Adult Suckling: Difference between revisions

'''Adult suckling''' (Arabic: '''رَضَاعَةُ الْكَبِيرِ'''), or the act of breastfeeding a male adult, is mentioned in several relied-upon collections of [[Hadith|hadiths]]. According to five hadiths in [[Sahih Muslim]], [[Muhammad]] once plainly instructed the daughter of a [[Sahabah|companion]] named Suhail to suckle a "grown-up" freedman named Salim so that Salim would become the daughter's ''mahram'', or a relation whom the daughter could no longer marry, and thus render Salim's cohabitation with the family appropriate and [[Shari'ah (Islamic Law)|legal]].<ref>[https://quranx.com/Hadith/Muslim/Reference/Hadith-1453 Sahih Muslim, hadiths 3424-3428]</ref> Reports in the Muwatta of Imam Malik<ref>{{Muwatta|30|3|17}}</ref> and Sunan Abu Dawud<ref>{{Ibn Majah|9|3|9|1944}}</ref> add that this instruction was reified by a verse in the [[Qur'an]], Islam's holy scripture, which was still present in the Qur'an after [[Muhammad's Death|Muhammad's death]], indicating that it had not been [[Naskh (Abrogation)|abrogated]] by Muhammad while he was alive. The report in Sunan Abu Dawud continues with [[Aisha]], Muhammad's favorite wife, reporting that while she was "preoccupied with [Muhammad's] death", "a tame sheep came in and ate" the scrap of paper upon which the verse of "breastfeeding an adult" was written.

Following the publication of a book in Egypt promoting adult suckling by Dr. Abd Al-Mahdi Abd Al-Qadir, a scholar at al-Azhar (the "Harvard of Islam"), another scholar at al-Azhar, Dr. Izzat Atiyya, published a fatwa promoting the practice in a widely-read weekly magazine in 2007, causing national and international controversy. The Egyptian government subsequently called for the removal of the relevant edition of the magazine from sellers' shelves and Dr. Atiyya was suspended from his post at al-Azhar.

Hadiths regarding adult suckling are also found in the Muwatta of Imam Malik, the Sunan of Ibn Majah, and the Musnad of Imam Ahmad. {{Quote|{{Muwatta|30|3|17}}|Yahya related to me from Malik from Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Hazm from Amra bint Abd ar-Rahman that A'isha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "'''Amongst what was sent down of the Qur'an was 'ten known sucklings make haram' - then it was abrogated by 'five known sucklings'.''' When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, died, it was what is now recited of the Qur'an."

“Once of the things that Allah revealed in the the Qur'an and then abrogated [the word translated as "abrogated" is سقط, which means "dropped"<ref>[http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=h496,ll=1426,ls=h5,la=h2037,sg=h517,ha=h337,br=h466,pr=h78,aan=h272,mgf=h431,vi=h193,kz=h1116,mr=h316,mn=h640,uqw=h781,umr=h509,ums=h430,umj=h372,ulq=h938,uqa=h200,uqq=h155,bdw=h435,amr=h309,asb=h460,auh=h756,dhq=h262,mht=h420,msb=h113,tla=h57,amj=h360,ens=h191,mis=h1035 Lane's Lexicon سقط]</ref> and not نسخ, which is the word used to refer to legal [[Abrogation|abrogation]]<ref>[http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=h1141,ll=2886,ls=h54,la=h4406,sg=h1135,ha=h777,br=h958,pr=h155,aan=h662,mgf=h807,vi=h370,kz=h2649,mr=h721,mn=h1412,uqw=h1643,umr=h1073,ums=h905,umj=h842,ulq=h1662,uqa=h417,uqq=h393,bdw=h878,amr=h631,asb=h985,auh=h1607,dhq=h562,mht=h895,msb=h237,tla=h95,amj=h826,ens=h191,mis=h2189 Lane's Lexicon نسخ]</ref>, including by the Qur'an itself<ref>{{quran|2|106}}</ref>] was that '''nothing makes marriage prohibited except ten breastfeedings or five well-known (breastfeedings''').” (Sahih)}}

 

 

 

The Muslim Brotherhood also criticized the fatwa harshly and took the matter to parliament. Despite 50 Egyptian MPs discussing the matter however, they "refrained from submitting a parliamentary question in order to avoid creating too big an uproar".<ref name=":0" />{{Core Women}}

 

[[Category:Islam and Women]]

[[Category:Islamic Law]]