[19].Surah Maryam [Mary]: Ayat 4-7

Ayat 4. Saying: "My Lord! Indeed my bones have grown feeble, and grey hair has spread on my head, And I have never been unblest in my invocation to You, O my Lord!

Ayat 5. "And Verily! I fear my relatives after me, since my wife is barren. So give me from Yourself an heir,

Ayat 6. "Who shall inherit me, and inherit (also) the posterity of Yaqub PBUH (Jacob) (inheritance of the religious knowledge and Prophethood, not the wealth, etc.). And make him, my Lord, one with whom You are Well-pleased!".

Ayat 7. (Allah said) "O Zakariya (Zachariah)! Verily, We give you the glad tidings of a son, His name will be Yahya (John). We have given that name to none before (him)."

[Tafseer] This preface shows the fervent faith of Zakariya. Zakariya was a priest of the Most High Allah. His office was the Temple, and his relatives were his colleagues. But he found in them no true spirit of the service of Allah and man. He was filled with anxiety as to who would uphold the godly ideas he had in mind, which were strange to his worldly colleagues. His was not merely a desire for a son. If it had been, he would have prayed much earlier in his life, when he was a young man. He was too full of true piety to put merely selfish things into his prayers. But here was a public need, in the service of the Lord. He was too old, (since his wife) Hannah the sister of the mother of Mary the daughter of Amran ('Imran) (is barren) and gives birth to no children, but could he perhaps adopt a child-who would be an heir "as from Allah?"  It is true that, an heir inherits property, but his higher duty is to represent in everything the personality of him from whom he inherits. But he had character and virtue, as a man of God, and this he wanted to transmit to his heir as his most precious possession. It was almost the most precious possession of the posterity of Jacob. The people around him had fallen away from Allah's Message. Could his heir, like him, try and renew it? This was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. In accordance with his father's prayer he, and Jesus for whom he repared the way, renewed the Message of Allah, which had been corrupted and lost among the Israelites. The Arabic form Yahya suggests "Life". The Hebrew form is Johanan, which means "Jehovah has been Gracious". Allah had, for the first time, called one of His elect by that name.  

Hazrat Ibn Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah [SAWW](PBUH) used to say when he was in distress: "La ilaha illallahul-Azimul-Halim. La ilaha illallahu Rabbul-`Arshil-`Azim. La ilaha illallahu Rabbus-samawati, wa Rabbul-ardi, wa Rabbul-`Arshil-Karim. (None has the right to be worshipped but Allah the Incomparably Great, the Compassionate. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah the Rubb of the Mighty Throne. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah the Rubb of the heavens, the Rubb of the earth, and the Rubb of the Honourable Throne).''

[Al-Bukhari Book 08, Chapter 75, Hadith # 357]. 

Lesson : as mentioned above in Surah Maryam Ayat 04."And I have never been unblest in my invocation to You, O my Lord!" The only medicine in a time of distress is the remembrance of Allah Whose Help alone should be sought. This Du`a contains words which glorify Allah and exalt Him far above all else. It is desirable to recite these words when one is in distress as this is exactly what the Prophet [SAWW](PBUH) used to recite in such situations.