Surah Hud, Verse 71/72

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*Surah Hud, Verse 71:*

وَامْرَأَتُهُ قَائِمَةٌ فَضَحِكَتْ فَبَشَّرْنَاهَا بِإِسْحَاقَ وَمِن وَرَاءِ إِسْحَاقَ يَعْقُوبَ

And his wife was standing (there), and she laughed (either, because the Messengers did not eat their food or for being glad for the destruction of the people of Lout (Lot). But We gave her glad tidings of Ishaque (Isaac), and after him, of Ya'qub (Jacob).

#COMMENTARY

The narrative is very concise, and most of the details are taken for granted. We may suppose that the angels gave the news first to Abraham, who was already, according to The Book of Genesis, chapter xxi, verse 5, a hundred years of age, and his wife Sarah was not far short of ninety (Genesis, chapter xvii, verse 7). She was probably screened. She could hardly believe the news. In her scepticism (some say in her joy) she laughed. But the news was formally communicated to her that she was to be the mother of Isaac, and through Isaac, the communicated to her that she was to be the mother of Isaac, and through Isaac, the grandmother of Jacob. Jacob was to be a fruitful tree, with his twelve sons. But hitherto Abraham had had no son by her, and Sarah was past the age of child-bearing. "How could it be?" She thought.

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*Surah Hud, Verse 72:*

قَالَتْ يَا وَيْلَتَىٰ أَأَلِدُ وَأَنَا عَجُوزٌ وَهَٰذَا بَعْلِي شَيْخًا إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَشَيْءٌ عَجِيبٌ

She said (in astonishment): "Woe unto me! (This is as much a sigh of past regrets as of future wistfulness!) Shall I bear a child while I am an old woman, and here is my husband, an old man? Verily! This is a strange thing!"