(About) Who Was Made Prohibited Through Adult Fosterage — Sunan Abi Dawud 2061

'A'ishah, the wife of the Prophet (ﷺ), and Umm Salamah reported that Abu Hudhaifah ibn 'Utbah ibn Rabi'ah ibn 'Abd Shams had adopted Salim as a son and married him to his brother's daughter, Hind bint al-Walid ibn 'Utbah ibn Rabi'ah. He was the client of a woman from the Ansar, just as the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) had adopted Zayd. In the pre-Islamic period, whenever a man adopted someone, the people would call him by the adopted father's name and he would inherit from him, until Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, revealed concerning this: Call them by (the names of) their fathers... up to His statement: ...and your brothers in religion and your clients. So they were returned to their fathers. As for the one whose father was not known, he remained a client and a brother in religion.

Then Sahlah bint Suhayl ibn 'Amr al-Qurashi, then al-'Amiri — who was the wife of Abu Hudhaifah — came and said, "O Messenger of Allah, we used to consider Salim as a son, and he used to dwell with me and Abu Hudhaifah in a single house, and he saw me in a state of undress. Now Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has revealed concerning them what you know, so what do you think about him?" The Prophet (ﷺ) said to her, "Suckle him." She suckled him five times, and he attained the status of her nursing child. Because of this, 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) used to command the daughters of her sisters and brothers to suckle whomever 'A'ishah wished to see and to enter upon her, even if he were grown, five times of suckling, after which he could enter upon her.

Umm Salamah and the rest of the wives of the Prophet (ﷺ) refused to let anyone enter upon them on the basis of that suckling unless the suckling occurred during infancy. They said to 'A'ishah, "By Allah, we do not know; perhaps that was a concession granted by the Prophet (ﷺ) specifically for Salim to the exclusion of the people."