1 And one day Jesus was preaching to people, O children of Israel, I am the messenger of God to you.
2 If ye believe in me and have faith in the One Living God who creates things out of nothing, He will restore unto you your freedom and give unto you a kingdom.
3 Some of the people said unto him, What sign thou bringeth that we may believe.
4 And God inspired Jesus and he said, Bring unto me some water.
5 And when it was brought, he taketh some earth, mixeth it with water, and maketh with it the figure of a bird.
6 And he breathed into it, and, behold, it became a living bird.1
7 And as the bird flew away and the people were astonished, Jesus said, Thus doth God give life to the dead. If therefore ye have faith in Him and His messenger, he can lead you also to life and freedom.
8 And some of the people who heard him believed in him, but some said, This he did by the power of Beelzebub, the chief of the devils.
9 For is he not the one who preaches against the sabbath and said that the salvation is not by the law of Moses alone, but by grace and truth and faith?
10 And king Herod heard of him (for his name was spread abroad) and he said, that John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew themselves in him,
11 And he was troubled because that he beheaded John.2
12 And the disciples whom Jesus sent to preach gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him, both what they had done and what they had taught.3
13 And they told him of how a man brought unto them his son who had a dumb spirit.
14 And he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth and pineth away.
15 And oftimes it cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him.
16 And his father besought them to cast out the dumb spirit but they could not.
17 And they asked Jesus, Why could not we cast him out?
18 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.4
19 And of the unbelief of his people, he said in a parable, When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
20 Then he saith, I will let the unclean spirit come in again.
21 Then it goeth and taketh with itself seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter in and dwell there in him: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
22 Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.5
The Qur’anic text
The passages of the Qur’an that this chapter follows. All the passages are gathered on The Qur’an on Jesus.
God’s Favour upon Jesus
5:110 And ˹on Judgment Day˺ God will say, “O Jesus, son of Mary! Remember My favour upon you and your mother: how I supported you with the holy spirit6 so you spoke to people in ˹your˺ infancy and adulthood. How I taught you writing, wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel. How you moulded a bird from clay—by My Will—and breathed into it and it became a ˹real˺ bird—by My Will. How you healed the blind and the lepers—by My Will. How you brought the dead to life—by My Will. How I prevented the Children of Israel from harming you when you came to them with clear proofs and the disbelievers among them said, “This is nothing but pure magic.”
5:111 And how I inspired the disciples, “Believe in Me and My messenger!” They declared, “We believe and bear witness that we fully submit to God.”7
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Notes
- The miracle of the bird is mentioned in the Qur’an (3:49) and some apocryphal Gospels. ↩
- Mark 6:14-16; Luke 9:7-10. ↩
- Mark 6:30-31. Mark says only that the disciples gave a report to Jesus upon their return but fails to say any thing about the response they received during their missionary journey. This silence and the story of apostles’ failure to heal a boy with a dumb spirit (see verses 13-18) suggests that their mission was less than successful. ↩
- Mark 9:14-29; Matt. 17:14-21. ↩
- Matt. 12:43-45. ↩
- The angel Gabriel. ↩
- lit., Muslims. ↩