(31:14) We *22 enjoined upon man to be dutiful to his parents. His mother bore him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning lasted two years. *23 (We, therefore, enjoined upon him): 'Give thanks to Me and to your parents. To Me is your ultimate return.

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*22) The whole passage from lure to the end of the paragraph is a parenthesis, which AIIah has inserted as a further explanation of the saying of Luqman.
*23) From these words, Imam Shafe'i, Imam Ahmad, Imam Abu Yusuf. and Imam Muhammad have drawn the conclusion that the suckling period of the child is two years. If a child has been suckled by a woman within this period, they will be forbidden for each other, but if outside and beyond this period, they will not be so. A saying of Imam Malik also supports this. But Imam Abu Hanifah has proposed the period of two and a half years as a precaution, and has added that it' the child has been weaned after two years, or even earlier, and it is no longer dependent upon suckling for its food, no woman would be forbidden for him If she gave him suck after that period, However, if the real food of the child is still milk. suckling during the period will render him and her forbidden for each other in spite of his eating the other food in a more or less quantity. For, the verse does not mean that the child should be suckled necessarily for two years. In Surah AI Baqarah it has been said: 'The mothers shall suckle their children for two whole years, if the fathers desire the suckling to be completed." (v. 233). Ibn 'Abbas from these words has concluded, and other scholars have agreed with him in this, that the shortest period of pregnancy is six months, for the Qur'an at another place says: "His bearing (ita the womb) and his weaning took thirty months." (Ahqaf: 15) This is an important legal point which helps resolve many disputes concerning legitimate and illegitimate births.