Mahram by Breastfeeding: Difference between revisions

'''Maḥram by breastfeeding''' or '''al-maḥram al-riḍā'ī''' (Arabic: {{ia|المَحْرَم الرِضاعی}}) refers to relatives who become [[mahram]] with one another by virtue of breastfeeding, and as a result, certain rulings apply to them, such as the prohibition of [[marriage]] between them. In [[fiqh]] (or Islamic jurisprudence), certain conditions should be met for becoming mahram by breastfeeding.

Mahramiyya by breastfeeding is a kind of relationship that is created by a baby being breastfed by a woman. In the jurisprudential literature, the baby who is breastfed by a woman other than his or her birth mother is called “murtadi'” (Arabic: {{ia|مُرْتَضِع}}), the woman is called “murḍi'a” (Arabic: {{ia|مُرْضِعَة}}), and the man from whom the breastfeeding woman became pregnant is called “ṣāḥib al-laban” (Arabic: {{ia|صاحِب اللَبَن}}, literally: the owner of the milk). Mahrams by breastfeeding is discussed under the section of [[marriage]] in books of [[fiqh]].

Shiite jurisprudents maintain that the conditions of becoming mahram by breastfeeding consist in the following:

* The baby should intake the breast milk continuously (without any interval by foods or another woman’s breast milk).

* The baby should intake a sufficient amount of the breast milk.<ref>There is a disagreement among jurisprudents as to the amount of the breast milk sufficient for mahramiyya. The majority of jurisprudents maintain that the baby should be breastfed at least 10 or 15 times. Others hold that the baby should be breastfed in the amount that is enough for the growth of flesh in his or her body and the strengthening of his or her bones. Others believe that the amount of breastfeeding required for mahramiyya is a span of one day and night.</ref>

Sunni jurisprudents accept mahramiyya by virtue of breastfeeding, but they disagree with the [[Imamiyya]] in some of its conditions. According to the Four Sunni Sects, it is not required that the baby directly intakes the breast milk with his or her mouth. Thus, in whatever way the baby intakes the breast milk, he or she will become mahram.

According to a [[hadith]] from [[Imam al-Sadiq (a)]], people who became mahrams through marriage can become mahrams through breastfeeding as well. Breastfeeding leads to mahramiyya of the baby and his or her progeny with the breastfeeding woman and her husband—the owner of milk.  

Shiite jurisprudents did not distinguish between children of the breastfeeding father by blood and those by breastfeeding, but some of them denied the mahramiyya of the breastfeeding mother’s children by breastfeeding. They hold that the baby becomes mahram only with the breastfeeding mother’s children by blood.<ref>According to Shiite jurisprudents, a baby’s birth father cannot marry the breastfeeding father’s children by blood, neither with his children by breastfeeding, as he cannot marry the breastfeeding mother’s children by blood. Also, the majority of jurisprudents permit marriage between other children of the birth father of the breastfed baby and the children of the breastfeeding parents.</ref>

Adult breastfeeding (rida' al-kabir) refers to an adult or mature man’s direct intake of a non-mahram woman’s breast milk with his mouth. Some [[zahirist]] Sunni scholars, such as Ibn Hazm, appealed to a [[hadith]] by [['A'isha]] cited in Sunni sources of hadiths to show that adult breastfeeding leads to mahramiyya. However, Shiite scholars and the majority of Sunni scholars take adult breastfeeding to be forbidden, holding that it does not lead to mahramiyya.

[[fa:محارم رضاعی]]