The ruling on breastfeeding an adult.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, regarding the breastfeeding of an adult, may Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : And may He bless you.

The questioner : We believe that the breastfeeding of an adult is actual breastfeeding.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.

The questioner : Contrary to what some jurists say.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.

The questioner : The questioner says: The questioner asks, if a woman wanted to revive this Sunnah by having a certain man come to her and then breastfeeding him so that he becomes forbidden to her, is this permissible, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Your statement that you want to revive this Sunnah is problematic.

The questioner : There are people who breastfeed, O Shaykh. May Allah bless you for this question.

The Shaykh : But I say that a woman, due to certain circumstances, may be compelled to benefit from this legal ruling, in which case it is permissible. However, if she intends to revive the Sunnah, then no.

The questioner : A joke, and that is all, at Abu Malik’s mosque, I think... during the tarawih prayer, in the standing of the night prayer, one of the people asked this question: Does the ruling on breastfeeding apply to a husband who breastfeeds from his wife, and so on? Then the question ended. So Abu Malik, may Allah reward him with good, answered after a while: "If an old man, naturally, in accordance with fitrah, starts to speak and ask about matters he thinks are issues, such as movement in prayer or the taslim in prayer, and says, 'O Shaykh, his mother wants to breastfeed him,' O Shaykh, Abu Malik says, 'This is his mother; after that, she breastfeeds him.' He asks these kinds of questions, so this question suits you."

The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.

The questioner : The original, O my master, the operation: Is it that a man starts to breastfeed from a woman who is a stranger to him? This is committing a sin. So the original is that he committed a sin, not reviving a Sunnah?

The Shaykh : For every rule, there is an exception. Because it came in a hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim, as I recall, that Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hudhayfah, was a slave of Abu Hudhayfah. And according to the custom of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, he lived with his master and his master’s wife, the wife of Abu Hudhayfah, living with them, so he was like part of the family. This was before the obligation of hijab; they were on the rulings of the pre-Islamic age, meaning there was no Shari'ah law; they used to drink intoxicants.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, so the meaning of those who used to drink intoxicants was that they were like many ignorant Muslims today, meaning the baker, the butcher, the boy, meaning the servant, would enter upon the women without any hijab. This was how it was in the pre-Islamic age, even the wives of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); some of the Companions would enter without them veiling themselves, until the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) married Zaynab bint Jahsh, so he held a wedding feast for her and invited the Companions to the feast. Those who ate ate, and those who remained remained. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was embarrassed by the delay of some of the Companions, thinking that he had married his wife to exclude them? No. So he started to leave, hoping that they would leave by his leaving. He entered, in the end, pay attention, so they left and vacated the house. And the word of Allah the Exalted came down, how is the verse? Do you remember the verse or not?

The questioner : His saying:

The Shaykh : No, I mean the beginning of the verse, is that correct?

The questioner : Yes, that is correct.

The Shaykh : Yes, this is the intended meaning. After this verse, they no longer entered except after permission. Among these Companions was one who lived in the house of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as if he were a member of the household because of his young age, and he was Anas ibn Malik. After the revelation of this verse, he wanted to enter, so he said: So Abu Hudhayfah and his wife, with their slave Salim, were living like this. The hijab came down, so this man could not enter as he used to enter before. The wife of Abu Hudhayfah: And this is the language of your heart, you and everyone who hears this story: As I say to our brothers, especially where is our brother Abu Khalid, he started telling me how water comes out and how water goes down, my brother, it is known. So this: Yes.

The Shaykh : The audience : They laugh.

The Shaykh : The meaning of the words is I am telling you, do it this way: .

The questioner : That is all, by the ruling of her son.

The Shaykh : Here the question arises: How did she breastfeed him? We do not know, we do not know the truth. It can be said, for example, that it was a cup, she poured it, and this is forbidden, of course, because it is not intended to attach the lips to the breasts. The intention is that the milk itself is what makes it forbidden. But the truth is, I have not found, to my knowledge and reading, an answer to such a question that comes to the mind of everyone who hears this authentic hadith. So my intention is to tell you that this is an exception to the rule. The rule is for two complete years for whoever wants to complete the breastfeeding. This is the forbidden breastfeeding. So is breastfeeding permissible after a man has reached three years old or two and a half? But this incident is an exception to the general incident, meaning there is no breastfeeding, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Meaning this is in childhood, this is the rule. But this story is an exception to the rule. And therefore the scholars differed, even the Mothers of the Believers differed in this issue. All the Mothers of the Believers held that this issue was specific to Abu Hudhayfah and his slave, and would not be repeated. All of them except Aisha, the Mother of the Believers, who held that this issue was not specific to Abu Hudhayfah, but was specific to whoever was in a situation like Abu Hudhayfah. So what did she do, may Allah be pleased with her? When she felt the need for a man from the Companions to enter upon her, she would order one of her sisters to breastfeed him, so she would become his aunt, because she did not bear a son, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) died before her, and she had no children. And therefore, the one who does not become pregnant does not breastfeed. Yes, so she would task one of her sisters, like Asma bint Abu Bakr, to breastfeed a man she saw it was necessary for her to enter upon without hijab. Meaning she would breastfeed him, and she would become his aunt, so he would enter upon her. And it does not mean without hijab as people’s minds today suggest that she would be displaying her adornment, may Allah forbid it. She might, for example, enter with the head covering on her head, but she would show the roundness of her face and her hands, and that is all. Because they had a specific ruling regarding the women of the Companions. From here came some errors from some scholars that the wives of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) were not seen at all, not the face or the hands, unlike other women. So in them, and in them. Well, let us go, let us pray, if Allah wills.