—in any amount whatsoever; such is also the position of Abū Ḥanīfah and his colleagues, as well as al-Thawrī and al-Awzāʿī.
A second group required a specific minimum and split into three sub-groups:
• One said that neither a single suckling nor two sucklings create the prohibition, whereas three or more do. This was the opinion of Abū ʿUbayd and Abū Thawr.
• A second held that the prohibitive number is five sucklings; this was the view of al-Shāfiʿī.
• A third required ten sucklings.
The roots of their disagreement are twofold: the apparent conflict between the broad wording of the Qur’an and the ḥadīths that stipulate a number, and the conflict among those ḥadīths themselves.
As for the Qur’an, the Almighty says:
“Your mothers who nursed you …” (al-Nisāʾ 4:23),
a verse that covers everything to which the term “nursing” may be applied.
The supposedly conflicting ḥadīths reduce, in substance, to two:
-
The report of ʿĀʾishah—and others of similar purport—in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “A single suckling or two sucklings do not make marriage unlawful,” or, in another wording, “one or two nursings.” Muslim recorded it through the channels of ʿĀʾishah, of Umm al-Faḍl, and of a third narrator, in one of which he stated: “A mere mouthful or two do not prohibit.”
-
The ḥadīth of Sahlah concerning Sālim, in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, told her: “Nurse him five times.”
ʿĀʾishah also transmitted: “Among what was revealed in the Qur’an were ten definite sucklings; these were then abrogated by five definite sucklings, and the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, died while they were still recited.”
Whoever gives priority to the plain wording of the Qur’an over these ḥadīths says, “One or two sucklings render marriage unlawful.”
Whoever treats the ḥadīths as explanatory of the verse, reconciles them with it, and prefers the implied meaning (dalīl al-khiṭāb) of the statement “A single suckling or two do not prohibit” over the implied meaning of “Nurse him five times” maintains that three sucklings or more create the prohibition. For the implication of the first statement is that anything beyond two sucklings prohibits, whereas the implication of the second is that anything fewer than five does not; the juristic task is to decide which implication carries greater weight.
Issue Two: The Age Limit for Nursing
All agree that nursing within the first two lunar years renders marriage unlawful. They differed, however, about the nursing of an adult. Mālik, Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī, and virtually all jurists hold that the nursing of an adult does not prohibit. Dāwūd and the literalists (Ahl al-Ẓāhir) maintained that it does, and this was also the view of ʿĀʾishah. The opinion of the majority accords with that of Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿUmar, Abū Hurayrah, Ibn ʿAbbās, and the rest of the Mothers of the Believers.