Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 40 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:40

قَالَ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِى غُلَـٰمٌ وَقَدْ بَلَغَنِىَ ٱلْكِبَرُ وَٱمْرَأَتِى عَاقِرٌ ۖ قَالَ كَذَٰلِكَ ٱللَّهُ يَفْعَلُ مَا يَشَآءُ

“He said, "My Lord, how will I have a boy when I have reached old age and my wife is barren?" He [the angel] said, "Such is Allāh; He does what He wills."”

Saheeh International

Essence

An old man with a barren wife asked how he could have a son; the answer: such is Allah, He does what He wills.

A reflection

'At your age' is our verdict, not His

A woman of seventy-two signs up for swimming lessons. The form has a box marked 'age'. She leaves it blank. The instructor raises an eyebrow, then shrugs and hands her a float.

Zakariyyā filled in the box. 'My Lord, how will I have a boy, when old age has reached me and my wife is barren?' he asked. The reports differ widely on his age; one commentator lists figures from sixty to a hundred and twenty. The Quran gives no number. It needs none. He was old, and she could not bear children.

The lexicons picture ʿāqir, barren, with a hard image. To ʿaqara a camel was to strike her legs so that she fell and could not rise. The barren woman is pictured as if the line of birth had been cut.

Then the answer: kadhālika llāhu yafʿalu mā yashāʾ. 'Such is Allah: He does what He wills.' A major early commentator expands it. It is easy for Him to create a child from an old man who has given up hope, and from a barren woman. He created you before, when you were nothing. The lexicons note that shayʾ, 'thing', began as a word for what is willed. Every thing that exists is something He willed.

This is where the ego's sense of the possible is put back in its place. 'Impossible' is often a report about our own limits, dressed up as a law of the universe. Old age, barrenness, a closed door: these are real. But they are facts about creatures. They do not bind the Creator.

Does Allah need to remind us that He does what He wills? He needs nothing (35:15). We need it. A life lived inside our own verdicts grows small and afraid.

The woman at the pool is not defying her age. She has simply stopped letting it have the last word.

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.