Breastfeeding in Islam

Several Qur'anic verses, all dating from the Medinan period, lay down the Islamic ethic of breastfeeding and refer to the nursing of Islamic prophet Moses to emphasize the loving bond between baby Moses and his mother. Therefore prohibits a man from having sexual relations with his "milk mother" or "milk sister"; hadith explain that the wet-nurse's husband is also included as a milk kin, eg. a woman may not marry her wet-nurse's husband. According to scholars, this prohibition is not found in the Jewish and Christian tradition, though it is found in matrilineal groups. == In Islamic law ==

Breastfeeding is considered one of the most fundamental rights of a child in Islamic law. Muslim jurists have given extensive treatment to this topic, for example Al-Mawardi (d. 1058) wrote an entire treatise, Kitab al-rada, on the topic of breastfeeding. If the parents of the child are divorced, the father must compensate his former wife with payments during breastfeeding. The Jafaris hold that a mother has the right to compensation for breastfeeding even if the parents are married. Breastfeeding in Ramadan If a woman is breastfeeding, they do not have to fast during Ramadan, but they can choose to fast if they want to. Fasting can cause difficulties in breastfeeding. Milk kinship for infants The Qur'an regards breastfeeding to establish milk kinship which has implications for marriage. Islamic jurisprudence extensively discusses the precise delineation of which relationships are subject to prohibition once the milk relationship is established. Shi'ite Islam also prohibits marriage to the consanguineous kin of a milk-parent as per the Qur'an. In Shi'ite societies, the wet nurse was always from a subordinate group, so that marriage to her kin would not have been likely. Texts mentioned that Ahmad ibn Hanbal, founder of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence, also dealt with similar questions. The minimum number of sucklings necessary to establish the milk-kinship has been the subject of extensive debate. For the adherents of older schools of law, such as the Malikis and Hanafis, one suckling was enough. Others, such as the Shafiʿis, maintain that the minimum number was five or ten, arguing that a Qur'ānic verse had once stipulated this number until had been abrogated from the Qur'ānic text, but the ruling was still in place. Imam Malik, however, believed that the ruling was abrogated along with the wording. Breastfeeding in infancy is also used as a method to formally adopt a child in Islam. == Adult suckling ==

The following tradition (hadith) treats both this topic as well as that of radāʿ al-kabīr, or suckling of an adult or breastfeeding an adult and number of sucklings: Urwah ibn al-Zubayr reports that the Prophet commanded the wife of Abū Hudhayfa to feed her husband's mawlā [i.e. servant], Sālim, so that he could go on living with them [upon attaining manhood]. For most jurists (Ibn Hazm being one prominent exception), the bar to marriage was effective only if the nursling was an infant. Yet even these allowed that a new relationship resulted between the two; Ibn Rushd, for example, ruled that the woman could now comport herself more freely in front of the nursed adult male, such as appearing before him unveiled. The traditionist Muhammad al-Bukhari was forced to resign his position of mufti and leave the city of Bukhara after ruling that two nurslings who suckled from the same farm animal became milk-siblings. == See also ==