Al-Balad · Makki · ayah 3 of 20

Al-Balad 90:3

وَوَالِدٍ وَمَا وَلَدَ

“And [by] the father[1924] and that which was born [of him],”

Saheeh International

Essence

After the city comes the oath by the ones who live in it: a parent, and the wonder that a parent brings into the world.

A reflection

Not 'whom', but 'what'

Picture a new father at the register office, a week after the birth. The clerk asks him to spell his daughter's name. He gets halfway through and stops. His voice has gone. It is the first time he has written her down as a person in the world.

The ayah swears wa wālidin wa mā walad: 'by a parent, and what he begot'. Arabic normally uses man, 'who', for people. Here it uses mā, 'what'. Why?

The commentators answer with another ayah. When Maryam's mother gave birth, she said she had borne a girl. And the Quran adds: 'Allah knows best mā she delivered' (3:36). Not 'whom', but 'what'. The word is left open on purpose. It points to something whose worth cannot be fully grasped: a child of astonishing standing.

So the mā here is not cold. It is wonder. One commentator says the vagueness itself carries praise and amazement. It is as if the ayah cannot quite name what a parent brings into the world.

The word wālidin has no 'the'. It is 'a parent', any parent. The commentators say this too magnifies, rather than diminishes. Whoever the parent is, what comes from them is a marvel.

The root itself pictures new life coming out of life. Walad is whatever is born, son or daughter, one or many. The same root names the one who gives birth and the one who begets. One word holds the whole chain of a family.

Notice what this does to how we see people. Every person you meet today was once the mā of this ayah. The cashier, the driver who cut you up, the colleague you find tiresome. Each was someone's 'what' that could not be put into words.

It is hard to despise someone once you have imagined them as a newborn in their mother's arms. Perhaps that is one reason the oath is here, at the start of a surah about how we treat the weak.

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.