This is an authentic hadith; no one disputes its soundness. Nevertheless, the scholars who insist upon the two-year limit answer it in one of two ways.

First, some claim it is abrogated. Yet any allegation of abrogation requires knowing the chronological order of the texts, and in this case we have no knowledge of which came earlier and which later. Moreover, had it truly been abrogated, those who debated ʿĀʾishah on this issue—among the Prophet’s wives and others—would certainly have said so.

The second answer is to allege particularization: they regard this hadith as a special concession granted solely to Sālim and Sahlah, not to anyone else. They explain that Sahlah came complaining, anxious about sin and hardship after the verse of veiling was revealed, so the Prophet ﷺ gave her a dispensation, effectively exempting her from the general rule.

They add: this path is necessary; otherwise we would be forced into one of two untenable courses—either abrogating this hadith with the reports that restrict the prohibition to early childhood, or abrogating those reports with this hadith. That is impossible, for we do not know which of them preceded the other. By adopting the view of particularization, we can act upon all the hadiths: this report remains specific to Sālim and Sahlah, while the others apply to the rest of the community.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah advocated a fourth position: the concession of adult suckling is general for anyone whose circumstances resemble those of Sahlah. He treated this as a middle course that reconciles the evidence, since abrogation cannot be invoked where the chronology of the texts is unknown.

The claim that the ruling was exclusive to Sālim alone is unproven; rather, it applies to anyone in a comparable situation to him and to the wife of Abū Ḥudhayfah—someone from whom complete seclusion is hard to maintain and whose entry and private interaction are indispensable.

Ibn al-Qayyim preferred this approach in Zād al-Maʿād, saying: “It is superior to both abrogation and the claim of exclusivity for a single individual; it allows us to act upon all the reports on both sides, and the principles of the law support it. Allah is the One who grants success.”