Back to search

Does my sister have the rights of a divorcee after her husband divorced her based on a fatwa prohibiting the marriage, even though the mother initially claimed to have breastfed my sister only once or twice, then later claimed five breastfeedings a year after the marriage?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The testimony of the nursing mother alone is not sufficient to establish the prohibition [of marriage due to fosterage] according to the majority of scholars. It is stipulated that she must be certain [of her testimony] and not under suspicion. The mother’s statements here are inconsistent and unreliable. The number of sucklings that establish prohibition is a matter of dispute, and the ultimate arbiter in matters of disagreement is the judiciary. If the judge rules that fosterage is established, the marriage is annulled, and the wife is entitled to the dower after consummation (either the stipulated dower or the dower of the like, depending on the differing schools of thought), and she is not entitled to maintenance unless she is pregnant. One should not sever ties of kinship with the paternal uncle even if he caused harm. If the prohibitive fosterage is not established, the woman remains a wife.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy