38. " it was then (that) zakariya prayed to his lord; he said: `my lord! grant me from you a good offspring; verily you are the hearer of all prayers'." 39. " then the angels called unto him while he was standing praying in the sanctuary: ` verily allah gives you the glad tidings of yahya (who comes) to confirm a word from allah, and honourable and chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous'." commentary: " it was then (that) zakariya prayed to his lord; ..." the first qur'anic word mentioned in the above verse is /hunalika/ which means: ` in that place '. it was the place at the sunctuary where zachariah saw the position and honour of mary with allah and wished he had also a child from his wife, 'isha`, similar to the child of his sister, hannah, although his wife was barren. "... he said: ` my lord! grant me from you a good offspring; ..." zachariah prayed and asked his lord to give him an auspicious, pious and sound child. " ... verily you are the hearer of all prayers." * * * * " then the angels called unto him while he was standing praying in the sanctuary: ` verily allah gives you the glad tidings of yahya (who comes) to confirm a word from allah, and honourable and chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous'." at that time, when zachariah (a.s.) was standing praying in the sactuary, some angels called him that allah granted him the glad tidings of a son, yahya (john), in the case that he (john) would confirm the word of allah (hadrat masih, jesus), and would become a leader and honourable. he would be apart from low desires and a prophet from among the pious. thus, not only allah informed him the acceptance of his prayer by the angels, but also stated five characteristics of the qualities of that pure child. they are as follows: 1. yahya (john) acknowledged jesus (a.s.) as a true prophet and he believed him. john was six months older than jesus (a.s.), and he confirmed his prophethood. he was the first certifier of him and testified that jesus (a.s.) was the word and the spirit of allah. this very fact was one of the miracles concerning jesus (a.s.), as well as the most authoritative means of the advent and propagation of his auspicious prophethood, because people did accept the statement of john due to his piety and truthfulness. by the way, in arabic, the terms `isa and yahya nearly have a similar meaning. both of them mean `to live long'. "... (who comes) to confirm a word from allah, ..." 2. yahya (john) became the chief of his tribe and had preference over them from the point of honesty, knowledge, worship, and good manner. "... honourable and chaste, ..." 3. he restrained himself from the low desires, and also from following the violent filthy passions, and mammonism. 4. he would become an honest exalted prophet. it should also be noted that the prophethood of john had been settled from his childhood. the reference for this meaning is sura maryam, no, 19, verse 13 which says: "... and we granted him wisdom while yet a child." that is, we gave him the rank of prophethood at the time of his childhood. in many islamic traditions, the imamate of hadrat imam jawad (a.s.), who became imam when he was seven years old, as well as the imamate of hadrat mahdi (may allah hasten his glad advent), have been reasoned to john and jesus (a.s.) who became prophets when they were in the course of their childhood.1 "... and a prophet from among the righteous." 5. this prophet (john) was from amongst the righteous people. 1 atyab-ul-bayan, vol. 3, p. 189