The story
Zakariyya served the sanctuary and guarded Maryam, and every time he entered her chamber he found provision he had not brought. 'From where is this?' he asked, and her answer, 'It is from Allah; He provides for whom He wills without account' (3:37), lit something in the old man: the God who feeds a girl out of season can give an old man a son out of season.
So he prayed, and the Qur'an lingers on how: 'a secret call' (19:3), whispered, with the honesty of age laid bare: 'My Lord, my bones have weakened and my head is aflame with grey, and never have I been disappointed in my prayer to You' (19:4). He wanted an heir for the mission, not the money (19:5-6). The answer came mid-prayer, angels calling while he stood in the chamber: glad tidings of Yahya, a name never given before.
His sign was silence: three days unable to speak to people while his tongue stayed loose for remembrance (3:41). The Qur'an closes his family's file with the verse that explains every answered prayer in it: 'They used to hasten to good deeds and call upon Us in hope and fear, and they were humbly submissive to Us' (21:90).