Rada’at Relationship and the Sharia Ruling on Rada’ah with Mixed Milk

Abstract

Breast feeding (Whether it’s biological mothers or another woman’s) is a natural gift for a new born baby, which not only nourishes the infant but also provides great immunity to him. If an infant’s drinks the milk of any Mahram or non-Mahram woman  during infancy, or that woman breastfeeds him, this practice of breast feeding is called Rada’at, where professional or nursing mother is called Reza’a, (رضاعۃ)Murzi’a (مرضعۃ)  or foster mother. This is why Allah Almighty has legislated the command of breast feeding (rada’ah) by the mother. In cases where the birth mother’s milk is unavailable, the Sharia prescribes the arrangement of a wet nurse (Suckling Mother), and has elaborated upon its rulings. These Directives gives rise to several jurisprudential matters such as Hurmat-al-Rada’ahحرمۃ الرضاعۃ (the legal prohibition resulting from breast feeding), Ithbat-al-Rada’ah اثبات الرضاع (establishing proof of such a relationship), Miqdar-al-rada’ah (the quantity of suckling required to effect this prohibition) and Hurmat-al-Nikah حرمۃ النکاح (marital prohibition due to milk kinship). Additionally, contemporary legal and ethical concerns such as the commercialization of human milk, and related issues also fall within this discourse, and will be discussed in detail.

Keywords:    Brest feeding, Infant, Foster Age, Foster Mother, Milk bank.