Maryam · Makki · ayah 35 of 98

Maryam 19:35

مَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ أَن يَتَّخِذَ مِن وَلَدٍ ۖ سُبْحَـٰنَهُۥٓ ۚ إِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ

“It is not [befitting] for Allāh to take a son; exalted is He![813] When He decrees an affair, He only says to it, "Be," and it is.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A son is what the needy want; the One who makes anything by saying 'Be' needs nothing, and is far above taking one.

A reflection

The One who needs no heir

Think about why people want children. Someone to help when strength fails. Someone to inherit the house and carry the name. Someone to stop the loneliness. Someone through whom you go on after you die. Every one of those reasons is a need.

One commentary puts it in a single line. A son is among the marks of need and deficiency. So the One whose command makes anything simply be cannot be imagined to have one. He does not weaken, so needs no help. He does not die, so needs no heir. He is never alone, so needs no company.

This is where the ayah turns on the ego. Our hunger for legacy is a hunger born of mortality. Picture a man in his seventies who has rewritten his will four times. Each time he worries which son will keep the firm going, and whether his name will stay above the door. He is not wicked. He is simply mortal, and afraid of being finished.

Now hear subḥānahu: glory be to Him, far above that. Allah does not need to continue, because He does not end. Set beside that, our anxious projects of self-preservation shrink to their true size. Our pride in what we have built is the pride of people who will have to leave it.

And the One who says this is not wounded by the claim He rejects. Sahih al-Bukhari records the Prophet ﷺ saying that no one is more patient with hurtful words He hears than Allah. They ascribe a son to Him, and still He gives them health and provision.

He corrects the falsehood. He does not withdraw the bread.

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.