His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

"Indeed, Allah has chosen Adam and Noah and the family of Abraham and the family of Imran over the worlds. A progeny, some of them from others. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing." "When the wife of Imran said, 'My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated, so accept this from me. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing.'"

When a portion of the debate with the Christians of Najran had passed, and the response to them and the clarification of the falsehood they were upon, this verse came as a notification of the matter in which they had gone astray, and informing about its reality as it was. So He, exalted is He, began by mentioning His favor upon this group, particularly the family of Imran among them. Then He specifically mentioned the wife of Imran, because the intention is to describe the story of the people until the matter of Jesus, peace be upon him, is clarified and how it was.

And "chosen" means: selected the best of people. So these mentioned were those, and the disbelievers remained as dregs. Adam is our father, peace be upon him. Allah, exalted is He, chose him by creating him, sending him to his children, prophethood, and speaking to him, as has been reported in the hadith. Al-Zajjaj narrated from a group that Allah chose Adam, peace be upon him, by sending him to the angels in His saying: "Inform them of their names" [Al-Baqarah: 33]. And this is weak; and Noah, peace be upon him, is our younger father according to the opinion of the majority. He is the first prophet sent to the disbelievers, and Noah was referred to with his foreignness and his identification for the lightness of the name, like Hud and Lut. "And the family of Abraham" means with Abraham the Friend, peace be upon him. And the family in language means: the people and the relatives. It is said for the followers and the people of obedience: family, so from it is the family of Pharaoh, and from it is the saying of the poet, who is Arakah Al-Thaqafi, in the eulogy of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, while he consoles himself for his brother Amr:

"So do not weep for a dead one after a dead one, for indeed Ali and Abbas and the family of Abu Bakr."

He meant all the believers. And the family in this verse can carry both meanings. If we say he meant by family the relatives and the household, then the estimation is: Indeed, Allah chose these over the scholars of their times, or over the worlds generally by making Muhammad, peace be upon him, from the family of Abraham. And if we say he meant by family the followers, then the entry of the nation of Muhammad into the family is appropriate because they are upon the religion of Abraham.

And Mundhir ibn Sa'id and others went to the notion that the mention of Adam includes the indication to the believers in him from his children, and likewise the mention of Noah, peace be upon him, and that the family are the followers. Thus, the verse encompassed all the believers of the world, so the meaning was: that Allah chose the believers over the disbelievers, and He specifically mentioned these in honor of them, and because the speech is in the story of some of them.

﴿And the family of 'Imran﴾ also has interpretations similar to those mentioned for the family of Ibrahim. 'Imran is a man from the Children of Israel, from the lineage of Sulayman ibn Dawud, as al-Tabari narrated; Al-Makki said: it is 'Imran ibn Mathal. And Qatadah said in the interpretation of this verse: Allah, the Exalted, mentioned the people of two righteous households and two righteous men, and He preferred them over the worlds. Thus, Muhammad is from the family of Ibrahim. Ibn Abbas said: Allah chose this group for religion, prophethood, and obedience to Him.

And His saying, the Exalted: "offspring" is in the accusative as a substitute, and it is said to be in the genitive because the meaning of ﴿offspring, some of them from others﴾ is that they are similar in religion and condition, and this is clearer than the substitute. The term offspring in common usage refers to what has descended from children, and the derivation of the word in the language indicates that it can apply to all people, meaning everyone is an offspring of someone else. Thus, all people are offspring of one another. This is how the term offspring is used in His saying, the Exalted: ﴿Indeed, We carried their offspring in the laden ship﴾ [Yasin: 41], meaning the offspring of this kind. It is not appropriate to say about a parent: this is an offspring of his child, as the term comes from "dharr" meaning to spread. Thus, its meaning comes forth, and likewise if we derive it from "dhara", and likewise if it is derived from "dhara'" or from the small ants.

Abu al-Fath said: The term offspring may be derived from these four letters. Then Abu al-Fath elaborated on its weight for each derivation from these four letters in a lengthy manner that this brevity does not necessitate mentioning. Abu Ali mentioned it in Al-A'raf in the translation of: ﴿From their loins, their offspring﴾ [Al-A'raf: 172]. Al-Zajjaj said: Its origin is a verbal noun from dharr, because Allah brought forth creation from the loins of Adam like dust. Abu al-Fath said: This is a reference to dharr, with the first letter changed, as they say in reference to the sanctuary: harami - with the breaking of the ha - and other such changes in the reference. Al-Zajjaj said: It is also said that the origin of "offspring" is dhurrurah, its weight is fu'luwwah, and when the r's became numerous, they replaced the last one with a y, thus it became dhurriyah, then the waw was assimilated into the y, and it came out as dhurriyah.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is a derivation from dharr yadhr, or from dhara. If it is from dhara', then its weight is fa'ilah like mariqah, its origin is dhari'ah, thus it was made to conform to the substitute and the lightening, as they did in al-bariyyah in the saying of one who saw it: "Allah created the creation," and in a shining star, in the saying of one who saw it from "dhara" because it dispels darkness with its light.

And the majority of people read "offspring" with a dammah on the dhāl, and Zayd ibn Thabit and al-Dahhak read: "dhirriyyah" - with a kasrah on the dhāl - and His saying, the Exalted: ﴿some of them from others﴾ means in faith and obedience, and the grace of Allah upon them with prophethood.

And the people differed regarding the worker in His saying: "When she said," Abu Ubaidah Ma'mar said: "When" is extra, and this saying is rejected. Al-Mubarrid and Al-Akhfash said: The worker is an implied verb, its meaning is: "Mention when." Al-Zajjaj said: The worker is the meaning of the choice, the implication is: "And He chose the family of 'Imran when."

According to this saying, 'Imran is excluded from the choice; and Al-Tabari said, in meaning: The worker in "when" is His saying: "The Hearing."

And the name of the wife of 'Imran is Hannah, daughter of Tha'lab, as mentioned by Al-Tabari from Ibn Ishaq, and she is the mother of Maryam, daughter of 'Imran.

And the meaning of His saying: ﴿I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated﴾ is: I have made a vow that this child in my womb is to be dedicated to Your service, freed from all service and occupation of worldly affairs, meaning: free from that, for it is from the term of freedom, and its position is as an adverbial phrase. Makki said: Whoever places it as an adjective for a deleted object, he implies: a freed boy, and there is a consideration in this, and the house that she vowed for him is the house of Al-Maqdis.

Ibn Ishaq said: The reason for Hannah's vow was that she had been deprived of a child until she aged, and while she was in the shade of a tree, she saw a bird feeding its chick, and her soul stirred for a child. So she prayed to Allah to grant her a child, and she became pregnant with Maryam, and 'Imran died. When she knew that there was a fetus in her womb, she made it a vow to Allah that it would serve the temple, not to be benefited from in any matter of the world.

Mujahid said: "Consecrated" means: a servant for the temple, and the same was said by Al-Sha'bi and Sa'id ibn Jubayr. This meaning of consecration for the temples was customary among males specifically, and it was obligatory upon the sons to adhere to that. So she said: "What is in my womb" and did not specify its gender due to the place of ambiguity, but she firmly hoped that it would be a male. And the acceptance of a thing and its reception means taking it where it is imagined to be taken and being pleased with it in every situation. So the meaning of her saying "So accept from me": is to be pleased with me in that, and make it an accepted deed rewarded for it, and "The Hearing" is an indication of her supplication, and "The Knowing" is an indication of her intention.