Zakariyya (Zechariah)

Zakariyya is a prophet who asked his Lord for a sign that his barren wife had conceived, and was told that his sign would be that he would not speak to people for three days except by gesture, as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy relates (needs_source) ¹. The Sheikh notes that the Qur'an calls his wife an imra'a (woman) while she was barren and then a zawj (spouse) once God permitted her to conceive ².

The Sheikh mentions that Zakariyya asked his Lord for a sign that his barren wife, who was about ninety years old, had conceived, and was told that his sign would be that he would not speak to people for three days except by gesture (needs_source) ¹.

He says that Surat Maryam mentions three nights while the other surah mentions three days, and he replies to anyone who thinks there is a mistake in this that there is none ³.

The Sheikh notes that the Qur'an calls Zakariyya's wife an imra'a (woman) while she was barren, and when God permitted her to conceive it calls her his zawj (spouse), and then God gave him the good news of a boy ².

He raises a question: if the boy's name is Yahya, meaning the living one, how does this name agree with the texts that establish that every soul will taste death and that all will die? ⁴.

The Sheikh holds that Yahya was granted martyrdom so that he would stay alive, so that God's promise to Zakariyya would not fail, and he then returns to Surat al-Nazi'at, saying that those who pull out with force are angels who draw out the souls of the disbelievers ⁵.