Question:
Our child needs supplemental mother’s milk. The hospital will provide from a shared milk supply with anonymous donors. What is the hukm to accept this milk?
Answer:
Waalaykumussalam,
Such milk is haram (categorically forbidden) unless it is a life-or-death necessity without any time for any alternative, and Allah knows best.
Milk-fosterage is closely analogous to lineage in Islam and the preservation of lineage is one of the major objectives of the sacred Law, whereas the anonymity of donors in milk banks — first started in the 1970s in the West — prevents knowledge of who the foster parents are which, for Muslims, precludes the licitness of the use of such milk. Hence the Jeddah Fiqh Council in its second world conference which took place in December 22-28, 1985, gave the fatwa that the use of anonymously-donated milk from milk banks is haram.
Allah Most High said,
حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أُمَّهاتُكُمْ وَبَناتُكُمْ وَأَخَواتُكُمْ وَعَمَّاتُكُمْ وَخالاتُكُمْ وَبَناتُ الْأَخِ وَبَناتُ الْأُخْتِ وَأُمَّهاتُكُمُ اللاَّتِي أَرْضَعْنَكُمْ وَأَخَواتُكُمْ مِنَ الرَّضاعَةِ (من سورة النساء 23)
{Made unlawful to you are your mothers; daughters; sisters; paternal aunts; maternal aunts; fraternal nieces; sororal nieces; foster-mothers; foster-sisters} (from Surat al-Nisa’ 4:23).
“Allah treats raḍāʿa ⁽breastfeeding⁾ as nasab ⁽lineage⁾ to the point He named one’s wet-nurse a mother and the [latter’s] female suckling a sister; its status is by exact analogy to lineage in consideration of the (i) wet-nurse and (ii) the father of the child by virtue of whom the milk ensued. The Prophet said–upon him the blessings and peace of Allah–“The same becomes prohibited, by virtue of breastfeeding, as what is prohibited by virtue of lineage.” [Narrated from ʿĀʾisha and Ibn ʿAbbās by Bukhārī (Shahādāt, al-shahāda ʿalā al-ansāb wal-raḍāʿ al-mustafīḍ etc.) and Muslim (Raḍāʿ, taḥrīm al-raḍāʿa min māʾ al-faḥl).] He–Most High–first mentioned lineage-based prohibitions then fosterage-based prohibitions, because the latter have a bond like the bond of lineage.” (Baydawi, Tafsir)
Five separate feedings from the same foster mother’s milk create a foster kinship whereby the baby beneficiary becomes an unmarriageable kin for life to the foster mother, her children and blood relatives, and any milk-siblings from the same foster mother. Since this relationship has the same importance as well as the same force and effect as the relationship of lineage, it is equally forbidden to conceal or suppress knowledge of either relationship. So the anonymity of milk banks is not allowed because it makes it impossible to fulfill the obligatory duty of knowing precisely and accurately who the donor is in order to apply the above ruling. Such gives rise to inexcusable ignorance of one’s kinships, which is haram.
If the donors are known but their respective milk donations have been mixed, then the beneficiary baby becomes unmarriageable kin to all of the donors and their kin and foster children. Otherwise the hukm is haram. And Allah knows best.
References: Wahbat al-Zuhayli, al-Fiqh al-Islami wa Adillatuh, 2nd ed., 8 vols. (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1405/1985) 7:697-716; 4th ed., 10 vols. (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1418/1997) 7:5085-5086 (1985 fatwa), 9:6633-6641, 10:7273-7294.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
