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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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The scholars' disagreement on the number of breastfeedings that establish a forbidden relationship and the stronger opinion on the matter

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The questioner : Alhamdulillah, peace be upon you. And upon you be peace. Well, we heard from the sheikhs a fatwa—may Allah prolong your life and theirs, if Allah wills—that the brotherhood through breastfeeding comes from three separate feedings that satisfy the child. But it was announced yesterday that this is incorrect, and the correct ruling is that it is five feedings, even if they do not satisfy the child. That is to say, if he holds the breast, sucks it once, and releases it to breathe, or to sneeze, or to move to the other breast, this counts as one feeding. If this is repeated five times in the same sitting, he becomes his brother through breastfeeding. So what must the Muslim follow from these fatwas?

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. Very good.

The questioner : May Allah keep you safe. There is disagreement on this. Where are the scholars? Some say one feeding establishes the prohibition, some say three feedings establish it, some say only five feedings establish it, and some say only ten. Do you understand?

The Shaykh : Yes, may Allah reward you, O Shaykh.

The questioner : But the stronger opinion is what is indicated by the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) in Sahih Muslim, that it was initially
nothing makes marriage prohibited except ten breastfeedingsلا يحرم إلا عشر رضعات
Sunan Ibn Majah 1942Sahih (Darussalam)
, then this was abrogated by five known feedings. The remaining question is: what is a feeding?
Is it the suck, or the release of the breast, or must the feeding be separated from the other by a long interval? This is also a point of disagreement among the scholars. The stronger opinion is that there must be five feedings, each separated from the others, and that if the child takes the breast and then releases it for a reason or moves to the other breast, it is one feeding, even if that is repeated, because he is still in the care of the nursing mother, until another feeding comes that is separated from the first by a long interval.
For example, he nurses the first at one o'clock, the second at two o'clock, the third at six o'clock, the fourth at four o'clock, and the fifth at five o'clock. But in one sitting, it is one feeding. This is what has become clear to us from the evidence of the Shari'ah.

The Shaykh : Even if that is repeated in the same sitting, it is considered one feeding.

The questioner : Yes, as long as he is in the mother's care, it is not one feeding if he moves ten times.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, O Shaykh. May Allah bless you. Thank you, may Allah prolong your life. Goodbye. Goodbye.
Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 2059- اختلاف العلماء في عدد الرضعات المحرمة والرأي الراجح في ذلك/سؤال على الهاتف 📞 /ابن عثيمين — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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