Zakariyyā (Zechariah) — زكريّا

Zakariyyā was a prophet and priest of the Children of Israel who took on the guardianship of Maryam after her mother dedicated her to the service of the sanctuary. The Qur'an tells us that whenever Zakariyyā entered upon her in the prayer chamber, he found provision with her, and when he asked her where it came from, she answered: it is from Allah; indeed, Allah provides for whom He wills without account.

That single scene is what moved him to pray for himself. Watching Allah supply a young girl with what she needed by unseen means, in the very sanctuary where he served, Zakariyyā turned and called upon his Lord for something he had wanted his whole life but no longer expected — a righteous child to succeed him, though he was now old and his wife was barren.

Sūrah Maryam preserves the prayer itself: he called upon his Lord in secret, describing his own weakness with disarming honesty — bones grown feeble, hair turned white with age — and yet, he said, he had never been disappointed in calling upon his Lord. His fear was not for himself but for what would happen to the religious guardianship of his people after him, since he had no heir; he asked for a successor from himself who would inherit from him and from the family of Yaʿqūb, and asked that Allah make him pleasing.

The answer came addressed by name and framed as a gift unmatched before him: "O Zakariyyā, indeed We give you good tidings of a boy whose name will be Yaḥyā; We have not made for him before, any namesake." Zakariyyā, astonished at the plain facts of his and his wife's condition, asked how, and was told simply that Allah said it is easy for Him, for He had created Zakariyyā himself before, when he had been nothing.

Zakariyyā asked for a sign, and was given one that would confirm the promise without contradicting his faith in it: he would not be able to speak to people for three nights though he was sound in body. Sūrah Āl ʿImrān gives the detail that he could only communicate to his people by gesture, and instructs him, in the same breath as the sign, to remember his Lord much and glorify Him in the evening and the morning — the barrier on ordinary speech redirected his tongue toward remembrance.

The episode teaches that a sign from Allah is not evidence demanded out of doubt but a mercy given to steady the heart while the promised matter unfolds. Zakariyyā believed the news the moment it was given to him; the sign was the seal on a belief already present, not the proof that produced it.