Question:
salam ‘alaykum
Is it ok to pray while nursing a baby? We know Prophet (s) allowed his grandsons sayyidina al-Hasan and sayyidina al-Husayn (r) to ride on his back while in prayer.
Answer:
Alaykum Salam,
If no `awra is uncovered and there is no excessive movement that is extraneous to Salat (see the words of Imam al-Nawawi below) then it would be permissible, as shown by the fact that the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) prayed salat while carrying his grand-daughter Umayma bint Abi al-`As:
http://library.islamweb.net/
or her name was Umama:
as narrated in Sahih Muslim, the Sunan and the Musnad of Imam Ahmad.
Al-Qurtubi said, as in Fath al-Bari, vol. 1, p. 592:
The scholars differed in the explanation of this hadith. and that which made them in need of that was that it is a great deal of work.
And it was related by the son of al-Qassim from Malik that it was during voluntary prayers, but that is a long stretch. Because in fact the apparent meaning of the hadith is that it was during obligatory prayers.
And ibn `Abd al-Barr said:
Perhaps it was abrogated by the prohibition of action during prayers. And al-Hafizh ibn Hajar took him to task for this in that abrogation cannot be asserted based on assumption and in that this story was after his saying (s) “verily prayer is work.” because that was before the Hijrah and this incident was after the Hijrah by a long time.
Imam Nawawi in his Sharh Sahih Muslim (32/5) said:
Some of the Malikis claim that this hadith was abrogated. and some of them claim that it was only specialized to the Prophet (s) and some of them claim that it was done out of exceptional need (darurah) and all of these claims are false and rejected as having no supporting evidences. Because human beings are by nature pure, and whatever is inside them is excused and the clothes of children and their bodies are taken as pure until filth becomes clearly evident. As for “work” during prayer it does not break the prayer as long as it is minimal or spaced apart and the evidences from the Divine Law are apparent on this and indeed this action of the Prophet (s) was to make clear permissibility of that.
It has also been said that the above hadith concerns non-fard salat. And Allah knows best.
The strong position is that the Umayma hadith concerned farida. The second but opinion is that it did not.
The Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) prayed nafila sometimes at home and sometimes in the mosque.
“No restriction” does not necessarily mean more than that, i.e. the hadith does not specify that it was fard or nafl, and to a jurist the departure from the normal form of prayer would make it more probable that it was nafl. That is why Ibn Hajar said “zahir al-hadith” i.e. literally or apparently the wording conveys fard, but the understanding of it might convey nafl and Allah knows best.
As for the hadith of al-Hasan and al-Husayn it does not refer to any action on the part of the worshipper.
Hajjah Farida says holding the baby while praying require certain movements and it is makruh to make a lot of movement during the prayer. So it’s better to feed the baby first then pray. Allah is Merciful and He loves mercy.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
