Hold the Book With Strength

Allah (swt), in the next ayat, talks about Yaḥyā. Allah says: yā Yaḥyā khudhi al-kitāba bi-quwwah — O Yaḥyā, hold fast the scripture. Al-kitāb is the scripture; bi-quwwah — what does this word mean, quwwah? Here it says hold fast; but the meaning of the word quwwah is power and strength.

What this means is that you hold fast to all of the commands of Allah (swt), and you do not let go of them. So you never give up, and you never buckle down; you are always holding fast, holding strong, to the commands of Allah.

Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) — because we need to understand the position of Yaḥyā. Yaḥyā is young, and he is going to be the nabī of Banū Isrāʾīl — Banū Isrāʾīl, who had gone corrupt and gone astray. And this young man will be responsible for this ummah, for this nation; therefore he must have that strength and confidence and power, otherwise he would not be able to function, and he would be swept away by the ocean of corruption that was existing at the time.

Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) never gave up this order of Allah (swt); and the anbiyāʾ of Allah (swt) never give up the orders of Allah — they fulfil them. So Yaḥyā received this order from Allah: that he should hold fast and strong to the religion. So Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) held strong to the religion of Allah (swt), and he ended up giving his life for the religion of Allah, and he died as a shahīd. Because of holding strong to the religion, Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) was assassinated. That was the end of the life of Yaḥyā: it was a life of struggle, a life of striving, a difficult life — but Yaḥyā was able to hold throughout that period with patience, until he faced Allah (swt) as a shahīd.

Now, even though Allah has given him this very heavy responsibility, Allah (swt) gave him the tools and the ability to fulfil it. So Allah (swt) says: wa ātaynāhu al-ḥukma ṣabiyyā — We gave him judgement, and understanding, and wisdom, when he was young. Because Allah (swt) does not overburden a person; Allah will not ask you to do something you are incapable of doing. Since Allah (swt) put a very heavy responsibility on Yaḥyā, Allah (swt) also equipped Yaḥyā with the tools to carry out that responsibility, and that is al-ḥukm wa al-fiqh wa al-ʿilm. Allah (swt) gave him this understanding very, very early on.

And the mufassirūn mention some things: for example, they say that Yaḥyā was a child, and the children came to him and said: let us go and play — a very young child. So Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) said: mā li-hādhā khuliqnā — we were not created to play. So he was serious from his childhood.