Tafsir of Maryam 19:8

(He said): A resumption constructed upon the question, as if it were said: "Then what did he (peace be upon him) say at that moment?" It is replied: He said, (My Lord): He called upon Him (Exalted is He) by His Essence, despite the arrival of the Exalted's address to him via the Angel, to emphasize supplication, intimate prayer, and earnestness in devoting himself to Him (Almighty and Majestic is He). It is also said that it was for that reason, and to avoid what his addressing the Angel might suggest—the false notion that His (Exalted is He) knowledge of what proceeds from him is dependent upon the Angel's mediation, just as human knowledge of what proceeds from Him (Exalted is He) is often dependent upon such mediation. It is not hidden that limiting the intent to the first (the emphasis on devotion) is more appropriate.

(How shall I have a boy?): The word anna (how) signifies "in what manner" or "from where." If yakun (to be) is complete, then anna and li (for me) are linked to it, and the placing of the prepositional phrase before the subject is for the reason mentioned more than once—meaning: How or from where shall a boy come into existence for me? It is permissible that the li is linked to an implicit element that functions as a state (hal) for ghulam (boy), meaning: "How shall a boy come into existence, [being] for me?" Or, if it is incomplete, its subject is apparent, and its predicate is either anna, with li linked to an implicit element as mentioned, or li is the predicate and anna is in the accusative case as an adverb of place/manner.

His saying (Exalted is He), (and my wife is barren): This is a state (hal) of the first-person pronoun, with the assumption of the word qad. Similarly, his saying (Exalted is He), (and I have reached the extreme of old age): This is a state of the same pronoun, emphasizing the impossibility [of the event] after the previous emphasis. Min denotes the beginning of the extremity, and ‘itiyya (extreme of old age) comes from ‘ata’a, ya‘tu, which means dryness and stiffness in the joints and bones. Al-Raghib said: It is a condition that has no path to reform or remedy, and it is said, no path to its exercise; this is the condition referred to by the poet: "And of hardship is the exercise of old age." Its origin is ‘utuw like qu‘ud; but the succession of two dammah vowels and two waws was felt to be heavy, so the ta was vocalized with kasrah, and the first waw turned into a ya due to its quiescence and the kasrah preceding it. Then the second also changed due to the meeting of waw and ya and the precedence of one of them in quiescence, and the ‘ayn was vocalized with kasrah following the sound of what follows it. That is: My wife was barren; she did not bear children in her youth nor mine, so how [could she bear] while she is now an old woman, and I have reached, due to advanced age, a state of dryness, stiffness, or a condition for which there is no path to remedy? The opinions regarding his age at that time have already been presented to you; as for his wife’s age, it is said it was ninety-eight.

It is permitted that min be for partiality, meaning: I have reached [a portion] of the degrees and ranks of old age that is called ‘itiyya. Some have considered it bayaniyya (explicative), though there is discussion on this. The prepositional phrase is either linked to what is implied by the context or to an implicit element acting as a state for ‘itiyya, which itself is in the accusative case as the object. The core meaning is the same as the verse in Al ‘Imran narrating from him: "Old age has reached me." The disparity in the musnad ilayh (subject of the attribution) does not matter, for whatever of these meanings has reached you, you have surely reached it. Indeed, there is a difference between the two expressions from another perspective which is not hidden, so the choice of each in its specific context requires a subtlety; meditate on that. The same applies to the approach of beginning here with the mention of the state of his wife (peace be upon him), which is the reverse of what is in that surah.

In Irshad al-‘Aql al-Salim, it is suggested that this is perhaps because his own state was mentioned in the midst of his prayer, and what is mentioned here—his reaching the ultimate degrees of old age—is a completion of what was mentioned before. Whereas there, the state of his own self was not mentioned in the prayer beforehand, so he put it before mentioning the state of his wife, as hastening to clarify the limitation of his own status is more appropriate.

Some have said: It is possible that the prayer and the dialogue were repeated, and the variation in style is for the sake of eloquence, with each containing what the other did not—so reflect, and Allah (Exalted is He) is the Granter of Success. It is apparent that he (peace be upon him) knew of himself that he was not barren, which is why he mentioned old age and did not mention barrenness. He (peace be upon him) said what he said, despite his previous prayer and the strength of his certainty in the power of Allah (Exalted is He)—especially after witnessing the signs mentioned in Surah Al ‘Imran—out of glorification for the power of Allah (Exalted is He) and acknowledgement of His (Exalted is He) bounty upon him, by demonstrating that it is purely the grace and kindness of Allah, despite it being, in itself, among the things customarily impossible. This was not an act of deeming it far-fetched. This is what has been said.

It is also said: It is an act of deeming it far-fetched, but it does not return to the speaker; rather, it is in relation to the falsifiers. The Prophet (peace be upon him) only requested what would remove the force of their doubt and bring about their deterrence from their evil habits, and there is no harm in that from a Prophet, contrary to Ibn al-Munir. Indeed, it has been objected that the prayer was secret from the falsifiers. It is answered that it is possible he spoke it aloud afterwards, to manifest the bounty of Allah (Exalted is He) upon him and to request what was mentioned, so remember that. It is also said: It is a deeming of it far-fetched that returns to the speaker, for there were sixty years between the prayer and the glad tidings, and he (peace be upon him) had forgotten his prayer—and this is very far-fetched.

In Al-Intisaf, it is said: The apparent meaning—and Allah (Exalted is He) knows best—is that Zachariah (peace be upon him) requested a child in general terms, and there is nothing in the verse indicating that he should be produced from him while he is decrepit, nor from his wife while she is barren, nor that their strength and youth should be returned to them as was done for others, or that the child should be from someone other than his barren wife. He deemed the child far-fetched from them while they remained in their state, so he inquired: "Will it be, even while we are like this?" It was said to him: "It shall be so"—meaning the child will be, while you remain as you are. This has been countered by the fact that his saying, "Grant me from Yourself," is explicit that he requested the child while they were in a state that customarily makes a child from them impossible.

The apparent view to me is that it is a deeming of it far-fetched from the perspective of custom, or it is in relation to the falsifiers, and—as in Al-Kashf—this is more appropriate. Most of the seven reciters read ‘utiyyan with a dammah on the ‘ayn. Ibn Mas‘ud read it with a fathah, as well as with a fathah on the sad of suliyyan. The origin of that, as Ibn Jinni said in refutation of Ibn Mujahid’s claim ("I know no root for them in Arabic"), is what has come in the verbal nouns of the pattern fa‘il, such as huwayl and zuwayl. From Ibn Mas‘ud and Mujahid, it is also narrated that they read it ‘asiyyan with a dammah on the ‘ayn and a kasrah on the sin. Al-Dani related this from Ibn ‘Abbas, and Al-Zamakhshari from Ubayy and Mujahid; it comes from ‘asa al-‘ud ya‘su (the branch became dry/rigid), meaning when it dried out.