Question
My wife gave our neighbor’s son espressed milk in a bottle on one occasion. Now, I know that there are supposed to be five occasions of nursing for the child to be come a foster child through nursing. But how is this situation supposed to be assessed? I heard that a new occasion of nursing is counted each time the nursing child leaves the breast to take a break to breathe and then goes back to the breast? Is this right. If so, we do not know how many times the child took a break to breathe while drinking from the bottle. Is that neighbor’s son now forbidden to our daughter in marriage?
Answer
`Aishah said: “It was revealed in the Qur’an that there should be ten definite occasions of nursing; then they were abrogated to five definite occasions.” [Sahîh Muslim (1452)]
What is correct is that there has to be five distinct occasions of nursing where on each occasion the child drinks his fill. Therefore, a child who drinks one bottle of a woman’s milk on one occasion will not become her foster child.
For the women to become the child’s foster mother, the child would have had to drink his fill from five bottles of milk on five separate occasions. This will make the child forbidden for her and for her biological children in marriage.
An occasion of nursing is an action on the child’s part, like eating a meal is for a mature person. For it to be recognized as an occasion of nursing, it must be equivalent to taking a full meal.
When we refer to a person taking lunch or dinner, we do not consider each bite as a full meal. The whole occasion of eating is the meal.
In the hadîth, we read: “Allah is pleased with His servant who eats his food and then praises Allah for it.” [Sahîh Muslim (2734)] This is not for each bite, but for the full meal. We know this from the Prophet’s practice.
Therefore, an occasion of nursing must be separated from another occasion by a customarily long interval of time. It does not end by the child merely releasing the nipple from his mouth for a few moments or by his switching from one breast to the other. It must really be a full nursing.
So long as the child is in the room with the woman during a reasonable interval of time, it will be counted as a single nursing.
And Allah knows best.
What is correct is that there has to be five distinct occasions of nursing where on each occasion the child drinks his fill. Therefore, a child who drinks one bottle of a woman’s milk on one occasion will not become her foster child.
For the women to become the child’s foster mother, the child would have had to drink his fill from five bottles of milk on five separate occasions. This will make the child forbidden for her and for her biological children in marriage.
An occasion of nursing is an action on the child’s part, like eating a meal is for a mature person. For it to be recognized as an occasion of nursing, it must be equivalent to taking a full meal.
When we refer to a person taking lunch or dinner, we do not consider each bite as a full meal. The whole occasion of eating is the meal.
In the hadîth, we read: “Allah is pleased with His servant who eats his food and then praises Allah for it.” [Sahîh Muslim (2734)] This is not for each bite, but for the full meal. We know this from the Prophet’s practice.
Therefore, an occasion of nursing must be separated from another occasion by a customarily long interval of time. It does not end by the child merely releasing the nipple from his mouth for a few moments or by his switching from one breast to the other. It must really be a full nursing.
So long as the child is in the room with the woman during a reasonable interval of time, it will be counted as a single nursing.
And Allah knows best.
-islamtoday.net
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