Some Reflections on Islamic Milk Kinship

Abstract

An author of a recent, comprehensive and authoritative legal treatise, in an exposition of Islamic family values in the contemporary world, affirms that 'the family' (alusrah), the 'nucleus of society' (although perhaps a relatively recent phenomenon in Islamic discourse), stands 'on the foundation of stock ('irq), blood and nasab and affinity and milk kinship'.1 Most scholars agree in theory that kinship is not a biological fact but a universally deployable system for structuring social relations. In empirical practice, however, research on kinship has focused almost exclusively on descent and alliance. This essay addresses kinship in an Islamic society where motherhood is glorified, childlessness is socially unacceptable, and adoption is religiously prohibited.