Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“Whenever Zechariah entered the sanctuary where she was, he found provisions beside her. He said, ‘Mary, how did this come to you?’ She replied, ‘It is from Allah; indeed Allah provides for whom He wills without reckoning.’”

[Commentary]

We have already discussed the karamat—the miraculous honors—granted to the friends of Allah. Each karamah is an event that breaks the normal order of things, something extraordinary that Allah manifests at the hand of a wali, either to honor him or to champion His religion. We also explained that there are prophetic signs, feats of sorcery, and humiliations: four distinct matters, all of which transcend the ordinary, and we clarified the difference between them earlier.

Bear in mind that every karamah bestowed upon a wali also serves as a sign validating the Prophet he follows. When a follower of a Prophet is honored with a karamah, that honor is Allah’s testimony to the soundness of the wali’s path and to the truth of the law he observes. Hence we say that every wali’s karamah is, in reality, a sign confirming the Prophet whom he follows.

The author next cites several verses that contain examples of karamat, among them the verse just quoted: “Whenever Zechariah entered the sanctuary where she was, he found provisions beside her… Allah provides for whom He wills without reckoning.” Mary, the daughter of Imran, had been dedicated to Allah by her mother, as the Qur’an relates: “When the wife of Imran said, ‘My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb…’”