In this piece, we will be looking at the instances of Infertility in the Quran. As those that know about barrenness are aware of, not all infertility are the same. Though the result, which is not being able to have kids may be the same, the symptoms are different. And reading through the Quran, I have come to realize that though the translators have it as ‘barren’, the Arabic words are different. Which invariably means that Allah was referring to different forms of barrenness.
In the case of Zakariyya’s wife, the word translated to barren is a’qira, while in the case of IbraHeem’s wife, the word translated to barren is a’qeema. There are other words that were translated to ‘barren’ in the Quran other than the 2 above, but they weren’t attributed to humans. We will look into them also, InshaAllah, to see how they may apply.
So, my aim here, and in subsequent posts, is to look into these words, and perhaps, as we will see; they can help us understand the symptoms better, and in so doing, be able to provide a remedy. As you will also see; Allah may have pointed us to the direction one has to take to remedy the symptoms.
Anyway, the first type of barrenness in the Quran that we will be looking into is the one called A’qira. The root alphabets of the word are ain, qaf and ra, and 2 forms of the word occurred a total of 8 times in the Quran; a’qara 5 times, and a’qir 3 times.
The word is said to mean the main part of one’s dwelling, real estate, landed property, residence; furniture; to slay by stabbing, to wound, to be savaged by an animal; to be barren, sterile; to be alcoholic; medicine. At first glance, all these meanings may seem unrelated, but hopefully, when we are done going through all the imageries that conjures up a’qira, you’ll see how they are related.
Our conversation starts in the Quran. In Q7 V77, Q11 V65, Q26 V157, Q54 V29 and Q91 V14, the first form, a’qar, was used. In those verses, Allah tells us about the people of Thamud. The prophet that was sent to them is Solih. The proud Thamudians didn’t believe in him, and at some point, they asked him to prove his prophethood by causing a pregnant she-camel to come out of a rock. It did. But what they didn’t envisage was that the camel will give birth to her calf, and that both camel and calf will have to drink from their well, eat from their fields and all. And so it came to pass that they hamstrung the camel. Which means that they cut her hamstrings, and since the hamstrings are needed to be able to move around, the camel wasn’t able to move, and so it bled to death. The disbelieving Thamudians were destroyed because of this, while Solih and the believers were saved. That’s the bit from the story that we need in explaining what a’qir means.
With respect to Zakariyya’s wife, the word translated to ‘barren’ in Q3 V40, Q19 V5 and Q19 V8 is a’qir, the same word translated to ‘hamstrung’ in the case of the she-camel of Thamud. So, in trying to understand the nature of Zakariyya’s wife’s barrenness, we will have to understand a’qira as it relates to being ‘hamstrung’.
Above, I mentioned the classical arabic definitions of a’qir, and now that we’ve seen how it was used in the case of the camel, it’s time to put them all together to form a cohesive meaning:
First of all, what we see is that for a’qir to occur, there must have been a stabbing, or cutting of some kind which then results in a fatal wound. So, any wound that may result in death can be called a’qir. Also, any wild animal that can cause such fatal injury can also be called a’qir. So that animals like lion, leopard and wolf are classically referred to as a’qir animals.
Second imagery that we should have in mind is the fact that blood slowly flows from the said animal. Irregularly too, for a seemingly long period of time; the blood drain is not instant. It’s a means of torture. A slow death. And the animal is helpless, because of its immobility, it stays in the same spot, and the blood slowly drains out of it depending on the areas of pressure.
Now, the reason the said animal is unable to move is because of the part of the animal that was stabbed or torn, the hamstrings. It will be equivalent to making a deep horizontal cut behind a human’s thigh. Despite the wishes of the said human, he won’t be able to move, not with those legs anyway. There is a reason the femur, which is the thigh bone, is the strongest bone in the body, because, simply put, it carries the entire body, the entire body rests on it. Literally. And so the tendons around it are really important for one to be able to maintain mobility.
Which takes us to the next definition. So, any thing that its existence is needed for the other to exist, is also called an a’qir. The pillar, the main part of something. And that’s why the main part of one’s dwelling is called an a’qir. And because the animal is immobile, immovable; a land, house, residence, real estate, or any landed property is also called an a’qir. And some furnitures are also referred to as a’qir, of course, because they are immovable, or not easily movable.
Now that we know all that, it will be easy to understand what is meant when medicine and alcohol are referred to as a’qir. Obviously, not all medicines are so referred, only those that will render one immobile are; and not all alcohol are, only those that will render one immobile, or bleeding, et al will be so referred.
It is this word, a’qir, that was used to qualify Zakariyya’s wife’s childless state.
To be able to fully grasp how this is true to infertility aka barrenness, we will have to look into how a child is made. I will try as much as possible to simplify the biological terms.
So, to start with, I want you to fold your palms to make fists, and face the fists downward, almost akimbo-like. Now that you’ve done or imagined that, let’s get into the explanation. You see, the journey of the egg that the sperm needs to fertilize starts in either of the fists, aka the ovaries. The egg is made there, and when it is released to your arm aka fallopian tubes, ovulation is said to have occurred. The said egg moves from your wrist to your shoulder, and heads towards the chest which in this case, is called the uterus. As the egg heads to the uterus, the walls of the uterus thickens, so that the egg will have a safe and guarded place to protect the egg (the potential baby). If the egg doesn’t come in contact with sperm all through its journey through the fallopian tube, and in the uterus, it gradually starts to die, and eventually, that, and the thick walls in the uterus that was made to protect the egg, are all removed from the body when the lady is said to be menstruating.
Now that we’ve understood that, let’s go back to a’qir. In the woman that may be referred to as barren, a plethora of anomalies can occur, so that the process I just explained doesn’t happen, and as you will see, most are related to a’qir as we’ve come to understand it.
The first anomaly that can occur starts in the fists (ovaries). The ovaries can decide to not release eggs, thus, we have our first immobility. And since no eggs are released, the sperm will have nothing to fertilize. The uterus however, thickens itself, expecting eggs, and when it has reached its term, it self destructs, and the woman has her menstruation. So, despite not having eggs in the uterus, one can continue having their menstrual cycle. This can disrupt the cycle though, because the uterus isn’t getting what it should be getting, thereby having irregular periods.
Did you notice the ‘self destruction’? The uterus wall linings tears itself up, sheds itself, and flushes itself out, and everything within it, slowly, over a number of days; seeing the parallels, already?
Another anomaly that can happen is when an egg is released, sperm meets it in the fallopian tube, but because of a wound at the end of the tube, ‘the shoulder’ in our ‘exercise’, the fertilized egg is unable to drop into the chest (the uterus). And so the egg continues to grow, and a surgery will be needed to save the woman, it’s a fatal anomaly. The egg becomes stagnated in the tube, due to the injury, and is unable to get to its destination in the uterus. The woman bleeds regardless.
Another anomaly occurs when the fertilized egg gets to the uterus, but it is unable to plant itself in the walls of the uterus because the walls have for some reason become so hard that the egg is then stagnated in the uterus until it dies, and the uterus walls sheds itself, and menses occurs. The hardening of the uterus wall that doesn’t let the egg plant itself on it is called fibroid. So, again, the egg’s movement is restricted due to an impediment, and blood still flows regardless. After each blood flow that discards the contents of the uterus, the process starts all over again.
With each blood flow, life, or potential life, is lost. With each blood flow, immobility occurs, one that deprives the egg its mission to plant itself and grow. With each blood flow, the main part of an entity dies. With each blood flow, the uterus linings, one strong enough to protect the egg if it had planted, tears itself down – with blood, endometrial tissue, cervical mucus, vagina secretion – and flushes itself out of the body. Is the parallel getting clearer now?
The above scenarios are just some of the incidents that can happen in a woman that can cause and continue to cause a woman to be unable to birth a child.
To bring it all together, we can say the egg is the main part in this process. And as we’ve seen, sometimes, the ovaries doesn’t produce one due to an imbalance or the other, and when it releases, its path can be perilous that by the time it gets to the uterus, it is dead, and sometimes, even if it gets fertilized, and gets to the uterus, its journey can end there, and not be able to plant itself in the uterus wall. And whilst all of these are going on, hormones and chemicals are being released, they are being communicated, and being delivered. If there is an imbalance of a particular hormone, whether being too high or too low, it can abort the process, so that the egg is then flushed out during menstruation.
An example of how important it is for the hormones and chemicals to communicate right is when stress hormones are released during menstruation. In an effort to get rid of the shedding uterus walls and all that it has in it, the stress hormones tells the uterus to squeeze, but sometimes, it squeezes too tightly, and the woman is said to be having cramps also known as dysmenorrhea. I promise, henceforth, that will be the last big biological word I will use in this piece; because big pain deserves its big word accompanying it. Okay, give me one more big biological word, just one, I will make sure I make it ‘count’. By the way, the stress hormones that tells the uterus to squeeze is the same that tells the womb to contract aka squeeze, when a child is being born. In a way, humans are born the same way periods are flushed. Let that sink in. Humble your ego. I digress.
Now, one has to go to the doctor for them to be able to know exactly which ‘immobility’ is happening in one. And when they know exactly what’s happening, they then prescribe the particular hormone balancing medication that will rectify the imbalance. For some of those medications to work, the doctor may ask one to lose some weight, or in very rare cases, gain some weight, for someone that’s extremely underweight. They may also recommend the intake of some food, or an overall diet change that can help one maintain not just the egg, but one’s body through the pregnancy, and beyond.
The regulation of these hormones are so important that even in fibroid, as we’ve seen above, a very unfortunate situation since the egg and sperm are already growing, only to be flushed out because the walls that were meant to protect it won’t let it cling onto it. It is said that changes or an imbalance in hormones can affect the growth of fibroids, and that too much estrogen can increase the risk of fibroids, and make them worse.
Understanding this, the imbalance, is important, because, the Most Merciful mentioned it in the Quran with respect to Zakariyya’s wife. She would later give birth to Yahya aka John the Baptist, but before she does, Allah says in Q21 V90 that, ‘So We responded to him, and we gave to him John, and amended for him his wife. Indeed, they used to hasten to good deeds and supplicate Us in hope and fear, and they were to us humbly submissive.’. The Quran is a miracle, there should be no doubt about that, it could only be the words of the One that created us. This excerpt is right on 2 fronts; the first being that Allah said ‘We gave him John’, hopefully, we’ll get into that in this piece, but so as not to digress too much at this time, it is noteworthy that he is said to be given John, thereby confirming what modern science knows that it is the man, his sperm, that is, that dictates the gender of the child.
Anyway, the word translated to ‘amended’ above, where Allah said ‘and amended for him his wife’, is Aslahna. From Solih. Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Sod, lam and ha! The same alphabets that makes up the name of the prophet Solih, the same prophet that was sent to the people that did a’qira on the camel. Talk about literary perfection. In the realm of all of the Sciences we’ve been talking about, Allah slips in Art. But I don’t want to digress now.
So, aslahna, what does it mean? Its root alphabets like I wrote above are sod, lam and ha. 10 forms of the word were used 240 times in the Quran. Solih is said to mean a thing which removed or removes the ills of the other; a thing which creates a good balance; and so it has come to mean to be good, to become good, to be virtuous, righteous, right, just, honest and all, because it is only when one imbibes these virtues that one is able to create balance in the society, or remove the ills that exists in a society. And so you find the Quran in a plethora of places saying ‘those who believe, and do solihat (righteous good deeds)’, thereby emphasizing that Belief is not enough, it must be accompanied with solihat for one not to be khusrin (lost), as seen in suratul a’sr Q103, and for one to attain paradise and abide therein forever as seen in Q2 V82.
And what we realize from this is that Solih has layers. So far, we’ve been able to explore its behavioral nature and biological nature. It is this biological nature; to balance, to remove the ills, that was being communicated. Some other translators translated Solih as adjusted, restored, cured, right, sound, fit, fruitful, and of course, amended, as the translator above did; all of which, though communicated that she was healed, didn’t emphasize what exactly was done, the medication that was administered. In a way, Allah is saying here that the a’qira she went through, the one we now know has to do with hormonal imbalance, was healed by Gẹm ‘balancing’ her from within. So that whatever chemicals or hormones was releasing too much or too little, was balanced to release just the right amount that’s needed for John the Baptist to grow in her, and be delivered. AllaHu Akbar!
So that the cure to A’qira is Solih, and the prophet sent to the people that did A’qira on a camel is also called Solih. Cool. 🥰🥰🥰
But, wait, there is more.
In Q21 V90, Allah said, ‘So We responded to him, and we gave to him John, and amended for him his wife…’. The word translated to ‘gave’ is waHabna, you know, waHab – Waw, Ha, and ba. 2 forms of the word – waHab and waHaba – occurred a total of 25 times in the Quran. And it’s translated to mean to give, to bestow, to grant and the likes. But what distinguishes it from the ‘atina’ in rabbana atina fiddunya hasanatan wa fil akhirati hasanatan wa qina adhabannar in Q2 V201 which is also translated to give and grant; the ‘afrig’ in rabbana afrig a’layna sobran wa thabbit aqdamana wansurna a’lal qawmil kafirin in Q2 V250 which is also translated to give and grant; the ‘awzi’ni’ in rabbi awzi’ni an ashkura ni’mataka llati ana’mta alayya wa a’la walidayya wa an a’mala solihan tardoHu wa aslihli fi dhurriyyati, inni tubtu ilayka wa inni minal muslimin in Q46 V15 which is also translated to give and grant; just to mention a few of the words translated to give, grant, bestow and the likes in the Quran?
What distinguishes waHab is that it is a gift which is not given as a compensation nor involves any interest of the giver; rain, is said to be waHab, because God sends it down regardless of whether one asks for it, needs it or wants it desperately. The rain is sent down to impregnate the earth to birth herbs, flowers, trees and the likes.
Now that we know what we know of waHab, I couldn’t help but wonder if AllaH using waHab here wasn’t just meant to be a spiritual gift, but one informing us of a biological gift too that Zakariyya was granted; one that’s also informing us that the cure to such sperm that has been affected by old age can be found in enriching the sperm, just as the cure to a’qira can be found in balancing the imbalance.
Because, as Zakariyya admitted to in Q19 V4 that ‘indeed my bones have weakened, and my head has filled with white’, and in V8 that ‘and I have reached extreme old age’; it may very well be that he also needed healing. And so, just like Allah grants the cloud rain (waHab) to fall on the earth for it to birth plants; Zakariyya was also granted (waHab) the sperm he needed to be able to fertilize the egg in his wife that Allah has ‘amended’, as we’ve seen above. AllaHu Akbar!
When one thinks of the rain, one thinks of the tiny drops, and how uncountable they are, right? Did you know that each normal ejaculation should have at least 39 million sperms for it to be considered normal, and that anything lower than 39 million will be regarded as – wait for it – oligospermia; there, that’s my second big biological word I promised above, I told you I was going to make it ‘count’, get it? Low sperm count? Too much? Help, I can’t stop! These puns just write themselves sometimes, hehe, because a big number deserves its big word accompanying it.
Anyway, like the rain, it may be that his old age sperm needed its count to be multiplied by the millions, though only one will fertilize the egg, the millions are needed to basically sacrifice themselves along the way so that the promised sperm gets to its destination; and so waHab was used to communicate that. It may also be that the sperm needed to be virile, just as the rain is virile enough to cause the dead earth to birth new life by its mere touch. Talking of rain, did you know that there are five sextillion atoms in a teeny-tiny drop of water? Sextillion, that’s 21 or 36 zeros, depending on which continent you are mathematically on.
And that concludes this piece, AlhamdulliLlah. The next piece should be about the infertility in the case of IbraHeem and his first wife. Hopefully, we make discoveries there too.
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