Is Brother-in-law a Mahram?

By Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Posted: 16 Jamad-ul-Awwal 1423, 27 July 2002


Q.) Is the husband of a woman's sister mahram for her? Some people say that since no two sisters can be joined with one husband and mahram is one whom you cannot marry therefore he is mahram for all sisters of his wife.

What I think is that the Qur'anic condition for mahram is that it is one whom you can NEVER marry (with whom, this relation never changes).However, in this case, wife might be divorced later on and thus other sisters become eligible again to marry him. [Azfar Kazmi]


A.) Rasulullah Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam said, '(Alhamwu al-mawt) Brother-in-law is death.'

The above Hadith is clear that there should be Hijaab between the sister's husband.

Allah Ta'ala Knows Best

Albalagh Note: Your argument is valid. Amplifying it Maulana Ashiq Ilahi Bulandshahri writes that if current ineligibility of marriage were the basis for declaring mahrams, then all men would become mahrams for all married women in the world.