Overall meaning : Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, states that He has favoured, among His servants, individuals and families, upon whom He has bestowed His grace and chosen them for the sole purpose of worshipping Him and totally dedicating themselves to Him. He has chosen Adam and Noah, peace be upon them, as individuals and has chosen Abraham and ‘Imran and their seed as two families, all of whom are the best of all mankind, including those who came before and those who will come later; and has placed piety and righteousness in their descendants, to hand it down from one generation to another. For Allah Almighty is fully aware of who deserves to be chosen and favoured from among His servants, and He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
Then Allah recounts the story of ‘Imran’s wife, who vowed that what was in her womb would be devoted exclusively to worshipping Allah and serving His House in Jerusalem, beseeching Him to accept her offering, for He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. Seeing that the child she had given birth to was a female, she apologised, saying, ‘Lord, I have given birth to a girl,’—but Allah knew best what she had given birth to. A male child, she said, would be better devoted for service in His House and would be free from any preoccupations that may otherwise distract him from worship and prayer in it. That was why she was hoping for a male child.
She said that she named her newborn baby Maryam (Mary) and asked Him to protect her and her descendants from Satan, the one excluded from Allah’s grace and mercy. Allah answered her prayer, graciously accepted her vow, afforded her the opportunity to have an excellent upbringing and entrusted her to the care of Zechariah. Whenever Zechariah visited her in her worship chamber, he found her supplied with food, which made him rather puzzled and wonder how in the world she could possibly receive such provision without toil to earn a living and she had dedicated herself completely to Allah and His service. When he asked her how she obtained it, she simply replied that it was from Allah, who provides sustenance to whomever of His servants He pleases without measure.