Abstract
This brief study examines the narration reporting a prohibition against engaging a woman of deficient intellect (al-ḥamqāʾ) as a wet nurse. Through an analysis of the report’s lexical components, its chain of transmission (isnād), and the biographical standing of its sole narrator, the paper determines whether the text is sound enough to serve as a basis for any legal ruling (ḥukm) in Islamic jurisprudence.
Introduction
The corpus of prophetic tradition contains numerous reports that guide the practices of child-rearing, among them the selection of a wet nurse. One such narration holds that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade that a woman of low intelligence be sought to breastfeed a child. Because such a report, if authentic, would carry a directive of practical consequence, its transmission must be evaluated before any ruling is derived from it. This article assesses its authenticity and, on that basis, its juristic weight.
The Text (Matn)
«نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ أَنْ تُسْتَرْضَعَ الْحَمْقَاءُ»
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade that a foolish woman (al-ḥamqāʾ) be sought as a wet nurse.”
Grading (Ḥukm)
Ḍaʿīf (weak) — the report is mursal and turns upon a narrator who is majhūl.
Lexical Analysis
An accurate reading of the report depends on two terms:
- Tustardaʿ (تُسْتَرْضَع) — the passive form of istarḍaʿa, from the root r-ḍ-ʿ (“to suckle”). It denotes specifically the act of requesting a woman to breastfeed a child, i.e. engaging her as a wet nurse.
- Al-ḥamqāʾ (الحمقاء) — the feminine of aḥmaq, from ḥumq. It describes a woman of deficient intellect or poor judgement. The term is stronger than mere simplicity; it points to a settled feebleness of mind.
Taken together, the phrasing frames the report as a directive concerning the quality of the woman engaged to nurse, not the mere act of nursing itself.
Transmission and Narrator Evaluation
The report rests upon a single narrator, Ziyād al-Sahmī, and its chain exhibits several defects that bear directly on its reliability:
- Absence of companionship (ṣuḥba). Ziyād al-Sahmī is not established as a Companion of the Prophet ﷺ.
- A severed chain (mursal). Since he is not a Companion, his narrating directly from the Prophet ﷺ means the Companion-link is missing, rendering the report mursal — a category of disconnected narration that does not, on its own, establish proof.
- An unknown narrator (majhūl). In Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, Ibn Ḥajar classifies Ziyād al-Sahmī as majhūl, noting only that he is said to be the freed client (mawlā) of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. No reliable body of transmission or attestation of his precision has been established for him.
- Place of collection. Ibn Ḥajar (al-Ḥāfiẓ) records that the report is found in Abū Dāwūd’s al-Marāsīl — the very collection devoted to disconnected reports — which is itself consistent with the classification above.
The report therefore carries two compounding weaknesses: a break in the chain (irsāl) and the anonymity of the one narrator on whom it depends (jahāla).
Conclusion and Legal Ruling
In Islamic jurisprudence, the derivation of a binding ruling (ḥukm) depends on the soundness and continuity of a report’s transmission. The present narration fails on both counts: it is mursal, and it turns upon Ziyād al-Sahmī, who is an unknown narrator (majhūl). These are not incidental blemishes but structural defects at the foundation of the chain.
Accordingly, this report is not valid as a proof and cannot serve as a justification for any legal ruling concerning the prohibition of engaging a wet nurse of low intelligence. Whatever prudential wisdom may attach to the choice of a wet nurse must rest on other grounds, for this particular text does not withstand critical examination.
Scholarly Context: The Choice of a Wet Nurse in the Jurists’ Reasoning
Although the specific report examined above does not withstand scrutiny, the concern it expresses — that the character and constitution of a wet nurse matter — is not itself baseless. It reflects a theme the jurists and physicians of the tradition treated seriously, though they grounded it in other evidence and in reasoned considerations rather than in this weak narration. The following is offered as background to that broader discussion, not as a rehabilitation of the report.
The premise that nursing transmits disposition. A recurring idea in classical writing is that the milk a child receives shapes something of its temperament (ṭabʿ) and disposition, much as lineage and upbringing were held to do. The Arabic maxim al-labanu yughayyiru al-ṭibāʿ (“milk alters natures”) captures the sentiment. On this view, the physical nourishment of nursing was thought to carry with it, in some measure, the qualities of the one nursing — a belief that lent practical seriousness to the selection of a wet nurse.
Support from stronger evidence and general principles. Jurists who counselled care in this choice did not need the report of Ziyād al-Sahmī. They could point to the general Sharīʿah concern for the welfare of children and the cultivation of sound character, and to authentically established guidance encouraging the selection of the wholesome and the avoidance of the harmful in matters touching the family. The preference for a nurse of good religion, sound health, and stable temperament thus emerges as a prudential recommendation supported by the broader aims of the Law (maqāṣid), even where a particular text adduced for it proves weak.
The status of such counsel. It is important to keep two things distinct. A weak report cannot establish a binding prohibition (taḥrīm) or a firm legal ruling. But the underlying prudence — that a parent should, where able, choose a wet nurse of sound character and mind — can still stand as advisable guidance (irshād, istiḥbāb at most, or simply sensible practice), resting on other grounds. The failure of this narration removes the claim of a prophetic prohibition; it does not oblige a parent to disregard reasonable care in the matter.
A caution on method. This distinction is itself a point of method worth underscoring: the weakness of a report is not license to invent a ruling from sentiment, nor is it grounds to dismiss a wise practice that other evidence already commends. The discipline of takhrīj serves precisely this end — to fix each text at its true evidentiary weight, so that rulings rest on what genuinely bears them, and prudent counsel is recognised for what it is.
And Allah knows best.