starvation is what creates the marital impediment. The exact number of such feeds, their time-frame, and the scholarly dispute over them will be detailed below, God willing.
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The wisdom behind requiring that the prohibitive suckling occur during a period of hunger is that, when the infant feeds on her milk out of genuine need, his flesh develops from it and his bones are strengthened by it; he becomes as though he were a part of her, like a child nourished in her womb—indeed, a piece of her own flesh.
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In the beginning the number of feeds that rendered marriage unlawful was ten, as revealed in the Quran. Both its wording and its ruling were later abrogated and replaced by five feeds that produce the same effect. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away while the matter stood thus.
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Al-Bayhaqī said: “The verse referring to ten feeds is among those whose wording and ruling were both abrogated from the Quran, whereas the verse referring to five feeds is among those whose wording was abrogated while its ruling remained. The proof is that, when the Companions compiled the Quran, they did not record it in writing, yet they continued to uphold its ruling.”
Al-Samʿānī commented: “Her phrase ‘among what was recited of the Quran’ means that its ruling continued to be recited even though its wording did not.”
Al-Ṭayyibī said: “ʿĀʾishah’s words, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away while it was still being recited as part of the Quran,’ refer to those who had not yet learned of its abrogation; once the abrogation reached them, they set it aside. The Quran is divinely protected from addition or omission, and this is one of the passages whose wording was abrogated while its meaning endures.” -
ʿĀʾishah’s statement ‘ten well-known sucklings’ refers to a passage whose wording and ruling were both abrogated, whereas her phrase ‘five well-known sucklings’ denotes wording that was abrogated while the ruling remained in force—just as with the verse on stoning.
Scholarly disagreement:
The jurists have differed regarding the amount of suckling that establishes the prohibition. A group of early and later scholars held that both a small and a large number of sucklings render marriage unlawful. This view is transmitted from ʿAlī and Ibn ʿAbbās and is the position of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, al-Zuhrī, Qatādah, al-Awzāʿī, al-Thawrī, and it is the school of Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah.