It was as if it was in the state of barrenness when I was young and middle-aged. So, I have not been granted a child due to the deficiency of one of the two reasons. Then, when both reasons are entirely absent, will I be granted a child? If you say: Why did he ask for that while he and his wife are in the state of barrenness? [Mahamud said: "If you say why did he ask for that while he and his wife are in the state of barrenness..." Ahmad said: And in what he responded to there is a consideration, for he committed to the fact that Zakariya doubted what Allah, the Exalted, promised him would occur, and it is not permissible for a prophet to speak of what is not appropriate for such a benefit that Al-Zamakhshari specified and could be achieved without it. The apparent answer - and Allah knows best - is that Zakariya's request was merely for a child in general, and according to that he was answered, and there is nothing in the response that indicates that a child will be born to him while he is old, nor that it will be from his wife while she is barren. It was possible for him that the promised one would be in this state, and it was possible that their strength and youth would be restored to them, as Allah did for others. Or that the child would be from someone other than his barren wife. Therefore, he doubted the possibility of a child from them while they are in their state, so he inquired: Will it be so while they are like that? It was said: Yes, the child will be, and you are like that. Thus, the promise was directed to the very one promised, and the ambiguity was removed, and Allah knows best.} When he was assisted in his request, they were astonished and surprised? I said: Let it be answered as it was answered, so that the believers may increase in certainty and the false ones may be deterred. Otherwise, Zakariya's belief, initially and ultimately, was on a single path: that Allah is independent of the causes. That is, he reached a state of barrenness: which is dryness and hardness in the joints and bones like the dry wood. It is said: The wood became barren and hardened due to old age and high senility. Or he reached the levels and ranks of old age that are called barrenness. Ibn Wathab, Hamzah, and Al-Kisai read with a kasrah on the 'ain, and likewise for 'sali, and Ibn Mas'ud with a fathah on both of them. And Ubayy and Mujahid read: 'asiyah.