In this video, I embody the question Dr. Ali Hussain posed when he asked, “[H]ow would it feel if we approached scripture and the Divine Word as we do a museum and art-site? …What if we asked: what is the Divine Artist trying to convey to me and what do I hear with my heart?”1
I spend this video reflecting on verse 3:36 of the Qur’ān, which is Hinnah’s du’ā (as), and in the process, I noticed how frequently my reflections wandered away from accepted opinions that respected scholars have already offered: What if Hinnah (as) was actually feeling like this? What if she actually expresses herself because of that?
I hope my unconventional interpretation of Hinnah’s du’ā is not evidence of hypocrisy in my heart but rather obedience to the command of Allāh (SWT) when He asks, “Do they not then reflect on the Qur’ān?”2
As John Caputo describes, “God is not the answer but the opening of the question,”3 so when Hinnah (as) says, “My Lord! I have given birth to a girl…and the male is not like the female,”4 was this disappointment, or does something else ring out from within this mother’s heart?
Dr. Ali Hussain (@ali_z_hussain), “Ibn al-’Arabi: An Artist of Sacred Interpretation,” Instagram photo, July 2, 2024,
Qur’ān 47:24, though also potent are the verses mentioned in Dr. Ali Hussain (@ali_z_hussain), “How Artists Read the Qur’an,” Instagram photo, July 16, 2023,
Dr. Ali Hussain (@ali_z_hussain), “On Art as Taf-seer,” July 11, 2023,
Qur’ān 3:36
0:38 Abridged by a group of scholars under the supervision of Shaykh Safiur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri, Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged; 10 Volumes) (Maktaba Darussalam, 2003); Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ed., The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary, First edition (New York, NY: HarperOne, an imprint of Collins Publishers, 2015).
2:09 Mubarakpuri, Tafsir Ibn Kathir; Nasr, The Study Quran; Abu-’l-Aʿlā al-Maudūdī, Towards understanding the Qur’ān. 1: Sūrahs 1 - 3, Rev. ed (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1999).
2:24 Sayyid Quṭb, In the Shade of the Qurʼān =: Fī Ẓilāl al-Qurʼān, trans. Adil Salahi and A. A. Shamis (Leicester, U.K: The Islamic Foundation, 2003).
2:46 Yahiya Emerick, The Holy Qur’an in Today’s English, 2000; Allama Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an: Arabic Text, English Translation & Commentary with Revised English Translation, Commentary and Index (Lahore, Pakistan: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf Publishers & Booksellers, 2011).
5:02 Adrienne Rich, “Motherhood and Daughterhood,” in Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1986); Patricia Hill Collins, “Black Women and Motherhood,” in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment (Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 1990).
5:28 Rich, Of Woman Born, 218-219.
6:31 Ibid., 219-220.
7:19 Ibid., 219.
8:02 Ibid., 220-221.
9:30 Ibid., 221-225.
10:37 Ibid., 224-225.
11:00 Ibid., 225; Collins, “Black Women and Motherhood,” in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment.
12:24 Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 183.
13:11 Rich, Of Woman Born, 243-244.
15:23 Mubarakpuri, Tafsir Ibn Kathir; Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an; Quṭb, In the Shade of the Qur’an; Muḥammad Taqī-ad-Dīn Ibn-ʿAbd-al-Qādir al-Hilālī and Muḥammad Muḥsin Ḫān, Interpretation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur’ân in the English Language: A Summarized Version of Commentaries of at-Tabari, al-Qurtubi and Ibn Katheer with Comments from Saheeh al-Bukhaari; [Summarized in One Volume] = Tafsīr Maʿānī al-Qurʾān al-Karīm Bi-’l-Luġa al-Inǧilīzīya (Riyadh: Maktaba Darussalam, 2007).
16:52 Rich, Of Woman Born, 246.
17:27 Ibid., 245.
17:55 Ibid.
18:11 Ibid., 246.
Share this post