Mary's Family, and a Battle's Aftermath

Hizb 6 continues Al-i-Imran with the reward promised the mindful and a warning to disbelievers among the People of the Book, then turns to the family of Imran: the vow of Mary's mother to dedicate her child to God's service, Mary's upbringing under Zechariah's guardianship, and the annunciation to Zechariah of his own son John and then to Mary of Jesus, told here as part of a single continuous family narrative rather than as two separate episodes.

The hizb then addresses questions raised by the Muslim community's recent military setback, widely identified with the Battle of Uhud, defending God's promise of support and explaining hardship as a testing of faith rather than its contradiction. Interwoven with this is guidance on dietary law, noting that before the Torah was revealed, all food had been lawful to the Children of Israel except what Israel had made unlawful for itself, an argument used to relativize later Jewish dietary restriction against an earlier, broader permission.

The hizb closes with instruction on pilgrimage to the House at Bakkah, an older name for Mecca the text uses here, describing it as the first house established for humanity's worship and open to all who are able to make the journey to it.