Ḥannah and Her Vow

After that, Allah (swt) relates three stories: three very important, very significant stories, which of course relate to the Āl ʿImrān. A number of extraordinary events take place in them. Most people will probably have heard these stories, so there is no need to go into great detail; they are generally heard around the twenty-fifth of December, when there are lectures and programmes on the subject: the story of Jesus, peace be upon him, and his miraculous birth in the Islamic understanding. A summary is given here, but there are lectures on ZamZam Academy in which the account may be heard, inshāʾAllāh, in more detail.

The account begins with ʿImrān and his wife, whose name is Ḥannah bint Fāqūdh. One day she sees a bird with its young, caring for them; and as a mother — she is very old, but as a woman — for women have this natural state, this emotion, the desire to have children, to bear children — when she sees that, she forms a desire, a duʿāʾ, and turns with it to Allah (swt).

There is a lesson in this. There is a whole section on the matter in the Handbook of a Healthy Muslim Marriage, on dealing with infertility, because it is a very difficult thing for a great many people to bear. The pressure is immense, and not only from within themselves but from the people around them, who speak as though the matter lay in the couple's own hands: "When are you going to have a child? When are you going to have a son?" SubḥānAllāh, this is oppression. People should be left be, and duʿāʾ made for them. Here, in any case, a strategy is taught. Ḥannah says:

She is saying, in effect: whatever child comes, O Allah, is to be dedicated to the masjid — the temple, in general terms. It was generally men who were dedicated to the service of the temple, so she expected a son.

She then becomes pregnant. She becomes pregnant, and then:

This is from verse 36 onwards. When she gives birth, she gives birth to a daughter rather than a son, and she exclaims in surprise that she has delivered a daughter. She is now left wondering.

At around the same time her husband passes away. The child is to be dedicated nonetheless; and so, against the norm it seems, they accepted her at the temple. And Zakariyyā (peace be upon him), who was in fact related to Maryam — for it is Maryam who has been born — takes charge of her. He is now her guardian.