8. He said: O my Lord! How shall I have a son, when my wife is barren and I have grown quite decrepit from old age? 9. He said: So it will be: Thy Lord saith, that is easy for Me: I did indeed create thee before, when thou hadst been nothing! ́ Who is the He in this clause? As I have construed it, following the majority of Commentators, it means the angel who brought the message from God. As to those who deny the Signs of Allah and in defiance of right, slay the prophets, and slay those who teach just dealing with mankind, announce to them a grievous penalty. Right has many shades of meaning: 1) Right, in the sense of having a right to something; 2) Right, in the sense of straight conduct, as opposed to wrong; 3) Truth; 4) Justice. All these shades are implied here. Examples of the Prophets slain were: the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar: Matt. 23:35. Again, John the Baptist (Yahya, noble, chaste, a prophet, of the goodly company of the righteous, 3:39 ), was bound, imprisoned, and beheaded, and his head presented to a dancing harlot: Matt. 14:1-11 But some Commentators construe it to refer to Zechariah In that case the meaning will be: Zechariah after a little reflection said (in his wonder) So!, i.e. Can it really be so? Can I really have a son in my old age? The speech following, Thy Lord saith, etc., will then be that of the angel-messenger. Every man was nothing just before he was created, i.e., his personality was called into being by Allah. Even if there are material processes in forming the body, in accordance with the laws of nature, the real creative force is in Allah. But here there is a subtler meaning. John was the harbinger of Jesus, preparing the way for him and this sentence also prepares us for the more wonderful birth of Jesus himself. See verse 21 below. Everything is possible with God. 10. Zechariah said: O my Lord! give me a Sign. Thy Sign, was the answer, Shall be that thou shalt speak to no man for three nights, although thou art not dumb. The Sign, I understand, was not in order to convince Zechariah that the Lords promise was true, for he had faith; but it was a symbol by which he was to show in his conduct that he was to conform to his new destiny as the father of Yahya who was to come. Yahya was to take up the work, and Zechariah was to be silent, although the latter was sound in body and there was nothing to prevent him from speaking. Compare this verse with 3:41. The variations are interesting. Here it is for three nights: there it is for three days. The meaning is the same, for a day is a period of 24 hours. But the point of view is different in each case. There it was from the point of view of the Ummah or Congregation, among whom he worked by day; here the point of view is that of his individual soul, which spent the nights in prayer and praise. Notice again that at the end of the next verse, we have here, In the morning and in the evening, and at the end of 3:41, In the evening and in the morning- showing again that the point of view is reversed. 11. So Zechariah came out to his people from him chamber: He told them by signs to celebrate Allahs praises in the morning and in the evening. 12. To his son came the command: O Yahya! take hold of the Book with might. And We gave him Wisdom even as a youth, Time passes. The son is born. In this section of the chapter the centre of interest is Yahya, and the Instruction is now given to him. Keep fast hold of Allahs revelation with all your might, for an unbelieving world had either corrupted or neglected it, and Yahya (John the Baptist) was to prepare the way for Jesus, who was coming to renew and re- interpret it. Hukm, translated Wisdom, implies something more than Wisdom; it is the Wisdom or Judgement that is entitled to judge and command, as in the matter of denouncing sin.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 07:08:18 +0000
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