Adult Suckling

Adult suckling (Arabic: رَضَاعَةُ الْكَبِيرِ), or the act of breastfeeding a male adult, is mentioned in several relied-upon collections of hadiths. According to five hadiths in Sahih Muslim, Muhammad once plainly instructed the daughter of a 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 legal.^[1] Reports in the Muwatta of Imam Malik^[2] and Sunan Abu Dawud^[3] 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, indicating that it had not been 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.

Translated literally, "mahram" means "that which is prohibited (haram)", which explains the phrasing used in the hadiths (e.g. "[he] would become unlawful for [her]"). The word mahram is used to refer to relations who one cannot marry. As a result of mahrams not being permitted to conceive of each other as marital/sexual prospects (e.g. a brother and sister), the female does not have to observe all the requirements of hijab and is permitted to be alone with a male.

Adult suckling in scripture

In the hadiths

An entire chapter in Sahih Muslim, containing six hadiths, is dedicated to the topic of "Breastfeeding an adult" (باب رَضَاعَةِ الْكَبِيرِ).^[4] The hadiths describes how, via suckling, an adult male can become a female's mahram and thus be allowed to accompany her in private.

Hadiths regarding adult suckling are also found in the Muwatta of Imam Malik, the Sunan of Ibn Majah, and the Musnad of Imam Ahmad.

Aisha's opinion vs. that of her co-wives

One of the six hadiths on adult suckling in Sahih Muslim describes Aisha as the individual who instructed Muhammad's companions to implement the practice sanctioned by Muhammad.

An account described in the Umm of Imam Shafi'i provides further detail, stating that Aisha in fact enforced the suckling requirement on all those who wanted to meet with her. Imam Shafi'i also describes how Aisha, presumably being quite busy after Muhammad's death, would have her sister Umm Kulthum suckle men who wanted to meet with Aisha in her place, since being the mahram of one person renders one the mahram of all of that person's sibling.

In the Qur'an

Accounts provided in the hadith agree that a verse requiring ten sucklings was revealed, followed by a verse requiring just five sucklings. The same hadiths detailing these verses state that the verse, having been written only upon a scrap of paper stored under Aisha's pillow, was lost after the death of Muhammad when a goat at it.

The Fatwa of an Al-Azhar scholar

Here is where the head of the Hadith Department in Al-Azhar University, Dr. Izzat Atiyya comes into play. Its worth noting, that the Al-Azhar University in Kairo is considered to be the world´s most renowned Islamic university by all Sunni Muslims.

Dr. Atiyya published a fatwa. According to this verdict the Islamic rules of gender segregation and veiling can be circumvented if a woman suckles a man. Alternatively, a man can also be breast-fed by a sister or the mother of a woman. The idea behind this ruling is that there is no law for adoption in many Islamic societies. However, a mother-son-relationship can be established by breast-feeding. The scholar of Al-Azhar University explained his ruling in an interview given to Al-Watani Al-Yawm, a weekly newspaper published by Egypt's ruling National Democratic Front party. According to this interview it was the prophet himself who confirmed that a man and a woman are allowed to be together in private if the man had been previously breastfed by the woman. It must also be noted that Dr. Abd Al-Mahdi Abd Al-Qadir, another Al-Azhar scholar, wrote and published a book rendering similar ideas based on the same Islamic sources.

Dr. Atiyya repeatedly declared that the sources he quoted belonged to the Islamic holy texts with the highest possible authority. According to him no less than 90,000 contemporary scholars confirmed that the hadith referred to is authentic. Further related texts:

Waves in the Islamic World - and in the Rest of the World

The fatwa released by Dr. Atiyya and the book of Dr. Abd Al-Mahdi Abd Al-Qadir raised many questions and caused harsh reactions by many Muslims:

Is it really an appropriate solution to suckle an adult to avoid the veil and gender segregation in Islamic companies? Can Muslims throughout the world still rely on the knowledge of Al-Azhar scholars? Can Muslims throughout the world still rely on the holy texts of Islam - and even on the wisdom of their prophet? A woman is forced to wear a veil to prevent herself from becoming harassed. To avoid the veil, she has to breastfeed a strange man - does this improve the life of anybody?

According to the Institut für Islamfragen in Germany there has been 60 books covering this subject published in Egypt alone. They are also stating that there were already foreign women renouncing Islam because of this discussion.

It comes as no surprise that many women who work are scared that this ruling may encourage harassment by male colleagues . Others are simply disgusted by the idea of having to breastfeed strangers in order to gain permission to work with them.

The Muslim Brotherhood criticized the fatwa harshly and took the matter to parliament, thus putting pressure on the Egyptian government. The leaders of Al-Azhar University rejected the fatwa as well and suspended Dr. Atiyya.

There are also discussions about the hadith quoted by Dr. Atiyya. Most scholars still regard it as authentic, but there are a few who are voicing their opinions that it may be fake. There has been increased efforts by political and religious authorities to stop the debate. However, this is not going to be an easy task since the quoted sources belong to the holiest texts of Islam. Therefore most political and religious leaders are calling for a thoughtful approach to the holy texts. They say that fatwas should agree with logic and common sense and ancient texts should not be “misused” for thrilling headlines.

Responses and criticisms thereof

Non-generalizable, case-specific instructions

Islam at its most basic form is the Qur'an and Sunnah of Muhammad. Islamic rules and regulations pertaining to all things originate from studying these texts and seeing how Muhammad dealt with them. Islamic jurists then apply these to modern-day situations. Here we find a woman came to Muhammad with a problem and he gave her instructions on how to solve it, i.e. how to make a non-mahram male into a mahram. There is absolutely nothing in the Sahih Muslim narration that would suggest this instruction was only limited to her, or to women in the exact same situation. The fact that the non-mahram was a freed slave who lived in the same house as her (as a foster member of the family) is inconsequential. And even if it were not, that would still mean it is permissible for a foster parent to suckle her adult foster child to make him a mahram. This in itself is disturbing.

External links

• Islamic ‘Adult Breastfeeding’ Fatwas Return - , April 13, 2012 (archived), http://frontpagemag.com/2012/04/13/islamic-‘adult-breastfeeding’-fatwas-return/ 
• New Fatwa Calls on Men to Drink Women's Breast-Milk - June 4, 2010
• Blog with an article in Spanish
• Article on Wikinews about the subject
• The Middle East Media Research Institute on Dr. Atiyyas Suspension and related matters (with many links)
• Article in Arabic on Al Arabia online with more than 2400 comments
• Article about the matter on BBC
• A German article about the subject at the Institut für Islamfragen
• Another German article stating that many Muslimas leave Islam because of the fatwa

References