The instinct of motherhood stirred within her...

The instinct of motherhood stirred within her, and she invoked Allah Almighty to grant her a son. She, as the Holy Qur'an tells us, said, “Lord! Surely I vow to dedicate to You what is in my womb to be devoted (to Your service)” (Qur'an, 3:35), that is, that her child would be free from the bondage of this life and its entanglements, and he will dedicate his time for the worship of Allah and for the service of His cause.

It was the custom then to bring such a dedicated person to Jerusalem to worship Allah and to serve His creed. [^1] Abu Bakr Muhammed ibn Ishaq (d. 151 A.H./768 A.D.) is a well known scholar from Medina who was contemporary to the `Abbaside ruler Abu Ja`fer Abdullah al-Mansur who came to power in June 754 A.D./Thul-Hijjah 136 A.H. and who commissioned ibn Ishaq to write the very first complete biography of Prophet Muhammed.

His work, however, which became the basis of Ibn Hisham's Seerat, had to be continued by Muhammed ibn Omer al-Waqidi (747 - 822 A.D./129 - 206 A.H.), mentor of Muhammed al-Zuhri, better known as Ibn Sa`d, who died in 230 A.H./845 A.D. and who is a traditionist and a historian born in Bas,.rah and died in Baghdad. Ibn Sa`d's most famous work is Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, or Tabaqat Ibn Sa`d. [^2] Zacharias was father of John the Baptist (prophet Yahya).

His name in Hebrew is Zachariah, the same as it is in Arabic. “Zakariyya” is a variation of it. (47) Always males, those dedicated servants of Jerusalem were not expected to leave the house of worship till they reached their adolescence. Once one of them reached his adolescence, he would be given the choice to either stay or go wherever he wanted. There was hardly any family among the Children of Israel that did not make such a dedication.

Only boys were dedicated; girls would not be fit for such a service due to the menstruation and the inconvenience associated with it. But Maryam's mother had already made that dedication, so her husband `Imran said to her, “Look what you have done! Did you consider the possibility that you were big with a female, and the female is not fit for such a dedication?” He was quite distressed. `Imran died while his wife was pregnant with Maryam.

When she delivered, she found out that her child was a girl. She had prayed for a son. Seeking to apologize to Allah Almighty, she said, “Lord!