7 Preface يا زَكَرِيّا إِنّا نُبَشِّرُكَ بِغُلامٍ اسمُهُ يَحيىٰ لَم نَجعَل لَهُ مِن قَبلُ سَمِيًّاYusuf Ali(His prayer was answered): “O Zakariya! We give thee good news of a son: His name shall be Yahya: on none by that name have We conferred distinction before.”1This was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. In accordance with his father’s prayer he, and Jesus for whom he prepared the way, renewed the Message of God, which had been corrupted and lost among the Israelites. The Arabic form Yahya suggests “Life”. The Hebrew form is Johanan, which means “Jehovah has been Gracious”. Cf. Hamana in verse 13 below. It does not mean that the name was given for the first time, for we read of a Johanan the son of Careah in II Kings, 25:23, an otherwise obscure man. It means that God had, for the first time, called one of His elect by that name.