The Lots Cast for Her

Allah (swt) says: wa kaffalahā Zakariyyā — she was taken care of by Zakariyyā. Ibn Kathīr says that some scholars say that Maryam is the sister-in-law of Zakariyyā — so the wife of Zakariyyā, her name is Ashyāʿ, and Maryam is her sister. Some other scholars say that she is his niece, because they say that Ashyāʿ is actually the sister of the mother of Maryam. So there is a bit of a difference of opinion here; but it is an irrelevant difference of opinion. What we know is that they are relatives, and Zakariyyā is the one who took care of her.

The way this happened — and just to refresh your memory again — is that the wife of ʿImrān, the mother of Maryam, said: I am giving whatever I am going to deliver to the service of the masjid. The Jews had this law, or tradition, that they would devote some men entirely and completely to take care of the masjid, to service the masjid, al-Masjid al-Aqṣā; and this role was for men. But they accepted Maryam, even though she was a woman.

When she was very young, her mother handed her over to the caretakers of the masjid. Because she came from this noble and blessed family — and, by the way, the family of āl ʿImrān are the descendants of Dāwūd (peace be upon him); because she is from this blessed family, and Allah (swt) says: Allah chose Ādam and Nūḥ and the family of Ibrāhīm and the family of ʿImrān over all mankind. So this is a very blessed family.

Due to the fact that they are a very blessed and noble family among their people, Banū Isrāʾīl, the children of Israel — everyone wanted to take care of Maryam; everyone wanted that honour. So all of these men, who are the keepers of al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, are disputing among themselves who would have the honour of taking care of Maryam, to raise her up. You have to go through training to take care of the masjid; so they were competing over who would get the honour of having Maryam, so that they could train her for the position of being a caretaker of a masjid.

They could not solve the dispute, so they ended up casting lots; they used to cast lots. And, by the way, this is something that the nations before used to do; Allah (swt) has replaced us with something better — and what is that? Ṣalāt al-istikhārah. The nations before did not know about ṣalāt al-istikhārah; this is something reserved for the ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him). So they had to cast lots.

Allah (swt) says: these are the news of the unseen; you were not with them when they were casting lots as to which of them should be charged with the care of Maryam, and you were not with them when they disputed. So they cast lots, and Allah (swt) made the lots come out on whom? On Zakariyyā (peace be upon him). And Zakariyyā is the nabī of Allah (swt), and Allah chose him to take care of Maryam.