Chapter on Breastfeeding (Rida')

Breastfeeding (rida' or rada'ah) creates a biological and spiritual bond in Islam that carries legal consequences equivalent to those of blood kinship. The Quran states: 'And your milk-mothers who nursed you, and your sisters from nursing' (al-Nisa': 23), establishing nursing kinship as a category of prohibited marriages. Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani addresses the Maliki positions on this topic with characteristic attention to conditions and detail.

The Maliki school holds that nursing creates a marital prohibition only when it meets specific conditions regarding quantity and the age of the child. On quantity, the Maliki school — in its dominant position — requires that there be a specific number of nursing sessions that actually satisfy the infant (musabbiah), meaning sessions where the child nurses until satisfied, not just a sip or two. The number required in the Maliki school is five or more established nursing sessions (radaat), which aligns with the hadith narrated by Aisha: 'It was in what was revealed in the Quran that ten known nursings make a prohibition — then it was abrogated to five known nursings.' This hadith is in Sahih Muslim, and the Maliki school adopts the five-session requirement as its dominant view, though some Maliki scholars differ.

Regarding the age of the child, the Maliki school requires that the nursing take place while the child is still an infant — before weaning, typically within the first two years of life. The Maliki school specifically holds that nursing after two years of age does not create the nursing kinship prohibition, as the child is no longer dependent on milk for sustenance. This is based on the Quranic indication that weaning occurs at two years: 'Mothers may nurse their children two complete years for whoever wishes to complete the nursing' (al-Baqarah: 233).

The effect of nursing kinship is precisely parallel to blood kinship in the domain of marriage prohibition. Just as a man may not marry his blood sister, he may not marry his milk-sister. Just as a man may not marry his blood aunt, he may not marry his milk-aunt. The Prophet said: 'What is forbidden through blood is forbidden through nursing.' This applies not just to the child but extends to the child's descendants, and to the husband of the nursing woman (who becomes the milk-father), and his relatives by the same analogy.

Nursing kinship does not, however, create inheritance rights, financial obligations of maintenance, or the wali relationship in marriage. It establishes only the marital prohibition. A man may not be the wali of his milk-sister; he may not inherit from her; but he may not marry her. These distinctions are important in Islamic family law practice.

The Maliki school also holds that the nursing must be direct from the breast for it to create the legal prohibition. Pumped milk administered by bottle or spoon is a contested issue among later Maliki scholars, with the majority holding that the prohibition is established by the milk itself regardless of how it is consumed, given that the bone-growing and flesh-growing effect of the milk is the legal rationale.