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."
Verse 40 of Surah Ali ’Imran (3:40), a Medinan surah, is in juz 3, on page 55 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 71 reciters.
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Tafsir of verse 40
Al-Mukhtasar
When the angels gave him the good news about John, Zachariah said, ‘O Lord, how can I have a child after I have become old and my wife is unable to bear children?’ Allah replied to him that the example of the creation of John, in spite of his old age and his wife being barren, is like that of the creation of anything that Allah wishes to create, even though it is out of the ordinary. This is because Allah has power over everything and does whatever He wills in His wisdom and knowledge.
He said: “My Lord, how can I have a son when I have reached old age and my wife is barren?” He said, “Thus Allah does what He wills.”
He said: "O my Lord! How can I have a son when I am very old, and my wife is barren?" (Allâh) said: "Thus Allâh does what He wills."
He said: My Lord! How can I have a son when age hath overtaken me already and my wife is barren? (The angel) answered: So (it will be). Allah doeth what He will.
He said: "O my Lord! How shall I have son, seeing I am very old, and my wife is barren?" "Thus," was the answer, "Doth Allah accomplish what He willeth."
He said: My Lord! when shall there be a son (born) to me, and old age has already come upon me, and my wife is barren? He said: even thus does Allah what He pleases.
He said, "Lord! However will I have a youth, and age (Literally: great (with years) has already reached me and my wife is barren?" He (i.e. the angel) said, "Thus Allah performs whatever He decides."
She said, "My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?" [The angel] said, "Such is Allāh; He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, 'Be,' and it is.
Do you not see [i.e., know] that to Allāh prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth and the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the moving creatures and many of the people? But upon many the punishment has been justified. And he whom Allāh humiliates - for him there is no bestower of honor. Indeed, Allāh does what He wills.
