5 Preface وَإِنّي خِفتُ المَوالِيَ مِن وَرائي وَكانَتِ امرَأَتي عاقِرًا فَهَب لي مِن لَدُنكَ وَلِيًّاYusuf Ali“Now I fear (what) my relatives (and colleagues) (will do) after me: but my wife is barren: so give me an heir1 as from Thyself,-His was not merely a vulgar desire for a son. If it had been, he would have prayed much earlier in his life, when he was a young man. He was too full of true piety to put merely selfish things into his prayers. But here was a public need, in the service of the Lord. He was too old, but could he perhaps adopt a child-who would be an heir “as from God?” (See n. 380 to 3:38).