wage, while another woman can be found to nurse him free of charge, then the husband is compelled to have the child’s mother nurse him and to pay her the wage. The reason is that a mother’s milk is more beneficial than that of another woman; that a mother’s tenderness toward her child is greater; and that, when he nurses from her, he becomes attached to her and loves her. All of these are interests intended by the Sacred Law.

His statement, “whether she is irrevocably divorced or still his wife”: “irrevocably divorced” is the predicate of the implied verb, whose subject is implicit. That is, whether she remains in the husband’s marital bond or is still his wife. The author used the expression “irrevocably divorced” rather than simply “divorced,” because a woman in a revocable divorce is legally considered among wives, whereas an irrevocably divorced woman is one observing a waiting period during which reconciliation is not possible, or one whose waiting period has ended.

It has previously been mentioned that Shaykh al-Islam disagrees in this matter, maintaining that if she remains his wife, she is not entitled to a wage.

His statement, “If she marries another man, he may prevent her from nursing the child of the first husband”: an example is a woman whom her husband divorces while she is pregnant; she then gives birth, and, after the end of her waiting period—