Mahram by Breastfeeding: Difference between revisions

Mahram 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).<ref>See: Ṭūsī, ''al-Khilāf'', vol. 5, p. 93.</ref>{{enote|The milk does not "belong" to the husband. Here owning is meant figuratively as the milk is because of the child of the husband.}} Mahrams by breastfeeding are discussed under the section of [[marriage]] in books of [[fiqh]].

 

Shiite [[faqihs|jurists]] maintain that the conditions of becoming mahram by breastfeeding consist of the following:

* The baby should intake a sufficient amount of the breast milk.<ref>Ḥillī, ''Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām'', vol. 2, p. 226-228; Najafī, ''Jawāhir al-kalām'', vol. 29, p. 264-309.</ref>{{enote|There is a disagreement among jurists as to the amount of the breast milk sufficient for becoming mahram. The majority of jurists 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 is a span of one day and night.}}

==Sunni View==

[[Sunni]] jurists accept becoming mahram 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 [[Shafi'i]] and [[Hanbali]] scholars, becoming mahram is obtained by 5 times of breastfeeding, and according to [[Hanafi]] and [[Maliki]] scholars, it is obtained by an amount that ordinarily counts as breastfeeding. Hanafis take the maximum age for becoming by breastfeeding to be two and a half years, but Shafi'is and Hanbalis take it to be two years. Also, Hanafis and Malikis do not require that the breastfeeding mother be alive at the time of breastfeeding, unlike Shafi'is.<ref>Jazīrī, ''al-Fiqh ʿalā l-madhāib al-arbaʿa'', vol. 4, p. 324.</ref>

==Coverage==

According to a [[hadith]] from [[Imam al-Sadiq (a)]], people who became mahrams through blood can become mahrams through breastfeeding as well.<ref>Kulaynī, ''al-Kāfī'', vol. 5, p. 437.</ref> Breastfeeding leads to the baby and his or her progeny becoming mahram with the breastfeeding woman and her husband—the owner of milk.

Shiite jurists did not distinguish between children of the breastfeeding father by blood and those by breastfeeding, but some of them denied that the breastfed children of a woman become mahram to each other. They hold that the baby becomes mahram only with the breastfeeding mother's children by blood.<ref>Ḥillī, ''Tabṣirat al-mutaʿallimīn'', p. 137.</ref>{{enote|According to Shiite jurists, 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 jurists permit marriage between other children of the birth father of the breastfed baby and the children of the breastfeeding parents.}}

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 so they would become mahrams. Some [[zahirist]] Sunni scholars, such as Ibn Hazm, appealed to a [[hadith]] by [['A'isha]] cited in Sunni sources of hadiths<ref>Ibn Māja, ''Sunan'', vol. 1, p. 625.</ref> to show that adult breastfeeding leads to becoming mahram.<ref>Ibn Ḥazm, ''al-Muḥallā bi-l-āthār'', vol. 10, p. 8-9, 17.</ref> However, Shiite scholars<ref>Ḥillī, ''Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām'', vol. 2, p. 226-228; Najafī, ''Jawāhir al-kalām'', vol. 29, p. 264.</ref> and the majority of Sunni scholars take adult breastfeeding to be [[Haram|forbidden]], holding that it does not lead to becoming mahram.<ref>Qurṭubī, ''Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī'', vol. 16, p. 193; Ibn Ḥazm, ''al-Muḥallā bi-l-āthār'', vol. 10, p. 8-9, 17.</ref>

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