| This Surah (Revealed) Meccan, except for verses 58 and 71, which are Medinese; it consists of 98, or
99, verses and was revealed after [sūrat] Fātir.(Maryam)
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| بِسْم ِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ | | Ayah First 1 الأية الأولي |
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Tafseer
Kāf hā yā âayn sād: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
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Tafseer
327 This is, a mention of your Lordâs mercy to His servant (âabdahu, a direct object
of rahma, âmercyâ) Zachariah (an explication of it [the direct object]),
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Tafseer
when (idh is semantically connected to rahma, âmercyâ) he called out to his Lord
a call, entailing a supplication, in secret, in the middle of the night, because this [time of the
night] invites a faster response [to oneâs supplication].
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Tafseer
He said, âMy Lord, truly the bones, all [the bones], within me have become
feeble, weak, and my head is alight with grey hair (shayban, a specification derived from the subject of the
verb in other words, hoariness has spread throughout his hairs just as a spark of fire spreads through
firewood) and I wish to supplicate to you, and I have never been in my supplications to You, my Lord, unsuccessful,
that is, [I have never been] disappointed, in the past, so do not disappoint me in what follows.
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Tafseer
And truly I fear my kinsfolk, namely, those who will succeed me [as closest
after me] in kinship, such as [my] paternal cousins, after me, that is, after my death, [I fear] for the
religion, lest they forsake it, as You have witnessed in the case of the Children of Israel, in the way that they
changed [their] religion, and my wife is barren, she does not conceive. So grant me from Yourself a successor, a
son,
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Tafseer
who may inherit from me (read yarithnī in apocopated form as a response to the
imperative statement [fahab lī, âgrant meâ], or read yarithunī as an adjectival qualification of waliyyan,
âa successorâ) and inherit (also read in both ways [mentioned]), from the House of Jacob, my forefather,
[inherit] knowledge and prophethood, and make him, my Lord, acceptableâ, that is, pleasing to you.
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Tafseer
God, exalted be He, in responding to his request for a son that will be the
incarnation of His mercy, says: âO Zachariah! Indeed We give you good tidings of a boy, who will inherit in the way
that you have requested â whose name is John. Never before have We made anyone his namesakeâ, that is,
[never has there been] anyone with the name âJohnâ.
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Tafseer
He said, âMy Lord, how shall I have a son when my wife is barren and I have
reached infirm old age?â (âitiyyan, [derives] from [the verb] âatā, âit became witheredâ) in other words,
[he had reached] extreme old age, 120 years; and his wife had reached the age of 98 (âatiya in terms of its
root derives from âutuwwun, but the tāâ is vowelled as -ti-, to soften it, the first wāw [vowel] is changed
into a yāâ to be in harmony with the âti- vowelling, while the second [wāw letter] is changed into a yāâ so that
the [previous] yāâ can be assimilated with it).
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Tafseer
He said, âIt, the matter [in question], of creating a boy from both of you,
shall be so! Your Lord says, âIt is easy for Me, namely, to restore your sexual potency and tear open your wifeâs
womb [in preparation] for conception, for I certainly created you before when you were nothingââ, [you
were nothing] before your created form became manifest. As God wished to manifest this great power, He
inspired him [the form of] the question, in order for him to receive the response that will indicate it
[this power]. And when his soul yearned for the prompt arrival of that whereof he had been given good tidings:
328
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Tafseer
He said, âLord, appoint for me some signâ, namely, some indication of my wifeâs
becoming pregnant. Said He, âYour sign, for this, is that you shall not speak to people, that is, that
you [should] refrain from speaking to them, but not [from speaking] the remembrance of God, exalted be He, for
three nights, that is, together with the days thereof, as [stated] in [sūrat] Āl âImrān, âfor three daysâ [Q.
3:41], while [you are] in sound healthâ (sawiyyan, a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the
verb tukallima, âyou shall [not] speakâ) in other words, despite there being no defect [in you].
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Tafseer
So he emerged before his people from the sanctuary, that is, from the temple â
they had been waiting for him to open it in order to perform [their] prayers therein after his command, as
was the custom â and signalled, indicated, to them, âMake glorifications, perform prayers, at morning
and eveningâ, at the beginning of the day and [at] its end, as per usual. He then realised, upon his
being prevented from speaking to them, that she was pregnant with John.
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Tafseer
And two years after his birth, God, exalted be He, said to him: âO John! Hold on
to the Scripture, namely, the Torah, firmlyâ, earnestly. And We gave him judgement, prophethood, while still a
child, a three-year old;
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Tafseer
and compassion, a mercy for mankind, from Us, from Our presence, and purity, a
charity for them, and he was God-fearing â it is related that he never committed a sin, nor contemplated
[committing] one;
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Tafseer
and dutiful to his parents, that is, virtuous towards them. And he was not
arrogant or rebellious, disobedient to his Lord.
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Tafseer
âAnd peace, from Us, be upon him, the day he was born, and the day he dies, and
the day he shall be raised alive!â, that is, [on] those fearful days in which he sees what he will never
have seen before â in these he will be given security [from fear].
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Tafseer
And mention in the Book, [in] the Qurâān, Mary, that is, [mention] her tale,
when she withdrew from her family to an easterly place, that is, [when] she secluded herself in a place on
the east side of [her] home.
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Tafseer
Thus she veiled herself from them, she draped herself in a veil to conceal
herself while she washed her hair [from lice], or [washed] her clothes, or cleansed herself from her menses;
whereupon We sent to her Our Spirit, Gabriel, and he assumed before her, after she donned her clothes, the
likeness of a well-proportioned human, perfect in physical form.
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Tafseer
She said, âLo! I seek refuge in the Compassionate One from you! If you fear
Godâ, and leave me alone on account of my invocation of refuge in God.
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Tafseer
329 He said, âI am only a messenger of your Lord, that I may give you a boy [who
shall be] pureâ, in [his] prophethood.
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Tafseer
She said, âHow shall I have a boy when no human being has [ever] touched me, by
way of conjugality, neither have I been unchaste?â, [neither have I been] a fornicator.
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Tafseer
He said, âIt, the matter in question, of creating a boy from you without a
father, shall be so! Your Lord has said: âIt is easy for Me, in other words, by Gabrielâs breathing into you, by My
command, so that you become pregnant with him â since what has been mentioned is meant as a reason,
the following [statement] is added as a supplement thereto: and so that We may make him a sign
for mankind, of Our power, and a mercy from Us, to whoever believes in him. And it, the creation of
him, is a thing [already] decreedââ, according to My knowledge. So Gabriel breathed into the opening of
her shirt, whereupon she sensed the formed foetus in her womb.
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Tafseer
Thus she conceived him and then withdrew, retreated, with him to a distant
place, far from her family.
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Tafseer
And the birth pangs, the pains of childbirth, brought her to the trunk of the
palm-tree, that she may support herself against it, and then she gave birth: the conception, formation [of the
foetus] and delivery [all] took place within one hour. She said, âO (yā is [used] to call attention [to
something]) would that I had died before this, affair, and become a forgotten thing, beyond recall!â, a thing
abandoned which no one knows or mentions.
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Tafseer
Then he called her from below her, namely, Gabriel â for he was lower than her,
âDo not grieve. Your Lord has made below you a rivulet, a river of water, which had dried up.
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Tafseer
And shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards you, [a palm-tree] which had
withered (the bi- [in bi-jidhâiâlnakhlati, âthe trunk of the palm-tree] is extra) â there will drop (tusāqit, originally
this is tatasāqat, but the second tāâ is changed into a sīn and is assimilated with the [second] sīn; a
variant reading omits it [the second tāâ] altogether) on you dates (rutaban, a specification) fresh and ripe
(janiyyan, an adjectival qualification of it [of rutaban, âdatesâ]).
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Tafseer
So eat, of the dates, and drink, from the rivulet, and [let] your eye be
comforted, by the child (âaynan, â[your] eyeâ, a specification derived from the subject of the verb, in other
words [what is meant is] li-taqarra âaynuki bihi, âthat your eye may be comforted by himâ) that is, let it [your
eye] be at peace and not covet any other than him; and if (immā: the nūn of the conditional particle in is here
assimilated with the extra mā) you [happen to] see (tarayinna: the third consonantal root [the yāâ] and the
second [the hamza] have been omitted, with the [fatha] vowel therein transferred to the [first consonant] the
letter rāâ, and a kasra vowel applied to the yāâ of the [feminine] person, because of two unvowelled
consonants coming together) any human being, and should he ask you about your child, then say, âI have vowed to
the Compassionate One a fast, that is to say, an abstention from speaking of his affair and from
[speaking to] any other humans â which is indicated by [the following statement]), so I will not speak to any
human todayââ, that is, after 330 [saying] this.
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Tafseer
Then, carrying him, she brought him to her folk (tahmiluhu, âcarrying himâ, a
circumstantial qualifier), and they saw him, and they said, âO Mary, truly you have done a curious thing!, an
astounding [thing], for you have begotten a son without [his having] a father.
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Tafseer
O sister of Aaron â he was a righteous man, in other words [what is meant is], O
you who are like him in [terms of] chastity â your father was not a wicked man, that is, a fornicator,
nor was your mother unchasteâ, that is, a fornicatress: so how is it that you have this child?
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