Who Despairs of the Mercy of His Lord

Then the account of Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) is suddenly set in between: how the angels come to him and give him the glad tidings. And the reason for the glad tidings here, it seems, is that he is about a hundred and twenty years old according to the narrations when this happens, and he is given glad tidings of a child at that age, and he wonders how it can be possible. But consider verse 56, where Allah says:

Qāla wa man yaqnaṭu min raḥmati rabbihi illā al-ḍāllūn: and who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except those who have gone astray? Anyone who is not astray, who is upon the path of Allah — and being upon the path of Allah means that he will have hope. So even if a man is old and wants a child, he may have hope in Allah and pray, just as, when Sūrat Maryam is reached, it will be seen how that prayer is made, and how Zakariyyā (peace be upon him) made his. And this is mentioned here, it seems, to give the whole aspect of hope a greater force as well.

When he asked how they were giving him this glad tiding, the angels said bashsharnāka bi-l-ḥaqq: we are giving these glad tidings with absolute truth. Do not be of those who despair. And he answers that none despairs of the mercy of Allah except the misguided, and that he is not of the misguided; so it cannot be that. He is only asking, only finding out: am I to have another wife? My wife is very old; will it be from another wife? That is the sort of question he was trying to ask.

Now here is another matter of great interest, one of the kinds of miracle, one of the very particular features of the Qur'an: that where hope is being discussed at length, where the theme is hope, consider this:

Qālū lā tawjal. See what common thread may be found. Lā tawjal innā nubashshiruka bi-ghulāmin ʿalīm. Qāla a-bashshartumūnī ʿalā an massaniya al-kibaru fa-bima tubashshirūn. Qālū bashsharnāka bi-l-ḥaqqi fa-lā takun mina al-qāniṭīn. What common theme is to be seen there? In two or three verses there are four words of bashara, of glad tidings; and again, for one who truly understands and who feels the Qur'an as he reads it, this will not be lost.