Social Matters | Apr 23, 2026 | 1 min read

Are cousin marriages incest, even across multiple generations?

Question

In the west, cousin marriage is considered incest. I have tried to explain that the cousin may be related but they are not related like their mothers might be sisters but they will marry husbands from other families but in the case where the mothers married their cousins too and the children marry the each other, is that incest.

Islamic Ruling & Answer

Verified

In Islamic law (including Hanafi fiqh), incest only refers to those relationships in which marriage is permanently forbidden such as mother, sister, daughter, aunt (maternal or paternal), grandmother, etc. (these are called mahram relations).

Cousins (paternal or maternal) are not mahram, so marriage with them is allowed in Islam and is not considered incest.

Even if the mothers themselves married their cousins, and in the next generation the cousins also marry each other, it still does not become a forbidden (mahram) relationship. Therefore, it remains permissible and is not incest.

Answered by

Mufti Tosif Qasmi

April 23, 2026

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