in the hadith:

“My son Ibrāhīm died while still a nursing infant.”

That is, while he was still of nursing age. This does not imply that there is no breastfeeding after two years, or after weaning, even if weaning occurs before two full years.

A group of earlier and later scholars held that breastfeeding an adult establishes a marriage prohibition. They cited the report in Sahīh Muslim and elsewhere from Zaynab bint Umm Salamah:

“Umm Salamah said to ‘Ā’ishah, ‘An adolescent boy enters your presence whom I would not like to enter mine.’ ‘Ā’ishah replied, ‘Do you not have a good example in the Messenger of Allah?’ She said, ‘The wife of Abū Hudhayfah said, “O Messenger of Allah, Sālim enters my presence, although he is a grown man, and Abū Hudhayfah feels some unease about him.” The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Breastfeed him so that he may enter your presence.”’”

In a version narrated by Mālik in al-Muwatta’, he said:

“Breastfeed him five times.”

He thus had the status of his child through breastfeeding. ‘Ā’ishah acted upon this hadith, while the other wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, declined to do so—even though ‘Ā’ishah herself narrated that he said:

“Breastfeeding counts only when it satisfies hunger.”

She nevertheless distinguished between breastfeeding intended to establish a relationship and breastfeeding intended to provide nourishment. When the latter is intended, only breastfeeding before weaning establishes a marriage prohibition. This is the breastfeeding ordinarily practised by people. As for the former, it is permissible when there is a need to establish a relationship that permanently precludes marriage. A need may render permissible what would otherwise not be permissible. This is a tenable view.

Human milk is ritually pure according to the majority of scholars. Some later scholars, however, questioned this and declared it impure.