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When two children have been breast-fed by the same woman with the suckling that entails prohibition, they become milk-brothers.
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The testimony of a single woman is a sufficient legal quorum in matters of suckling; her statement alone establishes it.
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If suckling between a husband and his wife is proven, they must be separated, for she has become his milk-sister and it is unlawful for her to remain with him as his spouse. The Prophet ﷺ reproached the man for keeping her.
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Intercourse that results from ignorance of the fact or ignorance of the ruling is regarded as watiʾ shubha (intercourse under a mistaken assumption); there is no sin upon the parties, and any child born is affiliated to both parents.
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A marriage contract concluded between persons forbidden to one another because of suckling is void ab initio. The scholars unanimously agree on this; no formal annulment is required, for in reality no valid contract ever existed.
Scholarly disagreement
• Imām Abū Ḥanīfa held that women’s testimony on suckling is not accepted on its own; two men, or one man and two women, are required, citing the verse, “Call upon two of your men to witness; but if two men cannot be found, then one man and two women” (Quran 2:282).
• Imām Mālik maintained that only the testimony of two women is acceptable—a view shared by a number of the early scholars—arguing that whenever a right can be established by the testimony of one gender, two witnesses of that gender are necessary, just as with men.
• Imām al-Shāfiʿī required the testimony of four women, reasoning from the report in which the Prophet ﷺ said, “The testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of one man” (recorded by Muslim).
• Imām Aḥmad, together with a group of the early scholars, accepted the testimony of a single trustworthy woman, relying on the present ḥadīth.
Ibn al-Qayyim said, “If a woman testifies that she has suckled him and his wife, that testimony becomes binding upon him…”