Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 90 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:90

فَٱسْتَجَبْنَا لَهُۥ وَوَهَبْنَا لَهُۥ يَحْيَىٰ وَأَصْلَحْنَا لَهُۥ زَوْجَهُۥٓ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يُسَـٰرِعُونَ فِى ٱلْخَيْرَٰتِ وَيَدْعُونَنَا رَغَبًا وَرَهَبًا ۖ وَكَانُوا۟ لَنَا خَـٰشِعِينَ

“So We responded to him, and We gave to him John, and amended for him his wife. Indeed, they used to hasten to good deeds and supplicate[902] Us in hope and fear, and they were to Us humbly submissive.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A son for an old man, a mended wife, and the reason: a household that ran to good and was humble before Allah.

A reflection

Mending what we cannot mend

Three verbs again, all Allah's. Fa-stajabnā lahu: so We answered him. Wa wahabnā lahu Yaḥyā: and gave him Yahya. Wa aṣlaḥnā lahu zawjahu: and mended his wife for him. One commentary records a report that Zakariya was a hundred years old and his wife ninety-nine. Every human calculation said no.

One great commentator notices something about the order. The mending of his wife must have come before the gift of the son. Yet the ayah names the son first. The "and" does not mark a sequence, he says. The ayah leads with the gift and then reveals what had already been done to make it possible.

What was mended? The commentators give three answers. Most say she had been unable to bear children and was made able. Some early authorities say she had been sharp-tongued and difficult, and was given a good character. One great commentator adds a third: she was made righteous in her religion, a real support to him in his calling. Another says Allah did not limit it, so all of these may be meant.

Picture a man in the early years of his marriage who carries a mental list of everything he would like to change about his wife. Her lateness, her spending, the way she handles his mother. He tries hints, arguments, sulks. Nothing moves, and he grows bitter. One year, worn out, he stops trying to fix her and starts praying for both of them instead. He cannot say exactly when things changed. But by the following spring, both of them have.

That is where the ego has to bow. We cannot mend another person, not with pressure, not with cleverness. Only Allah reaches that deep. Does He need us to recognise this? No. But we need to, or we will spend our marriages trying to do His work.

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.