upon it (4). In a narration by Abu Dawood: "A woman shall not be married [as a co-wife] over her paternal aunt, nor the paternal aunt over her brother's daughter, nor a woman over her maternal aunt, nor the maternal aunt over her sister's daughter; the elder shall not be married over the younger, nor the younger over the elder" (4). This is because the underlying reason for the prohibition of combining two sisters is the causing of enmity between relatives, leading to the severing of kinship ties (5), and this is present in what we have mentioned. If they argue based on the generality of His statement, the Exalted: {And lawful to you are [all others] beyond these} (6), we have specified it by what we have narrated. It has reached us that two men from the Khawarij came to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, and among the things they objected to was the stoning of the two adulterers (7), and the prohibition of combining a woman with her paternal aunt, and with her maternal aunt, saying: "This is not in the Book of Allah the Almighty." He said to them: "How many prayers has Allah obligated upon you?" They said: "Five prayers in the day and night." He asked them about the number of their units (rak'at), and they informed him of that. He asked them about the amount of zakat and its thresholds, and they informed him. He said: "Where (9) do you find that in the Book of Allah?" They said: "We do not find it in the Book of Allah." He said: "Then from where did you come to that?" They said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the Muslims after him did it." He said: "Then likewise is this." Furthermore, there is no difference between a maternal aunt and a paternal aunt, whether by lineage or metaphorically, such as the paternal aunts of her parents and their maternal aunts, and the maternal aunts of her mothers and their maternal aunts, even if their degrees of separation are high, whether that be from lineage or from (10) nursing. Thus, for any two individuals where it is not permissible for one of them to marry the other—if one were male and the other female—due to kinship, it is not permissible to combine them, due to this leading to the severing (11) of close kinship ties, because of the rivalry and jealousy inherent in human nature (12) between...