“When they entered upon him and said, ‘Peace,’ he said, ‘Indeed, we are apprehensive of you.’ They said, ‘Do not be afraid. We bring you good news of a knowledgeable son.’ He said, ‘Do you give me good news even though old age has overtaken me? What, then, is the good news you bring?’ They said, ‘We have brought you the good news in truth, so do not be among those who despair.’ He said, ‘Who despairs of his Lord’s mercy except those who have gone astray?’”

“When they entered upon him and said, ‘Peace’”—that is, they greeted him with peace, and he returned their greeting. “He said, ‘Indeed, we are apprehensive of you’”—that is, afraid. When they entered upon him, he took them for guests and hurried to his household, from which he brought them a roasted calf as their meal and set it before them. When he saw that their hands did not reach for it, he feared that they might be thieves or the like.

They therefore said to him, “Do not be afraid. We bring you good news of a knowledgeable son.” This was Isaac, peace be upon him. These glad tidings indicated that the child would be male rather than female and knowledgeable—that is, possessed of abundant knowledge. In another verse, Allah says, “And We gave him good news of Isaac, a prophet and one of the righteous.”

Astonished by these glad tidings, he said to them, “Do you give me good news” of a child “even though old age has overtaken me,” such that there was some reason to despair of having one? “What, then, is the good news you bring?” That is: On what basis do you give me these glad tidings when the ordinary means are absent?

They said, “We have brought you the good news in truth”—a truth about which there is no doubt, for Allah has power over all things. You in particular, O people of this household, have Allah’s mercy and blessings upon you; therefore, His grace and kindness toward you should not be regarded as extraordinary.