The Heights
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
[7:189]
It is He Who created you from a single person, and made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her (in love). When they are united, she bears a light burden and carries it about (unnoticed). When she grows heavy, they both pray to God their Lord, (saying): "If Thou givest us a goodly child, we vow we shall (ever) be grateful."


* v.189 : Cf. iv. 1, and n. 504, where the construction is explained.
* The mystery of the physical birth of man, as it affects the father and the mother, only touches the imagination of the parents in the later stages when the child is yet unborn and yet the life stirs within the body of the expectant mother. The coming of the new life is a solemn thing, and is fraught with much hope as well as much unknown risk to the mother herself. The parents in their anxiety turnl to Allah. If this feeling of solemnity, hope, and looking towards Allah were maintained after birth, all would be well for the parents as well as for the rising generation. But the attitude changes, as the verses following show.
* Goodly: salih: includes the following ideas: sound in body and mind; healthy; righteous; of good moral disposition.