An Islamic fatwa: Adult men could breast-feed from female work colleagues!

Ezzat Attiya "an important cleric from Al-Azhar University", had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, saying adult men could breast-feed from female work colleagues as a way to avoid breaking Islamic rules that forbid men and women from being alone together.

He based his fatwa on "hadith," or teaching of Muhammad. In the hadith, Mohammad reportedly told a woman to nurse a teenage boy who was not her own but whom she had raised in order to establish a family bond. But many Islamic scholars deny the hadith, saying it is not verified and should not be used.

Published: May 21, 2007
See article

 

Where are the feminist militants on this one? Oh wait, it doesn't involve a white heterosexual(preferably republican) male, my bad.

 

Perhaps a new "Got Milk?" campaign is in order

 

This is sooo backward

 

I dunno. I'm thinking about converting right now. Wuh? Boobies you say?

If that's the only way I can hang around women; then I guess I'll suffer quietly.

 

In Islam if a baby drinks a woman's milk she becomes his mother, he cannot marry her, her daughter, her sister etc. and they need not veil from him and can be alone in a room with him just like his biological mother, sister and aunt. But it is forbidden to drink breast milk beyond two and a half years and if a child older than that drinks a woman's milk, the relationship isn't established according to the orthodox view. That's why Ezzat Attiya is being condemned by al-Azhar for his fatwa.

 

Even better. Sure, ma'am, I'll suck on your boobies, but I can't marry you now. Too bad. I really wanted to! Drat.

 

Such titallating thoughts

 

That's I agree with.

That's not correct.


Dr Ezzat Attiya was the president of the Hadith department in the world most prestigious and respected Islamic University of Al-Azhar. So he is well aware of the authenticity of his sources on which he based his edict. The guy was just honest following the teaching of the prophet.

Why the Egyptian parliament felt the need to discuss his Fatwa and its consequences if what he said wasn’t important?

Al-Azhar didn’t refute his claims but what they didn’t like was the way the fatwa was presented and how the media portrayed it sarcastically.


The suckling story had happened in the time of Mohammed and has also been practiced by his wife (Khadija) after his death. So no one can deny the authenticity of the tradition (sahih).

Book 008, Number 3424:

 

That may be an authentic narration, but according to the orthodox fuqaha that was a dispensation for that that one person, Salim Mawla Abu Hudhaifah only.

Here's an extract from a Maliki fiqh book Guiding Helper (Sharh Murshid al-Mu'in) on the issue:

However, unrelated people can become related to each other in the above ways by sucking breast-milk from the same woman before the age of two. For example if two unrelated infants suck milk from the same woman, they have become just like biological brother and sister. Thus, they can be alone with each other and are not allowed to marry each other. Additionally, the breast-feeder has now become just like the two infants' real mother. Furthermore, the breast-feeder's husband has become just like the infant's father. However, these people are not financially responsible for other than their real children or poor parents.​

 

So scholars are divided on this issue?
But no one denies the fact that it was authorized by the prophet himself (I don’t know why Allah didn’t protest against this?). Also if it was just a one time thing (an exception) why Khadija then asked her brother’s daughters to do the suckling for her so men can see and talk to her?

"And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, leave it. And fear Allah: truly Allah is severe in punishment. " [59:7]

 

They are not. There is a general agreement that the rada'ah (milk-drinking) relationship only occurs in infancy, there is a disagreement regarding whether the final age is two years or two and a half years. Now there might be isolated opinions against this (like that of Ezzat Attiya) but they are not given consideration.

Whatever do you mean? The Prophet cannot give anyone a dispensation unless God allows it.

I do not know about that but regardless of how many times the dispensation was granted it is always considered the exception and not the rule.

Praise Be To the Lord!! Kafer is going to teach us our religion
Dude!! deriving laws out of the original sources is a whole science (Usul al Fiqh) we don't just jump to conclusions and make our own laws from reading the isolated sayings of the Prophet.

 

C'mon you don't have to suck breasts to be alone with a woman surely? the whole point of not being allowed to be "alone", surely is to stop hanky panky going on, so how can people advocate sucking breasts to be alone with a woman?

 

Now if only we could get breasts to dispense coffee or tea.....

Taking coffee breaks takes on a whole new meaning...

Whoohoo!

 

Some common sense is needed here, the relationship is established by the act of drinking milk, not by the act of sucking breasts. The woman can pour out the milk into a cup and the milk can be drunk from the cup.

 

I'm talking about "Ezzat Attiya" saying men could breast-feed. Don't you think this is just a little weird though even if out of a cup? I mean you would need a pregnant work colleague for a start lol

 

New Rule: Let the woman decide.

New Thought: Some people are INSANE

Thirdly lactation can be brought about without pregnancy or even hormones. You can look it up however - I don't feel comfortable posting that kind of information because it is irrelevant to the topic, and frankly it would add support to INSANITY.

 

Nooo! Dr. Attiya's fatwa, had it been correct would have been very very useful to practicing Muslims. Consider a situation where an elder, married brother and a younger unmarried brother share an apartment. Now unless the elder brother has a child old enough to be considered a "third person" (6-7 years old at least), if the younger brother returns from work earlier than his brother, he has to wait outside the apartment for his brother to return because he can't be alone with his sister in law.

The shi'ites have a complex heelah (artifice) to enable adult men to become sons of a woman, but it doesn't work for the Sunnis.

 

It was that head of the Hadith Department in Al-Azhar University who stirred up the division in opinion. He was the one who issued that stupid decree of allowing adults to breast-feed, in order to create some kind of a maternal relation. But is he alone in that opinion? Certainly not. In his recent apology letter he explained:

How do you know it was a dispensation? If Allah allowed it, then we may well draw conclusions that it could be permissible to everyone.

If you are not aware of that story then see this from Malik's Muwatta, Book 30:

<"regardless of how many times the dispensation was granted it is always considered the exception and not the rule">

Have Allah or his prophet inspired you to say this? This statement is nothing but a wishful thinking.

Nice one skibladner

By that, I was just reminding the believers to follow the foot steps of their messenger!

 

Retract the fatwa and apologise or face the consequences!

Atiyya published a retraction and an apology:

Noticed that he is saying that fatwa contradicts "[the norms accepted] by the public" and not the religion itself.