Yes, you read that right. A cleric from the Egyptian university Al-Azhar has been fired over a controversial fatwa that allowed breastfeeding between unrelated adults in order to deal with Islamic social rules forbidding the mixing of unrelated men and women. The funny thing is that they’re all pissed off over something Mohamed said himself:
‘A’isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hadhaifa, lived with him and his family in their house. She (i. e. the daughter of Suhail came to Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) and said: Salim has attained (purbety) [sic] as men attain, and he understands what they understand, and he enters our house freely, I, however, perceive that something (rankles) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa, whereupon Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) said to her: Suckle him and you would become unlawful for him, and (the rankling) which Abu Hudhaifa feels in his heart will disappear. She returned and said: So I suckled him, and what (was there) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa disappeared. (Sahih Muslim 3425)
If it’s good enough for a god’s right hand man, isn’t it good enough for the rest of us?
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There’s just no end to the crazy shit religionists will waste their time and energy on. The big problem is the original rule about men and women intermingling. It’s unnatural! People should be free to have sex as Zeus intended! -DocMike
BTW, welcome to the Blogroll…
What, is A’isha supposed to have suckled a young man so it would be okay for them to be in the same room together? And with her husband’s encouragement? A’isha never even had children, so how could she breastfeed anyone? The tale stretches the bounds of credulity.
Muhammad never forbade men and women to intermingle. In his day, women and men fought together on the battlefield, prayed together, mingled in the market together, etc. He only sequestered his own wives from contact with non-related males and had them cover their faces when they went out because they were being harrassed, which made things politically difficult for him. It was never intended to be extended to include all women, but became so later by an oppressive male regime.
For more details read my novel, A’ISHA, BELOVED OF MUHAMMAD, being published by Random House next year.
The story is not about A’isha, but about Sahla – the wife of Abu Hadhaifa whom Sahla suspected was jealous/suspicious of Salim’s relationship with her. She brought the situation to Mohamed who told her to suckle Salim like a child so that Abu could say to himself “he sees my wife as his mother now, I can quit imagining things”.
As to Mohamed not wishing to separate the sexes, that’s debatable. For example, in one exchange Mohamed states that a woman is not to travel alone nor is a man to approach a lone woman. This exchange is often used as justification for not letting women drive cars nor work in professions that would put them in direct contact with non-related males. If this exchange is valid, then I think it’s reasonable to conclude that Mohamed wanted to separate the sexes in some manner for whatever reason.
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