The Suspicion that Imām al-Bukhārī Held the Opinion that the Ruling of Fosterage Applies to Two Infants Who Suckled and Were Nourished by the Milk of a Single Cow, and that the Hurmah (Prohibition of Nikah) Spreads Between Them!
Question: Is it true that Imām al-Bukhārī holds the opinion that the ruling of fosterage applies to two infants who suckled and were nourished by the milk of a single cow, and that the prohibition spreads between them?
Imām as-Sarakhsī says: ‘If two infants drank the milk of a sheep or a cow, the prohibition of fosterage would not be established by it because fosterage is analogized to lineage (an-nasab), and just as lineage is not established between a human and animals, similarly the prohibition of fosterage is not established by drinking the milk of animals. Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī, the author of at-Tārīkh—may Allah be pleased with him—used to say: ‘The prohibition is established.’ This issue was the reason for his expulsion from Bukhārā, for he came to Bukhārā during the time of Abū Ḥafṣ al-Kabīr—may Allah have mercy on him—and began issuing fatwās (legal opinions). Abū Ḥafṣ—may Allah have mercy on him—forbade him, saying: ‘You are not qualified for it.’ He did not stop until he was asked about this issue, and he issued a fatwā affirming the prohibition. So the people gathered and expelled him.’ (Al-Mabsūṭ Vol. 30, p. 297, Sharḥ al-‘Ināyah ‘alā al-Hidāyah Vol. 3, p. 456.)
Answer: This is what is called in the science of narrators (‘ilm al-rijāl) as
Undetailed and Unattributed Disparagement (al-jarḥ ghayr al-mufassar wa ghayr al-musnad) and from a man who has no standing in the science of narrators.
Rather, the Ḥanafīs do not prioritize the science of chains of transmission (‘ilm al-asānīd), but only in jurisprudence (fiqh), which they excel in.
However, what they transmit without a chain of transmission is not trustworthy.
Firstly: The story is a fabrication for the following reasons:
1. None of those who authored biographies and siyar (biographical chronicles)—whose preoccupation and custom was to collect reports about the figures they wrote about—mentioned this fatwā, even in a weakened or tentative formulation.
2. It is known among historians that the reason for al-Bukhārī’s departure from Bukhārā was that enmity and aversion occurred between him and its then-governor, Khālid ibn Aḥmad ad-Dhuhlī. The reason, as narrated by adh-Dhahabī in Siyar A‘lām an-Nubalā’, was that this Khālid asked al-Bukhārī to come to his house and read al-Jāmi‘ and at-Tārīkh to his sons. Al-Bukhārī refused to attend his house, so Khālid sent him a message asking him to hold a session exclusively for his sons and no one else. Al-Bukhārī refused and said: ‘I do not single out anyone.’ The governor then sought the help of Ḥurayth ibn Abī al-Warqā’ and others (Abū Ḥafṣ may have been among them) until they spoke ill of his madhhab (school of thought) and exiled him from the town. Al-Bukhārī prayed against them, and within only a month, an order from the Ṭāhiriyyah arrived that Khālid be publicly disgraced in the town, and he was paraded on a donkey. As for Ḥurayth, he was afflicted with his family and saw in them what is too great to describe. And as for the other person (?), he was afflicted in his children, and Allah showed him calamities concerning them.
3. This story has no authentic chain of transmission (sanad ṣaḥīḥ) from Imām al-Bukhārī, may Allah have mercy on him. Rather, the author of al-Mabsūṭ and others mentioned it without a chain. Thus, the burden is on the one who uses it as evidence to first prove its chain of transmission.
4. Finally: Jamaluddin Al-Qasimi said in his book Hayat Al-Bukhari: “Indeed, the fabricator of this tale intended to seek revenge for Abu Hanifa.” (Hayat Al-Bukhari by Al-Qasimi: 48.)
It is worth noting that the mentioned evidence is not from the words of the Messenger, but rather from the words of Al-Marghinani Al-Hanafi in Al-Hidayah, and consequently, not with this wording. Al-Marghinani only said: “Every two infants who gathered on the breast of one woman.”
The point is: Al-Marghinani’s statement is clear that effective fosterage is from a woman, not from a sheep!
And even if “Fiqh” (what they call Fiqh) was not Al-Bukhari’s craft, how could he not differentiate between his saying and the saying of someone born seven hundred years after him!
(Answer was penned by Shaykh Faisal Noor. Taken from his website. Source. Translated into English by Mohammed bin Thajammul Hussain Manna. )
Saheehus-Seerah 