the Believers, who said: ‘My uncle through breastfeeding came and asked permission to enter, but I refused to admit him until I had asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.’ ‘Ā’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: ‘When the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came, I asked him about it. He said, “He is your uncle, so let him in.” I said, “O Messenger of Allah, it was the woman who nursed me, not the man.” He replied, “He is your uncle, so he may enter your presence.”’ ‘Ā’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: ‘This was after we had been commanded to observe the veil.’” ‘Ā’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “What is forbidden through birth is also forbidden through breastfeeding.”

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Were it not for this hadith, including ‘Ā’ishah’s words, “O Messenger of Allah, it was the woman who nursed me, not the man,” and the Messenger’s response to her, someone who did not consider milk attributable to a man to establish a marriage prohibition might have offered another explanation. She had thought that milk established a prohibition only through the woman, not through the man; his response, however, made her understand that the milk is attributable to the man and establishes a prohibition through him just as it does through the woman. Without this, someone holding the contrary view might have said: “The marriage prohibition concerning ‘Ā’ishah’s uncle Aflah did not arise through the man to whom the milk was attributable. It is possible that Aflah, the brother of Abū al-Qu‘ays, and Abū Bakr al-Siddīq were nursed by the same woman during their respective two-year nursing periods. Aflah would thereby have become her father’s brother and her uncle through breastfeeding on account of the nursing woman, not the man to whom the milk was attributable.”

This possibility was ruled out by the statement in the hadith, “It was the woman who nursed me, not the man.” It was thus established that the woman who nursed them both was the wife of Abū al-Qu‘ays, and that Aflah, Abū al-Qu‘ays’s brother by blood, became her uncle through breastfeeding on account of the man to whom the milk was attributable, as mentioned in the hadith. And Allah knows best.

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Explaining How the Marriage Prohibition Established by Breastfeeding Extends

Through the nursing woman, the marriage prohibition established by breastfeeding extends to her mother and father and all their ascendants; to her children and all their descendants, male and female; and to her brothers and sisters, paternal uncles and aunts, and maternal uncles and aunts themselves, but not to any of their children. The reason the prohibition does not extend