Maryam · Makki · ayah 13 of 98

Maryam 19:13

وَحَنَانًا مِّن لَّدُنَّا وَزَكَوٰةً ۖ وَكَانَ تَقِيًّا

“And affection from Us and purity, and he was fearing of Allāh”

Saheeh International

Essence

The boy told to hold the Book with strength was also given yearning tenderness from Allah's presence, a purity that grows, and a guarded heart.

A reflection

The strong one was also the tender one

There is a common assumption that strength and tenderness pull in opposite directions. The firm person is hard; the gentle person is soft. A religious life, on this picture, has to choose which it will be.

This ayah refuses the choice, and its position makes the point. One ayah earlier Yaḥyā was told to take the Book with strength. The very next words describe what he was given alongside it: tenderness from Our presence, and purity.

The commentaries read the tenderness two ways, and both matter. It was Allah's mercy towards Yaḥyā, a great mercy from His own presence. And it was mercy placed in Yaḥyā's own heart, towards his parents and towards others. One says he was given compassion and care for people.

One classical commentator notices why purity follows immediately. Tenderness, he writes, can sometimes lead a person to neglect what is due. So the ayah pairs it with purity, so that his compassion never became an excuse for abandoning what was right. Another notes that the phrase from Us marks this as tenderness pleasing to Allah. Some compassion is not; it is the kind that quietly lets wrong stand.

So the portrait is precise. A boy with a grip on the Book that would not loosen, and a heart that would not harden. Strength that did not become cruelty. Tenderness that did not become weakness.

Most of us manage one and mistake it for virtue. The firm person calls their harshness integrity. The soft person calls their avoidance kindness. Yaḥyā is described with both, from the same Source, in consecutive ayat.

That is the harder and better thing to ask for.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.