Verse. 2258

١٩ - مَرْيَم

19 - Maryam

قَالَ رَبِّ اَنّٰى يَكُوْنُ لِيْ غُلٰمٌ وَّكَانَتِ امْرَاَتِيْ عَاقِرًا وَّقَدْ بَلَغْتُ مِنَ الْكِبَرِ عِتِيًّا۝۸
Qala rabbi anna yakoonu lee ghulamun wakanati imraatee AAaqiran waqad balaghtu mina alkibari AAitiyyan

English

Ahmed Ali

"How can I have a son, O Lord" he said, "when my wife is barren and I am old and decrepit?"

8

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (he said) zachariah said to gabriel: (my lord!) my master, (how can i have a son when my wife is barren and i have reached infirm old age) how can i have a son when my wife is barren and my body has become dry?; it is also said that this means: how can i have a son when my wife is barren and i am seventy two years of age?

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : he said, ‘my lord, how shall i have a son when my wife is barren and i have reached infirm old age?’ (‘itiyyan, [derives] from [the verb] ‘atā, ‘it became withered’) in other words, [he had reached] extreme old age, 120 years; and his wife had reached the age of 98 (‘atiya in terms of its root derives from ‘utuwwun, but the tā’ is vowelled as -ti-, to soften it, the first wāw [vowel] is changed into a yā’ to be in harmony with the –ti- vowelling, while the second [wāw letter] is changed into a yā’ so that the [previous] yā’ can be assimilated with it).