Al-Azhar Lecturer Suspended after Issuing Controversial Fatwa
Recommending Breastfeeding of Men by Women in the Workplace
By: L. Lavi*
The head of the Hadith Department in Al-AzharUniversity, Dr. Izzat Atiyya,
recently issued a controversial fatwa dealing with breastfeeding of
adults. The fatwa stated that a woman who is required to work in private
with a man not of her immediate family - a situation that is forbidden by
Islamic law - can resolve the problem by breastfeeding the man, which,
according to shari'a, turns him into a member of her immediate family.

The fatwa sparked a storm of protest in the Egyptian public arena,
especially within the religious establishment. It was harshly criticized
by Muslim Brotherhood MPs, who even brought it up for discussion in
parliament, as well as by Egyptian intellectuals and columnists.

In response, Al-AzharUniversity formed a special committee to debate the
fatwa, and on the recommendation of this committee, Dr. Atiyya was
suspended. The Egyptian information minister ordered the removal from
sellers' shelves of the issue of the government weekly Al-Watani Al-Yawm
in which the fatwa had been published.

Dr. Atiyya, on his part, published a retraction and apologized, saying
that the fatwa was no more than a personal interpretation of a certain
hadith, and furthermore, that the hadith in questionrelates a particular
incident that occurred under specific constraints, and has no general
applicability. However, Al-Azhar refused to accept his apology.




Head of the Al-Azhar Hadith Department: Breastfeeding Allows a Woman to Be
With a Man in Private

Dr. Izzat Atiyya explained his fatwa in an interview with Al-Watani
Al-Yawm, the weekly of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Front party. He
said: "The religious ruling that appears in the Prophet's conduct [Sunna]
confirms that breastfeeding allows a man and a woman to be together in
private, even if they are not family and if the woman did not nurse the
man in his infancy, before he was weaned - providing that their being
together serves some purpose, religious or secular...

"Being together in private means being in a room with the door closed, so
that nobody can see them... A man and a woman who are not family members
are not permitted [to do this], because it raises suspicions and doubts. A
man and a woman who are alone together are not [necessarily] having sex,
but this possibility exists, and breastfeeding provides a solution to this
problem... I also insist that the breastfeeding relationship be officially
documented in writing... The contract will state that this woman has
suckled this man... After this, the woman may remove her hijab and expose
her hair in the man's [presence]...

Dr. Atiyya further explained that the breastfeeding does not necessarily
have to be done by the woman herself. "The important point," he said, "is
that the man and the woman must be related through breastfeeding. [This
can also be achieved] by means of the man's mother or sister suckling the
woman, or by means of the woman's mother or sister suckling the man, since
[all of these solutions legally] turn them into brother and sister...

"The logic behind [the concept] of breastfeeding an adult is to transform
the bestial relationship between [two people] into a religious
relationship based on [religious] duties... Since [this] breastfeeding
takes place between [two] adults, the man is still permitted to marry the
woman [who breastfed him], whereas [a woman] who nursed [a man] in his
infancy is not permitted to marry him...

"The adult must suckle directly from the [woman's] breast... [This
according to a hadith attributed to Aisha, wife of the Prophet's
Muhammad], which tells of Salem [the adopted son of Abu Hudheifa] who was
breastfed by Abu-Hudheifa's wife when he was already a grown man with a
beard, by the Prophet's order... Other methods, such as [transferring] the
milk to a container, are [less desirable]...

"[As for the possibility of using a breast-pump, which] increases the
production of the milk glands... that is a matter for doctors and
religious scholars who must determine if the milk [thus produced] is real
milk, i.e., if its composition is identical to that of the [woman's]
original milk. If it is, this method is permissible...

Dr. Atiyya also said: "The fact that the hadith regarding the
breastfeeding of an adult is inconceivable to the mind does not make it
invalid. This is a reliable hadith, and rejecting it is tantamount to
rejecting Allah's Messenger and questioning the Prophet's tradition." [1]


Al-Azhar Examines the Fatwa, Suspends Dr. Atiyya

In response to the uproar caused by the fatwa, Al-Azhar university formed
a committee of several experts on hadiths to investigate the matter.
According to a senior Al-Azhar source, the university president also
ordered Dr. Atiyya to publish an apology, and the latter complied and
retracted his fatwa, [2] explaining: "My statements on the issue of
breastfeeding an adult were based on the imams Ibn Hazm, Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn
Al-Qayyim, Al-Shawkani and Amin Khattab [Al-Subki], and on conclusions I
drew from the statements of Ibn Hajar [Al-Askalani]. However, I hold that
only the breastfeeding of an infant creates a family relationship [that
prohibits marriage between the parties and allows them to be together], as
the Four Imams [i.e., the founders of the four Sunni legal schools] said,
while the [act of] breastfeeding a grown man [mentioned in the hadith] was
a [specific] incident that came to serve a [specific] purpose, and the
fatwa I issued was based solely on my personal interpretation. Based on
what I have learned with my brothers the religious scholars, I apologize
for my earlier [statements] and retract my opinion, which contradicts [the
norms accepted] by the public." [3]

However, the Al-Azhar Supreme Council, headed by Al-Azhar Sheikh Dr.
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, refused to accept Dr. Atiyya's apology, saying,
"We must not be too lax in matters of religion, especially when the matter
at hand is a fatwa that significantly affects people's actual lives,
inclinations, and views - because it speaks to their natural emotions
which [lead them to] embrace what is permitted and shun prohibitions."
Tantawi said, "Society cannot tolerate [a fatwa] that undermines its
religious stability. There is enough chaos with all the unsupervised
fatwas [published] on some satellite channels. We will never permit this
chaos to spread to the religious establishment and to Al-Azhar."

By the recommendation of the special committee formed to examine the
fatwa, Al-Azhar decided to suspend Dr. Atiyya pending further
investigation of his case. [4]

Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments Dr. Muhammad Hamdi Zaqzouq
likewise criticized the fatwa, saying: "Fatwas like these harm Islam,
serve our enemies and push the public towards backwardness and ignorance."
[5]


*PUBLIC UPROAR OVER DR. ATIYYA'S FATWA


Muslim Brotherhood MPs: This is an Erroneous Fatwa

The issue of breastfeeding adults was brought up for debate in the
Egyptian parliament. Sabri Khalaf Allah from Muslim Brotherhood bloc in
the parliament told the Al-Arabiyya TV website that some 50 MPs had
discussed the issue, had expressed concern over the fact that the fatwa
had been published in the media, but had refrained from submitting a
parliamentary question in order to avoid creating too big an uproar.

Dr. Sayyid Askar, a Muslim Brotherhood MP and former member of the Academy
of Islamic Studies, said that the hadith on which the fatwa is based is
indeed authentic and valid, but that the accepted view among Muslim
scholars is that it refers to a specific case and cannot be applied to
other cases. Therefore, he concluded, Dr. Attiya's fatwa is an erroneous
fatwa that goes against the consensus. "In our modern society," he added,
"it makes no sense to talk of breastfeeding adults." [6] '

More on this outrageously bizarre, silly fatwa --

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA35507