The Minimum Period of Pregnancy in the Quran: A Mathematical Miracle

“Mothers shall breastfeed their children for two complete years for whoever desires to complete the nursing. And upon the father of the child is their provision and clothing on equitable terms. No soul shall be charged except according to its capacity. A mother shall not be harmed on account of her child, nor a father on account of his child. And upon the heir is the like thereof. But if they both desire weaning by mutual consent and consultation, there is no blame upon them. And if you wish to have a wet nurse for your children, there is no blame upon you as long as you pay what you have given in an acceptable manner. And fear Allah and know that Allah is Seeing of what you do.”

“And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning is thirty months. Until, when he has reached maturity and reached forty years, he says: My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favour which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to do righteousness of which You will be pleased. And make righteous for me my offspring. Indeed, I have repented to You, and indeed, I am of the Muslims.”

[!scholar] Ibn Kathir — Tafsir al-Quran al-Azeem (7/279)
“Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, used this verse, along with the one in Luqman — {And his weaning is in two years} — and the statement: {And mothers shall breastfeed their children for two complete years for whoever wishes to complete the nursing} — as evidence that the minimum period of pregnancy is six months. And this is a strong and correct deduction.”

[!scholar] Al-Fakhr al-Razi — Al-Tafsir al-Kabeer (15/14)
“The verse indicates that the minimum period of pregnancy is six months, because since the total period of pregnancy and breastfeeding is thirty months, and He said: {And mothers shall breastfeed their children for two complete years} — so if you subtract the two complete years, which are twenty-four months, out of the thirty, the minimum period of pregnancy remains six months.”

[!scholar] Al-Zamakhshari — Al-Kashaf ‘an Haqa’iq al-Tanzil (4/306)
“This is evidence that the minimum period of pregnancy is six months, because if the period of breastfeeding is two years — as God Almighty says: {two complete years for whoever wishes to complete the nursing} — then the pregnancy that remains is six months.”

[!scholar] Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi — Al-Bahr al-Muhit (8/60)
“Galen said: I was very careful about the estimated duration of pregnancy, and I saw a woman give birth after one hundred and eighty-four nights. Ibn Sina claimed that he witnessed that. As for the maximum duration of pregnancy, there is nothing in the Quran that indicates it.”

[!scholar] Al-Shanqiti — Adwaa al-Bayan (2/227)
“As for the maximum duration of pregnancy, nothing has been reported in the Book or the Sunnah to specify it. Scholars differed about it, and all of them spoke according to what appeared to them from the conditions of women.”

Also: Abbas ibn Nasr al-Baghdadi, on the authority of Safwan ibn Isa, who said: “Ibn Ajlan remained in his mother’s womb for three years, then her womb was cut open, and he was taken out, and his teeth had grown.” Siyar A’lam al-Nubala (11/389).

And Yaqub ibn Shaybah reported — via Ibrahim ibn Musa al-Farra’, via al-Walid ibn Muslim — that Malik said: “This is the wife of Ibn Ajlan, our neighbour, a truthful woman — she gave birth to three children in twelve years, and was pregnant for four years before each birth.” Sa’id ibn Dawud al-Zanbari said: “Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ajlan told me: I was born after four years, during my father’s lifetime.” Al-Waqidi said: “I heard Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Ajlan say: My father was pregnant for more than three years.”

Second: This is a direct challenge to Zakaria Botros — let him produce a single hadith of the Messenger ﷺ, whether authentic, weak, or even fabricated, stating that the longest period of pregnancy is four years. He will find nothing.

Third: Al-Shawkani addressed this matter explicitly. Among the famous people born after only six months was Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the Umayyad Caliph. There is no authentic, good, or weak hadith attributed to the Messenger ﷺ stating that the longest period of pregnancy is four years — though historical records do relate that such cases occurred. Source: Al-Sayl al-Jarrar (2/334).

Fourth: Ibn Hazm ruled categorically on these narrations:

[!scholar] Ibn Hazm — Al-Muhalla bil-Athar (10/317)
“All of these are fabricated reports attributed to someone who is not believed and who is not known. It is not permissible to rule in the religion of God Almighty with such a thing.”

[!scholar] Ibn Abd al-Barr — Adwaa al-Bayan (2/227)
“This is an issue that has no basis except for independent reasoning and referring to what is known about women.”

The Quran specifies precisely what science confirms: the minimum viable period of human pregnancy is six months — derived mathematically from Al-Baqarah 2:233 and Al-Ahqaf 46:15, deduced by Ali, Ibn Abbas, and Uthman ibn Affan, and confirmed by Ibn Kathir, al-Razi, and al-Zamakhshari. The Quran is silent on the maximum — and that silence is itself correct, since the maximum varies. The narrations Botros cites are historical observations with no legislative standing in Islam — and Ibn Hazm declared them fabricated. Let Christians consider carefully what constitutes valid evidence before citing it against the Book of God.