Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discusses “mahramiya” rulings in daily scholarly session

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Monday, the first of Sha’ban. In this session, just like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudential issues.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discussed some rulings of “mahramiya” after marriage, and said: If someone marries a woman who has an adult son, if this son marries and becomes father of a girl, the daughter of this son will be mahram to the woman’s husband, who is in fact the husband of the boy’s mother.

His Eminence mentioned the consensus of fuqaha as the only reason for this issue and said: The Qur’an only uses the expression “rababikum”, which means the daughters of this woman mentioned earlier, and not the daughters of this woman’s son. But, according to the consensus of fuqaha, the daughters of this woman’s son are also mahram and apparently there is no difference in this regard among jurists.

He further said: But this son does not become mahram to anyone. If this child was a girl, she would become mahram to her mother’s husband. This son is not mahram to the husband’s other wife, because that man is not his real father. The wife of a biological father becomes mahram to the son, but not the wife of a mother’s husband. And, also, he is not mahram to the daughters of that man. Also, he is not mahram to his mother’s mother-in-law, and he can even marry them.

The term “mahramiya” is derived from the Arabic word “mahram,” which refers to a close relative with whom marriage is prohibited.