fucked the breaft at leaf!: five different times, infomuch that i f an in.
fant were to fuck for any particular fpace of time, whether a day or
an hour, uninterruptedly, this would not occafion prohibition, becaufe
the prophet has faid “ Sucking, or giving fu ck, fo r once or twice,
“ does not render prohibited,"— Our dodors fupport their opinion upon
the authority of the facred text, G od faying, in the Koran, “ Y our
“ MOTHERS WHO HAVE SUCKLED YOU ARE PROHIBITED UNTO
“ yo u ;”— and alfo upon a precept of the prophet, that “ whatever
“ is prohibited by confanguinity, is alfo prohibited by fojlerage
where no diftindion whatever is made between a fmaller and a °Teater
degree o f it.
O bjection— A greater degree of fofterage is effential to the
eftablifhment of prohibition, becaufe the latter is here founded folely
in an apprehenfion of a participation o f blood*, on account of the
growth and increafing bulk of the body, which cannot take'place
without fofterage, in a confiderable degree; moreover, it occurs in
the traditions that fofterage is the fource of a child’s growth.
R e p l y .— A lthough prohibition be founded in an apprehenfion of
a participation of blood, on account of growth, yet that is a point
which is incapable of being abfolutely afcertained, and hence prohibition
by fofterage is attached, not to the degree, but to the mere alt
of fofterage, which is the occafion of fuch increafe of growth: and
with relped to the faying of the prophet, as mentioned by Shafei,
our doctors reply that i f the date o f defcent + of the text [of the
Koran] before quoted was poflerior to that of this faying, its authority
is thereby fuperfeded, and i f it was prior thereto, yet the faying is
rejected, becaufe it contradicts the text.
* A rab.Jazeeyat, a term which has no fenfe in our dictionaries in any manner applicable
to the prefent cafe. It appears, from the context, to fignify a participation of bodily fub-
ltance, caufing two perfons to partake of one common nature.
t Th e Koran was declared by Mohammed to have been delivered down to him in different
portions at various times, and thofe he termed the Noozooh, or defcents.
T he period of fofterage is thirty months, according to Haneefa.—
The two difciples hold it to be two .years, and o f the fame opinion is
Shafeie—Z iffc rmaintains that it is three years, becaufe fomething in
addition to two years is abfolutely requifite, (according to what fhall
be hereafter fhewn,) and fuch addition is fixed at one year, becaufe
that fpace admits of the child’s ftate undergoing a complete alteration.
—The argument o f the two difciples is the word of G od, to wit,
“ his [the child s] t im e in th e w om b * , a n d [until] his w e a n -
“ INO IS THIRTY m o n th s :” — now the fmalleft fpace of pregnancy
is fix months, and hence two years remain for fofterage; moreover,
the prophet has faid that “ after two years there is no fojlera g e"—
The arguments o f Haneefa are twofold; f ir s t , the text already quoted,
I where it appears that G od makes mention o f two things, one the
Hama/, [or time o f geftation,] and the other the Fifdl, [or weaning,]
I both of which he indifcriminately mentions one period, namely,
thirty months, wherefore it applies to each in toto; the fame as in a
I cafe of two debts; that is to fay, if a man (for exariiple) were to
make a declaration that he owed fuch a perfon “ one thoufand Dirms,
\ “ and five bufhels of wheat, payable within two months,” this
| period of two months applies to each debt equally, and fo in this cafe
I likewife. It may .indeed be objeded that, admitting this, it would
follow that the time of being in the womb is al fo thirty months, whereas
I it is otherwife,— pregnancy being by law reftrided to two years: but
to this we reply, that there is a caufe of reftridion fhort o f that period
j operating upon Hamal, (it being recorded in the traditions that a child
does not remain in the womb o f the mother above two years,) whereas
; there is none upon Fifdl, which of courfe ftands as it appears to be:
moreover, as a fucking child is nourifhed at the breaft for two years,
r ° 1S11 alfo after the expiration of that term; for the weaning is not
precifely determined to any particular period, but is' effeded by de-
* / t,rab- By this Is generally underftood pregnancy, but as' the text here
ote as reference to the child, and not to the mother, the tranflator is under theneceilitv
rendering it in a phraze applicable to the former. 1
grees,
Length of the
period of fofterage.