Rules of Breastfeeding in Islamic Jurisprudence

Abstract

 The study of (Ridaa) has a major importance. It causes many interpretations because it will consider a forbidden marriage aimlessly, the research can be summed up as follows: 1- Suckling (Ridaa) refers to the process of breastfeeding in which the woman’s milk gets into the baby’s stomach by suckling it from the breast; or what may stand for breastfeeding based on certain conditions. 2- In Islamic jurisprudence, breastfeeding is permissible according to the Quran and the Prophet’s Sunna tradition; and the case of its injunction is also set in both the Quran and the Prophet’s Sunna tradition. Suckling prohibits what blood relations prohibit. It produces a legal impediment to marriage as it establishes a “foster-kinship” through which the wet nurse and her husband become the parents of the unrelated nursling (baby).  3- Breastfeeding is not mandatory (mandoub) in the part of the mother. However, she is bound to breastfeed the baby so long as the baby needs that to avoid getting any harm. 4- The lactating mother is the mother who breastfeeds her own child. This name may be given to any woman who breastfeeds the child. Breastfeeding is the right of the mother and the one who is responsible for breastfeeding is the father. 5- The breast milk, which incurs the legal marriage prohibition, is the milk of the woman, not the man's milk. If the man's milk may exist, it refers to laban al-fahl, the "milk of the sire", which is referred to in the Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) by the classical jurists (fuqaha) as the “husband's milk”; and the subsequent impact of such milk’s prohibition upon the wet nurse's husband and her consanguinity relations. 6- The suckling necessary to establish foster-kinship is the infant’s breastfeeding that nourishes the baby’s flesh and bones below the age of two years.  7- The lactating mother, whoever she is, should be paid for breastfeeding if she asks for that. 8- The minimal number of breast-feedings necessary to establish foster-kinship was a subject of extensive debate. For precaution, any amount of breast milk suckling can establish foster-kinship whether less or more. Some said that the minimal number of breast-feedings should be five attested full satisfying breast-feeds. Others held different opinions. The exact number of breast-feeds in each suckling is left to be determined according to conventions. 9- It is preferred that the breastfeeding is based on witnessed evidence. It can be attested by the witness of a single woman and a man. 10- The costs of the baby’s breastfeeding should be from the property of the baby itself if he/she owns a property; otherwise, it is to be paid by his own father or legal patron.

 There are many interpretations and questions of what was mentioned before, the reader can find the answer throughout reading the research.