Surah 21. Al-Anbiya, Ayah 89

Lit., "Thou art the best of inheritors" - a phrase explained in note [22] on 15:23 . The words interpolated by me between brackets correspond to Zamakhshari's and Razi's interpretation of this phrase. For more detailed references to Zachariah, father of John the Baptist, see 3:37 ff. and 19:2 ff.

 Meaning, “You will be there for eternity after all pass away.”

See xix. 2-15, and iii. 38-41. Zakariya was a priest; both he and his wife were devout and punctilious in their duties. They were old, and they had no son. He was troubled in mind, not so much by the vulgar desire to have a son to carry on his line, but because he felt that his people were not unselfishly devout, and there would be no sincere work for Allah unless he could train up someone himself. He was given a son Yahya (John the Baptist), who added to the devout reputation of the family, for he is called "noble, chaste, and a prophet," (iii. 39). All three, father, mother, and son, were made worthy of each other, and they repelled evil by their devout emulation in virtue.

'It is not that I crave a personal heir to myself: all things go back to Thee, and Thou art the best of inheritors: but I see no one around me sincere enough to carry on my work for Thee; wilt Thou give me one whom I can train?'