The Book of Breastfeeding

His statement: “Breastfeeding”: linguistically, breastfeeding means suckling the breast in order to draw milk from it.

In the Sacred Law, however, it has a broader meaning: the delivery of milk to a child, whether by means of the breast, a tube, or an ordinary vessel. What matters is that the milk reaches the child by whatever means. This is one of the rare cases in which the legal meaning is broader than the linguistic meaning, for ordinarily the linguistic meaning is broader than the legal meaning. Yet at times the legal meaning is more expansive than the linguistic meaning. Faith, for example, linguistically means affirmation; but in the Sacred Law it includes affirmation, speech, and deeds.

Breastfeeding is among Allah’s mercy and wisdom. While the child is in its mother’s womb, it is nourished by blood through the umbilical cord. Then, once it is separated from her, it is unable to eat or drink. So Allah has made for it two vessels suspended upon the mother’s chest. Allah chose for them to be on the chest because this is nearer to the heart, and because it is more conducive to the mother holding her child close, feeling tenderness toward it, and showing it affection. Allah has then made this vessel one in which the milk does not collect as it does in a bottle; rather, it is distributed among separate nerve, flesh, and fat tissue, so that it is easier for the mother than if it were to slosh about as it would in a bottle. Then, as part of Allah’s mercy, He has made it emerge from