Motherhood Duties and Child Custody Right in Islamic Jurisprudence

According to the teachings of the Qur'ān, the mother is obliged to breastfeed her baby up to ‎‎twenty-one months ‎after the baby’s birth. It is clear, however, that besides feeding on milk, the baby ‎‎needs certain care to keep on nourishing; ‎and this care is to be performed, in normal ‎‎circumstances, by someone who has the strongest emotional and physical ‎relationship with that baby. The issue of custody, which regards the question on who is responsible for this, is brought up ‎when parents are divorced; but in case of continued matrimony, this issue is out of the discussion ‎because ‎the ‎parents cooperate in taking care of their child. The custody of the child, although ‎after being ‎weaned, is the main ‎responsibility of the father; however, the mother is also given the ‎right to ‎undertake this responsibility up to when ‎the child is seven if so she wishes, irrespective ‎of the child's ‎gender.