Accordingly, al-Shāfiʿī and ʿAṭāʾ held that the testimony of four women is required, because two women stand in the place of one man.

Mālik and al-Ḥakam maintained that only the testimony of two women is admissible, arguing that men provide the more complete form of testimony, and even there the Law demands two men.

The Ḥanafīs ruled that the matter is established only by two men, or by one man together with two women, citing the verse: “Call to witness two of your men; but if two men are not available, then a man and two women” (Q 2:282).

The majority do not act upon the hadith in question, interpreting it instead as a recommendation arising from precautionary piety, with the prohibition understood as mildly dissuasive (tanzīh).

Imām Aḥmad—alone among the four leading Imams—considered the foster-relationship proven by the testimony of one trustworthy woman. A similar view is related from ʿUthmān and Ibn ʿAbbās, and it was also adopted by Ṭāwūs, al-Ḥasan, al-Zuhrī, al-Awzāʿī and Isḥāq.

The evidence for this opinion is the very hadith under discussion, whose explanation has preceded; it is a clear and sound proof. Allah alone grants success.

Benefit
The details of foster-breastfeeding ought to be carefully recorded and preserved at the time they occur. One should note who nursed one’s child, who else shared in that nursing, who drank from whose milk, together with the number of feeds and their timing, so that no complications arise after marriage—leading to separation, regret, children being scattered, sorrow over what is past, and other serious harms.

Hadith Six
Al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib (may Allah be pleased with him) said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ departed—that is, from Mecca—the daughter of Ḥamzah followed them, calling out, “Uncle!” ʿAlī reached for her, took her by the hand, and said to Fāṭimah, “Here is your cousin; take her,” so she lifted the child up. ʿAlī, Jaʿfar, and Zayd then disputed over her guardianship.

ʿAlī said, “I have the strongest claim to her; she is my uncle’s daughter.”

Jaʿfar said, “She is my uncle’s daughter, and her maternal aunt is under my care,”

while Zayd said, “She is my brother’s daughter.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ awarded her to her maternal aunt, saying, “The maternal aunt is like the mother.”

He said to ʿAlī, “You are of me, and I am of you,”
said to Jaʿfar, “You resemble me in appearance and in character,”
and said to Zayd, “You are our brother and our ally.” (1)