Is the story of the breastfeeding of Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hudhayfah, specific to him, or is it permissible for one whose situation is like Salim's, and clarification of the criterion for harm and ability

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : Regarding this, I am asking about the issue of the breastfeeding of Salim by Suhailah, the daughter of Suhayl. What is the ruling?The Shaykh : Is the story specific to Salim alone, as is the opinion of the majority, or does my Shaykh, for example, hold the view of Ibn Taymiyyah, which is that it applies to one whose situation is like Salim's?

The Shaykh : What is the opinion of Ibn Taymiyyah?

The questioner : Ibn Taymiyyah does not consider it specific to Salim alone, but rather it applies to one whose situation is like Salim's.

The Shaykh : This is our opinion. This is our opinion.

The questioner : I mean, how do we give a practical example?

The Shaykh : I gave examples of some settlers in France. We imagine a French family, for example, that was living in their disbelief and misguidance—may Allah reward you with good—that was living in their disbelief and misguidance. Two brothers, one of whom is married and the other is still single. They both embraced Islam, and the circumstances of the single one do not help him to live apart from his married brother until he gets married. So this dispensation can be utilized for this family: the brother is breastfed by his brother's wife, and he becomes a mahram (a relative one may not marry), and the problems that may arise from entering and leaving are removed, as was the case in the story I referred to earlier. In other words, and to summarize the matter, it is not permissible to expand upon this for the slightest occasion.

The questioner : What is the criterion?

The Shaykh : The criterion is dire necessity, and dire necessity is estimated according to its measure, like all matters. Can you set a criterion for the many, many matters that a person is exposed to, let alone other matters that not everyone is exposed to, but only some people, and even those only very rarely? What is the criterion in the case of the saying of Allah the Exalted: ? "As much as you are able." What is the definition? What is the criterion in His saying: ? What is the definition of ability for every person obligated to perform Hajj to the House of Allah the Sacred? What is the criterion in His saying, peace and blessings be upon him, derived from the Qur'an: ? Finally, ? What is the criterion? And after the last, and perhaps the very last, "except what you are compelled to eat" and so on. How does it remain? Who is the one who wants to define compulsion? Does he have to wait for the one who is exposed to destruction to see a Shaykh in that wilderness where there is no one, so that he can ask him and take a fatwa (a scholarly legal ruling) from him, or call him on the phone? And there is no phone there. Or does he have to judge himself? He judges himself, and he may be one of the most ignorant of people. If he is the one who determines whether he has fallen into this dire necessity or not, and so on, that is the matter we were discussing.