If an Adopted Child Is Breastfed, Will the Adoptive Parent Become Mahram?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Is it allowed in Islam to adopt a child or an orphan? And if the adoptive parents breastfeed him, can the adoptive parents be mahram with the adoptive child through milk?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.
According to the Hanafi school, an adopted child does not become a mahram unless you breastfed it when it was under the age of two years old, with certain conditions fulfilled.
When a baby under 2 lunar years is fed any breastmilk, then he/she becomes the milk son/daughter of the woman who fed him, and she thus becomes his milk mother, etc. After a child is two lunar years, it is not permitted to feed him breastmilk, nor does it make the woman his milk mother and mahram. [Maydani, al-Lubab Fi Sharh al-Kitab]
I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. You will receive a detailed answer, guidance, and advice in sha’ Allah.
Related:
- The Position of Islam on Divorce, Adoption and Abortion. [Video]
- The Fiqh of Adoption.
- Adoption Archives.
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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
