I Have Vowed What Is in My Womb

Allah (swt) says: qālat imraʾatu ʿImrāna rabbi innī nadhartu laka mā fī baṭnī. This righteous woman, the wife of ʿImrān — ʿImrān is the name of the father; he is the head of this household; his name is ʿImrān — his wife said: O Allah, I have vowed to You what is in my womb. Nadhr is a promise and a vow that you give. The wife of ʿImrān gave a vow, a promise, that what is in her womb — she was pregnant — is for Allah.

Specifically, that means that this child will serve in the masjid. Which masjid? Al-Masjid al-Aqṣā. In that time they used to have men who were devoted to khidmat al-masjid; they were devoted to the serving of the masjid. The ones who would fill this job were men; they did not allow women to take this job — it was for men. And they would live their entire life in the masjid and serve in the masjid. So the wife of ʿImrān said: O Allah, I am vowing my child to You, to the khidmah of the masjid.

And I think these ayat that deal with the parents and children — we need to reflect on them. We are not going to spend a lot of time doing this reflection now, but take this as a pointer and a tip: when you are reading through the ayat of the Qur'an, when you see the relations between the parents and the children within the righteous families, try to think about it and reflect and contemplate.

Over here, the wife of ʿImrān is vowing her child to Allah (swt) to serve in the masjid. She was not thinking in terms of dunyā at all. She wanted her child to go to the service of the masjid — not for a certain time, and then come back to her and generate money for the whole life. She wanted her son — because this service is for men — she wanted her son to go into the masjid and serve in the masjid.