The father’s (ex-)wife is a mahram to his sons even if she did not bear him any children
Question: 134166
My father married his cousin (the daughter of his paternal uncle), but she did not bear him any children, so he divorced her. After that he married another woman, and she is my mother. Is it permissible for me to greet my father’s first wife with salaam or not?
Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.
Your father’s
wife is a mahram to you, whether she bore children or not.
If he only did the
marriage contract with her, and did not consummate the marriage with her,
then she is still a mahram to you, because Allah, may He be exalted, said
(interpretation of the meaning): “And
marry not women whom your fathers married”
[an-Nisa’ 4:22].
The wives of fathers and grandfathers become mahrams (to sons and grandsons)
as soon as the marriage contract is done. Even if your grandfather or father
did not consummate the marriage with her, she is still a mahram to you. If
he did consummate the marriage with her and lived with her, then it is more
definite that she is a mahram to you, even if she did not bear children.
To sum up: the
wives of fathers and grandfathers are mahrams (to sons and grandsons)
regardless of whether they bore children to your father and grandfathers or
not. And Allah knows best.
End quote
Shaykh ‘Abd
al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him).
Source:
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azez ibn Baz Fatawa Noor ‘ala ad-Darb
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