Points derived from the ḥadith:

1. Allah, the Exalted, says: “Mothers shall nurse their children for two complete years—that is for those who wish to complete the nursing term” (2:233). At this age a child’s proper nourishment is his mother’s milk; it is the food from which he truly benefits, and he gains no comparable benefit from any other source, for it has been composed and prepared by the All-Wise, All-Aware, Who knows the infant’s condition and what suits him at this stage.

2. Accordingly, the noble ḥadiths fix the period during which a child’s body can profit from nursing. The Prophet ﷺ said, “No nursing counts except what takes place within the first two years” (reported by al-Daraqutni). And in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, ʿĀʾishah relates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Nursing that establishes the legal bond is that which satisfies hunger.”

3. Other ḥadiths show that the nursing which establishes the legal prohibition of marriage is the one that serves as the child’s sole food—whether viewed in terms of its being a woman’s milk or its divinely fashioned quantity and composition. Thus he ﷺ said, “A single suckle, or even two, do not create the prohibition” (reported by al-Bukhari); “One suckle, or even two, do not create the prohibition” (reported by Muslim); “No nursing counts except that which causes the bones to grow and the flesh to develop” (reported by Abū Dāwūd); and “Nothing of nursing creates the prohibition except what opens the intestines and occurs before weaning” (reported by al-Tirmidhī, graded sound by al-Ḥākim).

4. All the foregoing has been cited to show that plentiful nursing during this early stage plays a major role in a child’s upbringing and bodily growth; by Allah’s permission this nourishment is converted into various forms of bodily energy, including mental and intellectual energy.

5. For this reason came the prohibition against employing a foolish woman as a wet-nurse. Dr. Muḥammad ʿAlī al-Barr writes: “There is no doubt that the wet-nurse influences the newborn through her character,”