Tafsir of Maryam 19:8

"He said, 'My Lord, how...'"

That is: I was in a state of barrenness while I was a youth and a man of middle age, yet I was not granted a child due to the failure of one of the two causes. So, at a time when both causes have failed, shall I be granted one?

If you ask: Why did he request it initially while he and his wife were in a state of barrenness and old age, yet when his request was granted, he found it unlikely and marveled at it?

I say: It was so that he might be answered with what he was answered with, so that the believers might increase in certainty and the falsifiers might be deterred. Otherwise, the belief of Zechariah, from beginning to end, remained upon a single path: that Allah is independent of causes.

"I have reached extreme old age (‘itiyyan):"

This is dryness and stiffness in the joints and bones, like a withered branch. It is said: "The branch became ‘ata and ‘asa" due to old age and reaching an advanced stage of life. Or, it means: I have reached the degrees and stages of old age that are termed ‘itiyyan.

Ibn Wathab, Hamza, and al-Kisa’i read it with a kasra on the ‘ayn (‘itiyyan), as well as in the word siliyyan (Maryam: 70). Ibn Mas‘ud read both with a fatha on both letters. Ubayy and Mujahid read it as ‘asiyyan.

"He said, 'Thus it is; your Lord says, "It is easy for Me, and I created you before, when you were nothing."'"