Breast-feeding by One’s Grandmother
Question: I am a young man, about twenty years old and, praise be to Allah, financially comfortable. I wish to marry the daughter of my maternal uncle or the daughter of my maternal aunt. I was surprised, however, when my grandmother—my mother’s mother—told me that she had nursed me many times while my mother was ill. May I marry the daughter of my uncle or the daughter of my aunt? Do the same prohibitions apply to my brothers, even though they were not nursed by our grandmother? Please note that I did not nurse alongside the very uncle or aunt whose daughters I hope to marry; rather, I nursed alongside their sister, who is separated from them by about three brothers. All of them share the same mother—my maternal grandmother—and the same father—my maternal grandfather.

Answer: Since you were nursed by your grandmother with the type of nursing that renders marriage unlawful—five separate sucklings within the first two years of life—it is not permissible for you to marry either your uncle’s daughter or your aunt’s daughter. You are considered their milk-uncle, and the prohibition extends to every daughter of any of your maternal uncles or aunts, because the ruling applies collectively. Your grandmother is, by lineage, the mother of your uncles and aunts, and through breast-feeding she has also become your mother; therefore, all of their descendants are forbidden to you.

As for your brothers who were not nursed by your grandmother, there is no impediment preventing them from marrying the daughters of their uncles or aunts; the ruling that applies to you on account of your breast-feeding does not extend to them.