فَبَشَّرْنَاهُ بِغُلَامٍ حَلِيمٍ (101)
(37:101) (In response to this prayer) We gave him the good news of a prudent boy; *57
*57) From this one should not understand that this good news was given him immediately following his prayer. In the Qur'an itself, at another place, this saying of the Prophet Abraham has been related: "All praise be to Allah Who has given me sons like Ishmael and Isaac in my old age." (Ibrahim: 39). This proves that there was an interval of many years between the prayer and this good news. The " Bible says that at the birth of the Prophet Ishmael, the Prophet Abraham was 86 years old (Gen. 16: 16) and at the birth of the Prophet Isaac a hundred years. (Gen. 21: 5).