Some of the commentators have said that the objective...

Some of the commentators have said that the objective meaning of the Qur’anic word /waliyy/, mentioned in this holy verse, is ‘a righteous son who succeeds the father’.

“(One that) shall be my inheritor and the inheritor of the posterity of Jacob; and make him, my Lord, well-pleasing.” 7. (His prayer was answered:) O’ Zakariyya! verily We give you good tidings of a son whose name is Yahya (John). We have given the same name to none before (him).” 8. “He said: ‘My Lord!

How shall there be for me a son while my wife is barren and I have reached infirm old age?’” Zachariah, the prophet, in his prayer, invoked Allah to grant him a successor to be the inheritor of him and the posterity of Jacob, and He would make him well-pleasing. The verse says: “(One that) shall be my inheritor and the inheritor of the posterity of Jacob; and make him, my Lord, well-pleasing.” The purpose of the phrase ‘to inherit’, here, has been rendered differently by the Islamic commentators.

Some of them believe that ‘heritage’ in this verse is heritage in properties, while some others have said that it refers to the rank of prophethood. A group of the commentators have also thought that the objective meaning of it is an inclusive concept which probably envelops both of them.

Many of the Shi‘ite scholars have taken the first interpretation, while some Sunnite scholars have seized the second meaning, and some others, among Islamic scholars, such as: Sayyid-i-Qutb in Fi-Zilal and’Alusi in Rouh-ul-Ma‘ani, have chosen the third idea. Those who have taken it, confined to the inheritance of property, have reasoned to the existence of the word /yariu/ (inheritor) in this sense. For, when this word is used apart from other evidences, it means ‘the inheritance of the wealth’.