al-Baqara 2:233 — Nursing: a prohibition of harm on both sides

"Mothers nurse their children two full years — for one who wishes to complete the nursing."

حَوْلَيْنِ كَامِلَيْنِ — "two full years". And immediately afterwards the clause: li-man arāda an yutimma'l-raḍāʿa — for one who wishes to complete it. The term, that is, is an upper limit, not a necessity.

In distributing the obligations the verse sets a limit separately for both sides:

"Let no mother be harmed on account of her child, nor a father on account of his child."

The sentence is symmetrical, and its symmetry must be recorded: the same verb, the same pattern, separately for both sides. The child is taken out of being an instrument one party may use against the other.

فَإِنْ أَرَادَا فِصَالًا عَن تَرَاضٍ مِّنْهُمَا وَتَشَاوُرٍ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا — two conditions are set for the decision to wean: mutual consent (tarāḍin) and consultation (tashāwur). Both words are from Forms III and VI, that is, from patterns conveying reciprocity.

Two people who are divorced are asked to decide together about the child. Separation does not do away with the joint decision.