A claim to deny the hadith that abrogates the ten forbidden breastfeedings by five*

 Content of the doubt :

Some skeptics deny the hadith: “Among what was revealed in the Qur’an were ten known breastfeedings that prohibit marriage, then they were abrogated by five known breastfeedings …”  which was narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih on the authority of Sayyida Aisha - may Allah be pleased with her - citing as evidence that this verse is not present in the Holy Qur’an now, and in the hadith: that the Prophet - may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him - died while they were among those recited from the Qur’an .

They ask: If this is the case, then who dared to tamper with the Book of Allah and delete this verse after the death of the Prophet - may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him - and the Qur’an is preserved by Allah? And how can the first ruling be abrogated by another ruling, and neither of them exists in the Qur’an? Then this hadith is rejected .  They aim behind this to attack the Sunnah of the Prophet, and to cast doubt on Muslims regarding the hadiths that are authentically reported from the Prophet - may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him .

Two ways to refute the doubt :
1.  The hadith that abrogates the ten breastfeedings with five is an authentic hadith that is proven from the Messenger of Allah - may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him; It was mentioned in Sahih Muslim and in many other books of Sunnah with authentic chains of transmission back to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). As for the claim that the hadith should be rejected due to the absence of abrogating and abrogated verses in the Holy Quran, this is useless, because abrogation is of several types, including what was abrogated in wording but its ruling remained, as is the case in this hadith. There is no harm in abrogating the wording while its ruling remains in effect, and this does not cast doubt on the authenticity of the hadith. There is no harm if there is no evidence in the Book of Allah to indicate what is abrogating and abrogated, as long as the Sunnah has clarified and detailed this, as both are laws that complement each other .

2  The statement of Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): The Messenger of Allah died while they were among what is recited from the Quran is not evidence that these verses were deleted from the Mushaf after the death of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Rather, its meaning is that it was revealed late at the end of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) life, and some people did not hear of the abrogation, so they used to recite: five breastfeedings and consider it a Quran, but when the abrogation reached them, they stopped reciting it .

Detail :
First. The hadith of abrogating the ten breastfeedings with five is a sound and proven hadith :
Imam Muslim included in his Sahih on the authority of Abdullah bin Abi Bakr on the authority of Umrah on the authority of Aisha - may God be pleased with her - who said: Among what was revealed in the Qur’an were ten known breastfeedings that make a marriage forbidden, then they were abrogated by five known breastfeedings, and the Messenger of God - may God bless him and grant him peace - died while they were among what was recited in the Qur’an ^[1] .

It was also narrated by many of the authors of the Sunnahs, such as: Abu Dawud ^[2],  al-Nasa’i ^[3]  and Ibn Majah ^[4]  with sound chains of transmission connected to the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - and it has not been proven that there is confusion or weakness in it, or any challenge to its soundness .

As for the claim that the hadith is rejected due to the absence of abrogating and abrogated verses in the Qur’an, it is useless, because this hadith is one of those whose wording was abrogated while the ruling remained, and the ruling of prohibition by ten breastfeedings was abrogated by five breastfeedings, and the occurrence of abrogation is established in the Noble Qur’an, and this ruling is one of those whose recitation was abrogated but remained as a ruling, like the verse of stoning. It was established from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab - may God be pleased with him - that he said - while sitting on the pulpit of the Messenger of God - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him -: God sent Muhammad - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him - with the truth, and revealed the Book to him, and among what was revealed to him was the verse of stoning, we read it and understood it, and comprehended it, so the Messenger of God - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him - stoned and we stoned after him, so I fear that if a long time passes, someone will say: We do not find stoning in the Book of God, and they will go astray by abandoning an obligation that God revealed, and stoning in the Book of God is a right upon whoever commits adultery if they are married, whether men or women, if evidence is established, or there is pregnancy or confession ^[5] .

Imam al-Nawawi said in his commentary on this hadith: “What he meant by the verse of stoning is: If an old man and an old woman commit adultery, stone them both absolutely. This is something whose wording was abrogated but whose ruling remained. A ruling was abrogated but not its wording, and both were abrogated. That which was abrogated in wording does not have the ruling of the Qur’an in prohibiting it for someone in a state of major ritual impurity and the like. The companions’ failure to write this verse is clear evidence that what was abrogated is not to be written in the Qur’an . ” ^[6] This hadith, in which the strongest evidence for the proof of breastfeeding being ten was mentioned, was then abrogated by five Qur’ans. The first was abrogated in recitation and ruling, and the second was abrogated in recitation but not ruling . So the verse is from the Qur’an, and after its recitation was abrogated, there was consensus that it should not be written in the Qur’an. If this hadith is objected to, “If there was a verse in the Qur’an: ten breastfeedings, etc., then it was abrogated by a verse about five breastfeedings, then there would be something that indicates its abrogation in wording so that the ruling would be known from it, although we did not find anything that indicates that . Or if it were permissible to abrogate a verse without evidence, the enemies of the religion would argue that the Qur’an is open to possibility. This indicates that it is not preserved, although Allah, the Blessed and Most High, says :  Indeed , it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.” [al-  Hijr ]  , or if it were the Qur’an, it would have been mutawatir, but that is not the case, because it was only transmitted from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her . We say: All of these arguments are refuted by the fact that the abrogation of the second verse does not require mentioning a verse that indicates abrogation, because the hadith that Aisha mentioned is sufficient to establish the ruling, and it is also sufficient to indicate abrogation. As for their saying: If it were permissible to abrogate a verse... etc., this is accepted if there is nothing that indicates abrogation, and we have said that the hadith of Aisha indicates it. An objection to this is that It is permissible to abrogate the Qur’an by a single report, and the Qur’an is definitive and a single report is conjectural, and it is not permissible to abrogate the definitive by the conjectural. We said: We do not accept that it is definitively Qur’anic, because the one who said that was Lady Aisha, so it is conjectural, so it is permissible to abrogate it by conjecture. It was objected to this by saying that the condition of the Qur’an is mutawatir, and that which is not mutawatir is not Qur’an. It was answered that this does not detract from the mutawatir of the Noble Qur’an, because Lady Aisha, may God be pleased with her, says: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, passed away while they were among the recited verses of the Qur’an. The fact that the recitation was present during the life of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and for a period after his death confirms that it was from the Qur’an and recited, and there was consensus on that and then after that on its abrogation, so it is a mutawatir reading ^[7] .









The hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) indicates the abrogating and abrogated parts of the Qur’an, and that the established and most correct opinion of the scholars is that it is forbidden by five breastfeedings. This was stated by a number of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), such as Aisha, Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr and others. It is the view of al-Shafi’i and Ahmad in the apparent view of his school of thought ^[8] .

The proponents of this view have provided evidence with strong and clear evidence, both in terms of transmission and reason .

As for transmission, they provided evidence with what was reported in Sahih Muslim from the hadith of Umrah that she heard Aisha say - while mentioning what prohibits breastfeeding - Umrah said, so Aisha said: It was revealed in the Qur’an: ten known breastfeedings, then it was also revealed: five known breastfeedings ^[9] .

They also provided evidence with what Imam Abu Dawud narrated in his Sunan on the authority of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said: Among what Allah revealed in the Qur’an was ten breastfeedings that prohibit, then they were abrogated by five known breastfeedings that prohibit, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed away while they were among what is recited in the Qur’an ^[10] .

As for the mind: The forbidden meaning in breastfeeding is that which grows flesh and strengthens bones, and this is not achieved with a little breastfeeding, so the prohibition is with five satisfying breastfeedings, which achieves that purpose .

This is indicated by the custom that was prevalent among the Arabs before the revelation of the verse of prohibitions; by sending children to Arab neighborhoods to live with wet nurses; so the connection increases and kinship deepens, and this does not happen with less than five breastfeedings .
Thus, the indication of the hadiths of the five breastfeedings and the deduction from them is by the indication of the explicit, unlike other hadiths, as the deduction from them is by the indication of the implication, and there is no doubt that the indication of the explicit is stronger in deduction than the indication of the implication .

From this we conclude that the hadith is authentic and proven, and that the verse is one of those whose wording was abrogated but whose ruling remains; therefore, its absence in the Qur’an does not indicate that there is any distortion or falsification in the Qur’an, but rather its wording was abrogated, and this does not necessitate the existence of evidence for what its wording was abrogated from the Qur’an .

Secondly. There is nothing in the statement of Aisha, may God be pleased with her: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, died while they were recited from the Qur’an, to indicate that these verses were deleted from the Qur’an due to the manipulation of the copyists .
  The statement of Lady Aisha, may God be pleased with her: The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, died while they were reciting from the Qur’an is not evidence that these verses were deleted from the Qur’an after the death of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace. Rather, its meaning is: “The abrogation of five breastfeedings was revealed very late, so much so that when he, may God bless him and grant him peace, died, some people were reciting five breastfeedings and making them a recited Qur’an, because the abrogation had not reached him, due to its recent occurrence. When the abrogation reached them after that, they changed their minds and agreed that this should not be recited. ” [ ^11] Lady Aisha - may Allah be pleased with her - did not mean by her saying: The Messenger of Allah - may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him - died while they were among what was recited of the Qur'an, that these verses - which were abrogated after that - were recited in the hearing of everyone, but rather it was limited to the fact that they were recited by some people who had not been informed of the ruling of abrogation, until when they were informed of the abrogation they changed their mind . What indicates this is that Lady Aisha - may Allah be pleased with her - did not say: The Messenger of Allah - may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him - died while they were among what was recited of the Qur'an, meaning she did not confirm their being Qur'anic, but rather she said: The Messenger of Allah - may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him - died while they were among what was recited of the Qur'an, meaning: she meant that he died while some people were reciting it as part of the Qur'an whose handwriting was abrogated .





There is no contradiction between what Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) meant and the preservation of the Book of Allah from distortion. This is indicated by several issues :
First: It is known to anyone who has studied the continuous transmission of the Qur’an and the integrity of its transmission and preservation by the care of the Lord of the Worlds that if a hadith contradicts what we know about this continuous transmission, transmission and preservation, the problem is in the hadith and not in the Qur’an, because the latter is continuous and proven with absolute certainty, without doubt. Therefore, when there is a contradiction, it is not permissible rationally to doubt the Qur’an, and this is one of the basic principles of logic .

Second: The explicit text of the hadith does not require that the verse was not abrogated before the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Rather, the most that indicates this is that there were those who continued to consider it part of the Qur’an even after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and included it in their recitation, and this is mostly due to their ignorance of the occurrence of abrogation .

Third: Whoever contemplates the status of Islam at the time of the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the expansion of its territory, to the point that it included the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen and southern Syria, will realize that it is logically impossible for all Muslims to know that any verse was abrogated at the same time, and that it is very likely - indeed, certain - that many people were reciting some of the abrogated verses due to their geographical distance from the place of revelation, and this is something that must be acknowledged. The words of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) are nothing but an acknowledgment of this situation .

Fourth: Whoever believes that the verse was deleted by copyists when compiling the Qur’an should clarify: What is the reason for deleting such a verse from the Qur’an if it was truly not abrogated? What is the benefit of deleting it? It has no doctrinal significance, rather it is specific to one of the rulings of jurisprudence, which is a ruling established in many noble hadiths and cannot be denied, so what is the reason for deleting this verse then?! Fifth

: Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), the narrator of the hadith, could not have intended to criticize the compilation of the Qur’an in narration; Because she was a contemporary of this gathering, and was one of its most prominent supporters, especially in the last gathering that was held by the Commander of the Faithful, Uthman ibn Affan, may God be pleased with him. If she had any objections, she would have made them public and objected to Uthman, may God be pleased with him, but this did not happen, and if it had happened, we would have known about it. Rather, Aisha’s position, may God be pleased with her, regarding the killers of Uthman indicates that she never doubted his imamate and caliphate ^[12] .

Based on this, it is not acceptable, rationally or logically, to understand the statement of Aisha, may God be pleased with her, to mean that the aforementioned verse was deleted by copyists, as the authenticity of the hadith and its authenticity from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, are proven to us, and that abrogation here is a case of what was abrogated in wording but its ruling remained, and the claims of the challengers are thrown to the winds and the truth is proven by the grace of God Almighty .

Conclusion : The hadith of Aisha - may Allah be pleased with her - in which she says: Among what was revealed in the Qur’an were ten known breastfeedings that forbid marriage, then they were abrogated by five known breastfeedings... - is a sound hadith, narrated by Imam Muslim, Abu Dawud, Al-Tirmidhi, Al-Nasa’i and Ibn Majah, and no one has challenged it with any doubt. Abrogation is permissible in the Holy Qur’an, and examples of abrogation in recitation but not in ruling include the ruling on stoning, which was established in recitation in the Qur’an, then abrogated in recitation but remained in ruling. The same applies to
the    ruling    on forbidding marriage due to breastfeeding with five breastfeedings according to some imams such as Al-Shafi’i and the correct view of the school of Ahmad    .



The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) agreed that the abrogated verses should not be written in the Qur’an, because some people used to read the abrogated verses in the ruling of breastfeeding - five breastfeedings - even after the death of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) before they knew about the abrogation. When they knew about the abrogation, they agreed to leave it and not write it in the Qur’an . The statement of the Mother of the Believers Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) died while they were among what was

being    recited in the Qur’an does not in any way indicate that these verses were deleted after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by the actions of the narrators and copyists. Rather, it indicates that the abrogation of five breastfeedings was revealed very late, so much so that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) died and some people read these verses in the Qur’an before they knew about their abrogation . 

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* Liberating the Mind from Transmission, Samer Islambouli, Dar Al-Awael, Damascus, 2001. [
1] Sahih  Muslim with Al-Nawawi’s commentary, Book: Breastfeeding, Chapter: Prohibition by Five Breastfeedings, 5/2254, No.  3533.
[2] Sahih  : Narrated by Abu Dawud in his Sunan with Awn Al-Ma’bud’s commentary, Book: Marriage, Chapter: Does less than five breastfeedings prohibit marriage?, 6/47, No. 2062. Al-Albani authenticated it in Sahih and Da’if Sunan Abi Dawud, No.  2062.
[3] Sahih  : Narrated by Al-Nasa’i in his Sunan, Book: Marriage, Chapter: The Amount of Breastfeeding That Prohibits Marriage, 2/539, No. 3320. Al-Albani authenticated it in Sahih and Da’if Sunan Al-Nasa’i, No.  3307.
[4] .  Authentic: Narrated by Ibn Majah in his Sunan, Book: Marriage, Chapter: One or two suckings do not prohibit a person from getting married, 1/625, No. 1942. Al-Albani authenticated it in Sahih and Da’if Sunan Ibn Majah, No.  1942.
[5] Sahih  Muslim with Al-Nawawi’s commentary, Book: Punishments, Chapter: Stoning a married woman for adultery, 6/2630, No.  4335.
[6] Sharh  Sahih Muslim, Al-Nawawi, edited by: Adel Abdul Mawjoud and Ali Mu’awwad, Nizar Mustafa Al-Baz Library, Makkah Al-Mukarramah, 2nd ed., 1422 AH/2001 AD,  6/2633 . 
[7] See: Edited by: Adel Abdul Mawjoud and Ali Mu’awwad, Nizar Mustafa Al-Baz Library, Makkah Al-Mukarramah, 2nd ed., 1422 AH/2001 AD, 5/2258, with some modifications from the words of the investigators . [8] Islamic  Jurisprudence and Its Evidence, Dr. Wahbah al-Zuhayli, Dar al-Fikr, Damascus, 3rd ed., 1409 AH/1989 CE,  7/710. [9] Sahih  Muslim with al-Nawawi’s commentary, Book: Breastfeeding, Chapter: Prohibition by five breastfeedings, 5/2254, No.  3534. [10] Sahih  : Narrated by Abu Dawud in his Sunan with Awn al-Ma’bud’s commentary, Book: Marriage, Chapter: Does less than five breastfeedings prohibit marriage?, 6/47, No. 2062. Al-Albani authenticated it in Sahih and Da’if Sunan Abi Dawud, No.  2062. [11] Sharh  Sahih Muslim, al-Nawawi, edited by: Adel Abdul Mawjoud and Ali Mu’awwad, Nizar Mustafa al-Baz Library, Makkah al-Mukarramah, 2nd ed., 1422 AH/2001 CE,  5/2257 .  [12] Al-Mufassal in response to the doubts of the enemies of Islam, compiled and prepared by: Ali bin Nayef Al-Shahood, 10/460, with some modifications .