Milk-kinship prohibition (rada')
محرمية الرضاع
The prohibition effected by suckling in the forty-fourth hadith of Ibn Rajab's additions: 'suckling prohibits what birth prohibits', or in another wording 'what lineage prohibits is prohibited by suckling' — the scholars agreed on acting upon it in sum, as Ibn Rajab reports, so that suckling establishes in marriage the very prohibited degree that birth establishes: whatever would be forbidden to the nursling were he a son is forbidden through the nursing woman, her kin and the milk-father, and the commentary's division of the prohibited degrees — the everlasting individual prohibition and the rest — applies to milk as it applies to lineage (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam p. 864).
At a glance
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Region
- Global / Diaspora
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
Foster-kinship (mahramiyya al-rida') is the subject of the forty-fourth hadith of Ibn Rajab's additions: "Fostering makes unlawful what birth makes unlawful." In another wording: "What is unlawful by lineage is unlawful by fostering." 1
Its effect
Ibn Rajab relates the consensus of the scholars on acting upon it in general. Foster-kinship establishes the same kind of forbidden degree in marriage that birth establishes, so that what would have been forbidden to the suckling child had he been a son becomes forbidden to him, both through the nurse and her relatives and through the owner of the milk. 1
The division in the commentary of the prohibited degrees into those permanently forbidden on their own and others applies to fostering as it applies to lineage. 1
Connections
People and things also explored
Quraysh· Aisha bint Abi Bakr· Sending infants to Bedouin wet-nurses· Arba'un 44 — suckling prohibits what birth prohibits· Sale of the prohibited· Burden of proof and oath· The Sanctuary of Medina· Hima (protected reserve)
Sources
- Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, p.864
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Milk-kinship prohibition (rada')”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/rada/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.