6 – Istilḥāq—the formal claim establishing a child’s lineage—is not limited to the father; a brother or any other relative may also submit such a claim.
7 – Rulings based on physical resemblance are resorted to only when no stronger proof exists, such as the presumption created by the marital bed.
8 – Scholars of the Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī schools state that the Prophet ﷺ instructed his wife Sawdah to veil herself from the boy purely as a precaution rooted in piety, after observing the striking likeness between him and ʿUtbah ibn Abī Waqqāṣ.
9 – Illicit intercourse carries the same legal consequences as lawful intercourse with respect to the marital impediments of affinity (muṣāharah).
The proof is that Sawdah was ordered to veil, which shows that ʿUtbah’s act of fornication was treated like marital intercourse. This is the position of the Ḥanafīs and Ḥanbalīs. The Mālikīs and Shāfiʿīs dissent, holding that fornication produces no such effect because the act itself is not legally respected.
10 – A judge’s ruling does not alter the inner reality of a case; if the party in whose favour the judgment is issued knows he is in the wrong, it remains forbidden for him to act upon it, and the judge’s decision does not render it lawful.
Shaykh al-Islām said: “If a man cohabits with a woman thinking that he is married to her, the child’s lineage is ascribed to him and the impediment of affinity is established—by consensus of the scholars known to me—even though the marriage is invalid in the sight of Allah and His Messenger. The same applies when a man assumes an act is permissible while it is in fact forbidden.”
Benefits
First: Ibn Ḥazm writes in al-Muḥallā, “Pregnancy can be no longer than nine months and no shorter than six months, for Allah says, ‘His gestation and weaning are thirty months’ (Al-Aḥqāf 46:15), and He also says, ‘Mothers shall breastfeed their children for two complete years for anyone who wishes to complete the period of nursing’ (Al-Baqarah 2:233).” After reviewing the jurists’ opinions on the minimum and maximum durations and the anecdotes circulated in this regard, he concludes: “All such reports are fabrications; it is impermissible to base religious rulings on them.”
I say: Modern medical science corroborates what Ibn Ḥazm asserted.