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Why Did the Quran Use Masculine "Yaqnut" for the Prophet's Wives? Full Linguistic Answer

9 min read 1801 words

Responding to the Suspicion of a Linguistic Error — {وَمَن يَقْنُتْ} “Whoever is Obedient”

Why did the Quran use the masculine word (obedient) when referring to the wives of the Prophet ﷺ?

Table of Contents

The Content of the Doubt

The enemies of Islam claim that there is a linguistic error in the verse: “And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does righteousness — We will give her a double reward.” They claim that the Quran should have used the word taqanat (تَقْنَت) instead of yaqanat (يَقْنُت) — because the verse is talking about the Prophet’s wives, who were female.

Response to This Suspicion

The Rule — Masculine Wording Feminine Meaning

Whether the Quran uses the word (يَقْنُت) or (تَقْنَت), both words are linguistically and grammatically correct. This is because the Quran applies the established Arabic rule: the masculine form is masculine and the feminine form is feminine. The word (من — man / whoever) is originally considered masculine, and therefore a masculine verb is used with it to maintain the pronunciation. However, (من) can sometimes refer to a feminine meaning, and therefore feminine verbs are also used with it — it can refer to either masculine or feminine, and to both singular and plural.

Professor Dr Abbas Hassan — Al-Nahw Al-Wafi

Professor Dr. Abbas Hassan — an Egyptian grammarian and professor of Arabic at the Faculty of Dar al-Ulum, Cairo University, and a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo. Famous for his book Al-Nahw al-Wafi — four massive volumes, described by researchers as the best book on grammar written in the modern era. Reference: Al-Nahw Al-Wafi — 1/350
“And the Almighty’s saying: ‘And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does righteousness’ — the subject of the verb ‘is obedient’ is a singular, masculine pronoun, taking into account the word ‘whoever.’ As for the pronouns after it, they are either plural feminine or singular, taking into account the meaning of ‘whoever.’”

Al-Farra — Meanings of the Quran

Al-Farra’ — the leader of the Kufi grammarians and the most knowledgeable of them in grammar and language. Reference: Meanings of the Quran — 1/49
“‘And whoever is virtuous’ — with the letter ya’ and the letter ta’.”
Al-Farra’ linguistically permits the use of the word (qanat) with either the letter ya’ or the letter ta’ — so both yaqanat and taqanat are correct.

Ibn al-Zubayr al-Garnati — The Angel of Interpretation

Ibn al-Zubayr al-Gharnati — one of the scholars of Andalusia who became a leading authority in the Arabic language, interpretation, and principles. Reference: The Angel of Interpretation — 1/83
“As mentioned in the Almighty’s saying: ‘And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger’ — with the return of the pronoun {whoever is obedient} as masculine, taking into account the word ‘whoever.’ Then He said: {and works} with the ta’, taking into account the meaning. And it is common, and we have explained that taking into account the word in that is more appropriate.”
Ibn al-Zubayr al-Gharnati confirms that this is a common occurrence in the Arabic language — where verbs are mentioned in the masculine form to take into account the word (من), and may also be made feminine to take into account the meaning of the phrase.

Ibn Khalawayh

“Allah Almighty said: {And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger}, so He mentioned it using the wording of whoever.”

Abu al-Saeed al-Sirafi — Explanation of the Book of Sibawayh

Reference: Explanation of the Book of Sibawayh — 1/309
“Allah Almighty said: {And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does righteousness}. He made the word (obedient) masculine in the form of (whoever), and made (works) feminine in its meaning. If He had made them both masculine in the form or feminine in the meaning, it would have been permissible.”

Ibn Sidah — Al-Mukhtas

Reference: Al-Mukhtas — 5/180
“Allah Almighty said: ‘And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does righteousness,’ so He made both the masculine and feminine forms. If He had made them masculine in wording or feminine in meaning, it would have been permissible.”
Arabic linguists confirm: it is linguistically permissible to make the verb (qanat) masculine or feminine — and both are correct in the Arabic language.

Abu Al-Saeed Al-Sirafi — Part 3

Reference: Part 3 — Page 182
“And perhaps the wording and meaning are the same, as in His saying: {And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does righteousness} — (Qunūt) with the letter Ya’ for the wording, and (Ta’mal) with the letter Ta’ for the meaning.”

Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi — Bahr al-Ulum

Reference: Bahr al-Ulum — 3/59
“Whoever reads with the letter Ya’, then the word is (من / man), because its pronunciation is a single masculine word. As they agreed upon in His statement: {And whoever is devout}. And whoever reads with the letter Ya’ goes with the meaning.”

Al-Akhfash Al-Awsat — Meanings of the Quran

Reference: Meanings of the Quran — 1/37
“So Allah said: ‘He is obedient,’ and He made it according to the wording, because the wording in ‘whoever’ is masculine.”

Al-Wahidi — Al-Tafsir Al-Basit

Reference: Al-Tafsir Al-Basit — 18/231
“Whoever reads with the letter Ya, it is because the verb is attributed to (من / man) and the word is masculine.”

Ibn Al-Ahnaf Al-Yemeni — Al-Bustan

Reference: Al-Bustan — 2/114
“Al-Farra’ said: He said, ‘He prays’ because ‘whoever’ is a tool that takes the place of a noun, and it is used to express one, two, and a group, and the feminine and the masculine. Allah Almighty said: ‘And among them are those who look at you,’ and Allah said: ‘And among them are those who listen to you.’ And Al-Farazdaq said about the two: ‘Come, if you promise not to betray me… we will be like two wolf companions.’”

Abu Bakr Al-Haddad — Tafsir Al-Haddad

Reference: Tafsir Al-Haddad — 5/191 The same statement cited above was conveyed by Abu Bakr Al-Haddad in this reference.

Mujir al-Din al-Alimi — Fath al-Rahman

Reference: Fath al-Rahman fi Tafsir al-Quran — 5/361
“(Yaqinat) with the letter Ya’ indicates masculinity, because (من / man) is a tool that takes the place of a noun, and it is used to express singular and plural, masculine and feminine.”

Ibn Atiyah — Al-Muharrir Al-Wajeez

Reference: Al-Muharrir Al-Wajeez — 4/381
“And also {whoever is devout} based on the word (whoever).”

Ibn Yaish — Sharh al-Mufassal

Reference: Sharh al-Mufassal — 2/416
“﴿Yaqnut﴾ in the masculine form.”

Al-Muntajab Al-Hamadhani — The Unique Book

Reference: The Unique Book on the Grammar of the Glorious Quran — 1/148
“Allah Almighty said: ‘And whoever among you is devout,’ so He mentioned it based on the wording.”

Al-Nafrawi — Al-Fawakih Al-Dawani

Reference: Al-Fawakih Al-Dawani — 2/56
“The answer is that he mentioned the pronoun in view of the word ‘whoever,’ so it is permissible to take its wording into consideration, as in the Almighty’s statement: ‘And whoever among you is devout.’”

Jaafar Sharaf al-Din — The Quranic Encyclopedia

Reference: The Quranic Encyclopedia — 1/129
“And Allah said: {And whoever among you is obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does righteousness — We will give her her reward twice.} So He said ‘is obedient’ and made it according to the wording, because the wording in (whoever) is masculine.”

Professor Dr Fadhel Saleh Al-Samarray — Rhetorical Touches

Reference: Rhetorical Touches — Page 835
“The masculine feminine subject has more than one reason and more than one line in the Holy Quran. If we mean by the feminine word the masculine meaning, it is permissible to make it masculine, which is what is known as bearing on the meaning.”

Al-Shaarawy — Al-Shaarawys Interpretation

Reference: Al-Shaarawy’s Interpretation — 19/12016
“We also notice in the style of the verse the Almighty’s saying — and the address is to the wives of the Prophet: ‘And whoever among you is devout…’ And He did not say (is devout). Then He feminized the verb in (and does righteousness…) so sometimes He takes into account the wording, and sometimes He takes into account the meaning. We previously said that (whoever) is a relative pronoun that can be used for the singular, dual, and plural, for the masculine and the feminine.”

Conclusion

From everything above, it becomes clear that it is linguistically permissible — and confirmed by the greatest scholars of the Arabic language across centuries — for the verse to use the word (yaqanat) with (من / man) such that the address refers to the Prophet’s ﷺ female wives. This is a well-established rule of the Arabic language: the word (من) accepts both masculine and feminine agreement, and the Quran uses this with deliberate rhetorical precision — sometimes agreeing with the wording, sometimes with the meaning.
This practice still exists in Arabic today. A teacher stands in the classroom and says: “Whoever studies will succeed” — [مَن يذاكر ينجح]. The word “study” here includes male and female students with no one claiming there is a linguistic error. The Quran operates by the same well-known rule of the Arabic tongue.