Milk – The Baby’s Haqq

Breastfeeding is waajib on the mother. She may not refuse to breastfeed her baby without valid Shar’i grounds. The milk which Allah has created in a mother is the waajib haqq of the baby.

The maximum permissible period of breastfeeding is 24 Islamic months. However, if before the expiry of the two-year period, the baby is able to eat other food, then it is permissible to wean the baby off sometime before two years. But it is not permissible to totally deny the baby breastfeeding, especially in the initial stage.

The punishment is severe for mothers who blatantly deny breastfeeding to their babies on the basis of some invalid worldly argument/reason.

On the night of Mi’raaj, Rasulullah (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) saw a group of women suspended upside down. They were tied by their ankles, and their hair was infested with lice, while snakes were biting their feet. Rasulullah (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) asked: “Who are they?” Hadhrat Jibraeel (Alaihis salaam) replied: “They are the women who denied their babies their milk.”

(Awake Archives)