Breastfeeding

The Prophet (ﷺ) pointed out that breastfeeding produces the same interdiction as produced by childbirth and blood relationships, like the maternal or paternal uncle or brother, and it permits the same rulings permitted due to childbirth.

1. The Hadīth represents a principle for the rulings related to breastfeeding.
2. Ibn Hajar said: His statement: (Breastfeeding produces the same interdiction that childbirth produces), i.e., it gives the same permissibility that childbirth gives. This is held by consensus concerning the prohibition of marriage and its consequences, the spread of prohibition between the infant and the children of the breastfeeding woman, and treating them like relatives in terms of the permissibility of looking, seclusion, and traveling. But this does not entail the rest of the rulings of motherhood, such as inheritance, the obligation of spending, emancipation through ownership, testimony, financial legal liability, and the revocation of legal retribution.
3. It establishes the ruling of permanent prohibition of marriage on account of breastfeeding.
4. Other Hadīths indicate that the prohibition of breastfeeding is established by five known sucklings, and that they should be in the first two years.
5. Women prohibited on account of marriage are: mothers, including grandmothers, and even their ascendants on the father's or mother's side. Daughters, including the daughters of daughters and the daughters of sons, and their descendants. Sisters, whether they are full sisters or half-sisters from the father's or mother's side. Paternal aunts, including all sisters of the father, whether they are full sisters or half-sisters, and also all sisters of grandfathers and their ascendants. Maternal aunts, including all sisters of the mother, whether they are full sisters or half-sisters, and also all sisters of grandmothers and their ascendants, whether they are grandmothers from the father's or mother's side. Daughters of the brother and daughters of the sister, including their daughters and their descendants.
6. Women who are prohibited due to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding prohibits what is prohibited by marriage. So, the like of every woman who is prohibited by marriage is also prohibited by breastfeeding, except for the mother of his brother and the sister of his son by breastfeeding—they are not prohibited.

صحيح البخاري (3/ 170) (2646). صحيح مسلم (2/ 1068) (1444). التحفة الربانية في شرح الأربعين حديثًا النووية، لإسماعيل الأنصاري (ص96). الأحاديث الأربعون النووية وعليها الشرح الموجز المفيد، لعبد الله المحسن (ص84).

‘‘Uqbah ibn al-Hārith married Umm Yahya bint Abi Ihāb, then a black slave-woman came and told him that she had nursed him and his wife, and that they are thus siblings through nursing. He reported her statement to the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and said that she was lying. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) rebuked him for his wish to keep his wife despite the testimony of that slave-woman, saying to him: How can you do that after the woman has given her statement and testified what she knew?

- صحيح البخاري؛ عناية محمد زهير الناصر، دار طوق النجاة، الطبعة الأولى، 1422هـ. - صحيح مسلم؛ حققه ورقمه محمد فؤاد عبد الباقي، دار عالم الكتب-الرياض، الطبعة الأولى، 1417هـ. - الإلمام بشرح عمدة الأحكام للشيخ إسماعيل الأنصاري-مطبعة السعادة-الطبعة الثانية 1392ه. - تيسير العلام شرح عمدة الأحكام-عبد الله البسام-تحقيق محمد صبحي حسن حلاق- مكتبة الصحابة- الشارقة- الطبعة العاشرة- 1426ه. - خلاصة الكلام شرح عمدة الأحكام- فيصل بن عبد العزيز بن فيصل ابن حمد المبارك الحريملي النجدي - الطبعة: الثانية، 1412 هـ - 1992

Umm Habībah, the daughter of Abu Sufyān, is one of the Mothers of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with them all), and she was ecstatic about her marriage to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him). So she asked the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) to marry her sister. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) expressed wonder at her request, due to women’s extreme jealousy regarding the matter, as she would allow herself to have a co-wife. Hence, he asked her in astonishment: Would you like that? And she replied in the affirmative. Then, she explained to him the reason why she wanted him to marry her sister. It was inevitable that she would have to share him with other women and that she would not be his only wife, so she wanted her sister to be the one who would share this great goodness with her . It was as if she was not aware of the prohibition of being married to two sisters at the same time. That is why the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) informed her that her sister was not lawful for him. Then, she told him that she heard that he would marry the daughter of Abu Salamah. So to be sure, he asked her: Do you mean the daughter of Umm Salamah? She said: Yes. Then, in order to clarify the falsehood of this rumor, he told her that the daughter of Umm Salamah was not lawful for him for two reasons: First: she is his stepdaughter whom he has brought up, because she is his wife’s daughter. Second: she is his niece through suckling, because Thuwaybah, the ex-slave girl of Abu Lahab, had breastfed him and her father Abu Salamah. So, he is her paternal uncle as well. So, he instructed them not offer him their daughters or sisters in marriage, for he knows better how to manage his affairs in this regard.

- صحيح البخاري –الجامع الصحيح-؛ للإمام أبي عبد الله محمد بن إسماعيل البخاري، عناية محمد زهير الناصر، دار طوق النجاة، الطبعة الأولى، 1422هـ. - صحيح مسلم؛ للإمام مسلم بن الحجاج، حققه ورقمه محمد فؤاد عبد الباقي، دار عالم الكتب-الرياض، الطبعة الأولى، 1417هـ. - الإلمام بشرح عمدة الأحكام للشيخ إسماعيل الأنصاري-مطبعة السعادة-الطبعة الثانية 1392ه. - تيسير العلام شرح عمدة الأحكام-عبد الله البسام-تحقيق محمد صبحي حسن حلاق- مكتبة الصحابة- الشارقة- الطبعة العاشرة- 1426ه.

'Ali ibn Abi Tālib (may Allah be pleased with him) wished that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) marry the daughter of their uncle, Hamzah. However, the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said that she was not permissible for him, because she was the daughter of his foster-brother. Indeed, the Prophet and his uncle Hamzah were breastfed by Thuwaybah, a slave of Abu Lahab. So Hamzah became the Prophet's foster-brother, and the Prophet became uncle of Hamzah's daughter. The rule is that things that are forbidden because of birth (blood relation) are likewise forbidden because of breastfeeding.

تيسير العلام شرح عمدة الأحكام للبسام، حققه وعلق عليه وخرج أحاديثه وصنع فهارسه: محمد صبحي بن حسن حلاق، ط10، مكتبة الصحابة، الإمارات - مكتبة التابعين، القاهرة، 1426 هـ. الإلمام بشرح عمدة الأحكام لإسماعيل الأنصاري، ط1، دار الفكر، دمشق، 1381ه. صحيح البخاري، تحقيق: محمد زهير بن ناصر الناصر، ط1، دار طوق النجاة (مصورة عن السلطانية بإضافة ترقيم: محمد فؤاد عبد الباقي)، 1422ه. صحيح مسلم، تحقيق: محمد فؤاد عبد الباقي، دار إحياء التراث العربي، بيروت.

According to this Hadīth, the Qur’an initially stated that ten times of confirmed breastfeeding make the breastfed person Mahram (unmarriageable) to those who shared breastfeeding from the same woman and their Mahram relatives. Yet, both the ruling and wording of this verse were abrogated and replaced with another verse stipulating five times of confirmed breastfeeding. Later, only the wording of the latter verse was abrogated while its ruling remained in force. As for ‘Ā'ishah's statement that the Prophet died while this verse was still being recited as part of the Qur'an, it means that the abrogation came so late that news of it did not reach some people and, thus, they continued reciting the abrogated verse as part of the Qur’an due to their ignorance of its abrogation.

- فتح ذي الجلال والاكرام بشرح بلوغ المرام، للشيخ ابن عثيمين، المكتبة الإسلامية - الطبعة الأولى 1427 - 2006م - توضِيحُ الأحكَامِ مِن بُلوُغ المَرَام، للبسام. مكتَبة الأسدي، مكّة المكرّمة. الطبعة: الخامِسَة، 1423 هـ - 2003 م - بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام، لابن حجر. دار القبس للنشر والتوزيع، الرياض - المملكة العربية السعودية الطبعة: الأولى، 1435 هـ - 2014 م - صحيح مسلم, ترقيم محمد فؤاد عبد الباقي, دار إحياء التراث العربي, بيروت. - شرح مصابيح السنة للإمام البغوي، لابن الملك. الناشر: إدارة الثقافة الإسلامية. الطبعة: الأولى، 1433 هـ - 2012 م - عون المعبود شرح سنن أبي داود، ومعه حاشية ابن القيم، للعظيم آبادي. دار الكتب العلمية – بيروت. الطبعة: الثانية، 1415 هـ - منحة العلام في شرح بلوغ المرام، لعبد الله الفوزان. دار ابن الجوزي. ط1 1428ه - تسهيل الالمام، للشيخ صالح الفوزان. طبعة الرسالة. الطبعة الأولى 1427 – 2006 م - تحفة الأحوذي بشرح جامع الترمذي، للمباركفورى . الناشر: دار الكتب العلمية - بيروت.