وَزَكَرِيَّآ إِذْ نَادَىٰ رَبَّهُۥ رَبِّ لَا تَذَرْنِى فَرْدًا وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ ٱلْوَٰرِثِينَ · فَٱسْتَجَبْنَا لَهُۥ وَوَهَبْنَا لَهُۥ يَحْيَىٰ وَأَصْلَحْنَا لَهُۥ زَوْجَهُۥٓ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يُسَٰرِعُونَ فِى ٱلْخَيْرَٰتِ وَيَدْعُونَنَا رَغَبًا وَرَهَبًا وَكَانُوا۟ لَنَا خَٰشِعِينَ
Wa Zakariyyā idh nādā rabbahu rabbi lā tadharnī fardan wa anta khayru'l-wārithīn · Fa'stajabnā lahu wa wahabnā lahu Yaḥyā wa aṣlaḥnā lahu zawjah, innahum kānū yusāriʿūna fi'l-khayrāti wa yadʿūnanā raghaban wa rahaban wa kānū lanā khāshiʿīn
"And Zechariah, when he called to his Lord: 'My Lord! Do not leave me alone, and You are the best of inheritors.' · We answered him and granted him John, and made his wife fit for him. They used to vie in good works and to call upon Us in longing and in awe. And they were humble before Us."
And this is the last of the series' four calls. And it differs from the first three in one respect: here there is a petition.
| Verse | The call | Is there a petition |
|---|---|---|
| 76 | Noah | (The content is not given) |
| 83 | Job | None — a statement of case + an attribute |
| 87 | Jonah | None — oneness + transcendence + admission |
| 89 | Zechariah | Present — lā tadharnī fardan |
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the mood of the verb: the sentence does not ask for something — it asks that a state not continue. And the word fard says not what is wanted but what is feared.
Fard — root ف-ر-د: single, without like or equal, alone. And the word differs from waḥd: wāḥid is one in number; fard is one who has no one beside him.
| Verse | The close | The pattern |
|---|---|---|
| 83 | wa anta arḥamu'r-rāḥimīn | wa anta + an elative + the plural of the same root |
| 89 | wa anta khayru'l-wārithīn | wa anta + an elative + a plural |
And the choice of the attribute is worth recording — I give this as my own reading: what is asked for is a child; the attribute chosen is wārith — inheritor. That is, having voiced its request, the prayer says within itself that no lack would arise even if the request were not granted. The sentence sets a limit to its own petition.
| View | In what sense iṣlāḥ is |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bodily fitness — she was made able to bear |
| 2 | Temper and condition — she was brought to a good state |
| 3 | The word conveys a general "making fit"; the detail is not given |
I transmit the disagreement and do not impose a preference. And I enter into no detail the Qurʾān has not given.
The two words are in the accusative; the grammarians count them either circumstantial qualifiers or objects of purpose: "longing and fearing" or "out of longing and out of fear".
| Word | Root | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| رَغَب | ر-غ-ب | To turn towards with desire — raghiba fīhi: he desired it |
| رَهَب | ر-ه-ب | To shrink back with a shudder — rahba: a fear that goes inward |
And the roots convey movement in opposite directions: one towards it, the other back from it. In Arabic raghiba fī (he turned towards it) and raghiba ʿan (he turned away from it) are distinguished by the preposition; there is a direction in the root itself.
I give this as a note about the words: the verse does not describe prayer as a movement in one direction. Two opposite inclinations meet in the same act.
يُسَٰرِعُونَ فِى ٱلْخَيْرَٰتِ — yusāriʿūn — Form III: to run as though racing. And the word al-khayrāt occurred in the seventy-third verse: wa awḥaynā ilayhim fiʿla'l-khayrāt. The same word, at the two ends of the series. It is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
خَٰشِعِين — root خ-ش-ع: to be lowered, to bow, for the voice to drop. The concrete picture of the word: the eye's falling to the ground, the voice's dropping. And the subjects of the eighty-ninth and ninetieth verses are plural (innahum) — that is, the ruling covers Zechariah, John and his wife together.