Birth Of Daughters

Birth of Daughters – بنات

A Bedouin named Abu Hamza wanted a SON,
but his wife gave birth to a DAUGHTER.

He became furious and kept his distance from her.

One day, he walked past her tent and heard her recite the following poem to her baby daughter:

مال أبي حمزة لا يأتينا *** ينام في البيت الذي يلينا
غضبان أن لا نلد البنين *** والله ما هذا بعيبٍ فينا
فنحن كالأرض لزارعينا *** ننبت ما قد وضعوه فينا

“Why doesn’t Abu Hamza come to us?
* He sleeps in the house that is next to us.

He is angry that I did not bear him a son;
* By God, this matter is not in our hands.

We are like the land to be planted by our farmers;
* We just cultivate what they planted in us.”

He realised his mistake and returned to her.

[Various versions in: “Tafsir al-Qurtubi”, 16/70 – also ‘Ruh al-Ma’ani’, ‘Tafsir al-Kashaf’ and others.].

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The birth of a child is a blessing – male & female.

In some backward cultures, especially women give each other condolences when they give birth to a daughter – as if some misfortune has befallen them.

This is pure Jaahiliyah (ignorance), like the pre-Islamic period, as Allah says in the Qur’an:

وَإِذَا بُشِّرَ أَحَدُهُم بِالْأُنثَىٰ ظَلَّ وَجْهُهُ مُسْوَدًّا وَهُوَ كَظِيم

“And when one of them is given the glad tidings of [the birth of] a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief!” [Qur’an 16:58].