The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 17
PT. 16 MARYAM CH. 19 قَالَ رَبِّ أَتى يَكُونُ لِي غُلمُ وَكَانَتِ He said, “My Lord, how shall. 9 I have a son when "my wife is امْرَأَتِي عَاقِرًا وَ قَدْ بَلَغْتُ مِنَ الْكِبَرِ barren, and I have reached the extreme limit of old age?'2153 or like (Aqrab & Lane). Commentary: a3:41; 21:91. The two words and used in this verse are very significant. The word signifies three periods of one's life i. e. childhood, youth and middle age. Applied to Yaḥyā or John it embodied a prophecy that he shall not die in childhood but shall grow up to be a young man before the eyes of his father and shall live up to middle age and so it actually came to pass. Yahyā lived up to middle age and then was killed by the order of Herod to satisfy the wish of a dancing girl. The word literally meaning, "he lives" or "he shall live," also implied a great prophecy, viz. that he will die the death of a martyr and thus will become immortalized. Of the martyrs the Quran says: Say not of those who are killed in the cause of Allah that they are dead; nay they are living; only you perceive not (2:155). Again it says: Think not of those who have been slain in the cause of Allah as dead. Nay, they are living in the presence of their Lord and are granted gifts from Him (3:170). Thus those who are killed in the way of God get everlasting life and so did Yaḥyā or John. His ministry terminated in his imprisonment in the fortress of Machaerus, where he was executed by the order of Herod 1931 Antipas (Matt. 14:10 & 11). See also 3:40. The words, We have not made anyone before him of that name, do not mean that there had lived before him no man whose name was John. From the Bible it appears that there had been several persons before him 25:23; I Chronicles 3:15; Ezra 8:12). who were called John. (II Kings Nor does the verse mean that John was peerless and was unequalled in every respect. He himself confesses that "there cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose" (Mark 1:7). The verse only signifies that in some respects Yaḥyā had no equal, i. e. he enjoyed a partial other Israelite Prophets. Abraham, superiority in some respects over much higher spiritual status than John, Moses and Jesus were Prophets of the Baptist, who had come only to prepare the way for Jesus (Mark 1:3). Yaḥyā was peerless only in this respect that he was the first Prophet to come as a precursor and harbinger to another Prophet-Jesus. And he he was the first Prophet who came was peerless in this respect also that with the power and spirit of another Prophet Elias. 2153. Important Words: (extreme limit) is derived from