Effect of Breast Feeding on Marriage
Question:
Salam,
My question is that does breast feeding during sex break the nikah?
Answer:
Salam,
What you are asking about is based on the fact that breast feeding can make a person mahram (i.e. entering a kinship that disallows marriage) to the woman who has breast feed him. The question is based on the assumption that anyone who drinks the milk of a woman will become mahram to her.
This assumption however is far from the truth.
First, the way the Qur’an refers to this, it is very clear that only breast feeding during infancy counts. Note the emphasis on the word Ummahatukum (your mothers) in the following verse:
... حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أُمَّهاتُكُمْ وَ بَناتُكُمْ وَ أَخَواتُكُمْ وَ عَمَّاتُكُمْ وَ خالاتُكُمْ وَ بَناتُ الْأَخِ وَ بَناتُ الْأُخْتِ وَ أُمَّهاتُكُمُ اللاَّتي أَرْضَعْنَكُمْ وَ أَخَواتُكُمْ مِنَ الرَّضاعَة
Forbidden to you are your mothers and your daughters and your sisters and your paternal aunts and your maternal aunts and brother's daughters and sister's daughters and your mothers that have suckled you and your foster sisters … (4:23)
We also have a number of Hadiths confirming the above:
Yahya related from Malik that Yahya ibn Said said that he heard Said ibn al-Musayyab say, "Suckling is only while the child is in the cradle. If not, it does not cause flesh and blood relations." (Muwatta: 30.1.11)
Narrated by Umm Salamah, God’s Messenger (pbuh) said, "The only suckling which makes marriage unlawful is that which is taken from the breast and enters the bowels, and is taken before the time of weaning." (Tirmidhi: 3173)
Abu ‘Atiyah al-Waadi’i, says: “A man came to Ibn Mas’ud and said: ‘My wife was with me and her breasts were full of milk (she was engorged). I began to suck it and spit it out. Then I came to Abu Musa.’ He (Ibn Mas’ud) said, ‘What did you tell him?’ So he (Abu Musa) told him what he had told him. Then Ibn Mas’ud stood up, took the man’s hand (and said), ‘Do you think this is an infant? Breastfeeding is what produces the growth of flesh and blood.’ Abu Musa said: ‘Do not ask me anything when this scholar is among you.’” (Musannaf abd al-razzagh: 13895).
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November 2013
Salam,
My question is that does breast feeding during sex break the nikah?
Answer:
Salam,
What you are asking about is based on the fact that breast feeding can make a person mahram (i.e. entering a kinship that disallows marriage) to the woman who has breast feed him. The question is based on the assumption that anyone who drinks the milk of a woman will become mahram to her.
This assumption however is far from the truth.
First, the way the Qur’an refers to this, it is very clear that only breast feeding during infancy counts. Note the emphasis on the word Ummahatukum (your mothers) in the following verse:
... حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أُمَّهاتُكُمْ وَ بَناتُكُمْ وَ أَخَواتُكُمْ وَ عَمَّاتُكُمْ وَ خالاتُكُمْ وَ بَناتُ الْأَخِ وَ بَناتُ الْأُخْتِ وَ أُمَّهاتُكُمُ اللاَّتي أَرْضَعْنَكُمْ وَ أَخَواتُكُمْ مِنَ الرَّضاعَة
Forbidden to you are your mothers and your daughters and your sisters and your paternal aunts and your maternal aunts and brother's daughters and sister's daughters and your mothers that have suckled you and your foster sisters … (4:23)
We also have a number of Hadiths confirming the above:
Yahya related from Malik that Yahya ibn Said said that he heard Said ibn al-Musayyab say, "Suckling is only while the child is in the cradle. If not, it does not cause flesh and blood relations." (Muwatta: 30.1.11)
Narrated by Umm Salamah, God’s Messenger (pbuh) said, "The only suckling which makes marriage unlawful is that which is taken from the breast and enters the bowels, and is taken before the time of weaning." (Tirmidhi: 3173)
Abu ‘Atiyah al-Waadi’i, says: “A man came to Ibn Mas’ud and said: ‘My wife was with me and her breasts were full of milk (she was engorged). I began to suck it and spit it out. Then I came to Abu Musa.’ He (Ibn Mas’ud) said, ‘What did you tell him?’ So he (Abu Musa) told him what he had told him. Then Ibn Mas’ud stood up, took the man’s hand (and said), ‘Do you think this is an infant? Breastfeeding is what produces the growth of flesh and blood.’ Abu Musa said: ‘Do not ask me anything when this scholar is among you.’” (Musannaf abd al-razzagh: 13895).
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November 2013
