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.

==Adult suckling in scripture==

An entire chapter in Sahih Muslim, containing six hadiths, is dedicated to the topic of "Breastfeeding an adult" (باب رَضَاعَةِ الْكَبِيرِ).<ref>{{Citation|title=Sahih Muslim|chapter=(7) Chapter: Breastfeeding an adult|trans_chapter=باب رَضَاعَةِ الْكَبِيرِ‏|url=https://sunnah.com/muslim/17|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213071552/https://sunnah.com/muslim/17}}</ref> The hadiths describes how, via suckling, an adult male can become a female's mahram and thus be allowed to accompany her in private. {{Quote|{{Muslim|8|3425}}|'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hadhaifa, lived with him and his family in their house. She (i. e. the daughter of Suhail came to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and said: Salim has attained (puberty) as men attain, and he understands what they understand, and he enters our house freely, I, however, perceive that something (rankles) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa, whereupon '''Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said to her: Suckle him and you would become unlawful for him''', and (the rankling) which Abu Hudhaifa feels in his heart will disappear. '''She returned and said: So I suckled him, and what (was there) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa disappeared'''.|}}

“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)}}

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.

{{Quote||Umm Salama said to 'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her):

'''Salim b. 'Abdullah reports that he was never able to visit 'A'isha. She had sent him to be suckled by her sister Umm Kulthum who, however, suckled him only three times, then fell sick. Salim added, 'Thus, I never did complete the course of ten sucklings.''''}}

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.