Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 50 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:50

أَوْ يُزَوِّجُهُمْ ذُكْرَانًا وَإِنَـٰثًا ۖ وَيَجْعَلُ مَن يَشَآءُ عَقِيمًا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ عَلِيمٌ قَدِيرٌ

“Or He makes them [both] males and females, and He renders whom He wills barren. Indeed, He is Knowing and Competent.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Some homes He fills with sons and daughters, some He leaves without children; every shape is chosen by One who knows.

A reflection

The family plan in the spreadsheet

A newly married couple, both accountants, build a spreadsheet one evening for fun. Two children, a boy then a girl, three years apart, the first after the promotion. Fifteen years later they have one daughter, born nine years later than planned, and a spreadsheet they laugh about.

The ayah closes the passage on children with two names: innahu ʿalīmun qadīr, He is All-Knowing, All-Able. One commentator explains: He knows who deserves each of these portions, and He is able to bring about the differences between people. Another says He knows what is good for His servants and is able to bring into being what benefits them.

The root of qadīr carries the image of measure: every thing given its exact amount and limit. The Arabs called a horse aqdar when its hind hooves landed exactly where its forefeet had stepped. Allah's decree is that kind of exactness.

Human pride likes to plan the family as it plans a career. Sometimes plans and decree coincide, and we take the credit. When they diverge, we feel cheated.

The ayah's two names answer both reactions. The One who decided knows more than any plan and is able beyond any effort. That is not a reason to stop planning, but a reason to plan humbly.

A sceptic may ask whether this is a ruler arranging lives for his own pleasure. The commentators' gloss says the opposite: He knows what is good for His servants. The decree is measured for them, not against them.

The couple's daughter is now their whole world. They would not trade her for the spreadsheet's perfect symmetry. The plan was theirs; the measure was His, and wiser.

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.