Tafsir of Maryam 19:4

"And the bones have become feeble (wahana)" It is read as wahan, wahin, and wuhun. The bone is mentioned because it is the pillar of the body, the basis of its structure, and its support. When it becomes feeble, the body collapses and its strength falls away. Furthermore, it is the hardest and most solid part of the body; if it becomes feeble, everything else is even more so.

It is singular because the singular form indicates the generic meaning. He intended to convey that this genus—which is the pillar, the support, and the hardest part of the body’s composition—has been struck by feebleness. Had he used the plural, it would have implied a different meaning: that not just some of his bones had become feeble, but all of them.

"And the head has flared with white hair (ishta‘ala al-mashību)" Abu ‘Amr reads the sin assimilated into the shin. He likens white hair to the flame of a fire in its whiteness, its brightness, its spread throughout the hair, its prevalence, and its encompassing nature. He then expresses this through metaphor, attributing the "flaring" to the place where the hair grows: the head. He leaves "white hair" as an indefinite accusative of specification (tamyiz) and does not attribute the head (i.e., he says "the head" rather than "my head") because it is sufficiently understood that it is Zakariya’s head. Thus, this sentence is eloquent and bears witness to its own rhetorical excellence.

"And I have never been, in my prayer to You, my Lord, unhappy" He uses his past history of answered prayers as a means of seeking favor with God. It is related that a needy person once asked him, saying, "I am the one to whom you did a favor at such-and-such a time." He replied, "Welcome to the one who uses our own favors to us as a means to reach us," and he fulfilled his need.

"And indeed, I fear my kinsmen after me, and my wife has been barren, so give me from Yourself an heir. Who will inherit from me and inherit from the family of Jacob. And make him, my Lord, pleasing [to You]."