Surah Maryam 19:1-15 - Quran Translation Commentary

4. Praying: “My Lord! Verily my bones have become weak, and my head has become grey with age. And O my Lord: Never have I been unblest in my prayer to you. ⁴

5. “Verily I fear my kinsmen who will succeed me,⁵ and my wife is barren.⁶ So give me a successor from Your presence?⁷

6. “Who will be my heir an heir to the house of Yaqub,⁸ and O my Lord! make him one with whom You may be pleased.”⁹

7. ”O Zakaria, We give you the glad tidings of a son, whose name will be Yahya (John).¹⁰ We have given this name to none before (him).”¹¹

8. He said: “My Lord! How can I have a son when my wife is barren and I have reached infirm old age?”¹²

9. He (Allah) said: “So it will be.¹³ Your Lord says ‘it is easy for Me, I did indeed create you before, when you were nothing.”¹⁴

10. He said: “O My Lord ! Give me a sign.¹⁵ He said: “Your sign will be that you will speak to no man for the three nights, (though you are not dumb).”¹⁶

11. Then he came out to his people from his sanctum and communicated with them in signs: “Glorify your Lord morning and evening.”¹⁷

12. ”O Yahya ! Hold fast to the Book.”¹⁸ And We bestowed on him wisdom when a child.¹⁹

13. And tenderness from our Self,²⁰ and purity, ²¹ and he was God-fearing.²²

14. And dutiful to his parents, and he was not arrogant, disobedient.²³

15. Peace on him the day he was born, and the day he dies, and the day he will be raised alive ! ²⁴

Commentary

1. These are separate letters (abbreviations) about which explanation has been given in Surah Baqarah Note No.1 and Surah Yunus Note No.1. These letters provide a hint about certain important topics narrated in the Surah, the details thereof are as follows: “Kaf” hints at “ Kun Fayakoon.”(He bids and it happens, Ayah 35), and the idea is to clarify that the God who can bring anything that he wills into existence from non-existence, for such a being what difficulty is there to bring into this world Eesa (Jesus) without a father! Where is the necessity of considering him to be an associate of God or the son of God ? In this series of topics ‘Kaf’ for ‘Kun’ (Be) is a symbol, a significant letter, which turns our mind to the referred fact. “Ha” refers to “Hayyenun” (easy).In Ayah No. 9, Allah states in connection with the extra-ordinary birth. “So it will be. Your Lord says ‘it is easy for Me.” Of Prophet Yahya (John) that their Lord states that this work is easy for Him. It may either be the birth of Prophet Yahya or the extra-ordinary manner of the birth of the Christ, these acts are not at all difficult for Allah. These are the ordinary before manifestations of His might. ‘Ya’ refers to Prophet Yahya who is mentioned in verses Nos.7 to 15. ‘Ain’ hints at Prophet ‘Eesa’ (Jesus) whose name occurs in Ayah No.34, and whose chronicle of birth has been narrated in detail in the earlier ayat. “Sad” refers to “Sabiyyan” (child). In the Ayah No.12, this significant fact is mentioned about Prophet Yahya that We gave him wisdom when he was a child. Similarly in Ayah No.29, the word ‘Sabiyyan (child) has been used for Prophet Eesa, that is when Prophet Eesa was a child, Allah had granted him faculty to speak. (And Allah only knows the secrets of His words.

2. Prophet Zakaria is one of the prophets of Bani Israil, his time was before the birth of the Christ, and he lived for a number of years even after the birth of the Christ.

3.It is the etiquette of praying that when a slave should pray to God and request blessings for himself, he should do it in secret and COMMENTARY quietly, so that it may be free from show and pretensions, and he may be able to present the secrets of his heart before his Lord.

4. When Prophet Zakaria prayed for a child, he was quite old. His bones had weakened and his hair had become grey. In this old age to expect to beget a child was rather impossible, but he hopefully prayed to Allah to bless him by His special mercy. This prayer had emanated from the depths of his heart and it was mingled with the feeling of gratitude that whenever he had invoked Him for help, he was not disappointed. These prayerful words were very appropriate to move Allah’s mercy in his favour.

5. Fear of there being a vacancy for the religious leadership and guidance with no one qualified to fill in the office. It may be noted that the religious leadership and guidance in Bani Israil was the right of Bani Lavi tribe, and the degradation of Bani Israil in the times of Prophet Zakaria was so bad that none appeared to be qualified to take up that high office. For this reason, he was full of anxiety about the future as to who will be the religious leader of the Bani Israil after him.

6. In the Gospel of Luke it is stated : “In the day of Herod, King of judea, there was a priest named Zechari’ah, of the division of Abi’jah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before, God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.” (Luke 1:5 to 7)

7. Refers to child. Accordingly in Surah Ali- Imran, in Verse No.38 the words meaning ‘goodly offspring’ are used.

8. By heir is meant the heir to the property of religion and knowledge of prophethood. Accordingly the words heir to the house of Yaqub clarify it. So far as the question of having an heir to the worldly property is concerned, the prophets of God neither collect wealth for the purpose of leaving it to their children nor do they have any worries about it. But as is mentioned in a hadith of the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, there is no heir to the worldly property of the prophets: “We do not have any heir. Whatever we leave behind is charity. “( -Bukhari -Kitabul jihad). However they are worried about as to who will be the heir to the trust of their religion and whether there is any suitable person available for the leadership of the community.

9. That is: From the standpoint of religion, conduct and character, He made him his favourite and the loved one.

10. This glad tidings was from Allah to Prophet Zakaria, and as narrated in Surah Ali- Imran, ayah No.39, this glad tidings was conveyed by the angels, when Zakaria was offering prayers (Salat). The literal meaning of the word ‘Yahya’ name of the Prophet John, is ‘he would live.’ This name was given to him by Allah and it is obvious that it cannot be without wisdom. The fact is that Prophet Yahya was killed by the king of Yehudiah, Horodus, on a demand from a dancer, Thus he was a martyr in the cause of truth, and those who sacrifice their lives in the cause of Allah do not die but live, as decreed by Allah (Surah Baqarah, ayah No.154). In other words Prophet John became immortal after dying, as if this thing was hidden in his name that this personage is going to be immortalised. The events that followed confirmed the aptness of the name given by Allah.

11. In the text the word ‘samiyya’ is used, whose one meaning is ‘of the same name’ and the other meaning is ‘peer’, ‘similar’. According to the first meaning the name signifies that it is a unique name which was not given before to anyone. According to the second meaning it means that the personality of Prophet Yahya (John) would be having distinguishing qualities and characteristics and therefore would be peerless. Accordingly one of his distinguishing characteristics is that his birth was of an extraordinary nature. His parents were not only very old, but his mother was also barren, and inspite of all this he was born. Secondly he was given wisdom during his childhood. Thirdly he had an exemplary kind of self-control, accordingly throughout his life he was unaware of the pleasures of the world. The Bible has to say about him : “Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather girdle around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. (Meth 3:4) And this simple life he spent in scrupulously following the truth. He had only one aim in life: to see that people turn towards Allah. To achieve his objective he used to go to village after village and travel through jungles.

12. This was not a question that came out of doubt, but merely to get further reassurance as regards what would be the modality of the birth of that son.

13.That is :Inspite of your old age and inspite of your wife being barren, a son will be born in your home.

14. That is: What difficulty is there for God, who brought you into existence from non-existence, to bless you with a son! This event of the extraordinary manner of Prophet John’s birth is in reality a preamble to the event of the birth of Prophet Eesa (Jesus) who was born without having a father. Actually the idea was to make it clear that when Prophet John could not be a son of God on account of his extraordinary manner of birth, then how can Prophet Eesa be consider a son of God on account of his extraordinary manner of birth ? The manifestation of the mind boggling might of Allah has been taking place in different forms, then why the miraculous manifestation of Allah’s might in the form of Prophet Eesa’s birth be considered as the birth of a son of God ? It may be noted that in the Gospel of Luke also the event of Prophet John’s’ birth has been narrated as preamble.

15. He wanted to get a sign so that he should know the exact time of the occurrence of the event about which he was given the glad tidings, and he should engage himself in remembering Allah.

16. Its explanation has been given in Surah Al-i-Imran, note No.61. The word “Saviyya” used here means to be heating, which is a of the fact that it was not on account of his being dumb or his having any other disease but that it was an extraordinary condition in which he could pray and remember Allah but could not speak.

17. It was a hint at the point that an extraordinary event is to take place by God’s grace, therefore, get busy in remembering Him. It should be noted that to remember Allah, to recite His praises, is a great form of worship, and to arrange for it every morning and evening is an act liked by God. The value of this worship is degraded by only those who have no insight in the values of religion.

18. The stele of writing shows that the birth of Prophet John took place in the manner in which it was stated in the glad tidings, and subsequently he was blessed with prophethood. The Book here means the Torah and to hold it firmly means to have full faith in it and to follow it scrupulously. From this it becomes automatically clear that during the time of Prophet Yahya one Part of the Torah was preserved in its original form, and that is why it has been ordained that it should be held firmly.

19. Allah had bestowed special favour on Prophet Yahya that He blessed him with wisdom, that is intelligence and insight from his childhood.

20. Tenderness is that high quality which prepares a man for accepting advice, and it creates tenderness in the self, which makes a man feel the pangs of another man’s suffering in his own heart. It makes him sympathiser of mankind. He then sets out to reform the wayward people. Prophet Yahya had this quality at its best by the grace of God.

21. That is: Purity of the Self, free from all spiritual diseases, absolutely pure heart.

22. That is: As he was pure and clean internally, spiritually, similarly he was clean and pure (righteous) externally, God-fearing-living a life in accordance with the Divine Shariah.

23. Among the slaves of God (mankind) the greatest and the foremost right is that of the parents. A person who is not kind to his parents, cannot be expected to be kind to his fellow beings, and a person who is kind to them prepares ground for virtue, and therefore, he can be rightly expected to be kind to his fellow beings. The corruption that had afflicted Bani Israil had resulted in this basic quality of compassion having disappeared. They had become tyrants and breakers of the divine commands. In these circumstances, Allah had presented to them a model of excellent character by sending Prophet Yahya among them so that it might develop a sense of compassion in them and they might turn their attention towards their own reform.

24. However roughly the world might have treated him, but for him from Allah there was peace and blissful peace. He came to the world with peace and left this world with peace, and on the Day or Resurrection he will be raised with peace. Those who did not appreciate such a great personality did not affect him in any way, but they sowed the seeds of their own destruction.