al-Nawazil fi al-Ridaa
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- al-Nawazil fi al-Ridaa
al-Nawazil fi al-Ridaa (al-Nawāzil fī al-Riḍāʿ, "Contemporary Juridical Issues in Fosterage") is a comparative Islamic jurisprudence study by Abd Allah ibn Yusuf ibn Abd Allah al-Ahmad . It addresses modern medical, commercial, social, and judicial developments concerning breastfeeding and the establishment of prohibitive foster kinship (taḥrīm bi-l-riḍāʿ) .
Background and Composition
The book was originally composed as a supplementary thesis submitted for a master's degree in comparative jurisprudence at the Higher Judicial Institute of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, under the supervision of Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah al-Bakhit . The author conceived the work after attending lectures on the chapter of fosterage delivered by Abd Allah ibn Ali al-Rukban at the College of Sharia in Riyadh, who highlighted several modern cases requiring legal research . During the research, the author sought input from specialists in jurisprudence, hadith studies, judicial procedure, linguistics, medicine, and pharmacology to accurately contextualize modern technological applications .
Scope and Method
In his methodology, al-Ahmad focuses on deriving rulings for contemporary issues (nawāzil) from the texts of the Quran and the Sunnah, legal maxims, and classical juristic deductions across the major legal schools . For disputed questions, he defines the exact scope of disagreement, evaluates the proofs and counter-arguments of classical and modern scholars, and provides a preferred view (tarjīḥ) with rationale . Hadith narrations outside of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are traced and evaluated based on chain criticism . The work was formulated to provide a comprehensive treatment of contemporary fosterage questions, distinguishing itself from earlier studies that either examined isolated matters like milk banks or treated milk rulings broadly across unrelated legal chapters such as commercial transactions and dietary laws .
Structure and Contents
The work is arranged into an introduction, a preliminary study, four main chapters, and a conclusion :
- Preliminary Study (Tamhīd): Defines novel cases (nawāzil) and fosterage (riḍāʿ), outlines the necessity of legal reasoning (ijtihād) in contemporary occurrences, and surveys the legal maxims and higher objectives of Sharia (maqāṣid) governing fosterage rulings .
- Chapter One: Investigates modern instruments and medical interventions related to lactation across thirteen topics, including pharmaceutical galactagogues, lactation suppressants, human milk banks, breast milk injections, tube feeding, milk processing (into powder or cheese), breast pumps, infant formula, nursing bottles, reliance on medical expert opinion, lactation in surrogate motherhood, irradiated milk, and physician liability .
- Chapter Two: Discusses the juridical status of the suckled substance, addressing commercial trading in human milk and determining substances that substitute for breast milk in creating prohibitive foster relations versus those that do not .
- Chapter Three: Deals with rulings concerning the nursling and the foster mother, including relationships between children sharing milk, social boundaries between adult males and female foster mahrams, conflicting rights, consent in adult fosterage out of necessity, and nursing by mothers diagnosed with HIV .
- Chapter Four: Analyzes evidence and judicial procedure, addressing modern and traditional evidence, testimonies and judicial rulings involving foster relatives, witnessing, statute of limitations, retractions of admission, conflicting proofs, and formal registration .
In its conclusion, the book presents legal findings and recommendations, highlighting the proposal to establish dedicated official government registries to record fosterage cases systematically, analogous to marriage, divorce, and birth records .
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