The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine

For the interest of the health and the well-being of child, some Muslim jurists allow the prevention, and even termination of pregnancy, if the mother is still breast-feeding. They argue that the living child has priority over a fetus still in the womb to receive the mother’s nutritious milk. Other matters concerning the health of a child are contained in the hadith:  “I intend to prohibit ghilah,[12] but I considered the Persians and the Greeks and saw that they suckled their children during pregnancy without any injury being caused to their children as a result.”[13] It clearly seems from this wise counsel that  the Prophet (s.a.w), in a very beginning, intends to prohibit sexual intercourse with a woman in lactation, however, when he learnt from other cultures most notably Persian and Greek, he decided not to prohibit it. This is due to the fact, if sexual intercourse during the breast-feeding period was completely forbidden, it would put a husband to great deal of inconvenience, since the suckling period lasts for two years. Those who can afford to maintain more than one wife justly, as required by Islam, can follow the polygamous way of life. But this is not possible for everyone. Taking all human problems into consideration, Ibn al-Qayyim (d.750/1350), in discussing the lawfulness of sexual intercourse with a nursing mother in order to protect the suckling infant from any possible harm resulting from such intercourse, says:

The Prophet (s.a.w) saw that pregnancy harms the suckling infant in the same way as being thrown off a horse harms a rider: it is injurious, but not to the extent of killing the baby. He advised them to avoid intercourse leading to pregnancy while the woman is nursing an infant but did not prohibit it. He then intended to prohibit it in order to save the health of the suckling child, but realized that the resulting hardship to the husband, especially for young ones, would be much more injurious to the society. Striking a balance between these matters, therefore, he preferred not to prohibit it. Moreover, he saw that (in) the two most powerful and populous nations of that time, (women) suckled their children during pregnancy without its affecting their strength or numbers, and accordingly he refrained from prohibiting it.[14]

          As mentioned that due to unfavorable circumstance and conditions, Islamic family law allows that child may be suckled by wet-nurse who is not child’s mother, with the condition that woman must be free from any mental and physical diseases and she bears a good character. In this case, if a woman can be found who will nurse the child voluntarily, she is more suitable than the mother, if the mother refuses to suckle the child.[15] In relation to this, there is a distinct difference between Islamic family law and other family laws, when it comes to the question concerning the relationship between persons related to each other by suckling.[16] The Islamic rule on this subject as recorded in the authentic hadith, “Allah has forbidden relations between persons related to each other by suckling (al-rida‘), like those who are related by blood.”[17] This indicates that Islamic family law is giving so much important about the suckling of a child by ruling that if a woman, other than the mother suckles a child, she becomes a mother, since her milk becomes the composite of the infant’s flesh and blood. This relationship is not only limited to the woman concerned, but also affects her husband and children who attain the status of a father, a brother and a sister respectively. They are called foster mother, foster brother and foster sister and they cannot marry each other.[18]

          It is important in this issue to know that according to Islamic family law, the prohibition of marriage based on fosterage is effective only if the suckling occurred before the time of weaning; whereby the breast milk is the primary source of food. Another condition is that the child has suckled its fill on five separate occasions, a fill being defined as when the child leaves off suckling of its own accord.[19] Experimentally calculations suggest that such intakes provide reasonable occasions to form the tissues of a child. Thus, Muslim scholars give the reason for the prohibition of marriage between persons related to each other by suckling by saying that breast-feeding is linked to the mother, since she is responsible for the formation of tissues, i.e., the combination of the tissue build-up and skeleton essence. Furthermore, she is responsible for the body development in her womb, since her wet-nurse supplies the baby’s nourishment during the first stage of its growth. Therefore, it is rational to call her, as Islamic family law had ruled, a mother, after the (biological) mother, and her children become brothers or sisters to the biological mother’s offspring.[20]

[12] Ghilah is the act of sexual intercourse with a woman in lactation. See, Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-`Arab, 6 vols. (Cairo: dar al-Ma`arif, n.d), s.v. “gh-ya-la,” 5: 3329.

[13] Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Nikah, Bab Jawaz al-ghilah wahiya wat’ al-murda‘ wa karahah al-`azl, hadith no 1442.

[14] Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma`ad, 5: 147-8.

[15] If it is found that the mother who does not suckle her child, due to the fear of losing her beauty and shape, she is regarded as the most ruthless one. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w) who warned the women who refuse to suckle their children, by describing the events during his journey mi`raj (night of ascension), mentioned that when he was taken further ahead and saw some women whose breasts were being continuously bitten by snakes. On asking about the identity of these women he was told that those were the women who did not suckle their children.

[16] The specific work on family law: comparative study between Arab laws, Islamic, Jewish and Christian laws, Roman and French law which treat this subject with considerable detail is ‘Ala Eddin Kharofa, al-Ahwal al-Shaksiyyah, 2 vols. (Baghdad: Matba‘ah al-Ma‘arif, 1963).

[17] Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Nikah, Bab tahrim al-Jam‘ bayna al-Mar’ah wa khalatiha, hadith no 1447; Muhammad Fu’ad ‘Abd al-Baqi, Lu’lu’ wal-Marjan, Kitab al-Rida‘, Bab ma yuhram min al-Rida‘ah ma yuhram min al-wiladah, ahadith no 916.

[18] For this rule, Allah (s.w.t) mentions in Holy Qur’an: “And (forbidden to you are) your foster mothers and your foster sister. (4: 23). For details, see Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma‘ad, 5: 556-7; al-Shafi`i, al-Umm, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Ma`rifah li al-Tawzi’ wa al-Nashr, n.d), 5: 24-5; Wahbah al-Zuhayli, al-Fiqh al-Islami wa Adillatuhu, 10 vols. (Damascus : Dar al-Fikr al-Mu`asir, 1997, 4^th edn) 9: 6633-34.

[19] Al-Shafi`i, al-Umm, 5: 27; Kharofa, AS, 2: 199.

[20] Ibn Qudamah, al-Mughni, 9 vols. (Riyadh: Maktabah al-Riya\ al-Hadithah, 1981), 6: 572-3; Wahbah al-Zuhayli, al-Fiqh al-Islami wa Adillatuhu, 10 vols. (Damascus : Dar al-Fikr al-Mu`asir, 1997, 4^th edn), 9: 6640-1.