The Gospel According to Islam · Chapter 1, Birth and Childhood · Section 2

The annunciation and the birth of Jesus. 24 verses.

1And as for Mary, it came to pass that she withdrew from her people to a place in the east. 2She placed a screen to screen herself from them; then God sent His angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects. 3She said, I seek refuge from thee to the Most Gracious: come not near me if thou dost fear God. 4He said, Nay, I am but a messenger of God to thee.¹ 5O Mary! God hath chosen thee and purified thee—chosen thee above the women of all nations. 6O Mary! worship thy Lord devoutly, prostrate thyself, and bow in prayer with those who bow down.

7O Mary! God giveth thee the good news of a word from Him; his name will be Jesus the Messiah.² He will be held in honour in this world and the world to come and will be of the company of those nearest to God.³⁴⁵ 8He shall speak to the people in infancy and in manhood, and he shall be of the company of the righteous⁶ 9He shall be an example to the children of Israel and a knowledge for the hour.⁷ 10Mary said, O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me and I am not unchaste?

11He said, Even so it shall be: God createth what He willeth; for when He decides upon a plan, He saith to it, “Be”! and it is.⁸ 12Because Jesus was made with God’s creative word “Be,” he was called a word from God. 13So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.⁹ 14And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree, and she cried, Ah! would that I had died before this! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight! 15But a voice cried to her from beneath the palm tree, Grieve not, for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee;¹⁰ 16And shake towards thyself the trunk of the tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee.

17So eat and drink and cool thine eyes. If thou dost see any man, say, I have vowed a fast to the Most Gracious, and this day I enter into no talk with any human being.¹¹ 18Then she came to her people carrying the babe in her arms. They said, O Mary! Truly an amazing thing thou hast brought. 19O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!¹² 20But she pointed to the babe. They said, How can we talk to an infant in the cradle.¹³ 21But the child spoke up and said, I am indeed a servant of God. He hath appointed me as a sign for men and a mercy from Him. This was a matter decreed.

22He will give me the Book and make me His messenger to the children of Israel. 23That I may verify the Torah and make lawful for Israel part of what was forbidden to them. 24That I may teach to them wisdom and make clear to them some of the things, in which they disputed.¹⁴

Qur’an 19:16-19. ↩
The Qur’an calls Jesus al-Masīḥ, the Messiah, eleven times, and in 3:45 the title comes from the angel’s mouth before his birth: “his name will be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary.” The Qur’an accepts the title without reserve. What it does not do is fill it with the content of Jewish expectation: Jesus is the Messiah as a servant and messenger of God (4:172; 5:75), not as a king who restores the throne of David by arms. The gospels record that Jesus did not proclaim the title before the crowds and bade his disciples keep it (Mark 8:27-30), and this narrative keeps that reticence, because a messiahship declared openly would have been heard as a claim to kingship, which is the charge on which he was brought to Pilate (Luke 23:2). Shafaat read the Qur’an’s wording as a hesitation about the title; this website does not, and the matter is set out on the servant and messenger. ↩
In the Quran, Jesus is called the “Word” of God since he was created with the word “Be!” ↩
Messiah means the “anointed one.” It is used in the Quran exclusively as a title for Jesus Christ. ↩
Islam belongs to the same Abrahamic tradition as Judaism and Christianity, and Muslims hold Jesus to be the Messiah, a messenger of God anointed for his office. Muslims deny the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, doctrines that the church defined in the fourth century. The other difference between the two communities concerns the person of Muhammad, whom Muslims believe to be a messenger of God to all mankind and Christians do not. How these differences are weighed on this website is stated on the measure. ↩
Qur’an 3:42-46. In 3:44, the Qur’an introduces an intriguing note:

“This is part of the tidings of the things unseen which We reveal to thee by inspiration: Thou wast not with them when they cast lots with arrows, as to which of them should be charged with the care of Mary: Nor wast thou with them when they disputed the matter.”

In apocryphal Gospels, it is related that the priests contended for taking charge of Mary, and the matter was decided in favor of Zacharias by means of rods or reeds. The above Qur’anic verse is, however, not telling exactly the same story; for Mary was already in the charge of Zacharias (3:37). We may be tempted to regard the verse as having been displaced, but, conceptually, the only better place we can find for it is between 3:36 and 3:37; however, it does not fit there linguistically. It seems better to read the verse in its present context and to assume that Zacharias had died and the contention among the priests arose out of a search for a substitute. The priests’ interest in a religious, young, and beautiful girl is understandable: she could be a most desirable wife in the future for any one of them. ↩
Qur’an 43:59, 61. Jesus can be called “a knowledge of the Hour” in two senses:

a. He preached the imminence of the Hour, or the day of the Lord, and became one of the greatest instrument of establishing in the world the belief and knowledge about it, so that he is a knowledge of the Hour in the sense of being a source of that knowledge.

b. According to Hadith, Jesus’ Second Coming is one of the signs of the coming of the Hour, and thus when he returns the world will know that the Hour is at hand. We may therefore regard Jesus a knowledge of the Hour in the sense of being a sign for it. ↩
Qur’an 3:47; 19.20-21. ↩
According to Qur’an 21:91, God breathed into Mary through the angel Gabriel. Gabriel breathed into the sleeves of Mary’s garment, and so she conceived Jesus. ↩
This was the voice of baby Jesus. Some say it was Gabriel. ↩
lit., fast ˹from speech˺. Linguistically, means to abstain from something, such as food, speaking, and playing. ↩
His twin in virtue. They meant that they did not expect her to do something like that because they held her in high esteem like Aaron, Moses’ brother (perhaps because she was his descendant). ↩
Qur’an 19:22-29. ↩
Qur’an 3:50; 19:21, 30; 43:63. ↩

From the Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings and tells nothing of the birth. The stories of the infancy found under the name of Thomas belong to a different and later work, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. It keeps one saying that touches on the mother of Jesus:

Agrees Thomas 79. A woman calls blessed the womb that bore him. Jesus calls blessed those who hear the Father’s word and keep it. Days will come when people bless the womb that never bore. (Compare Luke 11:27-28.)¹⁵

Sayings that conflict with the Qur’an, and sayings that only repeat another, are listed with the reason for each on the page of sayings set aside.

From the Infancy Gospel of James

The Infancy Gospel of James tells of the birth and childhood of Mary. It is not scripture for Muslims or for most Christians. Its earliest manuscript is Papyrus Bodmer V, of the late third or early fourth century, and most scholars place the composition in the second century. Where it agrees with the Qur’an the item is marked green; where the Qur’an is silent it is marked blue; where the sense is uncertain it is marked gold. Summaries are this website’s own, from Mark M. Mattison’s public-domain translation at gospels.net.

Agrees James 11. While Mary spins purple thread an angel tells her she will conceive by the Lord’s word and bear a son who will be named Jesus.¹⁶
Beyond the measure James 13-16. Joseph, finding her with child, is troubled; an angel reassures him in a dream, and the priests test them both and clear them.¹⁷
Beyond the measure James 17-19. On the way to a census Joseph finds a cave, and Jesus is born there.¹⁸
Beyond the measure James 20. A midwife and Salome confirm the birth; Salome doubts Mary’s virginity, tests her, and has her hand healed.¹⁹

These books are weighed by the same measure as the gospels. Whether the Qur’an took its stories from them is answered on Did the Qur’an borrow its stories?

From the commentaries on 3:42-47, 19:16-33, 21:91, 23:50

What the classical commentators wrote on the verses this section rests on, each given in full and folded away until opened. The same texts, with the other passages, are on the classical commentaries.

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān (d. 310 AH / 923 CE), about 24,630 words

On 3:42

On the interpretation of His words: And when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42)

Abū Jaʿfar²⁰ said: By this He means, Majestic is His praise: And God is Hearing, Knowing, when the wife of ʿImrān said: My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, consecrated (3:34–35), and when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you.

The meaning of His words has chosen you is: He has selected you and elected you for His obedience and for the honour with which He has singled you out.

His words and purified you mean: He has purified your religion from the doubt and the defilements that are in the religions of the women of the children of Adam.

And chosen you above the women of the worlds: He means: He has selected you above the women of the worlds in your own time, by your obedience to Him, and so He has preferred you over them. As it is related from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: “The best of its women is Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid” – meaning by his words “the best of its women”, the best of the women of the people of Paradise.

(7026) al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣudāʾī related that to me: Muḥāḍir ibn al-Muwarriʿ related to us: Hishām ibn ʿUrwa related to us, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, who said: I heard ʿAlī in Iraq say: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: The best of its women is Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadīja.

(7027) Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: al-Mundhir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥizāmī related to me, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib: that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The best of the women of Paradise is Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of the women of Paradise is Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid.

(7028) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words And when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds: It was related to us that the Prophet of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: “Sufficient for you, among the women of the worlds, are Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, the wife of Pharaoh, Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭima the daughter of Muḥammad.” Qatādah said: It was related to us that the Prophet of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: “The best women who have ridden camels are the righteous women of Quraysh: the most tender of them towards a child in its infancy, and the most careful of them for a husband in what he possesses.” Qatādah said: And it was related to us that he used to say: “Had I known that Mary rode camels, I would not have preferred anyone over her.”

(7029) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds: He said: Abū Hurayra used to relate that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The best women who have ridden camels are the righteous women of Quraysh: the most tender of them towards a child, and the most careful of them for a husband in what he possesses.” Abū Hurayra said: And Mary never rode a camel.

(7030) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, concerning His words And when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds: He said: Thābit al-Bunānī used to relate, from Anas ibn Mālik: that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The best women of the worlds are four: Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiya the daughter of Muzāḥim the wife of Pharaoh, Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭima the daughter of Muḥammad.

(7031) al-Muthannā related to me: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to us: Shuʿba related to us: ʿAmr ibn Murra related to us, saying: I heard Murra al-Hamdānī relate, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Mary, Āsiya the wife of Pharaoh, Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭima the daughter of Muḥammad.

(7032) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū al-Aswad al-Miṣrī related to us: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, from ʿUmāra ibn Ghaziyya, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān: that Fāṭima the daughter of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī related to him: that Fāṭima the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) came in one day while I was with ʿĀʾisha, and he spoke to me privately, and I wept; then he spoke to me privately again, and I laughed. ʿĀʾisha asked me about that, and I said: You are in a hurry indeed! Am I to tell you the secret of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him)? So she left me alone. When the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) died, ʿĀʾisha asked her, and she said: Yes. He spoke to me privately and said: Gabriel used to review the Qurʾān with me once every year, and this year he has reviewed the Qurʾān with me twice; and there is no prophet but that he is given to live half the lifespan of the one who was before him, and my brother Jesus lived one hundred and twenty years, and this is my sixtieth, and I think that I shall die in this year of mine; and no woman among the women of the worlds has been afflicted with the like of what you will be afflicted with, so do not be less than any woman in patience! She said: So I wept. Then he said: You are the mistress of the women of the people of Paradise, except for Mary the Virgin (al-batūl). And he died that year.

(7033) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū al-Aswad related to us: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, from ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith, that Abū Ziyād al-Ḥimyarī related to him that he heard ʿAmmār ibn Saʿd say: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Khadīja has been preferred above the women of my community as Mary was preferred above the women of the worlds.

The like of what we have said about the meaning of His words and purified you – namely, that He has purified your religion from defilement and doubt – was said by Mujāhid.

(7034) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning the words of God God has chosen you and purified you: He said: He has made you good in faith.

(7035) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(7036) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, concerning and chosen you above the women of the worlds: He said: That is in respect of the worlds of that day.

The angels – according to what Ibn Isḥāq related – used to say this to Mary face to face.

(7037) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salama related to us: Ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: Mary was confined in the sanctuary (kanīsa), and with her in the sanctuary was a boy named Joseph, whose mother and father had made him a consecrated one, confined there; so they were in the sanctuary together. Whenever Mary’s water and Joseph’s water ran out, the two of them would take their two water-jars and set off for the open country where there was the water from which they drew their sweet water, and they would fill their two jars and then return to the sanctuary. The angels meanwhile would turn to Mary with: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds; and when Zachariah heard that, he would say: Truly the daughter of ʿImrān has some great matter in store!

On 3:43

On the interpretation of His words: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate, and bow with those who bow (3:43)

Abū Jaʿfar²¹ said: By His words, Majestic is His praise – reporting what His angels said to Mary – O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, He means: devote your obedience sincerely to your Lord alone.

We have already shown the meaning of “devout obedience” (qunūt), with its evidences, in what has gone before. The disagreement among the scholars of interpretation about it in this place is like their disagreement about it there. We shall mention the statements of some of them in this place also.

Some of them said: The meaning of be devoutly obedient is: prolong your standing still.

Those who said this

(7038) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Prolong your standing still – meaning qunūt.

(7039) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(7040) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, concerning be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Mujāhid said: Prolong your standing still in prayer – meaning qunūt.

(7041) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs related to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, who said: When it was said to her O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, she stood until her ankles swelled.

(7042) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs related to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, who said: When it was said to her O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, she stood until her feet swelled.

(7043) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us: al-Thawrī informed us, from Ibn Abī Laylā, from Mujāhid, concerning be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Prolong your standing still.

(7044) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Qunūt is standing still. He says: Stand for your Lord in prayer. He says: Stand still for your Lord, that is, stand upright for Him in prayer; and prostrate, and bow with those who bow.

(7045) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from Sufyān, from Layth, from Mujāhid, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: She used to pray until her feet swelled.

(7046) Ibn al-Barqī related to me: ʿAmr related to us: al-Awzāʿī related to us, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: She used to stand until the pus flowed from her feet.

Others said: Its meaning is: be sincere to your Lord.

Those who said this

(7047) al-Muthannā related to me: al-Ḥimmānī related to us: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, from Sharīk, from Sālim, from Saʿīd, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Be sincere to your Lord.

Others said: Its meaning is: obey your Lord.

Those who said this

(7048) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to me: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Obey your Lord.

(7049) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning be devoutly obedient to your Lord: Obey your Lord.

(7050) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb related to us: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, from Darrāj, from Abū al-Haytham, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: Every passage of the Qurʾān in which qunūt is mentioned, it means obedience to God.

(7051) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: He says: Worship your Lord.

Abū Jaʿfar said: We have also explained the meaning of “bowing” (rukūʿ) and “prostration” (sujūd), with the proofs that indicate its soundness, and that both mean humility before God and submission to Him through obedience and servitude.

The interpretation of the verse, then, is: O Mary, devote the worship of your Lord sincerely to His face alone, and humble yourself in obedience to Him and worship of Him together with those of His creatures who humble themselves before Him, in gratitude to Him for the honour He has bestowed upon you of being chosen, of being purified from defilements, and of being preferred above the women of the world of your age.

On 3:44

On the interpretation of His words: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, Majestic is His praise, “That”, He means the reports with which He informed His servants concerning the wife of ʿImrān and her daughter Mary, and Zachariah and his son John, and all the rest of what He related in the verses from His words Indeed God chose Adam and Noah (3:33). Then He, Exalted be His mention, gathered all of that together with His word “That”, and said: these tidings are “of the tidings of the unseen”, that is, of the reports of the unseen.

By “the unseen” He means that they are among the hidden reports of those people, of which neither you, O Muḥammad, nor your people had any knowledge, and which none knew save a few of the learned men (aḥbār) of the people of the two Scriptures and their monks.

Then He, Exalted be His mention, informed His Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) that He revealed that to him, as a proof of his prophethood, a confirmation of his truthfulness, and a cutting-off by it of the excuse of those who denied his message among the unbelievers of the people of the two Scriptures, who know that Muḥammad could not have attained knowledge of these tidings, hidden as they were, nor arrived at acquaintance with them, obscure as they were even among their own people, except by God’s making them known to him; since it was known to them that Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was unlettered: he did not write, so as to read books and thereby arrive at knowledge of that from books, nor did he keep company with the people of the Scriptures so as to take his knowledge from them.

As for “the unseen” (al-ghayb), it is a verbal noun from the expression “So-and-so was absent (ghāba) from such a thing; he is absent from it, ghayban and ghaybatan“.

As for His words “which We reveal to you”, their interpretation is: which We send down to you.

The root sense of “revealing” (al-īḥāʾ) is the casting of something by the one who reveals to the one to whom it is revealed. That may take place by writing, by a sign, by a gesture, by inspiration, and by a message, as He said, Majestic is His praise: And your Lord revealed to the bee (16:68), meaning: He cast that to it and so inspired it; and as He said: And when I revealed to the disciples (5:111), meaning: I cast knowledge of that to them by inspiration; and as the rajaz poet said:²²

He revealed to it its fixity, and it stood fixed.

meaning: He cast that to it as a command; and as He said, Majestic is His praise: So he revealed to them that they should glorify morning and evening (19:11), meaning: he cast that to them by gesture. The root sense in it is what I have described, the casting of that to them. His casting of it to them may be by gesture, and it may be by writing. Of this is His word: And indeed the devils reveal to their friends (6:121): they cast that to them by whispering; and His word: And this Qurʾān has been revealed to me that I may warn you by it and whomever it reaches (6:19): it was cast to me through Gabriel’s (peace be upon him) coming with it to me from God, Mighty and Majestic.

As for “revelation” (al-waḥy), it is that which falls from the one who reveals to the one to whom it is revealed, and for this reason the Arabs called script and writing waḥy, because it falls upon what is written and remains fixed in it, as Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr said:

Odes from him have reached the foreigners and the horizons, / enduring as the waḥy endures in the deaf rock.

By which he means: the writing fixed in the rock. It may be said of writing in particular, when the writer writes it, waḥā without the alif; of this is the saying of Ruʾbah:

As though it were, after the winds that overwhelm it / and the persistent, long-settled rains that batter it, / the gospel of learned men, which its illuminator inscribed (waḥā).

On the interpretation of His words: and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary (3:44)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, Majestic is His praise, “and you were not with them”, He means: you were not, O Muḥammad, in their presence so as to know what We teach you of their reports which you did not witness; rather, you know that and attain acquaintance with it only through Our making it known to you.

The meaning of His words “with them” (ladayhim) is: in their presence (ʿindahum).

The meaning of His words “when they cast” is: at the time they cast their pens.

As for “their pens”, they are their arrows with which those of the Children of Israel who drew lots drew their lots over the guardianship of Mary, as we have explained previously regarding His words “and Zachariah took charge of her” (3:37).

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

(7052) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Hishām ibn ʿAmr related to us, from Saʿīd, from Qatādah, concerning His words “and you were not with them”: He means Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

(7053) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: “they cast their pens”: Zachariah and his companions drew lots with their pens over Mary when she was brought in to them.

(7054) Al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(7055) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, regarding His words “and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, and you were not with them when they disputed”: Mary was the daughter of their leader (imām) and their chief, so the Children of Israel contended with one another over her and cast lots over her with their arrows as to which of them should take charge of her, and Zachariah won the lot over them; he was the husband of her sister,²³ “and Zachariah took charge of her” (3:37): He says, he took her into his care.

(7056) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “they cast their pens”: he said, they drew lots over Mary as to which of them should take charge of her, and Zachariah won the lot over them.

(7057) Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, regarding His words “and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary”: When Mary was placed in the sanctuary (masjid), the people of the place of prayer cast lots over her, and they were the ones who wrote down the revelation (waḥy); so they cast lots with their pens as to which of them should take charge of her. And God, Mighty and Majestic, said to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): “and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, and you were not with them when they disputed”.

(7058) I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say, concerning His words “when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary”: they cast lots with their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, and Zachariah won the lot over them.

(7059) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to us: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words “and you were not with them when they cast their pens”: he said, when they cast lots over Mary; and that was unseen by Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) until God informed him of it.

It was said “which of them should take charge of Mary” only because the casting of their pens by those who drew lots over Mary was so that they might see which of them was most entitled to her guardianship and had the best right to it. So in His words, Mighty and Majestic, “when they cast their pens”, there is an indication of something elided from the speech, namely: “so that they might see which of them should take charge of her, and that they might ascertain that and know it”.

If anyone supposes that the required case for “which of them” (ayyuhum) is the accusative, since that is its meaning, he supposes wrongly. That is because “seeing”, “ascertaining” and “knowing” together with ayy (“which”) require a question and an inquiry, and the due of ayy in an inquiry is to stand at the head of its clause, and for the governance of the verb of asking and inquiring upon it to be nullified. For the meaning of the speaker’s saying “I shall surely see which of them stood” is “I shall surely inquire of people: which of them stood?”, and likewise their saying “I shall surely know”.

We have shown previously that the meaning of “take charge of” (yakful) is “take into one’s care”, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

On the interpretation of His words: and you were not with them when they disputed (3:44)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: you were not, O Muḥammad, in the presence of Mary’s people when they disputed over her as to which of them had the best right to her and was most entitled to her.

This, coming from God, Mighty and Majestic, although it is an address to His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), is a rebuke from Him, Mighty and Majestic, to those of the people of the two Scriptures who denied him. He says: how can the people of unbelief among them doubt you, when you tell them these tidings though you did not witness them, and were not with them on the day they did these things, and are not one who read the books and so learned their story, nor one who sat with the people of those books and so heard their report?

As in:

(7060) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “and you were not with them when they disputed”, that is: you were not with them when they disputed over her. He informs him of the hidden part of the knowledge which they possessed and concealed, in confirmation of his prophethood and as a proof against them by what he brought them of what they had concealed.

On the interpretation of His words: When the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, Majestic is His praise, “When the angels said”, He means: you were not with them when they disputed, nor were you with them when the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings.

“Giving glad tidings” (al-tabshīr) is informing a person of news that gladdens him.

His words “of a Word from Him” mean: of a message from God and a report from Him. It is from the saying of the speaker, “So-and-so cast to me a word with which he gladdened me”, meaning: he told me news at which I rejoiced; as He said, Majestic is His praise: and His Word which He cast to Mary (4:171), meaning God’s glad tidings to Mary of Jesus, which He cast to her.

So the interpretation of the speech is: you were not, O Muḥammad, in the presence of those people when the angels said to Mary: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of good news from Him, namely a son of yours whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary.

Some people have said (and it is the view of Qatādah) that the “Word” of which God, Mighty and Majestic, said “of a Word from Him”, is His saying “Be”.

(7061) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related that to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “of a Word from Him”: he said, His saying “Be”.

God, Mighty and Majestic, named him “His Word” because he came about by His Word, just as it is said of a thing that God has decreed, “this is God’s decree and His ordinance”, meaning: this came about by God’s decree and His ordinance; and as He said, Majestic is His praise: and God’s command is ever carried out (4:47; 33:37), meaning by it what God commanded, namely the thing commanded which came about by the command of God, Mighty and Majestic.

Others said: rather, it is a name of Jesus by which God named him, just as He named the rest of His creatures with whatever names He willed.

It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with him) that he said: the “Word” is Jesus.

(7062) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words “When the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him”: he said, Jesus is the Word from God.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The view closest to the correct one, in my opinion, is the first: that the angels gave Mary glad tidings of Jesus on behalf of God, Mighty and Majestic, by His message and His Word which He commanded them to cast to her, namely that God would create from her a son without a husband or a male. For this reason He, Mighty and Majestic, said “whose name (ismuhu) is the Messiah”, using the masculine, and did not say “her name (ismuhā)” with the feminine, although “Word” (kalimah) is feminine; because what is intended by “Word” is not the sense of a name in the sense of “so-and-so”, but rather it carries the meaning of the glad tidings, and so its pronoun was made masculine, just as the pronoun of “offspring” (dhurriyyah), “beast” (dābbah) and of epithets is made masculine, as we have explained before in what has gone by.

So the interpretation of that is as we said just now: that its meaning is “God gives you glad tidings of good news”, and then He made clear concerning the good news that it is a son whose name is the Messiah.

One of the grammarians of Baṣrah has claimed that He used the masculine, saying “whose name is the Messiah”, though He had said “of a Word from Him” (and “the Word”, in his view, is Jesus), only because in meaning it is so; just as He said, Majestic is His praise: lest a soul should say: Alas for me, and then said Nay, My signs came to you, and you denied them (39:56-59); and just as one says Dhū al-Thudayyah (“the one with the little breast”),²⁴ because his hand was short and close to his breasts, so that they treated it as though its name were thadyah; were it not for that, the hāʾ would not have entered into the diminutive.

One of the grammarians of Kūfah said something like the view of the one we have mentioned among the grammarians of Baṣrah, in that the hāʾ refers to “the Word”; but he differed from him as to the reason for which He used the masculine in His word “whose name” when “the Word” precedes it. He claimed that He said “whose name (ismuhu)”, though “the Word” had already been put first, and did not say “her name (ismuhā)”, because it is the practice of the Arabs to do this with descriptive terms, epithets and names which were not coined to identify the one named by them, as “so-and-so” and “so-and-so” are; such are “offspring” (dhurriyyah), “successor” (khalīfah) and “beast” (dābbah). For this reason it is permissible in his view to say dhurriyyah ṭayyibah (“goodly offspring”, with the feminine) and dhurriyyah ṭayyiban (with the masculine), while it is not permissible to say “Ṭalḥah came” or “Mughīrah stood” with feminine verbs.

Some of them rejected the argument of those who argued in this matter from Dhū al-Thudayyah, and said: the hāʾ was introduced into Dhū al-Thudayyah only because what was meant by it was a piece of the breast, just as one says “we were at a piece of meat (laḥmah) and a draught of date-wine (nabīdhah)”, meaning a portion of it. This view is close to our own view which we have stated on this matter.

As for His words “whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary”, by them He, Majestic is His praise, informed His servants of the lineage of Jesus, and that he is the son of his mother Mary, and thereby denied of him what those of the Christians who deviate concerning God, Majestic is His praise, ascribed to him when they attributed his sonship to God, Mighty and Majestic, and the charge with which the slandering party among the Jews accused his mother; as in:

(7063) Ibn Ḥumayd related it to me: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “When the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world and the Hereafter, and of those brought near”, that is: thus was his affair, not what they say about him.

As for “the Messiah” (al-Masīḥ), it is of the pattern faʿīl, transformed from mafʿūl into faʿīl; it is in fact mamsūḥ (“wiped over”), meaning: God wiped over him and so purified him from sins. For this reason Ibrāhīm said: “the Messiah” is the truthful one (al-ṣiddīq) …²⁵

(7064) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Sufyān, from Manṣūr, from Ibrāhīm, the like of it.

(7065) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, from Sufyān, from Manṣūr, from Ibrāhīm, the like of it.

Others said: he was wiped over (musiḥa) with blessing.

(7066) Ibn al-Barqī related to us: ʿAmr ibn Abī Salamah related to us, he said: Saʿīd said: He was called “the Messiah” only because he was wiped over with blessing.

On 3:45

On the interpretation of His words: eminent in this world and the Hereafter, and of those brought near (3:45)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His word “eminent” (wajīhan) He means: possessed of standing (wajh) and lofty rank with God, and of honour and nobility. From this a man who is noble, and whom kings and people hold in esteem, is called wajīh; one says of it: “So-and-so was not wajīh, but now he has become eminent (wajuha) with eminence (wajāhah)”, and “he has indeed standing (wajh) with the ruler, jāh and wajāhah“. Jāh is a transposed form: its wāw was shifted from the beginning of the word to the position of its second radical, and so one says jāh, though it is in fact wajh; and the verb formed from jāh is jāha yajūhu. It is heard from the Arabs: “I fear that he will yajūhunī with more than this”, meaning: that he will confront me to my face with something greater than it.

As for the accusative of “eminent”, it is on account of the “cutting-off” (qaṭʿ)²⁶ from “Jesus”, because “Jesus” is definite and “eminent” is indefinite, and it is a description of him. Had it been in the genitive, in agreement with “a Word”, that would have been permissible.

With what we have said, namely that its interpretation is “eminent in this world and the Hereafter with God”, Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar agreed, according to what has reached us.

(7067) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “eminent”, he said: eminent in this world and the Hereafter with God.

As for His words “and of those brought near”, He means that he is among those whom God will bring near on the Day of Resurrection, settling him in His vicinity and drawing him close to Himself; as in:

(7068) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, regarding His words “and of those brought near”: He says, among those brought near to God on the Day of Resurrection.

(7069) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, who said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, regarding His words “and of those brought near”: He says, among those brought near to God on the Day of Resurrection.

(7070) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, the like of it.

On 3:46

On the interpretation of His words: and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous (3:46)

Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle”, their meaning is: God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent with God and speaking to people in the cradle.

So “he will speak” (yukallimu), although it is in the indicative, since it has the form of yafʿalu free from any governing particle acting upon it, is in the position of the accusative; it is analogous to the saying of the poet:

I passed the night feeding them their evening meal with a keen, cutting blade / that strikes true among their shanks, or strikes astray.

As for “the cradle” (al-mahd), by it He means the resting-place of the infant during his suckling; as in:

(7071) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: “and he will speak to people in the cradle”, he said: the resting-place of the infant during his suckling.

As for His word “and in maturity” (kahlan), it means: and grown to full manhood, beyond boyhood and short of old age; one says of it “a mature man (rajul kahl)” and “a mature woman (imraʾah kahlah)”, as the rajaz poet said:²⁷

And never after this will I be a hirer-out of camels, / handling the mature woman and the boy.

What He, Majestic is His praise, meant by His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity” is: he will speak to people as an infant in the cradle, as a proof of his mother’s innocence of that with which the slanderers charged her and as an evidence for him of his prophethood, and as a grown adult after reaching full manhood, by the revelation of God which He reveals to him, and His command and His prohibition, and what He sends down upon him of His Book.

God, Mighty and Majestic, informed His servants of this concerning the affair of the Messiah, and that he was indeed so, even though what generally holds of people is that they speak as mature men and old men, as an argument thereby against those of the people of unbelief in God among the Christians who say falsehood about him: that he was, from the time He brought him into being, a newborn infant and then a mature man, passing through successive states and changing with the passage of times and days over him, from smallness to bigness and from one condition to another; and that, had he been as the deviants say of him, that would not have been possible for him. By this He gave the lie to what the delegation from the people of Najrān said, who disputed with the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) about him; He argued thereby against them on behalf of His Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and informed them that he was like the rest of the children of Adam, save for the honour by which God singled him out and distinguished him from them; as in:

(7072) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous”: He informs them of the states through which he would pass in his lifetime, as the children of Adam pass through their lifetimes, small and grown, except that God singled him out with speech in his cradle as a sign of his prophethood and to make known to His servants the workings of His power.

(7073) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous”: He says, he will speak to them as a small child and as a grown man.

(7074) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ: “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity”, he said: he will speak to them as a small child and as a grown man.

(7075) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: “and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous”, he said: the mature man (kahl) is the forbearing one (ḥalīm).

(7076) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: he spoke to them as a small child, as a grown man, and in maturity. And Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said: the mature man is the forbearing one.

(7077) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity”, he said: he spoke to them in the cradle as a babe, and he spoke to them as a grown man.

Others said: the meaning of His word “and in maturity” is that he will speak to them when he appears.

Those who said this

(7078) Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: I heard him, meaning Ibn Zayd, say concerning His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity”: Jesus has already spoken to them in the cradle, and he will speak to them when he kills the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl), and on that day he will be a mature man.

“In maturity” (kahlan) is in the accusative by coordination with the position of “and he will speak to people”.

As for His words “and he will be of the righteous”, He means: of their number and of their allies, because the people of righteousness are of one another in religion and merit.

On 3:47

On the interpretation of His words: She said: My Lord, how shall I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: Thus does God create what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: Be, and it is (3:47)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: Mary said, when the angels said to her that God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, “My Lord, how shall I have a son”: from what quarter shall I have a son? Is it through a husband whom I marry and a spouse whom I wed, or will You originate his creation in me without a husband or a male, and without any man touching me? So God said to her: “Thus does God create what He wills”, meaning: thus does God create from you a son of yours without any man touching you, and He makes him a sign for people and a lesson; for He creates what He wills and does what He intends, and He gives a child to whom He wills, without a male and through a male, and withholds that from whom He wills among women, even though she have a husband; because the creation of anything He intends to create is not difficult for Him. It is only that He commands, when He intends something whose creation He intends, and says to it: “Be, and it is”, whatever He wills, of whatever He wills, and however He wills; as in:

(7079) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “She said: My Lord, how shall I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: Thus does God create what He wills”: He does what He intends and creates what He wills, from a human or from other than a human; “When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: Be”, of whatever He wills and however He wills, “and it is”, what He intended.

On 19:16-17

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: And mention in the Book Mary, when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, (16) and took a screen apart from them. Then We sent to her Our Spirit, and he appeared to her as a well-formed human being (17) (19:16–17)

He, Exalted be His mention, says to His Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): And mention, O Muḥammad, in the Book of God which He sent down to you with the truth, Mary daughter of ʿImrān, when she went apart from her people and secluded herself from them. It (intabadhat) is the iftaʿala form from nabdh, and nabdh means casting away; we have already explained that, with its evidential citations, previously.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words And mention in the Book Mary, when she withdrew, that is: she secluded herself from her people.

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me: Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt related to us: Abū Kudaynah related to us, from Qābūs, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās: when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, he said: she went out to an eastern place.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: Mary went out to the side of the sanctuary (miḥrāb) because of a menstruation that had come upon her, and that is His words “and she withdrew from her people to an eastern place”: in the eastern part of the sanctuary.

His words to an eastern place: He says: she moved away and went apart from her people to a spot towards the rising of the sun rather than its setting.

As in:

al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words an eastern place, he said: towards the east.

Isḥāq ibn Shāhīn related to me: Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, from Dāwūd, from ʿĀmir, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: I am indeed the one of God’s creatures who knows best why the Christians took the east as their direction of prayer (qibla): it is because of God’s words “and she withdrew from her people to an eastern place”; so they took the birthplace of Jesus as their direction of prayer.

Ibn al-Muthannā related to us: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me: Dāwūd related to us, from ʿĀmir, from Ibn ʿAbbās, the like of it.

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me: Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt informed us: Abū Kudaynah related to us, from Qābūs, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Prayer towards the House and pilgrimage to God were prescribed for the People of the Book, and nothing turned them away from these two except their interpretation of your Lord’s words when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place; so they prayed towards the rising-place of the sun.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, he said: far off and set apart.

It was said that she went to a place adjoining the rising of the sun only because what lies towards the east was, in their view, better than what lies towards the west; and so too is this, according to what is reported, among the Arabs.

His words and took a screen apart from them: He says: she took, apart from her people, a covering that would screen her from them and from the people. It is reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that she went to a place adjoining the east because God shaded her with the sun and made of it a screen for her.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, he said: a place where the sun shaded her, so that none of them should see her.

Others said about it what:

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: and took a screen apart from them: of walls.

His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit: He, Exalted be His mention, says: Then We sent to her, when she had withdrawn from her people to an eastern place and taken a screen apart from them, Gabriel.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit, he said: He sent to her, according to what has been related to us, Gabriel.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one whom he did not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: She found with her Gabriel, whom God had given the likeness of a well-formed human being.

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit, he said: Gabriel.

Muḥammad ibn Sahl related to me: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil, the nephew of Wahb, related to me, saying: I heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say: God sent Gabriel to Mary, and he appeared to her as a well-formed human being.

Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: When she became pure, meaning Mary, from her menstruation, there was a man with her; and that is His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit, and he appeared to her as a well-formed human being. He, Exalted be His mention, says: he took on for her the likeness of a human being of sound form among them, meaning in the form of a man of the sons of Adam, of well-proportioned build.

On 19:18-19

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: She said: I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing. (18) He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to bestow on you a pure boy (19) (19:18–19)

He, Exalted be His mention, says: Mary was afraid of Our messenger when he appeared to her as a well-formed human being, and she thought him a man who desired her for himself.

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, concerning His words I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing, he said: She feared that he only desired her for himself.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: and he appeared to her as a well-formed human being: when she saw him she was frightened of him and said I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing.

So she said: I take refuge, O man, in the All-Merciful from you; she means: I seek protection in the All-Merciful from you, lest you obtain from me what He has forbidden to you, if you are one who fears Him, who guards against what He has made inviolable and avoids disobedience to Him; for whoever is God-fearing avoids that. And if this were construed as her meaning: I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you fear God with respect to my seeking protection and refuge in Him from you, that would be a sound construction.

As in:

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one whom he did not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: She said: I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing, she supposing him to be nothing other than a man of the sons of Adam.

Abū Kurayb related to us: Abū Bakr related to us, from ʿĀṣim, who said: Ibn Zayd said, and he mentioned the story of Mary, and said: She knew that the God-fearing man is a man of restraint when she said I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing. He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord. He, Exalted be His mention, says: So Our Spirit said to her: I am only a messenger of your Lord, O Mary; He has sent me to you to bestow on you a pure boy.

The reciters differed in the reading of this. The generality of the reciters of the Ḥijāz and Iraq, other than Abū ʿAmr, read it li-ahaba laki (“that I may bestow on you”), with the meaning: I am only a messenger of your Lord; he says: He has sent me to you that I may bestow on you a pure boy, as a report of his words. Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ read it li-yahaba laki ghulāman zakiyyan (“that He may bestow on you a pure boy”), with the meaning: I am only a messenger of your Lord; He has sent me to you that God may bestow on you a pure boy.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct reading in this is that upon which the reciters of the garrison cities agree, which is li-ahaba laki, with the alif rather than the yāʾ, because it is so in the codices (maṣāḥif) of the Muslims, and upon it is the reading of their early and their later ones, apart from Abū ʿAmr; and it is not permissible to oppose them in what they have agreed upon, nor is it allowable for anyone to oppose their codices. The “pure” boy is one who is pure of sins; and so the Arabs say ghulām zākin and zakiyy, and ʿālin and ʿaliyy.

On 19:20-23

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: She said: How can I have a boy, when no human being has touched me, and I have not been unchaste? (20) He said: Thus said your Lord: It is easy for Me; and that We may make him a sign for mankind and a mercy from Us; and it is a matter decreed (21) (19:20–21)

He, Exalted be His mention, says: Mary said to Gabriel How can I have a boy: from what quarter shall I have a boy? Is it from a husband whom I marry, so that I am granted him from him, or will God originate his creation in me from nothing? when no human being has touched me of the children of Adam by lawful marriage, and I have not been, since none of them has touched me in the lawful way, unchaste: I have not acted unchastely and done that in the unlawful way, so as to have conceived him by fornication.

As in:

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: and I have not been unchaste, he says: a fornicatress. He said: Thus said your Lord: It is easy for Me: He, Exalted be His mention, says: Gabriel said to her: The matter is thus, as you describe, in that no human being has touched you and you have not been unchaste; but your Lord has said: It is easy for Me, that is: the creation of the boy whom I said I would bestow upon you is easy for Me; his creation, and his bestowal upon you without a male to impregnate you, is not difficult for Me.

and that We may make him a sign for mankind: He says: and so that We may make the boy whom We bestow upon you a token and a proof against My creatures, I bestow him upon you. and a mercy from Us: He says: and as a mercy from Us to you and to whoever believes in him and affirms him, I create him from you. and it is a matter decreed: He says: and his creation from you was a matter which God had decreed, and which had passed in His judgement and His prior knowledge, that it would come to be from you.

As in:

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: one whom I do not suspect related to me, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: and it is a matter decreed, that is: God has resolved upon that, so there is no escaping it.

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a far-off place. (22) Then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm-tree. She said: Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind! (23) (19:22–23)

In this speech there is something left out, omitted from mention because what is mentioned of it suffices to indicate it: “So We breathed into her of Our Spirit, with a boy, so she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a far-off place.” And so the interpretation of the people of interpretation has come.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn Sahl related to me: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil, the nephew of Wahb ibn Munabbih, related to me, saying: I heard Wahb say: When God sent Gabriel to Mary, he appeared to her as a well-formed human being, and she said to him I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing; then he breathed into the neck-opening of her shift, until the breath reached the womb, and she conceived.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one whom he did not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih al-Yamānī, who said: When he said that, meaning when Gabriel said He said: Thus said your Lord: It is easy for Me, to the end of the verse, she submitted to the command of God, and he breathed into the opening of her garment, then departed from her.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: She threw her outer wrap over herself when Gabriel said that to her, and Gabriel took hold of her two sleeves and breathed into the neck-opening of her shift, which was slit at the front; the breath entered her breast and she conceived. Then her sister, the wife of Zachariah, came to her one night to visit her, and when she opened the door to her she embraced her, and the wife of Zachariah said: “O Mary, do you know that I am pregnant?” Mary said: “And do you know that I too am pregnant?” The wife of Zachariah said: “I find that what is in my belly prostrates to what is in your belly.” And that is His words confirming a word from God (3:39).

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, who said: Ibn Jurayj said: They say that he breathed only into the neck-opening of her shift and her sleeve.

His words and withdrew with him to a far-off place: He says: she went apart with the one she had conceived, namely Jesus, and withdrew with him from the people to a far-off place; He says: a remote place, distant from the people. One says: he is in a place that is qāṣin, and qaṣiyy, with one and the same meaning, as the rajaz-poet²⁸ said:

You shall surely sit in the seat of one far removed

from me, a man of foul ways, detested.

From it one says qaṣā al-makānu yaqṣū quṣuwwan, when it is far off; and aqṣaytu al-shayʾa, when you have put a thing far away and set it back.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and withdrew with him to a far-off place, he said: a remote place.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning His words a far-off place, he said: distant.

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: When the time came for Mary to give birth, she went out to the eastern side of the sanctuary and came to its furthest part.

His words Then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm-tree: He, Exalted be His mention, says: the labour pains brought her to the trunk of the palm-tree. Then it was said that when the bāʾ was dropped from it, it became ajāʾahā, just as one says ataytuka bi-Zayd (“I came to you with Zayd”), and when you drop the bāʾ it is said ātaytuka Zaydan (“I brought you Zayd”), as He, Majestic is His praise, said Bring me pieces of iron (18:96), the meaning being “come to me with pieces of iron”, except that the alif was lengthened when the bāʾ was dropped; and as they said kharajtu bihi and akhrajtuhu (“I went out with it” and “I brought it out”), and dhahabtu bihi and adhhabtuhu (“I went off with it” and “I took it away”). It is simply the afʿala form from majīʾ (coming), as one says jāʾa huwa (“he came”) and ajaʾtuhu anā (“I made him come”), that is, I brought him. Among the proverbs of the Arabs is: “It is an evil thing that has driven me (ajāʾanī) to the marrow of a hock”,²⁹ and also ashāʾa; it is said: “an evil thing it is that drives you (yujīʾuka) and forces you (yushīʾuka) to that”; and from this is the saying of Zuhayr:³⁰

And many a protégé who journeyed, making straight for you,

whom fear and hope together drove on.

He means: brought him, and drove him to us. Ashāʾaka is of the dialect of Tamīm, and ajāʾaka of the dialect of the people of al-ʿĀliyah.³¹ Those who interpreted it with the meaning “compelled her” (aljaʾahā) did so only because when the labour pains brought her to the trunk of the palm-tree, they had thereby compelled her to it.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, who said: the labour pains compelled her. Ibn Jurayj said: And Ibn ʿAbbās said: the labour pains compelled her to the trunk of the palm-tree.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: Then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm-tree, he says: the labour pains compelled her to the trunk of the palm-tree.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words Then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm-tree, he said: they forced her to the trunk of the palm-tree.

They differed as to which was the place to which Mary withdrew with Jesus to give birth to him, and to which the labour pains drove her.

Some of them said: That was in the nearest part of the land of Egypt and the furthest part of the land of Syria; for she fled from her people when she conceived and set out towards Egypt, fleeing from them.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn Sahl related to us: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me that he heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say: When Mary conceived, there was with her a kinsman of hers called Joseph the Carpenter, and the two of them used to go to the temple which is by Mount Zion; that temple was in those days among the greatest of their places of worship. Mary and Joseph used to serve in that temple at that time, and its service carried great merit, so they were eager for it, and they used to undertake its upkeep with their own hands: its adornment, its sweeping and its purification, and every work that was done in it; and none of the people of their time worked more strenuously or more devoutly than those two. The first to notice Mary’s pregnancy was her companion Joseph. When he saw what was with her he found it monstrous; it weighed heavily upon him and he was appalled by it, and he did not know on what footing to place her affair. Whenever Joseph wished to suspect her, he remembered her righteousness and her innocence, and that she had never been absent from him for a single hour; and whenever he wished to acquit her, he saw what had appeared upon her. When this became too hard for him he spoke to her, and the first of his speech to her was that he said to her: “There has arisen in my mind concerning you a matter which I have feared; I have been anxious to kill it and conceal it within myself, but it has overcome me, and I have found that speaking of it is more healing for my breast.” She said: “Then say a fair word.” He said: “I would say to you nothing but that. So tell me: does a crop grow without seed?” She said: “Yes.” He said: “Does a tree grow without rain falling upon it?” She said: “Yes.” He said: “Can there be a child without a male?” She said: “Yes. Do you not know that God, Blessed and Exalted, made the crop grow on the day He created it without seed, and that seed on that day came only from the crop which God had made grow without seed? Or do you not know that God by His power made the trees grow without rain, and that by that same power He made rain the life of the trees after He had created each one of them separately? Or do you say that God was not able to make the trees grow until He sought the help of water for it, and that had it not been for that He would not have been able to make them grow?” Joseph said to her: “I do not say this; but I know that God, Blessed and Exalted, by His power over whatever He wills, says to it ‘Be’, and it is.” Mary said: “Or do you not know that God, Blessed and Exalted, created Adam and his wife without female or male?” He said: “Indeed yes.” When she said that to him, it fell into his mind that what was with her was something from God, Blessed and Exalted, and that it was not for him to question her about it, because of what he saw of her keeping it concealed. Then Joseph took over the service of the temple and spared her every work she used to do in it, because of what he saw of the thinness of her body, the yellowness of her complexion, the blotching of her face, the swelling of her belly, the weakness of her strength and the constant fixedness of her gaze; and Mary had not been like that before. When her confinement drew near, God revealed to her: Go out from the land of your people, for if they lay hold of you they will reproach you and kill your child. So she confided that to her sister, and her sister at that time was pregnant, having been given the glad tidings of John; and when the two met, the mother of John felt what was in her belly fall down upon its face in prostration, acknowledging Jesus. So Joseph carried her towards the land of Egypt on a donkey of his, there being nothing between her, when she mounted, and the pack-saddle. Joseph went on with her until, when he was on the border of the land of Egypt, at the furthest limit of the country of her people, the birth-pangs overtook Mary and compelled her to a donkey’s manger, meaning the donkey’s feeding-trough, and the foot of a palm-tree; and that was in a season which, I think, was cold, or hot (the doubt is from Abū Jaʿfar). The labour pains became severe for Mary, and when she felt their severity she took refuge at the palm-tree and clasped it, and the angels surrounded her, standing in rows encircling her.

Another opinion, other than this, has been related from Wahb ibn Munabbih, namely what:

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one whom he did not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: When her delivery drew near, meaning Mary, and she felt what a woman feels of the pangs of labour, she went out of the city, departing from Aelia,³² so that the birth should overtake her at a village six miles from Aelia called Bethlehem; and the labour pains drove her to the foot of a palm-tree, beside which was a cow’s manger, and beneath it a spring of water; and she gave birth to him there.

Others said: Rather, when the time came for her to deliver what was in her belly, she went out to the eastern side of the sanctuary and came to its furthest part, and the labour pains compelled her to the trunk of the palm-tree. That is the opinion of al-Suddī, and I have already mentioned the report of it before.

Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah related to me: Ḥajjāj related to us, who said: Ibn Jurayj said: al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUthmān informed me, saying: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās say: It was nothing but that she conceived and gave birth.

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: And al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed me that he heard Ibn ʿAbbās say: It was no more than that she conceived and gave birth.

His words Would that I had died before this: It is mentioned that she said that while in the pangs of labour, out of shame before the people.

As in:

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: She said, while in the pangs of labour from the pregnancy, out of shame before the people: Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind!

She says: would that I had died before this distress in which I am, and the grief of my giving birth to a child without a husband, and been a thing forgotten, out of mind (nasyan mansiyyan): something forgotten, the seeking of which has been abandoned, like the menstrual rags which, once thrown away and discarded, are neither sought nor remembered; and likewise everything that is forgotten and abandoned and not sought is a nasy. Nasy, with fatḥa on the nūn and with kasra, are two well-known dialectal forms among the dialects of the Arabs with a single meaning, like watr and witr, and jasr and jisr; and whichever of the two the reciter reads, he is correct in our view. With kasra the generality of the reciters of the Ḥijāz, Medina and Baṣra, and some of the people of Kūfa, read it; and with fatḥa the people of Kūfa read it. From this is the saying of the poet:³³

As though she had upon the ground some forgotten thing she was tracking

whenever she went forth in the morning; and if she speaks to you, she speaks fair and true.

By his saying taquṣṣuhu he means: she seeks it, because she had forgotten it until it was lost, then remembered it and sought it; and by his saying tablit he means: she speaks well and truthfully. And if nasy were construed as the verbal noun of nisyān (forgetting), that would be correct, because the Arabs, according to what is reported of them, say nasītuhu nisyānan and nasyan, just as one of them said “of obedience to the Lord and disobedience (ʿaṣy) of Satan”, meaning ʿiṣyān; and as you say ataytuhu ityānan and atyan, as the poet said:

The committing of abominations among them is a thing well known,

while they deem the doing of noble deeds forbidden.

His words out of mind (mansiyyan): a passive participle from nasītu al-shayʾa (“I forgot the thing”); it is as if she said: Would that I were the thing that is cast away, abandoned and forgotten.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī informed me, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind: I had not been created, and had not been anything.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: and been a thing forgotten, out of mind, he says: nasyan: my mention forgotten; and mansiyyan, she says: my trace forgotten, so that neither trace nor substance of me is seen.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: and been a thing forgotten, out of mind: that is, something neither known nor remembered.

al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words and been a thing forgotten, out of mind, he said: I not being known, nor it being known who I am.

al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Abū Jaʿfar, from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas: a thing forgotten, out of mind, he said: it is the miscarried foetus.

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind: I had never been anything on the earth at all.

On 19:24-25

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: Then he called to her from beneath her: Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a stream. (24) And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh, ripe dates. (25) (19:24-25)

The reciters differed over the reading of this. The generality of the reciters of the Ḥijāz and Iraq read it fa-nādāhā min taḥtihā, then he called to her from beneath her, meaning: then Gabriel called to her from in front of her, though they differed among themselves in its interpretation: some of them, when reading it min taḥtihā in that way, interpreted it thus, while some of them interpreted it to mean that it was Jesus, and that he called to her from beneath her after she had given birth to him. Some of the reciters of Kufa and Basra read it fa-nādāhā man taḥtahā, with the vowel a on both tāʾs of taḥt,³⁴ meaning: then the one who was beneath her called to her, on the basis that the one beneath her was Jesus, and that it was he who called to his mother.

Those who said: the one who called to her from beneath her was the angel

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us, who said: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās recite then he called to her from beneath her, meaning: Gabriel.

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Yūnus related to me: ʿAbthar informed us: Ḥuṣayn related to us, from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn al-Awdī, who said: The one who called to her was the angel.

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū Aḥmad related to us: Sufyān related to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, from ʿAlqamah, that he recited: then he addressed her from beneath her (fa-khāṭabahā min taḥtihā).

Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī related to us: Yaḥyā related to us: Sufyān related to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, from ʿAlqamah, that he recited: then he addressed her from beneath her.

Al-Rifāʿī related to us: Wakīʿ related to us, from his father, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, from ʿAlqamah, that he recited it thus.

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū ʿĀmir related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk: then he called to her from beneath her: he said: Gabriel.

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from Sufyān, from Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, the like of it.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: then he called to her from beneath her: that is, from beneath the palm tree.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: then he called to her, Gabriel, from beneath her: Do not grieve.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words then he called to her from beneath her: he said: the angel.

I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, who said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words then he called to her from beneath her: meaning: Gabriel; he was lower down than she was.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās: then he called to her from beneath her: he said: Gabriel called to her, and Jesus did not speak until she came to her people.

Those who said: Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him) called to her

Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, on His words then he called to her from beneath her: he said: Jesus son of Mary.

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū ʿĀmir related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan: then he called to her from beneath her: her son.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, who said: al-Ḥasan said: It is her son.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: then he called to her, Jesus, from beneath her: Do not grieve.

Abū Ḥumayd Aḥmad ibn al-Mughīrah al-Ḥimṣī related to me: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us: Muḥammad ibn Muhājir related to us, from Thābit ibn ʿAjlān, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on His words then he called to her from beneath her: he said: Jesus. Do you not hear God say then she pointed to him (19:29)?

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said: then he called to her from beneath her: he said: Jesus; he called to her from beneath her: Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a stream.

I was told on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, from Abū al-ʿĀliyah al-Riyāḥī, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The one who addressed her was the one whom she had carried in her womb and who had entered by way of her mouth.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The more fitting of the two opinions on this, in our view, is the opinion of those who said: the one who called to her was her son Jesus. That is because, of the pronouns that refer to him, this one is nearer to the mention of him than it is to the mention of Gabriel, and referring it back to that which is nearer to it is more fitting than referring it back to that which is further from it. Do you not see that in the sequence of His words So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a far-off place (19:22), by which He means: so she conceived Jesus and withdrew with him, it is then said: then he called to her, following on in order from that mention of Jesus and the account of him? And for another reason, namely His words then she pointed to him (19:29): she would not have pointed to him, God willing, unless she already knew that he could speak in that condition of his, and on account of what she had come to know and to trust of him through his addressing her with his words to her, Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a stream, and through what God has related of him, that he said to her: point the people to him. Had that been a saying of Gabriel, it would have been fitting that there be, in the plain sense of the account, a clear statement that Jesus would speak and argue on her behalf before the people, and a command from Gabriel to her that she point the people to him when they asked her about her condition and his.

If that is the correct interpretation, as we have explained, then it is clear that both readings, I mean min taḥtihā with the vowel i and man taḥtahā with the vowel a, are correct. That is because when it is read with i, there is in His words then he called to her a pronoun referring to Jesus; and when man taḥtahā is read with a, the verb belongs to man, the one who, and that is Jesus. The interpretation of the words, then, is: then the newborn called to her from beneath her: do not grieve, O my mother; your Lord has placed beneath you a stream.

As in the following:

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words then he called to her from beneath her: Do not grieve: She said: How should I not grieve when you are with me, and I am neither a married woman, that I might say he is from a husband, nor a slave woman, that I might say he is from my master? What excuse have I before the people? Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind! (19:23). So Jesus said to her: I will spare you the speaking.

The people of interpretation differed over what is meant by the stream (sarī) in this place. Some of them said: by it is meant the small river.

Those who said this

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: he said: the rivulet (jadwal).

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Abū Isḥāq, who said: I heard al-Barāʾ say concerning this verse, your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: he said: the rivulet.

ʿAlī related to me: ʿAbd Allāh related to us: Muʿāwiyah related to me, from ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, on His words your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: and it is the river of Jesus.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, on His words your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: he said: The sarī is the river that was beneath Mary when she gave birth to him; it was flowing, and it was called a sarī.

Abū Ḥuṣayn related to me: ʿAbthar related to us: Ḥuṣayn related to us, from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn al-Awdī, who said concerning this verse, your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: he said: The sarī is a river from which one drinks.

Yaʿqūb and Abū Kurayb related to us, both saying: Hushaym related to us: Ḥuṣayn informed us, from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, concerning His words your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: he said: It is the rivulet.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: a stream: he said: a river, in Syriac.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it. Ibn Jurayj said: a river beside her.

Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū Dāwūd related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: he said: He was a sarī.³⁵ Then Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: The sarī is the rivulet. And he said: The commanders have got the better of us over you.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, from Abū Ḥuṣayn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: he said: It is the rivulet, the small river; in Nabataean it is al-sarī.

Abū Ḥumayd al-Ḥimṣī related to me: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us: Muḥammad ibn Muhājir related to us, from Thābit ibn ʿAjlān, who said: I asked Saʿīd ibn Jubayr about the sarī, and he said: a river.

Abū Kurayb related to us: Hushaym related to us, from Mughīrah, from Ibrāhīm, who said: the small river.

Yaʿqūb related to me: Hushaym related to us: Mughīrah informed us, from Ibrāhīm, that he said: It is the small river, meaning the rivulet; he means His words your Lord has placed beneath you a stream.

Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Salamah ibn Nubayṭ, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said: a small rivulet, in Syriac.

It was related to us on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh, who said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, who said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words beneath you a stream: the small rivulet among rivers.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: and the sarī is the rivulet; so the people of the Ḥijāz name it.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us: Maʿmar informed us, concerning His words a stream: he said: It is a rivulet.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, and from Wahb ibn Munabbih: your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: meaning a channel of water.

Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: and the sarī is the river.

Others said: by it He meant Jesus.

Those who said this

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan: your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: and the sarī is Jesus himself.

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words your Lord has placed beneath you a stream: He means himself. He said: And what thing is more eminent (asrā) than he? He said: As for those who say that the sarī is the river, the river is not like that: had it been the river, it would only have been beside her, and a river is not beneath her.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The more fitting of the two opinions on this, in my view, as regards correctness, is the opinion of those who said: by it He meant the rivulet. That is because he was informing her of what God had brought to her, of the water that He had placed by her, and he said to her, And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh, ripe dates. So eat, of these fresh dates, and drink, of this water, and be comforted (19:25-26), by your child. And the sarī is well known in the speech of the Arabs as the small river. From this is the saying of Labīd:³⁶

So the two of them went into the midst of the breadth of the stream (sarī) and cleft

a brimming pool, its rushes growing close together.

It is also transmitted as fīnā masjūrah, and it is also transmitted as fa-ghādarā, and the two left behind.

His words: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree (19:25)

It is mentioned that the trunk was a dry trunk, and that he commanded her to shake it, this being in the days of winter; and her shaking it was her moving it.

As in the following:

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree: he said: move it.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree: he said: It was a dry trunk, and he said to her: shake it, it will drop upon you fresh, ripe dates.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us, who said: I heard Abū Nahīk say: It was a dry palm tree.

Muḥammad ibn Sahl ibn ʿAskar related to me: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me, who said: I heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say concerning His words And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree: and the fresh dates kept falling upon her, and that was in winter.

Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree: it was a trunk cut off from the tree, and she shook it, and behold, it was a palm tree; and a river was made to flow for her in the sanctuary (miḥrāb), and the palm tree dropped fresh, ripe dates. Then he said to her, So eat and drink and be comforted (19:26).

Others said: Rather, the meaning of that is: and shake towards you the palm tree.

Those who said this

Ibn Bashshār related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: Sufyān related to us, who said: Mujāhid said: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree: he said: the palm tree.

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū Aḥmad related to us: Sufyān related to us, from ʿĪsā ibn Maymūn, from Mujāhid, concerning His words And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree: he said: the ʿajwah.³⁷

Yaʿqūb related to me: Hushaym related to us: Ḥuṣayn informed us, from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, that he recited this verse, And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh, ripe dates, and ʿAmr said: There is nothing better for a woman in childbed than dried dates and fresh dates.

The bāʾ was introduced in His words wa-huzzī ilayki bi-jidhʿ al-nakhlah, and shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree, just as one says zawwajtuka fulānah and zawwajtuka bi-fulānah, I married you to so-and-so, and as He said tanbutu bi-l-duhn, it produces oil (23:20), meaning tanbutu al-duhn.

The Arabs only do that because verbs are alluded to by means of the bāʾ: when one alludes to I struck ʿAmr, one says faʿaltu bihi, I did it to him, and likewise with every verb. For that reason the bāʾ is introduced upon verbs and dropped from them, and its introduction and its omission bear one meaning. So the meaning of the words is: and shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree. And had the exegetes interpreted it as: and shake towards you fresh dates by the trunk of the palm tree, in the sense of: upon the trunk of the palm tree, that too would have been a sound construal; but I do not recall of anyone that he interpreted it so. Among the evidence for the bāʾ being introduced in a position where its introduction and its omission are alike is the saying of the poet:

In a Yemeni valley whose upper part grows the lote tree,

and its lower part the markh and the shabahān.³⁸

The reciters differed over the reading of His words tassāqaṭ, it will drop. The generality of the reciters of Medina, Basra and Kufa read it tassāqaṭ, with a tāʾ, from tasāqaṭa, and with doubling of the sīn, meaning: the palm tree will drop (tatasāqaṭ) upon you fresh, ripe dates, one of the two tāʾs then being assimilated into the other so that it is doubled. It is as though those who read it thus directed the meaning of the words to: and shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree, the palm tree will drop upon you fresh dates. Some of the reciters of Kufa read it tasāqaṭ, with a tāʾ and lightening of the sīn, and they directed the meaning of the words to the same as that to which those who doubled it directed it, except that they differed from them in the reading. And it is transmitted from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib that he read it yusāqiṭ, with a yāʾ.

Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related that to me: al-Qāsim related to us: Yazīd related to us, from Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, from Abū Isḥāq, who said: I heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib recite it thus. It is as though he directed the meaning of the words to: and shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree, the trunk will drop upon you fresh, ripe dates.

And it is transmitted from Abū Nahīk that he used to read it tusqiṭ, with the vowel u on the tāʾ and omission of the alif.

Ibn Ḥumayd related that to us: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us, who said: I heard Abū Nahīk recite it thus. It is as though he directed the meaning of the words to: the palm tree will let fall upon you fresh, ripe dates.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct opinion on this, in my view, is to say that these three readings, I mean tassāqaṭ with a tāʾ and doubling of the sīn, with a tāʾ and lightening of the sīn, and with a yāʾ and doubling of the sīn, are readings close to one another in meaning, each one of which has been read by reciters possessed of knowledge of the Qurʾān; so by whichever of them the reciter reads, he hits upon what is correct in it. That is because when the trunk drops fresh dates while it stands fixed and uncut, the palm tree has dropped fresh dates; and when the palm tree has dropped fresh dates, the palm tree in its entirety has dropped them, its trunk and what is other than its trunk. For as long as the palm tree stands upon its root, it is nothing but trunk, frond-stalks and fronds; it is when it is cut down that it becomes a trunk (jidhʿ). And as for the trunk which Mary was commanded to shake, no one we know of mentioned that it was a cut trunk except al-Suddī, and he claimed that through her shaking it, it became a palm tree once more. So his meaning and the meaning of those who said that what dropped fresh dates upon her was a palm tree have become one, and by that the soundness of what we have said is made clear.

His words: ripe (janiyyan)

He means: gathered (majnī). Its original form was the pattern mafʿūl, and it was turned into the pattern faʿīl. The gathered (majnī) is that which is taken while fresh; and whatever is taken from a fruit tree, or moved from its place while still fresh, has been gathered (ujtuniya). For that reason it is said: so-and-so gathers (yajtanī) truffles. From this is the saying of the son of the sister of Jadhīmah:³⁹

This is my gathering, and the choicest of it is in it,

whereas every gatherer’s hand goes to his mouth.

On 19:26

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: So eat and drink and be comforted; and if you see any human being, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human. (26) (19:26)

He says, Exalted be His mention: So eat of the fresh dates that fall upon you, and drink of the water of the stream that your Lord has placed beneath you; fear neither hunger nor thirst. And be comforted (wa-qarrī ʿaynan, literally: be cool of eye): He says: be of good cheer and rejoice at your giving birth to me, and do not grieve. The eye (ʿaynan) is put in the accusative because it is the eye that is described as being cooled. The meaning of the words is in fact: and let your eye be cooled by your child; then the verb was transferred from the eye to the woman who is the possessor of the eye, and the eye was put in the accusative, since in the original sense, according to the explanation, the verb belonged to it. This is comparable to what was done in His words but if they are pleased, of their own soul, to remit to you any part of it (4:4), which is in fact: but if their souls are pleased for you.

And His words and he was straitened for them in capacity (11:77).⁴⁰

And from this are His words yusāqiṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban janiyyan, it will drop upon you fresh, ripe dates (19:25): it is in fact: the fresh dates of the trunk will fall upon you, and then the verb was transferred to the trunk, in the reading of those who read it with a yāʾ. And in the reading of those who read tusāqiṭ with a tāʾ, its meaning is: the fresh dates of the palm tree will fall upon you, and then the verb was transferred to the palm tree.

The reciters differed over the reading of His words wa-qarrī, and be comforted.

As for the people of Medina, they read it wa-qarrī, with the vowel a on the qāf, according to the dialect of those who say qarirtu bi-l-makān aqarru bihi, I settled in the place, and qarirtu ʿaynan aqarru bihi qurūran, I was cooled of eye; this is the dialect of Quraysh, according to what has been mentioned to me, and upon it rests the reading.

As for the people of Najd, they say qarartu bihi ʿaynan aqirru bihi qarāran and qarartu bi-l-makān aqirru bihi; so the reading according to their dialect is wa-qirrī ʿaynan, with the vowel i on the qāf. The reading in our view is according to the dialect of Quraysh, with the vowel a on the qāf.

His words: and if you see any human being (19:26)

He says: if you see any of the children of Adam speaking to you, or questioning you about anything of your affair and the affair of your child and the cause of your giving birth to him, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast: He says: say: I have made obligatory upon myself, for God, a silence, that I shall not speak to any of the children of Adam today; so I shall not speak today to any human.

The like of what we have said concerning the meaning of the fast was said by the people of interpretation.

Those who said this

Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, from his father, who said: I heard Anas ibn Mālik say concerning this verse, I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast: a silence.

Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah related to me: Ḥajjāj related to us: Ibn Jurayj informed us, who said: al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUthmān informed me, who said: I heard Anas ibn Mālik say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast: he said: a silence.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, on His words I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast: he said: by the fast He means silence.

Yaʿqūb related to me: Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us, from Sulaymān al-Taymī, who said: I heard Anas recite: and I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast and a silence (wa-innī nadhartu li-l-Raḥmān ṣawman wa-ṣamtan).

Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast: as for His words a fast, she fasted from food, drink and speech.

I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, who said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast: he said: Among the Children of Israel there were those who, when they strove in devotion, would fast from speech as one fasts from food, except for the remembrance of God. So he said that to her, and she said: I am fasting from speech as I fast from food, except for the remembrance of God. So when they spoke to her, she pointed to him, and they said How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29). And he answered them and said I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30), as far as That is Jesus son of Mary, the word of truth, concerning which they are in doubt (19:34).

They differed over the reason on account of which he commanded her to fast from speaking to human beings. Some of them said: he commanded her to do that because she had no manifest argument before the people, for she had come, being an unmarried woman, with a child; so she was commanded to refrain from speech, so that her child might suffice her in speaking.

Those who said this

Hārūn ibn Isḥāq al-Hamdānī related to us: Muṣʿab ibn al-Miqdām related to us: Isrāʾīl related to us: Abū Isḥāq related to us, from Ḥārithah, who said: I was with Ibn Masʿūd when two men came; one of them gave the greeting of peace and the other did not. He said: What is the matter with you? His companions said: He has sworn that he will not speak to people today. ʿAbd Allāh said: Speak to people and greet them with peace; for that was a woman who knew that no one would believe her that she had conceived without a husband, meaning by that Mary (peace be upon her).

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said: When Jesus said to Mary Do not grieve (19:24), she said: How should I not grieve when you are with me, and I am neither a married woman nor a slave woman? What excuse have I before the people? Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind! (19:23). So Jesus said to her: I will spare you the speaking. And if you see any human being, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human. He said: All of this is the speech of Jesus to his mother.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: And if you see any human being, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human: for I shall spare you the speaking.

Others said: that was simply a sign for Mary and her son.

Those who said this

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast: he said: In some of the readings (ḥurūf): a silence. That is because you will not meet any ignorant woman who says: I have vowed, as Mary vowed, not to speak for a day until night. God only made that a sign for Mary and for her son, and it is not lawful for anyone to vow a day’s silence until night.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah; he recited I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, and it used to be read in the first reading (al-ḥarf al-awwal): a silence; it was simply a sign that God sent for Mary and her son.

Others said: Rather, she was fasting on that day, and one who fasted in that age would fast from food, drink and speaking to people; so Mary was permitted this measure of speech on that day while she was fasting.

Those who said this

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: And if you see any human being who speaks to you, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human: whoever fasted in that age would not speak until evening; so it was said to her: do not add to this.

On 19:27

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said: O Mary, you have done a monstrous thing. (27) (19:27)

He says, Exalted be His mention: When Jesus said that to his mother, her soul was set at rest, she submitted to the command of God, and she carried him until she brought him to her people.

As in the following:

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: The anguish of the trial and the fear of people made her, meaning Mary, forget what she used to hear from the angels of the glad tidings of Jesus; until, when he spoke to her, meaning Jesus, and there came to her the confirmation of what God had promised her, she took him up and then came with him to her people.

And al-Suddī said about this what follows:

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: When she gave birth to him, Satan went and informed the Children of Israel that Mary had given birth; so they came running and called her, and she brought him to her people, carrying him.

His words: They said: O Mary, you have done a monstrous thing (19:27)

He says, Exalted be His mention: When they saw Mary, and saw with her the child to whom she had given birth, they said to her: O Mary, you have come with an astonishing matter and brought about a grave event. Everyone who does a deed and does it thoroughly and well has wrought it (farāhu), as the rajaz poet said:⁴¹

You have fed me poor dates of Ḥujr,

and yet over them you used to work the mighty work.

The like of what we have said about this was said by the people of interpretation.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, on the words of God, Exalted, monstrous: he said: grave.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, on His words you have done a monstrous thing: he said: grave.

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: you have done a monstrous thing: he said: grave.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: When they saw her, and saw him with her, they said: O Mary, you have done a monstrous thing: that is, an indecency beyond compare.

On 19:28

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste. (28) (19:28)

The people of interpretation differed over the reason on account of which it was said to her: O sister of Aaron, and over who this Aaron was whom God mentioned, relating that they attributed Mary to him as his sister. Some of them said: it was said to her O sister of Aaron as an attribution by them of her to righteousness, because the righteous among them used to be named Aaron; and he is not Aaron the brother of Moses.

Those who said this

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words O sister of Aaron: he said: There was a righteous man among the Children of Israel named Aaron, and they likened her to him and said: O you who resemble Aaron in righteousness.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, on His words O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste: he said: She was of a household known for righteousness and not known for corruption. Among people there are those who are known for righteousness and beget offspring in it, and others who are known for corruption and beget offspring in it. Aaron was a righteous man, beloved among his kinsfolk; and he is not Aaron the brother of Moses, but another Aaron. He said: And it has been mentioned to us that on the day he died forty thousand followed his bier, all of them named Aaron, from the Children of Israel.

Yaʿqūb related to me: Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Ṣadaqah, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, who said: I was informed that Kaʿb said: As for His words O sister of Aaron, this is not Aaron the brother of Moses. He said: ʿĀʾishah said to him: You have lied. He said: O Mother of the Believers, if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said it, then he knows best and is better informed; otherwise, I find between the two of them six hundred years. He said: So she fell silent.

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, who said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His words O sister of Aaron: he said: A name coincided with a name. How many nations there were between Aaron and the two of them, nations upon nations!

Abū Kurayb, Ibn al-Muthannā, Sufyān, Ibn Wakīʿ and Abū al-Sāʾib related to us, all saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs al-Awdī related to us, who said: I heard my father mention, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from ʿAlqamah ibn Wāʾil, from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me to the people of Najrān, and they said to me: Do you not recite O sister of Aaron? I said: Yes indeed. And you know what interval there was between Jesus and Moses. So I returned to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and informed him, and he said: “Why did you not inform them that they used to name themselves after their prophets and the righteous who were before them?”

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: al-Ḥakam ibn Bashīr related to us: ʿAmr related to us, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from ʿAlqamah ibn Wāʾil, from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me on one of his errands to the people of Najrān, and they said: Does your Prophet not claim that Aaron the brother of Mary is the brother of Moses? I did not know what to answer them until I returned to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and mentioned that to him, and he said: “They used to name themselves with the names of those who were before them.”

Some of them said: by him is meant Aaron the brother of Moses, and Mary was attributed to him as his sister because she was of his descendants; one says to a Tamīmī: O brother of Tamīm, and to a Muḍarī: O brother of Muḍar.

Those who said this

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: O sister of Aaron: he said: She was of the descendants of Aaron the brother of Moses, and it is as you say: O brother of the Banū So-and-so.

Others said: Rather, that was a man among them who was dissolute and open in his dissoluteness, and they attributed her to him.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct opinion on this is what the report from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) which we have mentioned has brought: that she was attributed to a man of her people.

His words: your father was not a man of evil (19:28)

He says: your father was not a man of evil who committed indecencies; nor was your mother unchaste: He says: nor was your mother a fornicatress.

As in the following:

Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: nor was your mother unchaste: he said: a fornicatress.

He said nor was your mother unchaste (baghiyyan), and did not say baghiyyah, because that is one of the things by which women are described to the exclusion of men, so it followed the course of imraʾah ḥāʾiḍ, a menstruating woman, and ṭāliq, a divorced woman. Some of them used to liken that to their saying milḥafah jadīd, a new wrapper, and imraʾah qatīl, a slain woman.

On 19:29

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: Then she pointed to him. They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (29) (19:29)

He says, Exalted be His mention: When her people said that to her, she said to them what Jesus had commanded her to say to them, and then she pointed them to Jesus, that they should speak to him.

As in the following:

Mūsā related to us: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: When they said to her your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste (19:28), she said to them what God had commanded her; and when after that they pressed her to speak, she pointed to him, to Jesus.

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, on His words then she pointed to him: he said: she bade them speak to him.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: then she pointed to him: he says: she pointed to him, that they should speak to him.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, on His words then she pointed to him: that they should speak to him.

His words: They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29)

He says, Exalted be His mention: her people said to her: How shall we speak to one who is found in the cradle? The verb kāna in His words one who is in the cradle, a child has the meaning of the complete verb, not that which requires a predicate.⁴² It is similar in meaning to the kāna in His words Am I anything but a human being, a messenger? (17:93), the meaning of which is: am I anything but a human being, a messenger? and: was I found, or was I sent, as anything other? And as Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā said:

I urged on along it a noble she-camel of Arḥab,⁴³

when the colour of the night had become like black-dyed leather.

meaning: and it had become, or was found. And it is said that by the cradle in this place He meant the lap of his mother.

Those who said this

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: one who is in the cradle, a child: and the cradle is the lap.

Abū Jaʿfar said: We have already explained the meaning of the cradle in what has preceded, with its evidences, and that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

On 19:30-31

On the interpretation of His words: He said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet, (30) and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving as long as I live (31) (19:30–31)

God, Exalted be His mention, says: When Mary’s people said to her How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? (19:29), and supposed that this was mockery of them on her part, Jesus spoke, answering on his mother’s behalf: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture. And when she pointed them to Jesus they had, according to what is related of them, become angry; as in:

Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: When she pointed them to Jesus they grew angry, and said: Her mocking of us, when she bids us speak to this infant, is harder upon us than her fornication. They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? (19:29)

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? (19:29) Then Jesus answered them on her behalf and said to them: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet … to the end of the verse.

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? He said to them: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet (19:29–30) — and he recited until he reached and He has not made me arrogant, wretched (19:32) — : then they said: This is indeed a mighty matter.

I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? He said: I am the servant of God (19:29–30): Jesus did not speak except at that moment, when they said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant?

As for His words He has given me the Scripture: should someone say, “Did He then give him the Scripture and revelation before he was created in his mother’s womb?”, the meaning of this is other than what he supposes. Its meaning is only: He decreed, on the day He decreed the affairs of His creation, that He would give me the Scripture; as in:

Bishr ibn Ādam related to me: al-Ḍaḥḥāk, meaning Ibn Makhlad, related to us, from Sufyān, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah: He has given me the Scripture, he said: He decreed that He would give me the Scripture, in what had gone before.

Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: Sufyān informed us, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture, he said: the decree.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture, he said: He decreed that He would give me the Scripture.

As for His words and made me a prophet: I have already explained the meaning of “prophet” (nabī), the disagreement of those who differed about it, and the correct opinion on it in our view together with its evidences, earlier in this work, in a way that dispenses with repeating it here.

Mujāhid used to say, concerning the meaning of “prophet” alone, what:

As for His words and He has made me blessed: the people of interpretation differed about the meaning of this. Some of them said: its meaning is, “and He has made me greatly beneficial”.

Those who said this

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥammād al-Ṭalḥī related to me: al-ʿAlāʾ related to us, from ʿĀʾishah the wife of Layth, from Layth, from Mujāhid: and He has made me blessed, he said: greatly beneficial.

Others said: his blessing was the enjoining of right and the forbidding of wrong.

Those who said this

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Khunays al-Makhzūmī related to us, he said: I heard Wuhayb ibn al-Ward, client of Banū Makhzūm, say: A learned man met a learned man who was above him in knowledge, and said to him: May God have mercy on you — what of my knowledge should I make public? He said: The enjoining of right and the forbidding of wrong, for that is the religion of God with which He sent His prophets to His servants; and the jurists have agreed upon the words of God and He has made me blessed wherever I may be. It was asked: What was his blessing? He said: The enjoining of right and the forbidding of wrong wherever he was.

Others said: the meaning of this is, “He has made me a teacher of good”.

Those who said this

Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me: Sufyān related to us, concerning His words and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, he said: a teacher of good.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Jarīr related to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, His words and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, he said: a teacher of good wherever I was.

As for His words and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving: He says, and He decreed that He would enjoin upon me prayer and alms-giving (zakāh), meaning the observance of the limits of prayer and its establishment according to what He made obligatory upon me. In “alms-giving” (zakāh) there are two possible meanings: one of them is the zakāh of property, that he should pay it; the other is the purification of the body from the defilement of sins, in which case its meaning would be: and He enjoined upon me the abandoning of sins and the avoidance of acts of disobedience.

As for His words as long as I live: He says, as long as I am alive and existent in this world. This makes clear that the meaning of zakāh in this place is the purification of the body from sins, because Jesus, God’s blessings and peace be upon him, is described as one who used to store up nothing for the morrow, such that zakāh of property would have become due from him — unless the zakāh that was imposed upon him was the giving in charity of everything surplus to his sustenance, in which case that would be a sound interpretation.

On 19:32-33

On the interpretation of His words: and dutiful towards my mother, and He has not made me arrogant, wretched. (32) And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive (33) (19:32–33)

God, Exalted be His mention, says, informing of what Jesus said to the people: “and He has made me blessed and dutiful (barran)”, that is, He has made me dutiful towards my mother. Al-barr is the same as al-bārr (the dutiful one); one says “he is barr towards his father” and “bārr towards him”. The reciters of the garrison towns read this word with fatḥah on the bāʾ. And from Abū Nahīk there is related what:

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us, from Abū Nahīk, that he read and dutifulness (birran) towards my mother⁴⁴ as part of the speech of Jesus (peace be upon him). Abū Nahīk said: He enjoined upon me prayer, alms-giving and dutifulness towards parents, just as He enjoined that upon me.

It is as if Abū Nahīk directed the interpretation of the passage so that His words and dutifulness towards my mother are part of Jesus’s report of God’s enjoining it upon him, just as His words and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving are part of his report of God’s enjoining that upon him. On this view the accusative of “dutifulness” must be owing to the operation of “enjoined” upon it, because prayer and alms-giving, although in the genitive in wording, are in the sense of the accusative, since they are the objects of the verb.

As for His words and He has not made me arrogant, wretched: He says, and He has not made me haughty towards God in what He commanded me and forbade me, wretched; rather He made me submissive in obedience to Him and made me humble; as in:

Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, who said: It was mentioned to us that he — meaning Jesus — used to say: Ask me, for my heart is soft, and I am small in my own eyes — on account of the humility that God had given him.

And Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: and dutiful towards my mother, and He has not made me arrogant, wretched: It was mentioned to us that a woman saw the son of Mary bringing the dead to life and healing the one born blind and the leper, among the signs over which God had given him power and in which He had permitted him; and she said: Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast from which you were suckled! And the prophet of God, the son of Mary, said in answer to her: Blessed is he who recites the Book of God and follows what is in it. And He has not made me arrogant, wretched.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Muḥammad ibn Kathīr related to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wāqid Abū Rajāʾ, from one of the people of knowledge, who said: You will not find one undutiful to his parents without finding him arrogant and wretched; then he recited and dutiful towards my mother, and He has not made me arrogant, wretched. He said: And you will not find one who treats his slaves badly without finding him conceited and boastful; then he recited and those whom your right hands possess; indeed God does not love whoever is conceited and boastful (4:36).

As for His words And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive: He says, and security from God is upon me against Satan and his hosts on the day I was born, lest they obtain from me what they obtain at birth from those who are born, by way of pricking them; and on the day I die, from the terror of what is to be beheld; and on the day I am raised up alive, the Day of Resurrection, lest the dread that befalls people when they witness the terrors of that Day should befall me; as in:

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive, he said: He informs them, in the course of his account of himself, that he has no father, and that he will die and then be raised up alive. God, Blessed and Exalted, says: Such is Jesus son of Mary — the word of truth about which they are in doubt (19:34).

On 21:91

On the interpretation of His words: And she who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds (91) (21:91)

God, Exalted be His mention, says to His Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): And mention her who guarded her chastity (farj), meaning Mary daughter of ʿImrān.

By His word guarded (aḥṣanat) He means: she preserved her private parts and kept them from what God had forbidden her to permit therein.

There was disagreement about the farj which God, Majestic is His praise, meant that she guarded. Some of them said: He meant by it her own private parts, that she preserved them from indecency.

Others said: He meant by it the opening of her shift, that she kept Gabriel from it before she knew that he was the messenger of her Lord, and before recognition of him was established for her. They said: What indicates this is His words so We breathed into her, which follow upon His words And she who guarded her farj; they said: so it is known thereby that the meaning of the passage is: “And she who guarded the opening of her garment: We breathed into her of Our spirit.”

Abū Jaʿfar said: The more fitting of the two opinions in the interpretation of this, in our view, is the opinion of those who said: she guarded her private parts from indecency, because that is the more prevalent of its two meanings and the more apparent in the outward sense of the words. We breathed into her of Our spirit: He says, so We breathed into the opening of her shift of Our spirit. We have mentioned the disagreement of those who differed about the meaning of His words so We breathed into her elsewhere, together with the opinion closer to correctness in that matter, earlier in this work, in a way that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

As for His words and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds: He says, and We made Mary and her son a lesson for the worlds of their time, that they might take a lesson from them and reflect upon their affair, and so know the greatness of Our authority and Our power over whatever We will. He said “a sign” and did not say “two signs”, although He mentioned two signs, because the meaning of the passage is: We made the two of them a token and a proof for Us; so each one of them, in respect of indicating God and His great power, stands in the place of the other, since their affair in indicating God is one.

On 23:50

On the interpretation of His words: And We did give Moses the Scripture, that they might be guided. (49) And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign, and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water (50) (23:49–50)

God, Exalted be His mention, says: And We gave Moses the Torah, that his people of the Children of Israel might be guided by it and act according to what is in it. And We made the son of Mary and his mother: He says, and We made the son of Mary and his mother a proof for Us against those who lived among them, and of Our power to bring bodies into being without an origin, just as We brought the creation of Jesus into being without a father; as in:

Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words And We made the son of Mary and his mother, he said: she bore him without any father of his; and for that reason “sign” is made singular, although He has mentioned Mary and her son.

As for His words and We gave them refuge upon a height: He says, and We gathered them in and brought them to a height. One says “so-and-so took refuge (awā) in such-and-such a place, and he takes refuge (yaʾwī) in it”, when he betakes himself to it; and on the pattern of afʿaltuhu, “he gives him refuge (yuʾwīhi)”.

As for His words upon a height (rabwah): He means, to a place of the earth raised above what surrounds it; and for that reason it is said of a man who holds an elevated station among his people, with might, honour and numbers: “he is upon a height (rabwah) among his people”. In it there are two dialectal forms: ḍammah on the rāʾ and kasrah, when the noun is intended; and when the single act is intended, from the verbal noun, one says rabā rabwatan.

The people of interpretation differed about the place which God described with this description, and in which He gave refuge to Mary and her son. Some of them said: it is al-Ramlah in Palestine.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me: Ṣafwān ibn ʿĪsā related to us: Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ related to us: a cousin of Abū Hurayrah, called Abū ʿAbd Allāh, related to me, he said: Abū Hurayrah said to us: Keep to this Ramlah of Palestine, for it is the height of which God said and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water.

ʿIṣām ibn Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāḥ related to me: my father related to us: ʿAbbād Abū ʿUtbah al-Khawwāṣ related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr al-Shaybānī related to us, from Ibn Waʿlah, from Kurayb, who said: I do not know what —

Murrah al-Bahzī related to us, that he heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) — and he mentioned that the height is al-Ramlah.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, from Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh the cousin of Abū Hurayrah, who said: I heard Abū Hurayrah say concerning the words of God upon a height, having a settled place and running water, he said: it is al-Ramlah of Palestine.

Ibn Bashshār related to us: Ṣafwān related to us: Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ related to us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh the cousin of Abū Hurayrah related to me, he said: Abū Hurayrah said to us: Keep to this Ramlah which is in Palestine, for it is the height of which God said and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water.

Others said: it is Damascus.

Those who said this

Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd al-Qurashī related to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, that he said concerning this verse, and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water, he said: they claimed that it is Damascus.

Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, who said: it has reached me, from Ibn al-Musayyab, that he said: Damascus.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, the like of it.

Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Sahmī related to me: Ibn Bukayr related to us: al-Layth ibn Saʿd related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lahīʿah related to me, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning His words and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water, he said: to a height among the heights (rubā) of Egypt. He said: and the heights are found only in Egypt; when the water is released, the villages stand upon the heights; were it not for the heights, those villages would be drowned.

Others said: it is Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis).

Those who said this

Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah, who said: it is Jerusalem.

He said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah, who said: Kaʿb used to say: Jerusalem is nearer to heaven by eighteen miles.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Kaʿb, the like of it.

The most fitting of these opinions in the interpretation of this is that it is an elevated place, possessed of level ground and of visible water; and such is not the description of al-Ramlah, for al-Ramlah has no running water, whereas God, Exalted be His mention, described this height as having a settled place and running water.

A group of the people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, His words and We gave them refuge upon a height, he said: the height is the level place.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

As for His words having a settled place and running water: God, Exalted be His mention, says: among the qualities of the height in which We gave refuge to Mary and her son Jesus is that it is a spread-out land and open ground, and possessed of visible — not subterranean — flowing water.

The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās: and running water, he said: maʿīn is flowing water, and it is the river of which God said Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24).

Muḥammad ibn ʿUmārah al-Asadī related to me: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us: Isrāʾīl informed us, from Abū Yaḥyā, from Mujāhid, concerning His words having a settled place and running water, he said: maʿīn is water.

Muḥammad ibn ʿUmārah al-Asadī related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: running water (maʿīn), he said: water.

Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me: Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt related to us: Sharīk related to us, from Sālim, from Saʿīd, concerning His words having a settled place and running water, he said: the level place; and maʿīn is visible water.

I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words and running water: it is visible water.

Others said: by “a settled place” He meant fruits.

Those who said this

Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah: having a settled place and running water: it has fruits, and it is Jerusalem.

Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, the like of it.

Abū Jaʿfar said: This opinion which Qatādah stated concerning the meaning of having a settled place — unless he meant by his statement that it was described as “having a settled place” only on account of the fruits that are in it, and that on their account its inhabitants settle in it — has no basis that we know of. As for maʿīn, it is a passive participle (mafʿūl) from “I saw it with the eye (ʿintuhu), I see it (aʿīnuhu)”, so it is maʿīn, “seen”; and it may also be of the pattern faʿīl from maʿana yamʿanu, so it is maʿīn, from al-māʿūn. From this is the saying of ʿAbīd ibn al-Abraṣ:

A gushing spring, or a running stream flowing far, / or a hill-crag with mountain-clefts before it.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

al-Baghawī, Maʿālim al-tanzīl (d. 516 AH / 1122 CE), about 8,010 words

On 3:41-42

His words, Exalted: He said, “My Lord, appoint for me a sign” (3:41), that is, a mark by which I may know the time of my wife’s conceiving, so that I may increase in worship out of gratitude to You. He said, “Your sign is that you shall not speak to people,” you shall refrain from speech, “for three days,” and devote yourself wholly to My worship. It is not that He held his tongue from speech; rather it is a prohibition of speech while he was sound and whole, as He said in Sūrat Maryam, verse 10: that you shall not speak to people for three nights, being sound (19:10). His words, Exalted, indicate this: and glorify in the evening and the early morning; so He commanded him to remembrance and forbade him speaking to people.

Most of the commentators said: his tongue was tied from speaking with people for three days. Qatāda said: his tongue was withheld from speech as a punishment for him for asking for the sign after the angels had addressed him face to face, so he was unable to speak for three days. His words except by gesture (ramz): that is, by signalling; and signalling may be with the tongue, with the eye and with the hand. His signalling was with the index finger. Al-Farrāʾ said: the ramz may be with the tongue without making it clear, which is the faint sound resembling a whisper. ʿAṭāʾ said: by it He meant fasting for three days, because when they fasted they did not speak except by gesture. And remember your Lord much, and glorify in the evening and the early morning. It was said: what is meant by glorification is the prayer. The evening (ʿashiyy) is the time between the declining of the sun and its setting; from this the noon and afternoon prayers are called the two prayers of the evening. The early morning (ibkār) is the time between the dawn prayer and the forenoon.

His words, Exalted: And when the angels said (3:42), meaning Gabriel, “O Mary, indeed God has chosen you,” selected you, “and purified you.” It was said: from the touch of men; and it was said: from menstruation and post-natal bleeding—al-Suddī said: Mary did not menstruate; and it was said: from sins. “And chosen you above the women of the worlds.” It was said: above the people of her own time; and it was said: above all the women of the worlds, in that she gave birth without a father, and that happened to none of the women; and it was said: by consecration in the sanctuary, for no female had been consecrated.

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Malīḥī informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us: Aḥmad ibn Rajāʾ informed us: al-Naḍr informed us, from Hishām: my father informed us, who said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar say: I heard ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him) say: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The best of its women is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadīja (may God be pleased with them both).” Wakīʿ and Abū Muʿāwiya related it from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, and Wakīʿ pointed to the heaven and the earth⁴⁵.

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Malīḥī informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us: Ādam informed us: Shuʿba informed us, from ʿAmr ibn Murra, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many among men attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān and Āsiya the wife of Pharaoh; and the superiority of ʿĀʾisha over women is like the superiority of tharīd⁴⁶ over all other food.”

Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭāhirī informed us: my grandfather ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-Bazzār informed us: Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-ʿUdhāfirī informed us: Isḥāq al-Dayrī informed us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatāda, from Anas (may God be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Sufficient for you among the women of the worlds are Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Khadīja bint Khuwaylid, Fāṭima daughter of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and Āsiya the wife of Pharaoh.”

On 3:43

His words, Exalted: “O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord” (3:43): the angels said it to her face to face, that is, obey your Lord. Mujāhid said: prolong the standing in prayer for your Lord. Devout obedience (qunūt) is obedience; and it was said: qunūt is prolonged standing. Al-Awzāʿī said: When the angels said that to her, she stood in prayer until her feet swelled and ran with blood and pus. “And prostrate and bow”. It was said: He put prostration before bowing only because it was so in their law; and it was said: rather, bowing came before prostration in all the laws, and the wāw is not for sequence but for conjunction; a man may say “I saw Zayd and ʿAmr” even though he saw ʿAmr before Zayd. “With those who bow”, and He did not say “with the women who bow”, so that it would be more general and more comprehensive, for men and women both fall under it. And it was said: its meaning is, with those who pray in congregation.

On 3:44-46

His words, Exalted: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44). He says to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): That, which I have mentioned of the story of Zachariah, John, Mary and Jesus, is of the tidings of the unseen, that is, of the reports of the unseen, which We reveal to you: He made the pronoun refer back to “that”, and for this reason made it masculine. And you were not, O Muḥammad, with them when they cast their pens, their lots, into the water to draw lots as to which of them should be guardian of Mary, take her into his care and bring her up; and you were not with them when they disputed over her guardianship.

His words, Exalted: When the angels said, “O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45). He said “whose name” (in the masculine) only because He made the pronoun refer back to Jesus. They differed as to why he was named the Messiah (al-Masīḥ). Some of them said: it is the pattern faʿīl in the sense of the passive participle, meaning that he was wiped clean (musiḥa) of impurities and purified of sins. And it was said: because he was anointed with blessing. And it was said: because he came out of his mother’s womb anointed with oil. And it was said: Gabriel wiped him with his wing so that Satan had no way to him. And it was said: because he was flat-footed, with no hollow to his foot⁴⁷. The Dajjāl (the Antichrist) was named masīḥ because one of his eyes was wiped out. Some of them said: it is the pattern faʿīl in the sense of the active participle, like ʿalīm and ʿālim. Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: he was named the Messiah because he never wiped (masaḥa) a person with an affliction but that he was healed. And it was said: he was named thus because he used to travel about (yasīḥu) the earth and did not settle in one place; on this view the mīm in it is an augment. Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī said: al-masīḥ means the truthful one (al-ṣiddīq). And al-masīḥ can also have the sense of the great liar, and by it the Dajjāl was named; the word is one of the words with opposite meanings (aḍdād). Honoured (wajīh): that is, noble and elevated, possessing standing and worth, in this world and the Hereafter, and among those brought near to God.

And he will speak to people in the cradle (3:46), as a small child, before the time for speech, as He mentioned in Sūrat Maryam, where he said: Indeed I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30). It is related from Mujāhid that he said: Mary said: “Whenever Jesus and I were alone he would speak to me and I would speak to him, and when someone kept me occupied away from him he would glorify God in my womb while I listened.” His words and in maturity (kahlan): Muqātil said: meaning when he had reached full growth, before he was raised to heaven. Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl said: and in maturity, after his descent from heaven. And it was said: He informed her that he would remain until he reached maturity; and his speaking after maturity is his informing of miraculous things. And it was said: and in maturity, as a prophet: He gave her the glad tidings of the prophethood of Jesus (peace be upon him); his speech in the cradle was a miracle and in maturity a summons. Mujāhid said: and in maturity, that is, forbearing. The Arabs praise maturity (kuhūla) because it is the middle state, in the ripening of age, the firm establishment of reason, and the soundness of judgement and experience. And among the righteous:

that is, he is among the righteous servants.

On 3:47-49

She said, “My Lord” (3:47): “O my master”; she says it to Gabriel. And it was said: she says it to God, Mighty and Majestic. “How can I have a child when no man has touched me,” no man has had relations with me. She said that in wonder, since it had never been the custom that a child be born who had no father. He said, “Thus does God create what He wills. When He decrees a matter,” that is, the coming into being of a thing, “He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is,” as He wishes.

His words, Exalted: And He will teach him the Book (3:48). The people of Medina, ʿĀṣim and Yaʿqūb read with the yāʾ (yuʿallimuhu), on account of His words, Exalted: Thus does God create what He wills; and it was said: He made it refer back to His words indeed God gives you glad tidings, “and He will teach him”. The others read with the nūn (nuʿallimuhu, “We will teach him”), in the plural of majesty, as in His words, Exalted: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you. His words the Book: that is, writing and script; and wisdom: knowledge and understanding; and the Torah and the Gospel: God taught him the Torah and the Gospel.

And a messenger (3:49): that is, and We shall make him a messenger to the Children of Israel. It was said: he was a messenger in the state of childhood; and it was said: he became a messenger only after puberty. The first of the prophets of the Children of Israel was Joseph and the last of them Jesus (peace be upon them both). When he was sent he said: “Indeed I” (annī). Al-Kisāʾī said: it has fatḥa only because the message is made to fall upon it; and it was said: its meaning is “with the message that I” “have come to you with a sign,” a token, “from your Lord,” which confirms my word. He said “with a sign”, though he brought many signs, only because all of them pointed to one thing, namely his truthfulness in the message. When Jesus (peace be upon him) said that to the Children of Israel, they said: “And what is it?” He said: “That I” (annī). Nāfiʿ read with kasra on the alif (innī), as a fresh beginning; and the rest read with fatḥa, with the sense “in that I” “create,” that is, form and fashion, “for you from clay the likeness of a bird.” Abū Jaʿfar read ka-hayʾat al-ṭāʾir here and in al-Māʾida. Hayʾa is the prepared form, from their saying “I prepared (hayyaʾtu) the thing” when you have shaped it and set it right. “Then I breathe into it,” that is, into the bird, “and it becomes a bird (ṭayran) by God’s leave.” The reading of the majority is with the collective, because he created many birds; the people of Medina and Yaʿqūb read “and it becomes a bird (ṭāʾiran)” in the singular here, and in Sūrat al-Māʾida they took it as one kind of bird, because he created nothing other than the bat. He singled out the bat only because it is the most complete of birds in creation, for it has breasts and teeth and it menstruates. Wahb said: it would fly as long as the people were looking at it, and when it passed out of their sight it fell down dead, so that the act of the creature might be distinguished from the act of the Creator, and so that it might be known that perfection belongs to God, Mighty and Majestic. “And I heal the one born blind (akmah) and the leper,” that is, I cure them and make them whole. They differed over the akmah. Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatāda said: he is the one who was born blind. Al-Ḥasan and al-Suddī said: he is the blind man. ʿIkrima said: he is the weak-sighted. Mujāhid said: he is the one who sees by day and does not see by night. And the leper: the one who has white blotches on the skin. He singled out these two only because they are two incurable diseases, and the prevailing art in the time of Jesus (peace be upon him) was medicine, so he showed them the miracle from that same kind. Wahb said: sometimes there gathered before Jesus (peace be upon him) in a single day fifty thousand of the sick; whoever of them was able to reach him reached him, and whoever was not able, Jesus (peace be upon him) walked to him. He used to treat them by prayer, on condition of faith.

His words, Exalted: “And I give life to the dead by God’s leave.” Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: He brought four persons to life: ʿĀzar⁴⁸, the son of the old woman, the daughter of the tithe-collector, and Shem son of Noah. As for ʿĀzar, he was a friend of his. His sister sent to Jesus (peace be upon him): “Your brother ʿĀzar is dying”, and between him and him was a journey of three days. He and his companions came to him and found that he had been dead for three days. He said to his sister: “Take us to his grave.” So she went with them to his grave, and he prayed to God, Exalted, and ʿĀzar rose up with his bodily fluids dripping, and came out of his grave; and he lived on and had children born to him.

As for the son of the old woman: he was carried past Jesus (peace be upon him) dead, on a bier being borne along. Jesus prayed to God and he sat up on his bier, climbed down from the necks of the men, put on his clothes, carried the bier on his neck and returned to his family; and he lived on and had children born to him.

As for the daughter of the tithe-collector: her father was a man who collected the tithes, and a daughter of his had died the day before. He prayed to God, Mighty and Majestic, by His greatest name, and God, Exalted, brought her to life, and she lived on for a time after that and had children born to her. As for Shem son of Noah (peace be upon him): Jesus (peace be upon him) came to his grave and prayed by the greatest name of God, and he came out of his grave with half of his head turned white from fear that the Hour had come, for they did not turn grey in that age. He said: “Has the Resurrection come?” He said: “No, but I called you by the greatest name of God.” Then he said to him: “Die.” He said: “On condition that God protect me from the agonies of death.” So he prayed to God, and He did so.

His words, Exalted: “And I inform you,” and I tell you, “of what you eat,” of that which I have not witnessed, “and what you store up,” what you put away, “in your houses,” until you eat it. And it was said: he used to tell a man what he had eaten the night before, what he would eat that day, and what he had stored up for supper.

Al-Suddī said: Jesus (peace be upon him), while in the school, used to tell the boys what their fathers were doing, and he would say to a boy: “Go, for your family have eaten such-and-such, and have put away such-and-such for you.” So the child would go to his family and cry before them until they gave him that thing, and they would say: “Who told you of this?” He would say: “Jesus.” So they kept their children away from him and said: “Do not play with this sorcerer,” and they gathered them in a house. Jesus (peace be upon him) came looking for them, and they said: “They are not here.” He said: “Then what is in this house?” They said: “Swine.” Jesus said: “So shall they be.” They opened the door upon them, and behold, they were swine. That spread among the Children of Israel, and the Children of Israel plotted against him; and when his mother feared for him, she carried him on a donkey of hers and went out, fleeing from them, to the people of Egypt. Qatāda said: This concerned only the Table (al-māʾida): it was a table that came down to them wherever they were, like the manna and the quails, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful with it nor to hide anything away for the morrow; but they were unfaithful and hid things away, so Jesus began to tell them what they had eaten from the Table and what they had stored up from it, and God transformed them into swine.

His words, Exalted: “Indeed in that,” which I have mentioned, “is a sign for you, if you are believers.”

On 19:16

And dutiful to his parents (19:14), that is, devoted to them, gentle with them and good to them.

And he was not arrogant or disobedient. “The arrogant” (al-jabbār) is the proud; and it was said that “the arrogant” is one who strikes and kills in anger; and “the disobedient” (al-ʿaṣī) is the one who disobeys.

And peace be upon him (19:15), that is, safety be his, the day he was born, and the day he dies, and the day he is raised up alive. Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said: The most desolate that a man can be is in these three states: the day he is born, when he comes out of what he was in; the day he dies, when he sees people he had never beheld; and the day he is raised up, when he sees himself in a gathering the like of which he has never seen. So John was singled out for safety in these places.

His words, Mighty and Majestic: And mention in the Book, in the Qurʾān, Mary, when she withdrew, drew aside and secluded herself, from her people, from her kinsfolk, to an eastern place (19:16), that is, a place in the house on the side facing the east. It was a winter day of severe cold, and she sat in a sunny spot delousing her head.

It was also said: She had become clean from menstruation and went to wash herself.

Al-Ḥasan said: And it is from this that the Christians took the east as their direction of prayer.

On 19:17-20

And she took, set up, apart from them a screen (19:17). Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: a curtain.

It was also said: She sat behind a wall. Muqātil said: behind a mountain.

ʿIkrimah said: Mary used to stay in the sanctuary, and when she menstruated she would move to the house of her maternal aunt, and when she became clean she would return to the sanctuary. While she was washing herself after menstruation, having stripped herself, Gabriel appeared to her in the form of a beardless youth with a bright face, curly hair and a well-proportioned frame; and that is His words:

Then We sent to her Our Spirit, meaning Gabriel (peace be upon him), and he appeared to her as a well-proportioned man. It was also said that what is meant by the Spirit is Jesus (peace be upon him), who came in the form of a man and she conceived him; but the first is more correct. When Mary saw Gabriel making towards her, she called out to him from afar, and she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that is, a believer and obedient.

If it is asked: Refuge is sought only from the wicked, so how did she say: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing?

It is answered: This is like someone saying: If you are a believer, do not wrong me; that is, your faith ought to restrain you from wrongdoing. So it is here.

Its meaning is: and your fear of God ought to restrain you from wickedness.

He said, Gabriel said to her: I am only a messenger of your Lord, that I may grant you (19:19). Nāfiʿ and the people of Basra read li-yahaba laki with yāʾ, that is, that your Lord may grant you; the others read li-ahaba laki, attributing the act to the messenger, although the gift is from God, Exalted, because he was sent with it.

A pure boy: a righteous child, pure from sins.

She said, Mary said: How, from where, shall I have a boy when no man has touched me, no husband has come near me, and I have not been unchaste? (19:20), a wanton woman. She means that a child comes either from marriage or from fornication, and neither of the two had taken place here.

On 19:21-22

He said, Gabriel said: So it shall be (19:21). It was said that its meaning is: it is as you say, O Mary, but your Lord has said; and it was said: thus has your Lord said: It is easy for Me, that is, the creation of a child without a father; and that We may make him a sign, a token, for mankind, and a proof of Our power, and a mercy from Us, and a blessing for whoever follows him in his religion; and it was, that, a matter decreed, decided and settled, which is neither turned back nor altered.

His words, Mighty and Majestic: So she conceived him (19:22). It was said that Gabriel lifted her shift and breathed into its opening, and she conceived when she put it on.

It was also said: He stretched out the opening of her shift with his finger and then breathed into the opening.

It was also said: He breathed into the sleeve of her garment. And it was said: into her mouth.

It was also said: Gabriel (peace be upon him) breathed a breath from afar, and the breath reached her and she conceived Jesus at once. And she withdrew with him, that is, she drew aside with the pregnancy and secluded herself, to a far place, far from her people.

Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: The farthest end of the valley, which is the valley of Bethlehem, fleeing from her people lest they reproach her for giving birth without a husband.

They differed as to the length of her pregnancy and the time of her delivery. Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: The conception and the birth took place in a single hour.

It was also said: The length of her pregnancy was nine months, like the pregnancy of other women.

It was also said: The length of her pregnancy was eight months, and that was another sign, because no child born at eight months survives, yet Jesus was born after this period and lived.

It was also said: She gave birth after six months.

Muqātil ibn Sulaymān said: Mary conceived him in an hour, he was formed in an hour, and she gave birth to him in an hour, when the sun declined on that same day, she being a girl of ten years, and she had menstruated twice before she conceived Jesus.

On 19:23

And it drove her, that is, it compelled her and brought her, the pangs of childbirth, which are the pain of labour, to the trunk of the palm tree (19:23). It was a dry palm tree in the desert, in the depth of winter, with no fronds on it.

It was also said: She took refuge at it in order to lean against it and hold on to it through the pain of childbirth. She said: Would that I had died before this: she wished for death out of shame before people and fear of disgrace; and had been a thing forgotten. Ḥamzah and Ḥafṣ read nasyan with fatḥah on the nūn, and the rest with kasrah; they are two dialectal forms, like al-watr and al-witr, and al-jisr and al-jasr. It means the thing forgotten, and al-nasy in the language is everything that is cast away, forgotten and not mentioned because of its insignificance.

Forgotten, that is, abandoned. Qatādah said: Something that is neither known nor mentioned. ʿIkrimah, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Mujāhid said: A carcass thrown away. And it was said: She means, had I never been created.

On 19:24

Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24). Abū Jaʿfar, Nāfiʿ, Ḥamzah, al-Kisāʾī and Ḥafṣ read min taḥtihā with kasrah on the mīm and the tāʾ, meaning Gabriel (peace be upon him): Mary was on a hillock and Gabriel was behind the hillock, below her, and he called to her.

The others read it with fatḥah on the mīm and the tāʾ⁴⁹, and they too intended Gabriel (peace be upon him): he called to her from the foot of the mountain.

It was also said: It was Jesus who, when he came out of his mother’s womb, called to her: Do not grieve. This is the view of Mujāhid and al-Ḥasan.

The first is the view of Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both), al-Suddī, Qatādah, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and a group: that the caller was Gabriel, who, when he heard her words and recognised her distress, called to her: Do not grieve.

Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet. “The rivulet” (al-sarī) is the small stream.

It was also said: “beneath you” means that God placed it under your command: if you order it to flow, it flows, and if you order it to hold back, it holds back.

Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: Gabriel (peace be upon him), or, as it is also said, Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him), struck the earth with his foot, and a spring of sweet water appeared and flowed.

It was also said: There was a dry stream there, in which God, Glorified and Exalted, made the water flow, and the dry palm tree came to life, put forth leaves, bore fruit and ripened fresh dates.

Al-Ḥasan said: “beneath you a sarī” means Jesus, and by God he was a noble (sarī) servant, meaning exalted.

On 19:25-26

And shake towards you, that is, Mary was told: move, the trunk of the palm tree (19:25). The Arabs say hazzahu and hazza bihi, just as one says ḥazza raʾsahu and ḥazza bi-raʾsihi, and amdada al-ḥabla and amdada bihi. It will let fall upon you: the well-known reading is with fatḥah on the tāʾ and the qāf and doubling of the sīn, that is, tatasāqaṭu, one of the two tāʾs being assimilated into the sīn; that is, the palm tree will let fall upon you fresh dates. Ḥamzah read the sīn without doubling and dropped the tāʾ which the others assimilated.

Ḥafṣ read it with ḍammah on the tāʾ and kasrah on the qāf, without doubling, on the pattern of tufāʿilu; tusāqiṭu has the meaning of asqaṭa, and the feminine form is on account of the palm tree.

Yaʿqūb read yassāqaṭu with yāʾ and doubling, referring it back to the trunk.

Fresh ripe dates: gathered dates. It was also said that al-janī is that which has reached its full ripeness and whose time of gathering has come. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym said: In my view there is nothing better for the woman in childbed than fresh dates, nor anything better for the sick than honey. His words, Glorified and Exalted: So eat and drink (19:26), that is, eat, O Mary, of the fresh dates and drink of the water of the stream, and be comforted, literally “cool your eye”, that is, be of good cheer. It was also said: Let your eye be cooled by your child Jesus. One says: May God cool your eye, meaning: may your heart meet with what pleases you, so that your eye rests from looking at anything else. It was also said: “God cooled his eye” means He put it to sleep; one says qarra yaqirru when a thing becomes still.

It was also said: When the eye weeps from joy the tears are cool, and when it weeps from grief the tears are hot; and from this it is said: May God cool his eye, and: May God heat his eye.

And if you see any human being, that is, taray, upon which the nūn of emphasis has entered, and the yāʾ takes kasrah because of the meeting of two unvowelled letters.

Its meaning is: if you see any human being who asks you about your child, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, that is, a silence; and so Ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with him) used to read it.

Fasting (ṣawm) in the language is abstention from food, drink and speech.

Al-Suddī said: Among the Children of Israel, whoever wished to exert himself in devotion would fast from speech as he fasted from food, and would not speak until evening.

It was also said that God, Exalted, commanded her to say this by a gesture.

It was also said that He commanded her to say this much aloud, and then to refrain from speech after it.

So I shall not speak today to any human being. It is said: She used to speak to the angels and not speak to human beings.

On 19:27-28

Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27). It was said that she gave birth to him and then carried him at once to her people.

Al-Kalbī said: Joseph the carpenter carried Mary and her son Jesus (peace be upon them both) to a cave, and she remained forty days until she was clean from the bleeding of childbirth; then Mary (peace be upon her) carried him to her people, and Jesus (peace be upon him) spoke to her on the way, saying: O mother, rejoice, for I am the servant of God and His Messiah. When she came in to her family with the child, they wept and grieved, for they were a righteous household. They said: O Mary, you have done a monstrous thing: a grave and abominable thing. Abū ʿUbaydah said: Every extraordinary matter, whether a wonder or a deed, is farī.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said of ʿUmar: “I have never seen a master who does his work as he does (yafrī fariyyahu)”, that is, who performs his deed.

O sister of Aaron (19:28). He means: O you who resemble Aaron. Qatādah and others said: Aaron was a righteous and devout man among the Children of Israel. It is related that on the day he died, forty thousand men, every one of them named Aaron, from among the Children of Israel followed his funeral, besides the rest of the people. They likened her to him in the sense of: we thought you were like him in righteousness. Brotherhood by lineage is not meant by it, just as God, Exalted, said: The squanderers are the brothers of the devils (17:27), that is, their likes.

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Qāhir informed us: ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Muḥammad informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān informed us: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj related to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr related to us: Ibn Idrīs related to us, from his father, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from ʿAlqamah ibn Wāʾil, from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: When I came to Najrān they questioned me, saying: You recite O sister of Aaron, yet Moses was so-and-so long before Jesus! When I came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) I asked him about that, and he said: “They used to name themselves after their prophets and the righteous who were before them.”

Al-Kalbī said: Aaron was Mary’s brother on her father’s side, and he was the most exemplary man among the Children of Israel.

Al-Suddī said: They meant by it only Aaron the brother of Moses, because she was of his descent, just as one says to a man of Tamīm: O brother of Tamīm.

It was also said: Aaron was a wicked man among the Children of Israel, greatly given to wickedness, and they likened her to him.

Your father, ʿImrān, was not a man of evil. Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: a fornicator; nor was your mother, Ḥannah, unchaste, that is, a fornicatress; so from where have you got this child?

On 19:29

Then she pointed, Mary pointed, to him, that is, to Jesus (peace be upon him), meaning: speak to him (19:29).

Ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with him) said: Since she had no argument, she pointed to him so that his speech might be her argument.

In the story it is related that when she pointed to him the people grew angry and said: On top of what you have done, do you mock us?

They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child?, that is, one who is in the cradle, which was her lap.

It was also said: It is the cradle itself, and kāna (“was”) has the meaning of “is”. Abū ʿUbaydah said: kāna is redundant, that is: how shall we speak to a child in the cradle? Kāna may occur in speech as a filler with no meaning, as in His words Was I ever anything but a human being, a messenger? (17:93), that is: am I anything but?

Al-Suddī said: When Jesus heard their words he left off suckling and turned to face them.

It was also said: When she pointed to him, he left the breast, leaned on his left side, turned to face them, and began to gesture with his right hand:

On 19:30-33

He said: I am the servant of God (19:30). Wahb said: Zachariah came to her during her dispute with the Jews and said to Jesus: Speak your argument, if you have been commanded to. Then Jesus (peace be upon him) said, being forty days old, though Muqātil said: rather, it was on the day he was born: I am the servant of God. He confessed of himself servanthood to God, Mighty and Majestic, as the first thing he spoke, lest he be taken as a god. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. It was said that its meaning is: He will give me the Book and make me a prophet.

It was also said: This is a report of what was written for him in the Preserved Tablet, just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked: When were you a prophet? and he said: “I was a prophet when Adam was between the spirit and the body.”

The majority said: He was given the Gospel while he was a small child, and he had the understanding of grown men.

From al-Ḥasan it is related that he said: He was inspired with the Torah while he was in his mother’s womb.

And He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31), that is, of great benefit wherever I turn. Mujāhid said: a teacher of good. ʿAṭāʾ said: calling to God, to His oneness and His worship. It was also said: blessed for whoever follows me.

And He has enjoined on me prayer and almsgiving, that is, He commanded me to perform them both.

If it is asked: Jesus had no wealth, so how could he be commanded to give alms?

It is answered: Its meaning is: almsgiving, had I wealth. It was also said: the doing of abundant good.

So long as I live. And dutiful to my mother (19:32), that is, and He has made me dutiful to my mother; and He has not made me arrogant or wretched, that is, disobedient to his Lord. It was said: “the wretched” (al-shaqī) is one who sins and does not repent.

And peace be upon me the day I was born (19:33), that is, safety at birth from the prodding of Satan.

And the day I die,

that is, at death, safety from associating partners with God; and the day I am raised up alive, safety from the terrors. When Jesus spoke to them with this, they knew Mary’s innocence. Then Jesus (peace be upon him) fell silent and did not speak after that until he reached the age at which children speak.

On 21:91

So We answered him and granted him John (21:90), as a son, and We set right for him his wife, that is, We made her able to bear children after she had been barren; so said most of the commentators. Some of them said: She was ill-tempered, and He set her right for him by granting her a good temper.

They, meaning the prophets whom He has named in this sūrah, used to hasten to good works and call upon Us in longing, in hope, and in dread, in fear: longing for the mercy of God and dread of the punishment of God; and they were humble before Us, that is, lowly. Qatādah said: submissive to the command of God. Mujāhid said: Humility is the abiding fear in the heart.

And she who guarded her chastity (21:91), kept it from what is forbidden; He means Mary daughter of ʿImrān. And We breathed into her of Our Spirit, that is, We commanded Gabriel until he breathed into the opening of her shift, and by that breath We brought the Messiah into being in her womb; and He attributed the Spirit to Himself as an honour to Jesus (peace be upon him). And We made her and her son a sign for the worlds, that is, a proof of the perfection of Our power to create a child without a father. He did not say “two signs”, though they are two signs, because the meaning of the words is: We made their condition and their affair a sign; and because the sign in the two of them was one, namely that she brought him forth without a male.

His words, Mighty and Majestic: This your community (21:92), that is, your religious community and your religion, is one community, that is, one religion, which is Islam; so He declared void every religion other than Islam. The root sense of “community” (ummah) is the group that is bent on a single aim, so the revealed law was made “one community” because its people are united upon a single aim. “Community” takes the accusative as a detached qualifier.

And I am your Lord, so worship Me.

But they split up their affair among themselves; all shall return to Us. (93) So whoever does righteous deeds while a believer, there shall be no denial of his endeavour, and We are recording it for him. (94) And it is forbidden for any town We have destroyed that they shall not return, (95) until, when Gog and Magog are let loose and they come swarming down from every height. (96)

But they split up their affair among themselves (21:93), that is, they differed in religion and became sects and factions. Al-Kalbī said: They divided their religion among themselves, cursing one another and disowning one another. “Splitting up” (taqaṭṭuʿ) here has the sense of “cutting up” (taqṭīʿ). All shall return to Us, and We shall recompense them for their deeds.

So whoever does righteous deeds while a believer, there shall be no denial of his endeavour (21:94): his endeavour shall not be denied nor made void; rather, it shall be acknowledged with thanks and rewarded. And We are recording it for him: preserving his deed. It was also said: The meaning of “thanks” on the part of God is recompense.

And it is forbidden for any town (21:95). Ḥamzah, al-Kisāʾī and Abū Bakr read wa-ḥirmun with kasrah on the ḥāʾ and without alif, while the rest read it with alif, ḥarāmun; they are two dialectal forms, like ḥill and ḥalāl.

Ibn ʿAbbās said: The meaning of the verse is: and it is forbidden for any town, that is, the people of any town, We have destroyed, that they should return after destruction; on this view the “not” is redundant. Others said: “forbidden” has the meaning of “incumbent”, and on this view the “not” stands in its own meaning; its sense is: it is incumbent upon the people of any town We have destroyed that they shall not return to this world.

Al-Zajjāj said: Its meaning is: and it is forbidden for the people of any town We have destroyed, that is, whose destruction We have decreed, that their deeds should be accepted, because they do not return, that is, they do not repent. The proof of this meaning is that He said in the verse before it: So whoever does righteous deeds while a believer, there shall be no denial of his endeavour, that is, his deed is accepted, and then mentioned this verse immediately after it and made plain that the unbeliever’s deed is not accepted.

His words, Mighty and Majestic: Until, when they are let loose (21:96). Ibn ʿĀmir, Abū Jaʿfar and Yaʿqūb read futtiḥat with doubling, to express abundance, and the others read it without doubling. Gog and Magog: He means that the barrier is opened to release Gog and Magog, and they from every height, that is, every rise and hill, the ḥadab being the elevated place, come swarming down, hastening down from the hillocks and hills like the loping of the wolf, which is the swiftness of its gait. They differed about this pronoun. One group said: Gog and Magog are meant by it, as shown by what we have related from al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān, from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said: “And God will send Gog and Magog, and they will come swarming down from every height.” Another group said: He meant all created beings, that is, that they come out of their graves; this is supported by the reading of Mujāhid, “and they from every grave (jadath)”, with jīm and thāʾ, as He said: And behold, from the graves to their Lord they come swarming (36:51).

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī informed us: ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Muḥammad al-Fārisī informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Julūdī informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān informed us: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj informed us: Abū Khaythamah Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb informed us: Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah informed us, from Furāt al-Qazzāz, from Abū al-Ṭufayl, from Ḥudhayfah ibn Usayd al-Ghifārī, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) looked in on us while we were talking among ourselves, and said: What are you discussing? They said: We are discussing the Hour. He said: “It will not come until you see ten signs before it,” and he mentioned the smoke, the Antichrist, the beast, the rising of the sun from its place of setting, the descent of Jesus son of Mary, Gog and Magog, and three sinkings of the earth: a sinking in the west, a sinking in the east and a sinking in the Arabian peninsula; “and the last of these is a fire that will come out of Yemen, driving the people to their place of gathering.”

On 23:50

Then We sent Moses and his brother Aaron with Our signs and a manifest authority (23:45), that is, with a clear proof: the hand, the staff and others besides.

To Pharaoh and his chiefs, but they were arrogant (23:46), they held themselves too great for faith, and they were a haughty people: proud, subduing others by oppression.

And they said (23:47), meaning Pharaoh and his people: Shall we believe in two human beings like ourselves, meaning Moses and Aaron, while their people are our servants?, obedient to us and abased before us; the Arabs call everyone who submits to a king his “servant” (ʿābid).

So they denied them both and were among those destroyed (23:48), by drowning.

And We gave Moses the Book (23:49), the Torah, that they might be guided, that is, so that his people might be guided by it.

And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50), a proof of Our power. He did not say “two signs”. It was said that its meaning is: their condition is a sign. It was also said that its meaning is: We made each one of them a sign, as in His words, Exalted: Each of the two gardens brought forth its produce (18:33).

And We gave them refuge on a height. The height (rabwah) is the elevated piece of ground. Opinions about it differed. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām said: It is Damascus, and this is the view of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and Muqātil. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: The Ghūṭah of Damascus. Abū Hurayrah said: It is Ramla. ʿAṭāʾ related from Ibn ʿAbbās: It is Jerusalem, and this is the view of Qatādah and Kaʿb. Kaʿb said: It is the nearest part of the earth to heaven, by eighteen miles. Ibn Zayd said: It is Egypt. Al-Suddī said: The land of Palestine.

Possessing a place of rest, that is, level, spread out and spacious, upon which those who dwell there may settle.

And a flowing spring. The maʿīn is the running water, visible to the eye, which the eyes see; it is a passive participle from ʿānahu yaʿīnuhu, when sight perceives a thing.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE), about 14,570 words

On 3:42

His words, Exalted: God has chosen you (3:42), that is, selected you; and this has already been discussed.

and purified you, that is, from unbelief, according to Mujāhid and al-Ḥasan. Al-Zajjāj: from all impurities, such as menstruation, post-natal bleeding and others; and chose you for the birth of Jesus, above the women of the worlds, meaning the people of her own time, according to al-Ḥasan, Ibn Jurayj and others. It was said: “above the women of the worlds” altogether, until the Day of the Trumpet; this is the correct view, as we shall explain, and it is the view of al-Zajjāj and others. He repeated the choosing because the meaning of the first is the choosing for His worship, and the meaning of the second is for the birth of Jesus. Muslim related from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many men have attained perfection, but no women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd⁵⁰ over all other food.” Our scholars (God’s mercy be upon them) said: perfection (kamāl) is reaching the utmost limit and completeness; in its past tense one says kamala with a fatḥah on the mīm and kamula with a ḍammah, and yakmulu in its imperfect with a ḍammah; and the perfection of each thing is according to its kind. Absolute perfection belongs to God, Exalted, alone. There is no doubt that the most perfect of the human species are the prophets, and after them come the friends of God (awliyāʾ) among the truthful ones (ṣiddīqūn), the martyrs and the righteous. This being established, it has been said that by the perfection mentioned in the ḥadīth is meant prophethood, and it would follow from this that Mary (peace be upon her) and Āsiyah were two prophetesses; and this has indeed been said. The correct view is that Mary was a prophetess, because God, Exalted, revealed to her through the medium of the angel just as He revealed to the rest of the prophets, in accordance with what has preceded, and its explanation will also come in “Maryam”. As for Āsiyah, nothing has come that clearly indicates her prophethood, but rather her being a truthful one (ṣiddīqah) and her excellence, as its explanation will come in “al-Taḥrīm”. It is related through sound channels that he (peace be upon him) said, in what Abū Hurayrah related from him: “The best women of the worlds are four: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah daughter of Muzāḥim the wife of Pharaoh, Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭimah daughter of Muḥammad.” And from the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “The most excellent of the women of the people of Paradise are Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid, Fāṭimah daughter of Muḥammad, Mary daughter of ʿImrān, and Āsiyah daughter of Muzāḥim the wife of Pharaoh.” And by another channel from him: “The mistress of the women of the people of Paradise, after Mary, is Fāṭimah, and Khadījah.” So the apparent sense of the Qurʾān and the ḥadīths requires that Mary is more excellent than all the women of the world, from Eve to the last woman upon whom the Hour will come, for the angels conveyed to her revelation from God, Mighty and Majestic, by way of legal obligation, information and glad tidings, just as they conveyed it to the rest of the prophets; she is therefore a prophetess, and the prophet is more excellent than the friend of God, so she is more excellent than all women, the first and the last of them, absolutely. Then after her in excellence is Fāṭimah, then Khadījah, then Āsiyah. Likewise Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah related it from Kurayb, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The mistress of the women of the worlds is Mary, then Fāṭimah, then Khadījah, then Āsiyah.” This is a good (ḥasan) ḥadīth which removes the difficulty. God singled out Mary for what He gave to no other woman, in that the Holy Spirit spoke to her, appeared to her, breathed into her shift and drew near to her for the breathing; this belongs to no other woman. She believed in the words of her Lord and did not ask for a sign when she was given the glad tidings, as Zachariah (peace and blessings be upon him) asked for a sign; and for that reason God named her in His revelation a truthful one, saying: and his mother was a truthful one (5:75), and He said: and she believed in the words of her Lord and His books, and was of the devoutly obedient (66:12). So He testified for her to truthfulness, He testified for her to belief in the words of the glad tidings, and He testified for her to devout obedience (qunūt). Zachariah was given glad tidings of a boy, and he looked to his advanced age and the barrenness of his wife’s womb and said: How shall I have a boy when my wife is barren? and he asked for a sign; while Mary was given the glad tidings of a boy, and she observed that she was a virgin whom no man had touched, and it was said to her: Thus said your Lord (19:21), and she confined herself to that, believed in the words of her Lord, and did not ask for a sign from one who knew the inner reality of this matter. What woman among all the women of the worlds, of the daughters of Adam, has what she has of these merits! For that reason it is related that she outstripped the foremost, together with the messengers, to Paradise. It has come in the report from him (peace and blessings be upon him): “Were I to swear, I would be true in my oath: none shall enter Paradise before the foremost of my community except some ten-odd men, among them Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the Tribes, Moses, Jesus and Mary daughter of ʿImrān.” It would have been incumbent on whoever lays claim to the knowledge of the outward and infers inward things from outward things to know the saying of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): “I am the master of the children of Adam, and no boast,” and his saying where he says: “The banner of praise on the Day of Resurrection will be in my hand, and the keys of generosity will be in my hand; I shall be the first preacher, the first intercessor, the first bearer of glad tidings, the first and the first.” He did not attain this lordship in this world over the messengers except for some mighty matter in the inward. So too is the case of Mary: she did not attain God’s testimony in the revelation to truthfulness and to belief in the words except for a near and close rank. Whoever says she was not a prophetess says: her seeing the angel was like the way Gabriel (peace be upon him) was seen in the form of Diḥyah al-Kalbī when he asked about Islam and faith, and the Companions did not thereby become prophets. But the first view is more evident, and the majority hold it. And God knows best.

On 3:43

O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate and bow with those who bow (3:43), that is, prolong the standing in prayer, according to Mujāhid. Qatādah: persevere in obedience. The discussion of devout obedience (qunūt) has already preceded. Al-Awzāʿī said: When the angels said that to her, she stood in prayer until her feet swelled and ran with blood and pus (peace be upon her).

and prostrate and bow: prostration is placed here before bowing because the wāw does not require sequence; the disagreement on this has already preceded in al-Baqarah, at His words, Exalted: Surely al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are among the rites of God (2:158). So if I say “Zayd and ʿAmr stood”, it is possible that ʿAmr stood before Zayd; on this the meaning would be: and bow and prostrate. It was said: their law had prostration before bowing.

with those who bow: it was said that its meaning is, do as they do, even if you do not pray with them. It was said: what is meant by it is the congregational prayer. This has already preceded in al-Baqarah.

On 3:44

It contains four matters.

The first: His words, Exalted: That is of the tidings of the unseen (3:44), that is, what We have mentioned of the story of Zachariah, John and Mary (peace be upon them) is of the reports of the unseen.

which We reveal to you: in this is a proof of the prophethood of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), since he gave information about the story of Zachariah and Mary when he had not read the scriptures; he told of that, and the People of the Book confirmed him in it. That is His words, Exalted, “which We reveal to you”, the pronoun being referred back to “that”, and hence it is so. Revelation (īḥāʾ) here is the sending to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Revelation (waḥy) may be inspiration, intimation and other things. Its root meaning in the language is making known in secret, and for that reason inspiration came to be called waḥy; of this is And when I revealed to the disciples (5:111) and His words: And your Lord revealed to the bee (16:68). It was said: the meaning of “I revealed to the disciples” is: I commanded them. One says waḥā and awḥā, like ramā and armā, with the same meaning. Al-ʿAjjāj said:

He commanded it to be still, and it became still,

that is, He commanded the earth to be still. In the ḥadīth: “al-waḥy, al-waḥy!”, meaning haste, and the verb from it is tawaḥḥaytu tawaḥḥiyan. Ibn Fāris said: waḥy is a sign, writing and a message, and everything you convey to another so that he knows it is waḥy, however it may be. Al-waḥy is also the swift one, and al-waḥā is the voice; and one says istawḥaynāhum, that is, we called on them for help. The poet said:

I called for her on Maymūn and on al-Azrāq.

The second: His words, Exalted, and you were not with them, that is, you were not, O Muḥammad, with them, that is, in their presence and among them, when they cast their pens: the plural of qalam, from qalamahu, when one cuts it. It was said: their divining arrows and their shafts. It was said: their pens with which they used to write the Torah, and this is better, because God has forbidden divining arrows (azlām), saying that is iniquity (5:3); except that it is possible that they did it in a manner other than that in which the people of the Jāhiliyyah used to do it.

as to which of them should have charge of Mary, that is, should foster her. Zachariah said: I have the best right to her; her maternal aunt is with me. He had with him Ashyaʿ daughter of Fāqūdh, the sister of Ḥannah daughter of Fāqūdh, the mother of Mary. The Children of Israel said: We have the best right to her; she is the daughter of our scholar. So they cast lots for her, and each one came with his pen, and they agreed to place the pens in the running water: whoever’s pen stood still and the water did not carry it away would be her foster-guardian. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The pens were carried off, and the pen of Zachariah rose up.” It was a sign for him, because he was a prophet, and signs run at the hands of prophets. Other things than this have been said. “Which of them should have charge of Mary” is a subject and predicate in the position of the accusative governed by the implied verb which the discourse indicates, the implied sense being: they look to see which of them should have charge of Mary. The verb does not govern the word “which” (ayy) itself, because it is an interrogative.

The third: Some of our scholars adduced this verse as proof for the establishment of casting lots (qurʿah). It is a principle in our law for everyone who wishes to be just in division, and it is a Sunnah according to the majority of the jurists between parties equal in their claim, so that justice may be done between them, their hearts be set at rest, and suspicion be lifted from whoever undertakes their division, and none of them be preferred over his fellow when what is divided is of one kind, in following of the Book and the Sunnah. Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions rejected acting by lot, rejected the ḥadīths that have come concerning it, and claimed that it has no meaning and that it resembles the divining arrows which God forbade. But Ibn al-Mundhir related from Abū Ḥanīfah that he permitted it and said: the lot does not hold up on analogy, but we abandoned analogy in that and took to the reports and the Sunnah. Abū ʿUbayd said: three of the prophets acted by lot: Jonah, Zachariah and our Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Ibn al-Mundhir said: the employment of the lot is like a consensus of the people of knowledge in what is divided between partners, so there is no sense in the statement of whoever rejects it. Al-Bukhārī gave as a chapter heading at the end of the Book of Testimonies: “Chapter on the lot in difficult matters, and the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, ‘when they cast their pens’”, and he adduced the ḥadīth of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr: “The likeness of the one who stands firm upon the limits of God and the one who is lax in them is the likeness of a people who drew lots for places on a ship…”, the ḥadīth; it will come in “al-Anfāl”, God Exalted willing, and in Sūrat “al-Zukhruf” also, by the power of God, Glorified; and the ḥadīth of Umm al-ʿAlāʾ, and that the lot of ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn fell to them in the matter of lodging when the Anṣār drew lots for the lodging of the Emigrants, the ḥadīth; and the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah, who said: When the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) intended a journey he would draw lots among his wives, and whichever of them it was whose lot came out, he would take her with him; and he mentioned the ḥadīth. The transmission from Mālik differs on this: once he said: lots are drawn, on account of the ḥadīth; and once he said: he travels with whichever of them is most suitable for him on the journey. And the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “If people knew what is in the call to prayer and the first row, and then found no way but to draw lots for it, they would draw lots.” The ḥadīths to this effect are many. The manner of casting the lot is mentioned in the books of jurisprudence and of juristic disagreement. Abū Ḥanīfah argued by saying: the lot in the affair of Zachariah and of the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was among the things which, had they agreed upon them by mutual consent without a lot, it would have been permissible. Ibn al-ʿArabī said: “This is weak, because the benefit of the lot is only to bring out the hidden ruling when there is contention; as for what mutual consent brings out, that is another matter, and it is not sound for anyone to say that the lot operates alongside the place of mutual consent, for it never occurs together with mutual consent”; it occurs only in what people contend over and are covetous of. The manner of the lot according to al-Shāfiʿī and those who hold it is that small equal slips are cut, and on each slip is written the name of the holder of a share; then they are placed in equal pellets of clay with no disparity between them, then dried a little, then thrown into the garment of a man who was not present at that, and he covers them with his garment, then puts in his hand and draws out; and when he draws out a man’s name, that man is given the portion for which the lot was cast.
The fourth: The verse also indicates that the maternal aunt has the best right to custody (ḥaḍānah) among all the relatives apart from the grandmother. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ruled in the case of the daughter of Ḥamzah, whose name was Amat Allāh, in favour of Jaʿfar, whose wife was her maternal aunt, and said: “The maternal aunt is in the position of the mother.” This matter has already preceded in al-Baqarah. Abū Dāwūd related from ʿAlī, who said: Zayd ibn Ḥārithah went out to Mecca and came back with the daughter of Ḥamzah. Jaʿfar said: I shall take her; I have the best right to her: she is my paternal uncle’s daughter and her maternal aunt is my wife, and the maternal aunt is a mother. ʿAlī said: I have the best right to her: she is my paternal uncle’s daughter, and the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) is my wife, so she has the best right to her. Zayd said: I have the best right to her; I went out to her, travelled and brought her back. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out, and he mentioned a ḥadīth, and said: “As for the girl, I rule that she goes to Jaʿfar, to be with her maternal aunt, for the maternal aunt is a mother.” Ibn Abī Khaythamah mentioned that Zayd ibn Ḥārithah was the executor (waṣī) of Ḥamzah; so on this the maternal aunt has a better right than the executor, and the paternal cousin, when he is the husband, does not cut off the maternal aunt’s right to custody even though he is not a maḥram⁵¹ to her.

On 3:45-46

A proof of her prophethood, as has already been stated. “When” (idh) is connected to “they were disputing”; and it is possible that it is connected to His words “and you were not with them”.

of a word from Him (3:45): Abū al-Sammāl⁵² read “bi-kilmatin minhu”, and this has already been discussed.

whose name is the Messiah: He did not say “her name” because the meaning of “word” is the meaning of “child”. The Messiah (al-Masīḥ) is a title of Jesus, and its meaning is “the truthful one” (ṣiddīq), so said Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī. It is, according to what is said, an arabicised word whose original has a shīn, and it is a homonym. Ibn Fāris said: al-masīḥ is sweat; al-masīḥ is the truthful one; al-masīḥ is the smooth dirham with no stamp on it; al-masḥ is sexual intercourse, one says masaḥahā; al-amsaḥ is a smooth place; al-masḥāʾ is the flat-buttocked woman who has no rump; “on so-and-so there is a touch (masḥah) of beauty”; and al-masāʾiḥ are fine bows, the singular being masīḥah. The poet said:

She has bows curved at their flanks, pliant, with neither weakness nor brittleness in them.

There is disagreement as to what the Messiah son of Mary is derived from. It was said: because he traversed (masaḥa) the earth, that is, he went about in it and took no shelter in any dwelling. It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he did not touch (yamsaḥ) anyone with an infirmity but that he was healed, so it is as if he were named Masīḥ for that; on this it is of the form faʿīl with the sense of fāʿil. It was said: because he was anointed (mamsūḥ) with the oil of blessing, with which the prophets used to be anointed; it was sweet-smelling, and when one was anointed with it, it was known that he was a prophet. It was said: because the soles of his feet were flat (mamsūḥ al-akhmaṣayn). It was said: because beauty touched him, that is, befell him and was manifest upon him. It was said: he was named thus only because he was wiped (musiḥa) with purity from sins. Abū al-Haytham said: al-masīḥ is the opposite of al-masīkh; one says “God masaḥa him”, that is, created him with a fine, blessed creation, and “He masakha him”, that is, created him with an accursed, ugly creation. Ibn al-Aʿrābī said: al-masīḥ is the truthful one, and al-masīkh is the one-eyed, and by that the Dajjāl was named. Abū ʿUbayd said: al-Masīḥ in its origin is in Hebrew Mashīḥā with a shīn, and it was arabicised just as Mūshā was arabicised into Mūsā. As for the Dajjāl, he was named masīḥ because one of his eyes is wiped out. It has been said of the Dajjāl missīḥ, with a kasrah on the mīm and doubling of the sīn; some say it thus with the dotted khāʾ; and some say masīkh with a fatḥah on the mīm, with khāʾ and without doubling; but the first is the better known, and the majority hold it. He was named by it because he roams (yasīḥ) the earth, that is, goes round it and enters all its lands except Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem; so it is faʿīl with the sense of fāʿil: the Dajjāl traverses the earth as a trial, and the son of Mary traverses it as a gift. And on the view that he is wiped of eye, it is faʿīl with the sense of mafʿūl. The poet said:

Truly the Masīḥ shall slay the Masīḥ.

In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “There is no land but the Dajjāl will tread it, except Mecca and Medina”, the ḥadīth. In the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr there occurs: “except the Kaʿbah and Jerusalem”; Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī mentioned it. Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī added: “and the mosque of al-Ṭūr”, relating it from the ḥadīth of Junādah ibn Abī Umayyah, from one of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). In the ḥadīth of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, from Samurah ibn Jundub, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “and that he will prevail over the whole earth except the Sanctuary and Jerusalem, and that he will besiege the believers in Jerusalem”; and he mentioned the ḥadīth. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim: “While he is thus, God will send the Messiah son of Mary, and he will descend at the white minaret on the east of Damascus, between two saffron-dyed garments, placing his hands on the wings of two angels; when he lowers his head it drips, and when he raises it there fall from it beads like pearls; and it will not be possible for any unbeliever who finds the scent of his breath but that he dies, and his breath will reach as far as his sight reaches; and he will seek him until he overtakes him at the gate of Ludd⁵³ and kills him”, the ḥadīth, in its full length. It has been said that al-Masīḥ is a name of Jesus, not derived, by which God named him; on this, “Jesus” would be an appositive (badal) to “the Messiah”, of the kind of apposition in which the one is the other. ʿĪsā is a foreign name, and for that reason it is fully declinable in neither case; and if you make it Arabic, it is not fully declinable whether definite or indefinite, because it contains an alif of the feminine; and it would be derived from ʿāsahu yaʿūsuhu, when one manages a thing and takes charge of it.

honoured, that is, noble, possessing standing and worth; it is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl), so said al-Akhfash.

and of those brought near, to God, Exalted; it is conjoined to “honoured”, that is, “and brought near”, so said al-Akhfash. The plural of wajīh is wujahāʾ and wijhāʾ.

and he shall speak to people (3:46) is conjoined to “honoured”, so said al-Akhfash also. the cradle is the child’s place of lying during his suckling. Mahhadtu al-amr: I prepared the matter and made it smooth. In the revelation: they prepare for themselves (30:44). Imtahada al-shayʾ: the thing rose up, as the camel’s hump rises.

and in maturity: the mature man (kahl) is between the state of youth and the state of old age; and a woman is kahlah. Iktahalat al-rawḍah: the meadow became covered in blossom. He says: he speaks to people in the cradle as a sign, and he speaks to them in maturity with revelation and the message. Abū al-ʿAbbās said: he spoke to them in the cradle when he exonerated his mother, saying I am the servant of God (19:30), the verse; as for his speaking when a man of maturity, when God, Exalted, sends him down from heaven He will send him down in the form of a man of thirty-three years, which is the kahl, and he will say to them “I am the servant of God” just as he said in the cradle. So these are two signs and two proofs. Al-Mahdawī said: the benefit of the verse is that He informed them that Jesus (peace be upon him) would speak to them in the cradle and live until he spoke to them in maturity, since it was customary that one who spoke in the cradle did not live.

Al-Zajjāj said: “and in maturity” means “and he shall speak to people in maturity”. Al-Farrāʾ and al-Akhfash said: it is conjoined to “honoured”. It was said: the meaning is, and he shall speak to people as a small child and as a mature man. Ibn Jurayj related from Mujāhid, who said: the kahl is the forbearing one. Al-Naḥḥās said: this is not known in the language; the kahl according to the people of the language is only one who approaches forty. Some of them said: one is called a youth (ḥadath) until sixteen years, then a young man (shābb) until thirty-two, then he becomes a kahl at thirty-three; so said al-Akhfash.

and of the righteous is conjoined to “honoured”, that is, and he is of the righteous worshippers. Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah mentioned: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs related to us, from Ḥuṣayn, from Hilāl ibn Yisāf, who said: None spoke in the cradle except three: Jesus, the companion of Joseph, and the companion of Jurayj. Thus he said: “and the companion of Joseph”. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “None spoke in the cradle except three: Jesus son of Mary, the companion of Jurayj, and the companion of the tyrant; and while an infant was suckling from his mother…”, and he mentioned the ḥadīth in its full length. There has come from the ḥadīth of Ṣuhayb, in the story of the Trench (al-Ukhdūd): “that a woman was brought to be cast into the fire for her faith, and with her was a child”, and in other than the book of Muslim: “suckling, and she hung back from falling into it, and the boy said: O mother, be steadfast, for you are upon the truth.” Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: six spoke in the cradle: the witness of Joseph, the child of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s wife, Jesus, John, the companion of Jurayj, and the companion of the tyrant. He did not mention the Trench; so he left out the companion of the Trench, and with him those who spoke become seven. There is no contradiction between this and his words (peace be upon him), “None spoke in the cradle except three”, by way of restriction, for he informed of what was within his knowledge of what had been revealed to him at that time; then after this God, Exalted, taught him what He willed of that, and he informed of it. I say: as for the companion of Joseph, discussion of him will come; as for the companion of Jurayj, the companion of the tyrant and the companion of the Trench, they are in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim. The story of the Trench will come in Sūrat “al-Burūj”, God Exalted willing. As for the child of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s wife, al-Bayhaqī mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When I was taken on the night journey, I passed through a sweet fragrance and said: What is this fragrance? They said: The hairdresser of Pharaoh’s daughter and her children. Her comb fell from her hands and she said: In the name of God. Pharaoh’s daughter said: My father? She said: My Lord and your Lord and the Lord of your father. She said: Have you a Lord other than my father? She said: Yes, my Lord and your Lord and the Lord of your father is God. He said: So Pharaoh summoned her and said: Have you a Lord other than me? She said: Yes, my Lord and your Lord is God. He said: So he ordered a hollow vessel of copper, and it was heated, then he ordered that she be cast into it. She said: I have a request of you. He said: What is it? She said: That you gather my bones and the bones of my children in one place. He said: That is yours, because of the right you have over us. So he gave orders concerning them, and they were cast in one after another until it reached a suckling infant among them, who said: Plunge in, O mother, and do not hang back, for we are upon the truth. He said: And four spoke while they were small: this one, the witness of Joseph, the companion of Jurayj, and Jesus son of Mary.”

On 3:47

His words, Exalted: She said: My Lord (3:47), that is, O my master. She was addressing Gabriel (peace be upon him), because when he appeared to her in human form he said to her: I am only the messenger of your Lord, to bestow on you a pure boy. When she heard that from his words she enquired about the way the child would come, and said: How shall I have a child when no man has touched me? That is, by marriage. [In her sūrah:] nor have I been unchaste (19:20); she mentioned this for emphasis, because her words “no man has touched me” include the unlawful and the lawful. She is saying: the established custom which God has set in His creation is that a child comes only from marriage or fornication. It was said: she did not deem anything remote from the power of God, Exalted, but she wished to know how this child would come about: from a husband in the future, or would God create him from the first? It is related that Gabriel (peace be upon him), when he said to her “Thus God creates what He wills”, He said: Thus said your Lord: It is easy for Me (19:21), blew into the opening of her shift and her sleeve, so said Ibn Jurayj. Ibn ʿAbbās said: Gabriel took the cuff of her shirt with his finger and blew into it, and she conceived Jesus from that hour. Other things have been said, as will be explained in her sūrah, God Exalted willing. Some of them said: Gabriel’s breath fell into her womb, and she conceived by that. And some of them said: it is not permissible that the creation be from the breath of Gabriel, because then the child would be partly of the angels and partly of mankind; rather the cause of that is that God, Exalted, when He created Adam and took the covenant from his progeny, placed part of the fluid in the loins of fathers and part of it in the wombs of mothers, and when the two fluids come together they become a child; and God, Exalted, placed both fluids together in Mary, part in her womb and part in her loins, and Gabriel blew into it so that her desire might be stirred, because a woman does not conceive so long as her desire is not stirred; and when her desire was stirred by Gabriel’s breath, the fluid that was in her loins fell into her womb, and the two fluids mingled, and she conceived by that. That is His words, Exalted: when He decrees a matter, meaning when He wishes to create a creature, He only says to it: Be, and it is (3:47). The discussion of this has already been given in full in “al-Baqarah”.

On 19:16-26

His words, Exalted: And mention in the Book Mary (19:16), that is, her story to its end. This is the beginning of a story which is not part of the preceding one. The address is to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), that is: make her story known to them so that they may know the perfection of Our power.

when she withdrew (19:16), that is, she went aside and drew apart. Nabdh is casting and throwing; God, Exalted, said: but they cast it behind their backs (3:187).

from her people (19:16), that is, from those who were with her. “When” (idh) stands in apposition (badal) to “Mary”, an apposition of inclusion (badal ishtimāl), because times include whatever takes place in them. Withdrawal (intibādh) is seclusion and being alone. People differed as to why she withdrew. Al-Suddī said: she withdrew to purify herself from menstruation or post-natal bleeding. Others said: in order to worship God, and this is good. That is because Mary (peace be upon her) was dedicated to the custody of the sanctuary, to its service and to worship in it, so she went aside from the people for that purpose and entered the sanctuary beside the prayer-niche (miḥrāb), on its eastern side, to be alone for worship, and Gabriel (peace be upon him) came in to her. So His words an eastern place (19:16) mean a place on the eastern side. Al-sharq, with the rāʾ unvowelled, is the place in which the sun rises, and al-sharaq, with the rāʾ vowelled with a, is the sun. The place was specified as eastern only because they used to venerate the direction of the east, from where the lights rise, and the eastern side of everything was more excellent, in their eyes, than any other; al-Ṭabarī related this. It is related of Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: I am the most knowledgeable of people as to why the Christians took the east as their direction of prayer (qiblah): it is because of the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place; so they took the birthplace of Jesus (peace be upon him) as a direction of prayer, and they said: had any part of the earth been better than the east, Mary would have given birth to Jesus (peace be upon him) there. People differed about the prophethood of Mary. It was said: she was a prophetess, by virtue of this sending and her conversing with the angel. And it was said: she was not a prophetess; rather what spoke to her was something in the likeness of a human being, and her seeing the angel was like Gabriel (peace be upon him) being seen in the form of Diḥyah al-Kalbī when he asked about faith and Islam. The first is the more evident. The discussion of this matter has already been given in full in Āl ʿImrān, and praise be to God.

His words, Exalted: then We sent to her Our Spirit (19:17). It was said: it is the spirit of Jesus (peace be upon him), because God, Exalted, created the spirits before the bodies, and He placed the spirit in the body of Jesus (peace be upon him) which He created in her womb. And it was said: it is Gabriel, and the spirit was ascribed to God, Exalted, by way of distinction and honour. The evident meaning is that it is Gabriel (peace be upon him), because of His words and he appeared to her (19:17), that is, the angel took on a form before her.

as a human being (19:17): an explanatory term, or a circumstantial accusative (ḥāl).

well-proportioned (19:17), that is, of even constitution, because she could not have borne, or looked upon, Gabriel in his own form. When she saw a man of handsome appearance, in human form, who had broken through the veil upon her, she thought that he meant her harm, so she said: I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that is, one of those who fear God. Al-Bikālī said: Gabriel (peace be upon him) recoiled in alarm at the mention of the All-Merciful, Blessed and Exalted. Al-Thaʿlabī said: he was a righteous man, so she sought refuge against him out of astonishment. And it was said: taqī is of the pattern faʿīl in the sense of mafʿūl, that is: if you were one against whom refuge is sought. In al-Bukhārī, Abū Wāʾil said: Mary knew that the God-fearing man is possessed of restraint when she said if you are God-fearing. And it was said: Taqī was the name of a notorious profligate of that time; Wahb ibn Munabbih said this, and Makkī and others related it. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: it is weak and goes along with mere conjecture. Then Gabriel (peace be upon him) said to her: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to give you a pure boy (19:19).

He made the gift come from himself, since the announcement of it came from him. Warsh, from Nāfiʿ, read “li-yahaba laki” (“that He may give you”), in the sense of: God sent me that He might give you. And it was said: the meaning of “li-ahaba” with the hamzah is construed according to the sense, that is, He said: I sent him that I might give you. And “li-yahaba” without hamzah may possibly be in the sense of the form with hamzah, the hamzah having then been lightened. When Mary heard this from him she asked about the manner of it, and she said: how shall I have a boy when no man has touched me (19:20), that is, by marriage.

nor have I been unchaste (19:20), that is, a fornicatress. She mentioned this for emphasis, because her words “no man has touched me” cover both the lawful and the unlawful. And it was said: she did not consider anything beyond the power of God, Exalted, but she wished to know how this child would come about: through a husband in the future, or would God create him directly? It is related that Gabriel (peace be upon him), when he said these words to her, blew into the opening of her garment and her sleeve; Ibn Jurayj said this. Ibn ʿAbbās said: Gabriel (peace be upon him) took the sleeve of her shift with his finger and blew into it, and she conceived Jesus that very hour. Al-Ṭabarī said: the Christians claimed that Mary conceived Jesus when she was thirteen years old, that Jesus lived until he was raised up thirty-two years and some days, and that Mary remained six years after his being raised, so that her whole lifetime was fifty-odd years. His words and that We may make him (19:21) are connected to an elided verb, that is: and We create him so that We may make him a sign, a wondrous proof of Our power, and a mercy, that is, for whoever believes in him.

and it was a matter decreed (19:21): predetermined, written on the Tablet.

His words, Exalted: So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a distant place (19:22), that is, she went aside with the pregnancy to a far-off place. Ibn ʿAbbās said: to the farthest end of the valley, which is the valley of Bethlehem, between which and Aelia⁵⁴ there are four miles. She went far off only to flee from her people’s reproaching her for giving birth without a husband. Ibn ʿAbbās said: no sooner had she conceived than she gave birth at once; and this is the evident meaning, because God, Exalted, mentioned the withdrawal immediately after the conception. And other things were said, as will come. His words, Exalted: then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree (19:23). “Ajāʾahā” means “compelled her”; it is the verb jāʾa made transitive by the hamzah. One says jāʾa bihi and ajāʾahu to such-and-such a place, just as one says dhahaba bihi and adhhabahu. Shubayl read, and it is also related from ʿĀṣim, “fājaʾahā” (“came upon her suddenly”), from mufājaʾah. In the codex of Ubayy: “and when the pangs of childbirth drove her”. Zuhayr said:

And many a protected neighbour journeyed purposefully to us, driven to us by fear and by hope.

The majority read “al-makhāḍ” with a on the mīm, and Ibn Kathīr, in what is related from him, with i; it is the labour pains, the severity of childbirth and its pangs. One says makhiḍat al-marʾatu tamkhaḍu makhāḍan and mikhāḍan; and nāqatun mākhiḍ means a she-camel whose time of giving birth has drawn near. to the trunk of the palm tree: it is as though she sought something to lean upon and cling to, as a woman in labour clings because of the severity of the pains of childbirth. The trunk (jidhʿ) is the stem of the dried palm in the desert which has neither fronds nor branch upon it, and for this reason He did not say “to the palm tree”.

She said: would that I had died before this (19:23). Mary (peace be upon her) wished for death for reasons of religion, on two counts. The first: she feared that evil would be thought of her in her religion and that she would be reproached, and that this would be a trial to her. The second: lest a people should fall, on her account, into slander and the imputation of fornication, and that is destructive. Within this limit the wishing for death is permissible, and this matter has already been explained in the sūrah of Joseph (peace be upon him), and praise be to God. I say: I have heard that Mary (peace be upon her) heard the call of one who said: “Come forth, O you who shall be worshipped apart from God!” and she grieved at that and said: would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, consigned to oblivion (19:23). Nisy in the speech of the Arabs is the paltry thing whose nature it is to be forgotten and whose loss causes no pain, like a tent-peg or a rope for the traveller, and the like.

It is related of the Arabs that when they wanted to depart from a camping place they would say: “Look to your ansāʾ“; ansāʾ is the plural of nisy, which is the paltry thing that is overlooked and so forgotten. From this is the saying of al-Kumayt (may God, Exalted, be pleased with him):

Do you make us a bridge for Kalb of Quḍāʿah, when I am no forgotten trifle among Maʿadd, nor an interloper?

Al-Farrāʾ said: nisy is what a woman casts away of the rags of her monthly indisposition, so Mary’s words “nasyan mansiyyan” mean a discarded menstrual cloth. It was also read “nasyan” with a on the nūn, and the two are dialectal variants like ḥijr and ḥajar, witr and watr. Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī read with hamzah, “nisʾan“, with i on the nūn. Nawf al-Bikālī read “nasʾan” with a on the nūn, from nasaʾa Allāhu fī ajalihi, that is, He deferred his term. Abū al-Fatḥ and al-Dānī related this from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb. Bakr ibn Ḥabīb read “nassan” with the sīn doubled and a on the nūn, without hamzah. Al-Ṭabarī related among her stories that when she conceived Jesus (peace be upon him) her sister also conceived John, and her sister came to visit her and said: “Mary, have you perceived that I am with child?” And she said to her: “And I find that what is in my womb bows down to what is in your womb.” That is because it is related that she felt her unborn child bowing with its head towards the side of Mary’s womb. Al-Suddī said: that is His word: confirming a word from God, and a chief, and chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous (3:39). It is also mentioned among her stories that she went out in flight with a man of the Children of Israel called Joseph the carpenter, who used to serve with her in the sanctuary, and the narrator went on at length about this. Al-Kalbī said: Joseph was told, it having been given out to him that she had conceived by fornication: “Now the king will kill her”, so he fled with her; and on the road he was minded to kill her, but Gabriel (peace be upon him) came to him and said to him: “He is from the Holy Spirit.” Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: all of this is weak. This story requires that she conceived and continued pregnant in the customary way of women, and the reports concur that she gave birth to him after eight months; ʿIkrimah said this, and for this reason it is said that no eight-months’ child lives, in order to preserve the special distinction of Jesus. And it was said: she bore him after nine; and it was said: after six. And what we have mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās is the soundest and most evident. And God knows best.

His words, Exalted: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24). It was read with a on the mīm and with i.⁵⁵ Ibn ʿAbbās said: what is meant by “man” is Gabriel, and Jesus did not speak until she brought him to her people; ʿAlqamah, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Qatādah said this too. In this there was for her a sign and a token that this was one of those matters that break the ordinary course of things, in which God, Exalted, has a mighty purpose. His words do not grieve (19:24) are the explanation of the call, and “an” is explicative, in the sense of “that is”; the meaning is: so do not grieve over your giving birth.

Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), meaning Jesus. The sarī among men is the one great in qualities, the chief. Al-Ḥasan said: by God, he was a sarī among men. One says sariya fulānun ʿalā fulānin, meaning he showed himself generous towards him; and so-and-so is a sarī from a people who are sarāh. The majority said: he pointed her to the stream which was near the trunk of the palm tree. Ibn ʿAbbās said: it was a river whose water had ceased to flow, and God, Exalted, made it flow for Mary. The river is called sarī because the water runs (yasrī) in it. The poet said:

A one-handled bucket, from which you see the drawer of water bent askew; when it gulps in the stream, it gurgles.⁵⁶

And Labīd said:

So the two of them waded into the midst of the stream and cleft a brimming pool whose rushes grew close together.⁵⁷

And it was said: it was Jesus who called to her, and that was a miracle and a sign and a comfort to her heart; but the first is the more evident. Ibn ʿAbbās read: “then an angel called to her from beneath her”. They said: Gabriel (peace be upon him) was on a spot of ground lower than the spot on which she was.

His words, Exalted: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates. So eat and drink and be comforted (19:25-26). In this there are four questions:

The first: His words, Exalted, and shake. He commanded her to shake the dry trunk so that she might see another sign in the quickening of the dead trunk. The bāʾ in His words “bi-jidhʿ” is redundant, for emphasis, as one says khudh bi-l-zimām (“take hold of the rein”) and aʿṭi bi-yadika (“give with your hand”). God, Exalted, said: let him stretch out a rope to the heaven (22:15), that is, let him stretch out a rope. And it was said: the meaning is, shake towards you fresh dates upon the trunk of the palm tree. “Tusāqaṭ” means tatasāqaṭ, the tāʾ being assimilated into the sīn. Ḥamzah read “tasāqaṭ” lightened, dropping the letter which the others assimilated. ʿĀṣim, in the transmission of Ḥafṣ, read “tusāqiṭ” with u on the tāʾ, lightened, and i on the qāf. It was also read “tatasāqaṭ” with both tāʾs pronounced, and “yassāqaṭ” with yāʾ and assimilation of the tāʾ, and “tusqiṭ” and “yusqiṭ” and “tasquṭ” and “yasquṭ“, with the tāʾ for the palm tree and with the yāʾ for the trunk; these are nine readings which al-Zamakhsharī (the mercy of God, Exalted, be upon him) mentioned. “Ruṭaban” is in the accusative governed by the shaking, that is: when you shake the trunk you shake down, by shaking it, fresh ripe dates. In sum, the accusative of “ruṭaban” differs according to the meanings of the readings: sometimes the verb is ascribed to the trunk, sometimes to the shaking, and sometimes to the palm tree. “Janiyyan” means that they have become good and fit for gathering; it is from janaytu al-thamarata (“I gathered the fruit”). It is related from Ibn Masʿūd, and it is not sound, that he read “it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates, barnī“.⁵⁸ Mujāhid said of fresh ripe dates: they were ʿajwah.⁵⁹ ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl said: I asked Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ about His words fresh ripe dates, and he said: “which have not withered”. He said: and its explanation is: they have not dried, nor become hard, nor gone far from the hands of the one gathering them; and this is the correct view. Al-Farrāʾ said: janī and majnī are one and the same, holding that the two are on a par with qatīl and maqtūl, jarīḥ and majrūḥ. Others besides al-Farrāʾ said: janī is what is cut from a single palm tree and taken from the place where it grew; and they recited:

And the goodness of fruits in fertile meadows, and branches of trees whose gathered fruit is near at hand.

By al-janā he means what is gathered from them, that is, cut and taken. Ibn ʿAbbās said: it was a rotten trunk, and when she shook it she looked up to the top of the trunk and there were the fronds sprouting; then she looked at the spadix, which had come out from among the fronds; then it turned green and became green dates, then it reddened and became ripening dates, then fresh ripe dates, all that in the twinkling of an eye; and the fresh dates began to fall before her, none of them being bruised.

The second: some people drew from this verse the proof that provision, though it is decreed, God, Exalted, has nonetheless entrusted the son of Adam to some effort for it, because He commanded Mary to shake the palm tree so that she might see a sign, whereas the sign could have come about without her shaking.
The third: the command imposing the obligation of earning in the matter of provision is the way (sunnah) of God, Exalted, with His servants, and that does not impair reliance upon God (tawakkul), contrary to what the ignorant among those who affect asceticism say; this matter and the dispute about it have already been given. Before this her provision used to come to her without earning, as He said: Whenever Zachariah entered the prayer-niche to her he found provision with her (3:37), the verse. But when she gave birth she was commanded to shake the trunk. Our scholars said: when her heart was free, God freed her limbs from toil; but when she gave birth to Jesus and her heart became attached to his love, and her inmost self was occupied with talk of him and his affair, He entrusted her to her own earning and returned her to the custom of attachment to secondary causes that prevails among His servants. Al-Ṭabarī related from Ibn Zayd that Jesus (peace be upon him) said to her: “Do not grieve”, and she said to him: “How should I not grieve, when you are with me, I being neither a married woman nor a slave-girl! What excuse have I before the people?! Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, consigned to oblivion.” And Jesus said to her: “I will suffice you for the speaking.”
The fourth: al-Rabīʿ ibn Khaytham said: in my view there is nothing better for the woman in childbed than fresh ripe dates, on account of this verse; had God known anything more excellent than fresh ripe dates for the woman in childbed, He would have fed it to Mary. For this reason they said: dates have been the custom for women in childbed from that time, and likewise the rubbing of the newborn’s palate with dates (taḥnīk). And it was said: when a woman’s delivery is difficult there is nothing better for her than fresh ripe dates, nor for the sick anything better than honey; al-Zamakhsharī mentioned this. Ibn Wahb said: Mālik said: God, Exalted, said fresh ripe dates; the janī among dates is what has ripened without naqsh and without spoiling. Naqsh is to prick the unripe date from below so that it softens; this is disapproved. Mālik means that this is the hastening of a thing before its time, so no one ought to do it, and if someone does it, that does not make its sale permissible, nor is it a judgement that it has ripened. This statement has already been given in al-Anʿām, and praise be to God. From Ṭalḥah ibn Sulaymān: “jiniyyan” with i on the jīm, by vowel assimilation. That is: We have put for you in the stream and the fresh dates two benefits, the first of them eating and drinking, and the second solace of the breast, since they are both miracles; and this is the meaning of His words, Exalted, so eat and drink and be comforted, that is, eat of the gathered dates and drink of the stream, and be comforted, literally “be cool of eye”, at the sight of the child who is a prophet. It was read with a on the qāf, and this is the reading of the majority; al-Ṭabarī related the reading “wa-qirrī” with i on the qāf, which is the dialect of Najd. One says qarra ʿaynan yaqurru and yaqirru, with u and with i on the qāf, and aqarra Allāhu ʿaynahu fa-qarrat (“God cooled his eye and it was cooled”). It is taken from qurr and qurrah, both of which mean coldness; the tear of joy is cold and the tear of grief is hot. One party considered this weak and said: all tears are hot; so the meaning of “God cooled his eye” is that God stilled his eye by looking upon the one he loves, so that it settles and is at rest; and “so-and-so is the coolness of my eye” means my soul is at rest in his nearness. Al-Shaybānī said: and be comforted means “sleep”; He urged her to eat, drink and sleep. Abū ʿAmr said: “God cooled his eye” means He made his eye sleep and took away his sleeplessness. “ʿAynan” is in the accusative as a specification (tamyīz), as in your saying ṭib nafsan (“be of good cheer”). The action in reality belongs to the eye, but it was transferred to the possessor of the eye, and that which was in reality the agent is put in the accusative by way of explanation. Like it are ṭibtu nafsan, tafaqqaʾtu shaḥman (“I burst with fat”) and taṣabbabtu ʿaraqan (“I streamed with sweat”), and the like of this is frequent.

His words, Exalted: And if you see any human being, say: I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful (19:26). In this there are three questions:

The first: His words, Exalted, and if you see (fa-immā tarayinna). The original form of tarayinna is tarʾayīna; the hamzah was dropped as it is dropped from tarā, and its vowel a was transferred to the rāʾ, giving tarayīna; then the first yāʾ was changed into an alif because it was vowelled and the letter before it bore a, so two unvowelled letters met, the alif changed from yāʾ and the yāʾ of the feminine; so the alif was dropped because of the meeting of two unvowelled letters, giving tarayna; then the nūn was dropped as the mark of the jussive, because in is a conditional particle and mā is an added connective, leaving taray; then the nūn of emphasis, which is doubled, was attached to it, and the yāʾ of the feminine was given i because of the meeting of two unvowelled letters, since the doubled nūn is on a par with two nūns the first of which is unvowelled, giving tarayinna. On this pattern is the saying of Ibn Durayd:

If you see my head, its colour mimicking⁶⁰

And the saying of al-Afwah:

If you see my head, brought low by⁶¹

The nūn was introduced here only by the preparatory “mā“, just as the lām of the oath also prepares for its introduction. Ṭalḥah, Abū Jaʿfar and Shaybah read “tarayna” with the yāʾ unvowelled and a on a light nūn; Abū al-Fatḥ said: it is anomalous.

The second: His words, Exalted, say: I have vowed. This is the apodosis of the condition, and there is an ellipsis in it, that is: and he asks you about your child, then say: I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful, that is, a silence; Ibn ʿAbbās and Anas ibn Mālik said this. In the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: “I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, a silence”, and it is related from Anas.

From him also: “and a silence”, with a wāw. The difference between the two wordings indicates that the word was mentioned as explanation, not as Qurʾān, and when it comes with a wāw it is possible that it is something other than the fast. What the reports from the people of ḥadīth and the transmitters of the language consistently convey is that the fast is the silence, because fasting is abstention and silence is abstention from speech. And it was said: it is the fast as commonly understood, and they were obliged to keep silent on the day of fasting except by signs; and on this the reading of Anas “and a silence”, with a wāw, is explained, namely that silence was, with them, made binding in the fast by the vow, just as when one of us vows to walk to the House, that entails entering the sacred state (iḥrām) for the pilgrimage or the lesser pilgrimage. The meaning of this verse is that God, Exalted, commanded her by the tongue of Gabriel (peace be upon him), or of her son, according to the foregoing difference of opinion, to refrain from addressing human beings and to refer them to her son in this matter, so that her embarrassment might be lifted from her and the sign become manifest, and her excuse thereby stand. The evident sense of the verse is that she was permitted to say these words which are in the verse, and this is the view of the majority. One party said: the meaning of “say” is by signs, not by speech. Al-Zamakhsharī said: in it is the lesson that silence before the fool is obligatory, and among the most abject of people is a fool who finds no one to trade folly with him.

The third: whoever binds himself by vow not to speak to any human being, it is possible to say that this is an act of devotion and so becomes binding by the vow, and it is possible to say that this is not permitted in our law because of the constriction and self-torment in it, like a vow to stand in the sun and the like. On this view the vow of silence belonged to that law, not to our law, as has already been said. Ibn Masʿūd commanded one who did that to utter speech, and this is the correct view, because of the ḥadīth of Abū Isrāʾīl which al-Bukhārī related from Ibn ʿAbbās.⁶² Ibn Zayd and al-Suddī said: the practice of fasting among them was abstention from eating and from speech. I say: and among our own practice in fasting is abstention from foul speech; he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When one of you is fasting let him not speak obscenely nor behave ignorantly, and if someone fights him or reviles him let him say: I am fasting.” And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, God has no need that he give up his food and his drink.”

On 19:27-28

His words, Exalted: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27). It is related that when Mary was reassured by the signs she had seen, and knew that God, Exalted, would make her excuse plain, she brought him, carrying him, from the distant place to which she had withdrawn. Ibn ʿAbbās said: she went out from among them when the sun rose and came to them at noon with a child she was carrying, so the conception and the birth took place within three hours of the day. Al-Kalbī said: she gave birth where her people did not perceive her, and stayed forty days for the post-natal period, then came to her people carrying him. When they saw her with the child they grieved, for they were a righteous household, and they said in disapproval: You have indeed brought a thing farī (19:27), that is, you have brought a monstrous thing, like one who brings something he has fabricated. Mujāhid said: “fariyyan” means monstrous. Saʿīd ibn Masʿadah said: that is, invented and contrived; one says faraytu and afraytu in one and the same meaning. The child of fornication is like a fabricated thing. God, Exalted, said: nor bring a slander which they have fabricated between their hands and their feet (60:12), that is, a child whom a woman intends to attach to the husband though it is not his. One says: “so-and-so yafrī al-fariyya“, that is, he does the utmost deed. Abū ʿUbaydah said: al-farī is the wonderful, the rare; al-Akhfash said this too. He said: “fariyyan” means wonderful. Fary is cutting, as though it were something that breaks through the ordinary course, or cuts short speech by its being wonderful and rare. Quṭrub said: al-farī is the new among water-skins, that is, you have brought a new, unprecedented thing in which no one has preceded you. Abū Ḥaywah read “shayʾan faryan” with the rāʾ unvowelled. Al-Suddī and Wahb ibn Munabbih said: when she brought him to her people, carrying him, the Children of Israel heard of it, and their men and women gathered; a woman stretched out her hand towards her to strike her, and God withered her side, and she was carried away in that state. Another said: “I can only think she has fornicated”, and God, Exalted, struck him dumb; so the people refrained from striking her or saying to her a word that would hurt her, and began to lower their voices to her and speak gently, and they said: O Mary, you have indeed brought a thing farī, that is, monstrous. The rajaz poet said:⁶³

You have fed me year-old daqal dates, weevilled, worm-eaten, from Ḥajr;

you used to make a mighty thing of them.

That is, you used to magnify them.

His words, Exalted: O sister of Aaron (19:28). People differed about the meaning of this sisterhood and about who Aaron was. It was said: he is Aaron the brother of Moses, and the meaning is: one whom we thought the like of Aaron in worship brings the like of this! It was said: on this view Mary was of the descendants of Aaron the brother of Moses, and was linked to him by sisterhood because she was of his descendants, as one says to a Tamīmī “O brother of Tamīm” and to an Arab “O brother of the Arabs”. And it was said: she had a brother on her father’s side named Aaron, because this name was common among the Children of Israel, for the blessing of the name of Aaron the brother of Moses, who was the most exemplary man among the Children of Israel; al-Kalbī said this. And it was said: this Aaron was a righteous man of that time whose funeral, on the day he died, was followed by forty thousand, all of them named Aaron. Qatādah said: there was in that time among the Children of Israel a devotee wholly given over to God, Mighty and Majestic, called Aaron, and they attributed her to brotherhood with him inasmuch as she had formerly followed his way, since she was dedicated to the service of the houses of worship; that is: O you righteous woman, you were not one fit for this. Kaʿb al-Aḥbār said in the presence of ʿĀʾishah, the Mother of the Believers (may God be pleased with her), that Mary was not the sister of Aaron the brother of Moses, and ʿĀʾishah said to him: “You have lied.” He said to her: “O Mother of the Believers, if the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said it, then he is more truthful and better informed; otherwise, I find between the two of them a span of six hundred years.” He said: and she fell silent. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: when I came to Najrān they questioned me and said: “You recite O sister of Aaron, yet Moses was before Jesus by such-and-such.” When I came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) I asked him about that, and he said: “They used to name after their prophets and the righteous who were before them.” In some of its lines of transmission, outside the Ṣaḥīḥ, it has come that the Christians said to him: “Your companion claims that Mary is the sister of Aaron, when there are six hundred years between them?!” Al-Mughīrah said: and I did not know what to say; and he mentioned the ḥadīth. The meaning is that it is a name which coincided with a name. From this is derived the permissibility of naming with the names of the prophets, and God knows best.

I say: the sound ḥadīth has shown that between Moses and Aaron and Jesus there was a long time. Al-Zamakhsharī said: between the two of them and him there were a thousand years or more, so it is not to be imagined that Mary was the sister of Moses and Aaron; and if it is sound, then it is as al-Suddī said, because she was of his lineage, and this is as you say to a man of a tribe: “O brother of so-and-so”. From this is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “The brother of Ṣudāʾ has given the call to prayer, and whoever gives the call to prayer, he gives the iqāmah.”⁶⁴ And this is the first view. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: one party said: rather, there was in that time a profligate man named Aaron, and they attributed her to him by way of reproach and rebuke; al-Ṭabarī mentioned this without naming its author. I say: al-Ghaznawī mentioned it from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, that he was a sinner proverbial for profligacy, and she was attributed to him. The meaning is: neither your father nor your mother was one fit for this deed, so how have you brought it?! This is of the kind of insinuation (taʿrīḍ) which takes the place of explicit statement, and that, in our view, entails the prescribed punishment (ḥadd); the discussion of it will come in the sūrah of al-Nūr, if God, Exalted, wills. This last view is refuted by the sound ḥadīth, which is an explicit text, so no one has any say alongside it, and there is no dust upon it. And praise be to God. ʿUmar ibn Lajaʾ al-Taymī read: “mā kāna abāki imruʾu sawʾin” (“your father was not a man of evil”).⁶⁵

On 19:29-33

In this there are five questions:

The first: His words, Exalted, Then she pointed to him. They said: how can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29). Mary (peace be upon her) adhered to what she had been commanded, namely leaving off speech, and it is not stated in this verse that she uttered “I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful”; it is only stated that she pointed. By this the view of those who said that her being commanded “say” meant only signs is strengthened. It is related that when she pointed to the infant they said: “Her making light of us is harder on us than her fornication.” Then they said to her, by way of establishing the point: how can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? “Kāna” here is not intended in the sense of the past, because every single person has been a child in the cradle; rather it is in the sense of “he is now”. Abū ʿUbaydah said: “kāna” here is superfluous (laghw), as the poet said:

and neighbours of ours who were noble.⁶⁶

And it was said: it is in the sense of existence and coming to be, as in His words and if there be one in difficulty (2:280), which has already been given. Ibn al-Anbārī said: it is not permissible to say it is redundant when it has put “ṣabiyyan” in the accusative, nor to say that “kāna” is in the sense of “came to be”, because if it were in the sense of coming to be and occurring it would dispense with the predicate; you say “kāna al-ḥarr” (“the heat came”) and that suffices. The correct view is that “man” is in the sense of a conditional, and “kāna” in the sense of “yakun“, the implied sense being: whoever is in the cradle, a child, how shall we speak to him?! As you say: “how shall I give to one who does not accept a gift”, meaning whoever does not accept. The past tense may be used in the sense of the future in a conditional, as in His words, Exalted, Blessed is He who, if He wills, will make for you better than that: gardens beneath which rivers flow (25:10), that is, if He wills He will make. And you say: “whoever has done me a kindness, from me to him is the like of it”, that is, whoever does me a kindness, the like of it shall be from me to him. As for “the cradle” (al-mahd), it was said: it was a bed like a cradle; and it was said: “the cradle” here is the mother’s lap; and it was said: the meaning is, how shall we speak to one whose way it is to be put to sleep in the cradle because of his smallness? When Jesus (peace be upon him) heard their words he said to them from his resting place: I am the servant of God (19:30). And this is:

The second: it was said: Jesus (peace be upon him) was suckling, and when he heard their words he left off suckling, turned his face towards them, leaned on his left side, pointed to them with his right forefinger, and said: I am the servant of God. So the first thing he uttered was the acknowledgement of his servitude to God, Exalted, and of His lordship, as a refutation of those after him who went to extremes concerning him. The Book is the Gospel. It was said: He gave him the Book in that state, made him understand it and taught him, and gave him prophethood, as He taught Adam all the names, and he used to fast and pray. But this is exceedingly weak, as we shall explain in the question after this one. And it was said: the meaning is, He decreed for me the giving of the Book and prophethood in pre-eternity, even though the Book was not sent down at that moment; and this is the more correct.

and He has made me blessed (19:31), that is, possessed of blessings and benefits in religion and in calling to it, and a teacher of it. Al-Tustarī said: and He made me one who enjoins what is right, forbids what is wrong, guides the one who strays, aids the one wronged, and succours the distressed.

and He has enjoined upon me prayer and alms (19:31), that is, that I perform them when legal responsibility reaches me and performing them becomes possible for me, according to the latter, correct view.

as long as I live (19:31): “mā” is in the position of the accusative as an adverbial, that is, for the duration of my life. His words, Exalted: and dutiful to my mother (19:32). Ibn ʿAbbās said: when he said “and dutiful to my mother” and did not say “to my parents”, it was known that he was something from God, Exalted.

and He has not made me a tyrant (19:32), that is, one who magnifies himself and is arrogant, who kills and strikes in anger. And it was said: the tyrant is the one who never acknowledges that anyone has a right over him.

wretched (19:32), that is, failing to attain good. Ibn ʿAbbās: undutiful. And it was said: disobedient to his Lord. And it was said: He did not make me one who abandons His command, so that I should be wretched as Iblīs was wretched when he abandoned His command.

The third: Mālik ibn Anas (may God, Exalted, have mercy on him) said of this verse: how severe it is against the partisans of free will (ahl al-qadar)! Jesus (peace be upon him) told of what had been decreed of his affair, and of what would be until he died. It is related in the stories of this verse, from Ibn Zayd and others, that when they heard the words of Jesus they submitted and said: “This is indeed a mighty matter.” It is related that Jesus (peace be upon him) spoke in his infancy only with this verse, then returned to the state of infants until he walked in the ordinary way of human beings, until he reached the age of boys; so his speaking was to manifest the innocence of his mother, not that he was one of those who possess understanding in that state, and it is like God’s, Exalted, making the limbs speak on the Day of Resurrection. It is not transmitted that his speech continued, nor that he prayed when he was a day or a month old; and had his speech, his glorification, his preaching and his prayer continued in his childhood from the time of birth, the like of that would be something that could not be concealed. All of this indicates the unsoundness of the first view and declares plainly the ignorance of the one who holds it. It also indicates that he spoke in the cradle, contrary to the Jews and the Christians, and the proof of that is the consensus of the sects that she was not subjected to the prescribed punishment, whereas her innocence of fornication was established only by his speaking in the cradle. This verse also shows that prayer, alms and dutifulness to parents were obligatory upon the earlier communities and the bygone generations of the past, so it is among those things whose ruling stands and has not been abrogated in the law of his command. Jesus (peace be upon him) was of the utmost humility: he ate from the trees, wore hair-cloth, sat upon the dust, and sheltered wherever night overtook him, having no dwelling (peace and blessings be upon him).
The fourth: signing is on a par with speech and conveys what speech conveys. How not, when God, Exalted, has reported of Mary and said then she pointed to him, and the people understood from her her intention and purpose, and said how can we speak. This has already been given in full in Āl ʿImrān.
The fifth: the Kūfans said: the accusation of fornication (qadhf) by a mute is not valid, nor is his oath of imprecation (liʿān). The like is related from al-Shaʿbī, and al-Awzāʿī, Aḥmad and Isḥāq held it. In their view the accusation is valid only with the explicit word for fornication, not with its sense, and this is necessarily impossible for the mute, so he is not an accuser; nor can fornication be distinguished by signs from lawful intercourse and intercourse under a semblance of right. They said: and liʿān in our view consists of testimonies, and the testimony of the mute is not accepted, by consensus. Ibn al-Qaṣṣār said: their statement that the accusation is valid only by explicit utterance is shown false by all the other languages apart from Arabic, and so too the signs of the mute. What they mentioned of consensus regarding the testimony of the mute is an error; Mālik has stated explicitly that his testimony is accepted when his signs are understood, and that they take the place of the utterance in testimony; but where there is the ability to utter, it is not effected from him except by utterance. Ibn al-Mundhir said: those who disagree hold the mute liable in divorce, sales and all the other rulings, so the accusation ought to be like that. Al-Muhallab said: signing may be, in many chapters of jurisprudence, stronger than speech, as in his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “I and the Hour have been sent like these two”; we know the closeness between them by the measure of the excess of the middle finger over the forefinger. And in the agreement of all minds that eye-witnessing is stronger than report there is proof that signing may in some places be stronger than speech.

And peace be upon me (19:33), that is, safety upon me from God, Exalted. Al-Zajjāj said: “peace” was mentioned before this without the definite article, so it was fitting in the second instance to mention the article. His words the day I was born, meaning in this world; and it was said: from the prodding of Satan, as has already been given in Āl ʿImrān.

and the day I die, meaning in the grave, and the day I am raised alive (19:33), meaning in the hereafter. For he has three states: in this world alive, in the grave dead, and in the hereafter raised up; so he was given peace in all his states, and this is the sense of al-Kalbī’s statement. Then his speech in the cradle ceased until he reached the age of boys. Qatādah said: it was mentioned to us that a woman saw Jesus (peace be upon him) raising the dead and healing the blind and the leper, among his other signs, and she said: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that suckled you!” And Jesus (peace be upon him) said to her: “Blessed is he who recites the Book of God, Exalted, follows what is in it, and acts upon it.”

On 21:91

His words, Exalted: And she who guarded her chastity (21:91), that is: and mention Mary, who guarded her private parts. He mentioned her, though she is not one of the prophets, so that the mention of Jesus (peace be upon him) might be complete, and for this reason He said: and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds (21:91), and did not say “two signs”, because the meaning of the speech is: We made their condition, their affair and their story a sign for the worlds. Al-Zajjāj said: the sign in the two of them is one, because she bore him without a male. According to the position of Sībawayh the implied construction is: We made her a sign for the worlds, and We made her son a sign for the worlds, and then one was elided. According to the position of al-Farrāʾ: We made her a sign for the worlds, and her son, like His words, Majestic is His praise: and God and His Messenger are more worthy that they should please Him (9:62).⁶⁷ It has been said that among her signs is that she was the first woman to be accepted as a votive offering in the house of worship; and among them, that God, Mighty and Majestic, nourished her with provision from Himself which He did not cause to pass through the hand of any of His servants; and it has been said that she never once put a breast to her mouth. guarded (aḥṣanat) means she was chaste and kept herself from indecency. It has been said that what is meant by farj is the opening of the shift, that is, no suspicion ever attached to her garment, that is, she was pure of garment; and the openings of a shift are four: the two sleeves, the upper opening and the lower. Al-Suhaylī said: so let not your imagination stray to anything other than this, for it is among the subtlest of allusions, because the Qurʾān is too pure in meaning, too weighty in wording, too subtle in allusion and too excellent in expression to intend what the imagination of the ignorant inclines towards, especially as the breathing was from the Holy Spirit by the command of the All-Holy; so annex the Holy to the All-Holy, and exalt the sanctified and purified one above lying conjecture and guesswork. so We breathed into her of Our Spirit (21:91) means: We commanded Gabriel until he breathed into the opening of her shift, and by that breath We brought the Messiah into being in her womb. This has already been treated in al-Nisāʾ⁶⁸ and Maryam, so there is no point in repeating it. a sign, that is, a token and a marvel for creation, a mark of the prophethood of Jesus, and a proof of the operation of Our power in whatever We will.

On 23:50

His words, Exalted: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50). The discussion of this has already been given in al-Anbiyāʾ.⁶⁹

and We sheltered them on a height, a place of rest with flowing water (23:50). The height (rabwah) is an elevated place of the earth, and this has already been treated in al-Baqarah.⁷⁰ What is meant by it here, according to the statement of Abū Hurayrah, is Palestine; and from him also, al-Ramlah,⁷¹ and this is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn al-Musayyab and Ibn Salām said: Damascus. Kaʿb and Qatādah said: Jerusalem. Kaʿb said: it is the nearest part of the earth to heaven, by eighteen miles. The poet said:

And I would be ashes beneath a grave upon a height, where the south wind and the north wind pass over me by turns.

Ibn Zayd said: Egypt. Sālim al-Afṭas related from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr concerning and We sheltered them on a height (23:50) that he said: rising ground.

a place of rest (23:50), that is, level ground upon which one may settle. It has been said: possessed of fruits, and on account of the fruits its inhabitants settle in it.

with flowing water (23:50): running water visible to the eyes. One says maʿīn and muʿun, just as one says raghīf and rughuf; ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān said this. Al-Zajjāj said: it is the water that runs in springs, so that the mīm on this view is an added letter, like its addition in mabīʿ; and likewise the mīm is added according to the view of those who say it is the water which is seen by the eye. It has been said that it is of the pattern faʿīl in the sense of mafʿūl. ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān said: one says maʿana l-māʾ when water flows, so it is maʿīn and maʿyūn. Ibn al-Aʿrābī said: maʿana l-māʾu yamʿanu muʿūnan when it flows and runs easily; also amʿana, and amʿantuhu; and miyāh muʿnān, “flowing waters”.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE), about 10,720 words

On 3:42-44

This is a report from God, Exalted, of what the angels addressed to Mary (peace be upon her), by God’s command to them to do so: that God had chosen her, that is, selected her for the abundance of her worship, her asceticism, her nobility and her purity from impurities and whisperings; and He chose her a second time, time after time, for her majesty above the women of the worlds.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning His words Indeed God has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42): he said: Abū Hurayrah used to relate from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): “The best women who have ridden camels are the women of Quraysh: the most tender towards a child in its infancy, and the most careful of a husband in what he possesses. And Mary daughter of ʿImrān never rode a camel.” They did not record it by this route, except Muslim, who related it from Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, both from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, with it.

Hishām ibn ʿUrwah said, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may God be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The best of its women is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadījah bint Khuwaylid.” The two of them recorded it in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of Hishām, with it, in the same words.

Al-Tirmidhī said: Abū Bakr ibn Zanjawayh related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us: Maʿmar related to us, from Qatādah, from Anas, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Sufficient for you among the women of the worlds are Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, Fāṭimah bint Muḥammad and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh.” Al-Tirmidhī alone related it, and he graded it sound (ṣaḥīḥ).

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Rāzī said, from his father, who said: Thābit al-Bunānī used to relate from Anas ibn Mālik that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The best women of the worlds are four: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh, Khadījah bint Khuwaylid and Fāṭimah the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him).” Ibn Mardawayh related it.

Ibn Mardawayh related by way of Shuʿbah, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, from his father, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except three: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh, and Khadījah bint Khuwaylid; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd⁷² over all other food.”

Ibn Jarīr said: al-Muthannā related to me: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to us: Shuʿbah related to us: ʿAmr ibn Murrah related to us: I heard Murrah al-Hamdānī with a ḥadīth from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh.” The Group⁷³ recorded it, except Abū Dāwūd, by various routes from Shuʿbah, with it. The wording of al-Bukhārī is: “Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh and Mary daughter of ʿImrān; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd over all other food.”

I have exhaustively treated the routes of this ḥadīth and its wordings in the story of Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon them both) in our book al-Bidāyah wa-l-nihāyah, and to God belong praise and favour.

Then He, Exalted, informed of the angels: that they commanded her to abundant worship, humility, submission, prostration, bowing and perseverance in works, because of what God, Exalted, intended for her of the matter He had decreed and ordained, in which was a trial for her and elevation in both abodes, through what God, Exalted, manifested in her of His tremendous power, in that He created from her a child without a father. So He, Exalted, said: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate, and bow with those who bow (3:43). As for devout obedience (qunūt), it is obedience in humility, as He, Exalted, said: Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth; all are devoutly obedient to Him (2:116).

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Wahb informed us: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed me that Darrāj Abū al-Samḥ related to him, from Abū al-Haytham, from Abū Saʿīd, from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “Every word in the Qurʾān in which qunūt is mentioned means obedience.” Ibn Jarīr related it from the ḥadīth of Ibn Lahīʿah, from Darrāj, with it; and there is something objectionable (nakārah) in it.

Mujāhid said: Mary (peace be upon her) used to stand until her ankles swelled. And qunūt is the lengthening of bowing in prayer, meaning in compliance with His words, Exalted: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43). Indeed al-Ḥasan said: meaning, worship your Lord. and prostrate, and bow with those who bow (3:43), that is, be one of them.

Al-Awzāʿī said: She remained fixed in her sanctuary, bowing, prostrating and standing, until the yellow fluid flowed down into her feet (may God be pleased with her).

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir mentioned in her biographical entry, by way of Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Kudaymī, about whom there is criticism: ʿAlī ibn Baḥr ibn Barrī related to us: al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, from al-Awzāʿī, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, concerning His words O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate (3:43): he said: She prostrated until the yellow fluid flowed down into her eyes.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā mentioned: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us: Ḍamrah related to us, from Ibn Shawdhab, who said: Mary (peace be upon her) used to perform the full ablution (ghusl) every night.

Then He, Exalted, said to His Messenger (upon him be the most excellent blessings and peace), after He had acquainted him with the plain truth of the matter: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44), that is, We narrate it to you. And you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, nor were you with them when they disputed (3:44), that is: you were not with them, O Muḥammad, so as to inform them of what took place as an eyewitness; rather God acquainted you with that, as though you were present and witnessing what happened in their affair when they drew lots over Mary as to which of them should take charge of her; and that was out of their desire for the reward.

Ibn Jarīr said: al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazzah, that he informed him from ʿIkrimah (and Abū Bakr, from ʿIkrimah), who said: Then she went out with her, meaning the mother of Mary with Mary, carrying her in her swaddling cloths, to the sons of al-Kāhin ibn Hārūn, the brother of Moses (peace be upon them both). He said: and they in those days had charge in the Holy House of what the keepers (ḥajabah) have charge of in the Kaʿbah. And she said to them: Take this votive offering, for I have consecrated her, and she is my daughter; and no menstruating woman may enter the church, and I shall not take her back to my house. They said: This is the daughter of our imām (for ʿImrān used to lead them in prayer) and the one in charge of our sacrifice. Zachariah said: Hand her over to me, for her maternal aunt is my wife. They said: We are not content with that; she is the daughter of our imām. So that is when they drew lots over her with their pens, with which they wrote the Torah, and Zachariah won the lot against them, and so he took charge of her.

ʿIkrimah has also mentioned, as have al-Suddī, Qatādah, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas and more than one other, the narrative of some of them running into that of others, that they went to the river Jordan and drew lots there, on the condition that they would cast their pens into it, and whichever one’s pen held firm in the flow of the water would be her guardian. So they cast their pens, and the water carried them away, except the pen of Zachariah, which held firm. And it is said that it went upstream, cleaving the flow of the water. And in addition to that he was their elder and their master, their scholar, their imām and their prophet, the blessings and peace of God be upon him and upon all the other prophets and messengers.

On 3:45-47

This is a glad tiding from the angels to Mary (peace be upon her) that there would come into being from her a great child, having a great standing. God, Exalted, said: When the angels said: O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him (3:45), that is, of a child whose existence will be by a Word from God, that is, by His saying to him “Be”, and he is. This is the interpretation of His words confirming a Word from God (3:39), as the majority have stated, according to what has already been explained. whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45), that is, he will be famous by this in the world; the believers will know him by that.

He was named the Messiah (al-Masīḥ), some of the predecessors (salaf) said, because of the abundance of his travelling (siyāḥah). And it was said: because he was flat-footed (masīḥ al-qadamayn), that is, with no arch to his feet. And it was said: because whenever he wiped (masaḥa) anyone afflicted with an infirmity, he was cured by the permission of God, Exalted.

His words Jesus son of Mary (3:45) are an attribution of him to his mother, since he had no father. Eminent in this world and the Hereafter, and among those brought near (3:45), that is, he has eminence and standing with God in this world, through the law that God reveals to him and the Book He sends down to him, and other things He has bestowed upon him; and in the abode of the Hereafter he will intercede with God for whomever He permits him to intercede for, and it will be accepted from him, following the example of his brothers among the messengers of firm resolve (ulū al-ʿazm), the blessings of God be upon them.

His words: And he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity (3:46), that is, he will call to the worship of God alone, without partner, in the state of his infancy, as a miracle and a sign, and in the state of his maturity, when God reveals that to him. and he will be among the righteous (3:46), that is, in his speech and his action; he has sound knowledge and righteous action.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said, from Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qusayṭ, from Muḥammad ibn Shuraḥbīl, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “No newborn has spoken in its infancy except Jesus and the companion of Jurayj.”⁷⁴

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Abū al-Ṣaqr Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Qazʿah related to us: al-Ḥusayn, meaning al-Marwazī, related to us: Jarīr, meaning Ibn Ḥāzim, related to us, from Muḥammad, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “None spoke in the cradle except three: Jesus, a boy who lived in the time of Jurayj, and another boy.”

When she heard the angels’ glad tiding to her of that, from God, Mighty and Majestic, she said in her intimate converse: My Lord, how shall I have a child when no man has touched me? (3:47). She says: How can this child come into being from me when I have no husband, it is not my intention to marry, and I am no unchaste woman? God forbid! So the angel said to her, from God, Mighty and Majestic, in answer to this question: Thus; God creates what He wills (3:47), that is: such is the command of God, mighty; nothing incapacitates Him. Here He stated explicitly, with His words creates, and did not say “does”, as in the story of Zachariah; rather He expressly stated here that He creates, so that no doubt might remain; and He confirmed that with His words: When He decrees a matter, He only says to it “Be”, and it is (3:47), that is: it is not delayed at all, but comes into being immediately after the command, without respite, like His words, Exalted: And Our command is but one, like the glance of an eye (54:50), that is: We command only once, with no repetition in it, and that thing comes to be swiftly, like the glance of an eye.

On 19:16-21

When the Exalted had related the story of Zachariah (peace be upon him), and how He brought forth from him, in his old age and with his wife barren, a child pure, clean and blessed, He followed it by relating the story of Mary and His bringing forth from her her son Jesus (peace be upon them both) without a father; for between the two stories there is a correspondence and a resemblance. For this reason He mentioned them together in Āl ʿImrān, here, and in Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ, joining the two stories because of the closeness in meaning between them, so as to show His servants His power and the greatness of His authority, and that He has power over whatever He wills. So He said: And mention in the Book Mary (19:16). She is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, of the line of David (peace be upon him), and she was of a pure and goodly house among the Children of Israel. God, Exalted, has related the story of her mother giving birth to her in Āl ʿImrān: that she vowed her as one consecrated (muḥarrarah), that is, to serve the sanctuary of Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis), for they used to draw near to God by that; so her Lord accepted her with a goodly acceptance and made her grow with a goodly growth (3:37). She grew up among the Children of Israel in a magnificent manner, and became one of the devout worshipping women renowned for great worship, devotion and unflagging effort. She was in the guardianship of her sister’s husband—and it was said: her maternal aunt’s husband—Zachariah, the prophet of the Children of Israel at that time and their great one, to whom they referred in matters of their religion. Zachariah saw in her such astonishing marks of divine favour (karāmāt) as dazzled him: Whenever Zachariah entered upon her in the sanctuary he found provision with her. He said: O Mary, whence have you this? She said: It is from God; indeed God provides for whom He wills without reckoning (3:37). It is related that he would find with her the fruit of winter in summer and the fruit of summer in winter, as was explained earlier in Āl ʿImrān. So when God, Exalted—and His is the wisdom and the conclusive argument—willed to bring forth from her His servant and messenger Jesus (peace be upon him), one of the five great messengers of firm resolve (ulū al-ʿazm), she withdrew from her people to an eastern place (19:16), that is, she went apart from them and drew aside from them, and went to the east of the sacred sanctuary.

Al-Suddī said: because of a menstruation that came upon her. And it was said: for some other reason. Abū Kudaynah said, from Qābūs ibn Abī Ẓibyān, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Prayer towards the House and pilgrimage to it were prescribed for the People of the Book, and nothing turned them away from it except the saying of your Lord: she withdrew from her people to an eastern place (19:16). He said: Mary went out to an eastern place, so they prayed towards the rising-place of the sun. Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Jarīr related it.

Ibn Jarīr also said: Isḥāq ibn Shāhīn related to us: Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, from Dāwūd, from ʿĀmir, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: I am indeed the most knowledgeable of God’s creatures as to why the Christians took the east as their direction of prayer (qiblah): it is because of the words of God, Exalted, she withdrew from her people to an eastern place (19:16); and they took the birthplace of Jesus as a qiblah.

Qatādah said: an eastern place (19:16): remote and set apart.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: She went with her pitcher to draw water.

Nawf al-Bikālī said: She took for herself a dwelling in which to devote herself to worship. And God knows best.

His words: and she took a veil apart from them (19:17), that is, she screened herself from them and hid herself. Then God, Exalted, sent to her Gabriel (peace be upon him), and he appeared to her in the likeness of a well-formed man (19:17), that is, in the form of a complete and perfect human being.

Mujāhid, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Qatādah, Ibn Jurayj, Wahb ibn Munabbih and al-Suddī said regarding His words So We sent to her Our Spirit (19:17): meaning Gabriel (peace be upon him).

What they said is the apparent sense of the Qurʾān, for the Exalted has said in the other verse: The Trustworthy Spirit brought it down upon your heart, that you might be one of the warners (26:193-194).

Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī said, from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, from Abū al-ʿĀliyah, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The spirit of Jesus (peace be upon him) was among the spirits from which the covenant was taken in the time of Adam, and it was he who appeared to her in the likeness of a well-formed man—that is, the spirit of Jesus—and she conceived the one who addressed her, and he entered into her mouth.

This is extremely strange and objectionable, and it seems to be an Israelite tradition (Isrāʾīliyyāt).

She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that is, when the angel appeared to her in the form of a man, while she was in a secluded place with a veil between her and her people, she was afraid of him and thought that he wanted her for himself, so she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that is, if you fear God. This was a reminder to him of God, and this is what is prescribed in repelling an assailant: that it be by the gentlest means, then the next gentlest. So she first sought to make him fear God, Mighty and Majestic.

Ibn Jarīr said: Abū Kurayb related to me: Abū Bakr related to us, from ʿĀṣim, who said: Abū Wāʾil said—and he mentioned the story of Mary—and said: She knew that the God-fearing man is one possessed of restraint, when she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing. He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord (19:18-19), that is, the angel said to her, answering her and removing the fear for herself that had arisen in her: I am not what you think; rather I am a messenger of your Lord, that is, He has sent me to you. And it is said that when she mentioned the All-Merciful, Gabriel trembled with fear and returned to his own form, and said: “I am only a messenger of your Lord, that He may grant you (li-yahaba laki) a pure boy.”

Thus did Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, one of the famous reciters, read it. The others read: that I may grant you (li-ahaba laki) a pure boy (19:19).⁷⁵ Both readings have a sound basis and a correct meaning, and each entails the other.

She said: How can I have a boy, when no man has touched me, and I have not been unchaste? (19:20), that is, Mary marvelled at this and said: How can I have a boy? That is, in what manner could this boy come to be from me, when I have no husband, and no indecency can be imagined of me? Hence she said: when no man has touched me, and I have not been unchaste (19:20). The baghiyy is the fornicatress; hence it comes in the ḥadīth that the hire of the prostitute (mahr al-baghiyy) was forbidden.

He said: So it will be. Your Lord has said: It is easy for Me (19:21), that is, the angel said to her, answering what she had asked: God has said that a boy will indeed come to be from you, even though you have no husband and no indecency has come from you, for He has power over whatever He wills. Hence He said: and that We may make him a sign for mankind (19:21), that is, a proof and a token for mankind of the power of their Maker and Creator, who has diversified their creation: He created their father Adam from neither male nor female; He created Eve from a male without a female; He created the rest of the progeny from male and female—except Jesus, for He brought him into being from a female without a male. Thus the fourfold division was completed, pointing to the perfection of His power and the greatness of His authority; so there is no god other than He and no Lord besides Him.

His words: and a mercy from Us (19:21), that is, and We shall make this boy a mercy from God, a prophet among the prophets, calling to the worship of God, Exalted, and His oneness, as the Exalted said in the other verse: When the angels said: O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near. And he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be among the righteous (3:45-46), that is, he will call to the worship of God his Lord in his cradle and in his maturity.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: my father related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Ibrāhīm—Duḥaym—related to us: Marwān related to us: al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥārith al-Kūfī related to us, from Mujāhid, who said: Mary (peace be upon her) said: When I was alone, Jesus would talk to me and speak with me while he was in my womb, and when I was among people he would glorify God and magnify Him in my womb.

His words: and it was a matter decreed (19:21). It may be that this is part of Gabriel’s speech to Mary, informing her that this is a matter foreordained in the knowledge of God, Exalted, His decree and His will. And it may be that it is part of God’s report, Exalted, to His Messenger Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and that He alluded by this to the breathing into her private part, as the Exalted said: And Mary daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into it of Our Spirit (66:12), and He said: And she who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into her of Our Spirit (21:91).

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: and it was a matter decreed (19:21), that is, God had resolved upon this, and there was no escaping it. Ibn Jarīr also preferred this in his commentary, and related no other view. And God knows best.

On 19:22-23

The Exalted says, informing about Mary, that when Gabriel had said to her from God, Exalted, what he said, she submitted to the decree of God, Exalted. More than one of the scholars of the early generations (salaf) mentioned that at that point the angel—that is, Gabriel (peace be upon him)—breathed into the opening of her garment, and the breath descended until it entered the private part, and she conceived the child by the leave of God, Exalted. When she had conceived him she was sorely distressed by it and did not know what she would say to people, for she knew that people would not believe her in what she told them; however, she disclosed her secret and mentioned her situation to her sister, the wife of Zachariah. That was because Zachariah (peace be upon him) had asked God for a child and had been granted that, and his wife had conceived. Mary went in to her, and she rose to her and embraced her, and said: Have you perceived, O Mary, that I am pregnant? Mary said to her: And have you also come to know that I am pregnant? And she told her of her situation and what had befallen her—and they were a household of faith and belief. Thereafter, whenever the wife of Zachariah came face to face with Mary, she would feel the one in her womb prostrating to the one in Mary’s belly, that is, honouring him and humbling himself before him; for prostration at greeting was lawful in their religious community (millah), just as Joseph’s parents and brothers prostrated to him, and just as God commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam (peace be upon him). But it was forbidden in this religious community of ours, to perfect the veneration of the majesty of the Lord, Exalted.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: It was read out to al-Ḥārith ibn Miskīn while I was listening; he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim informed us, saying: Mālik (may God have mercy on him) said: It has reached me that Jesus son of Mary and John son of Zachariah were the sons of two sisters, and that they were both carried in the womb at the same time; and it has reached me that the mother of John said to Mary: I feel that what is in my belly is prostrating to what is in your belly. Mālik said: I consider that to be on account of the superiority of Jesus (peace be upon him), because God made him bring the dead to life and heal the one born blind and the leper.

Then the commentators differed regarding the duration of the pregnancy with Jesus (peace be upon him). What is well known from the majority is that she carried him for nine months. ʿIkrimah said: eight months—and he said: that is why no child born at eight months survives.

Ibn Jurayj said: al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī informed me that he heard Ibn ʿAbbās, when he was asked about the pregnancy of Mary, say: It was no more than that she conceived and gave birth.

This is strange, and it seems that he took it from the apparent sense of the words of the Exalted: So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a remote place. Then the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree (19:22-23). But the fāʾ (the connective “then”), although it denotes immediate succession, denotes in each case the succession proper to that thing, as the Exalted said: And We certainly created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him a drop in a firm lodging. Then We made the drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump, and We made the lump into bones (23:12-14): this fāʾ denotes the succession proper to it, and it is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs that between each two of these stages there are forty days. And the Exalted said: Have you not seen that God sends down water from the sky, and then the earth becomes green? (22:63). So the well-known and apparent view—and God has power over all things—is that she carried him as women carry their children. Hence, when the signs of pregnancy appeared upon her, there was with her in the sanctuary a righteous man among her relatives who served the Holy House alongside her, called Joseph the Carpenter (Yūsuf al-Najjār). When he saw the heaviness and size of her belly, he found that objectionable in her; but then what he knew of her innocence, her integrity, her religion and her devotion turned him from it. Then he reflected on the condition she was in, and her situation kept going round in his mind, and he could not drive it from himself. So he brought himself to speak to her by way of allusion, and said: O Mary, I am going to ask you about a matter, so do not be hasty with me. She said: And what is it? He said: Can there ever be a tree without seed? And can there be a crop without sowing? And can there be a child without a father? She said: Yes—for she understood what he was alluding to. As for your saying, “Can there be a tree without seed, and a crop without sowing?”: God created the tree and the crop, when He first created them, without seed and without sowing. “And can there be a creature without a father?”: God created Adam without a father or a mother. So he believed her and accepted her condition.

When Mary sensed from her people that they suspected her of impropriety, she withdrew from them to a remote place, that is, a place distant from them and far away from them, so that she would not see them and they would not see her.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: When she had conceived him, filled her pitcher and returned, her menses ceased, and there befell her what befalls a woman pregnant with child by way of sickness, cravings and change of complexion, to the point that her tongue became cracked. There had never come upon any household what came upon the family of Zachariah. The talk spread among the Children of Israel, and they said: “Her companion is none other than Joseph”—for there was no one with her in the temple (kanīsah) besides him. She hid herself from people and took a veil apart from them, so that no one saw her and she saw no one.

His words: Then the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree (19:23), that is, the labour pains compelled her and forced her to take refuge at the trunk of the palm tree, which was a palm tree in the place to which she had withdrawn.

They differed concerning it. Al-Suddī said: It was to the east of her prayer-niche (miḥrāb) in which she used to pray, in Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis).

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: She went off in flight, and when she was between Syria (al-Shām) and the land of Egypt, the labour pains struck her. And in another report from Wahb: That was eight miles from Jerusalem, in a village there called Bethlehem (Bayt Laḥm).

I say: It has already been mentioned in the ḥadīth of the Night Journey (al-Isrāʾ), in the narration of al-Nasāʾī from Anas (may God be pleased with him) and of al-Bayhaqī from Shaddād ibn Aws (may God be pleased with him), that this was in Bethlehem. And God knows best. This is the well-known account that people have received one from another, and the Christians do not doubt that it was in Bethlehem; people have received it, and the ḥadīth has come concerning it, if it is sound.

His words, Exalted, informing about her: She said: Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind! (19:23). In this is proof that it is permissible to wish for death at a time of trial (fitnah), for she knew that she would be tried and tested by this newborn, regarding whom people would not take her case in a sound light nor believe her account; and after having been in their eyes a devout worshipper, she would become in their eyes, as they supposed, a harlot and fornicatress. So she said: Would that I had died before this (19:23), that is, before this state of affairs, and been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that is, had never been created and had never been anything. Ibn ʿAbbās said this.

Al-Suddī said: She said, while in the throes of labour from the pregnancy, out of shame before people: Would that I had died before this distress I am in, and this grief at my giving birth to a child without a husband; and been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23): forgotten, so that the search for it was abandoned, like menstrual rags which, when thrown away and discarded, are neither sought nor remembered. Likewise everything that is forgotten and abandoned is nasiyy.

Qatādah said: and been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that is, something unknown and unmentioned, so that no one would know who I am.

Al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas said: and been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23): it is the miscarried foetus.

Ibn Zayd said: Had never been anything at all.

We have already presented the ḥadīths indicating the prohibition of wishing for death except at a time of trial, in connection with His words: Cause me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous (12:101).

On 19:24-26

Some read man taḥtahā (“the one who was beneath her”), in the sense of “he who was below her”; others read min taḥtihā (“from beneath her”), taking it as a preposition.⁷⁶

The commentators differed as to who is intended by that. Al-ʿAwfī and others said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24): Gabriel; and Jesus did not speak until she brought him to her people. Likewise Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, al-Suddī and Qatādah said: It was the angel Gabriel (blessings and peace be upon him), that is, he called to her from the lower part of the valley.

Mujāhid said: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24): he said: Jesus son of Mary. Likewise ʿAbd al-Razzāq said, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah, who said: al-Ḥasan said: It was her son. This is one of the two reports from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: that it was her son; he said: Have you not heard God say: So she pointed to him (19:29)? Ibn Zayd preferred this, as did Ibn Jarīr in his commentary.

His words: Do not grieve (19:24), that is, he called to her saying: Do not grieve. Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (sariyy) (19:24). Sufyān al-Thawrī and Shuʿbah said, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24): he said: the brook. Likewise ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: the sariyy is the river. ʿAmr ibn Maymūn held the same: a river from which she could drink.

Mujāhid said: It is “river” in Syriac.

Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: The sariyy is “the small river” in Nabataean.

Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: It is “the small river” in Syriac.

Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī said: It is the small river.

Qatādah said: It is the brook, in the dialect of the people of the Ḥijāz.

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: The sariyy is a running stream of water.

Al-Suddī said: It is the river. Ibn Jarīr preferred this view. A ḥadīth traced back to the Prophet (marfūʿ) has come concerning this. Al-Ṭabarānī said:

Abū Shuʿayb al-Ḥarrānī related to us: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bābluttī related to us: Ayyūb ibn Nahīk related to us: I heard ʿIkrimah, the client (mawlā) of Ibn ʿAbbās, say: I heard Ibn ʿUmar say: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The sariyy of which God said to Mary, Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24), is a river that God brought forth for her to drink from.” This is a very strange (gharīb) ḥadīth by this route. This Ayyūb ibn Nahīk is al-Ḥubulī; Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī said of him: weak. Abū Zurʿah said: objectionable in ḥadīth (munkar al-ḥadīth). Abū al-Fatḥ al-Azdī said: abandoned in ḥadīth (matrūk al-ḥadīth).

Others said: What is meant by the sariyy is Jesus (peace be upon him). This was held by al-Ḥasan, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Jaʿfar; it is one of the two reports from Qatādah, and the view of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam. The first view is more apparent, and for this reason He said after it: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree (19:25), that is, take hold of the trunk of the palm tree and draw it towards you. It was said: it was dry; Ibn ʿAbbās said this. And it was said: fruit-bearing. Mujāhid said: it was an ʿajwah palm.⁷⁷ Al-Thawrī said, from Abū Dāwūd Nufayʿ al-Aʿmā: it was a ṣarafānah palm.⁷⁸

What is apparent is that it was a tree, but it was not in the season of its fruit; Wahb ibn Munabbih said this. For this reason He bestowed this favour upon her, in that He placed food and drink with her, and said: it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates. So eat and drink and be comforted (19:25-26), that is, be of good cheer. Hence ʿAmr ibn Maymūn said: There is nothing better for a woman in childbed than dried dates and fresh ripe dates; then he recited this noble verse.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Shaybān related to us: Masrūr ibn Saʿīd al-Tamīmī related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-Awzāʿī related to us, from ʿUrwah ibn Ruwaym, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Honour your paternal aunt the palm tree, for it was created from the clay from which Adam (peace be upon him) was created, and there is no tree that is pollinated except it.” And the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Feed your women who have given birth fresh ripe dates, and if there are no fresh ripe dates then dried dates; and among trees there is no tree more honoured with God than the tree beneath which Mary daughter of ʿImrān alighted.”

This is a very objectionable (munkar) ḥadīth. Abū Yaʿlā related it from Shaybān with the same chain.

Some read His words “tassāqaṭ” with doubling of the sīn, and others with it light (“tasāqaṭ“). Abū Nahīk read: tusāqiṭ upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25). Abū Isḥāq related from al-Barāʾ that he read it “tusāqiṭ“, that is, with the trunk as its subject.⁷⁹ All of them are close in meaning.

His words: And if you see any human being (19:26), that is, whomever you may see of anyone, say: I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful, so I shall not speak today to any human (19:26). What is meant by this “saying” is indicating it to him by gesture, not that what is meant is verbal speech, lest it contradict so I shall not speak today to any human (19:26).

Anas ibn Mālik said regarding His words I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful (19:26): that is, silence. Likewise Ibn ʿAbbās and al-Ḍaḥḥāk said. And in another report from Anas: “a fast and silence”; and likewise Qatādah and others besides them said.

What is meant is that when they fasted according to their law, food and speech were forbidden to them. Al-Suddī, Qatādah and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd stated this explicitly.

Abū Isḥāq said, from Ḥārithah, who said: I was with Ibn Masʿūd when two men came; one of them gave the greeting of peace and the other did not. He said: What is the matter with you? His companions said: He has sworn not to speak to people today. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said: Speak to people and greet them with peace, for that was only a woman who knew that no one would believe her that she had conceived without a husband—meaning by that Mary (peace be upon her)—so that it might be an excuse for her when she was questioned. Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Jarīr (may God have mercy on them both) related it.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd said: When Jesus said to Mary, Do not grieve (19:24), she said: And how should I not grieve, when you are with me, and I am neither a married woman nor a slave-girl? What excuse have I before people? Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind! Jesus said to her: I will spare you the speaking: And if you see any human being, say: I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful, so I shall not speak today to any human (19:26). He said: All of this is the speech of Jesus to his mother. And Wahb said likewise.

On 19:27-33

The Exalted says, informing about Mary, when she was commanded to fast that day of hers and not to speak to any human being, for her affair would be taken care of and her proof established: she submitted to the command of God, Mighty and Majestic, and resigned herself to His decree, and took her child, and she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27). When they saw her thus, they considered her deed enormous and found it exceedingly objectionable, and said: O Mary, you have indeed brought a monstrous thing (fariyy) (19:27), that is, an enormous matter. Mujāhid, Qatādah, al-Suddī and more than one other said this.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: my father related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ziyād related to us: Sayyār related to us: Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān related to us: Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī related to us, from Nawf al-Bikālī, who said: Her people went out in search of her—and she was of a house of prophethood and nobility—but they found no trace of her. They came upon a cowherd and said: Have you seen a young woman of such-and-such a description? He said: No, but last night I saw from my cattle something I had never seen from them before. They said: And what did you see? He said: I saw them prostrating towards this valley. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ziyād said: And I recall from Sayyār that he said: I saw a radiant light. So they set out in the direction he had told them, and Mary came to meet them; when she saw them she sat down and took her son in her lap, and they came and stood over her. They said: O Mary, you have indeed brought a monstrous thing (19:27), an enormous matter. O sister of Aaron (19:28), that is, O you who resemble Aaron in worship; your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste (19:28), that is, you are of a goodly, pure house, known for righteousness, worship and asceticism; so how did this come forth from you?

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah and al-Suddī said: It was said to her, O sister of Aaron (19:28), that is, the brother of Moses, for she was of his line, just as one says to a man of Tamīm, “O brother of Tamīm”, and to a man of Muḍar, “O brother of Muḍar”.

And it was said: she was ascribed to a righteous man among them whose name was Aaron, for she was compared to him in worship and asceticism.

Ibn Jarīr related from some of them that they likened her to a profligate man among them called Aaron. Ibn Abī Ḥātim related it from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr.

Stranger than all of this is what Ibn Abī Ḥātim related:

ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Hisinjānī related to us: Ibn Abī Maryam related to us: al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍālah related to us: Abū Ṣakhr related to us, from al-Quraẓī, regarding the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, O sister of Aaron (19:28); he said: She was the sister of Aaron by his father and mother, and she was the sister of Moses, the brother of Aaron, who followed the track of Moses, and she watched him from a distance while they did not perceive (28:11).

This view is sheer error, for God, Exalted, has mentioned in His Book that He sent Jesus following in the footsteps of the messengers, which indicates that he was the last of the prophets to be sent, and there is none after him except Muḥammad (God’s blessings and peace be upon him). Hence it is established in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, from Abū Hurayrah (may God be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he said: “I am the closest of people to the son of Mary, for there is no prophet between me and him.” Were the matter as Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī claimed, Jesus would not have been the last of the messengers save Muḥammad; rather he would have been before Solomon and David, for God has mentioned that David was after Moses (peace be upon them both), in the words of the Exalted: Have you not considered the assembly of the Children of Israel after Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs: Send us a king and we will fight in the way of God. He said: Would you perhaps refrain from fighting if fighting were prescribed for you? They said: And why should we not fight in the way of God? (2:246), and He related the story until He said: And David killed Goliath (2:251), to the end of the verse. What emboldened al-Quraẓī to this statement is what is in the Torah after the exodus of Moses and the Children of Israel from the sea and the drowning of Pharaoh and his people, where it says: And Mary daughter of ʿImrān, the sister of the two prophets Moses and Aaron, took up the tambourine, she and the women with her, glorifying God and thanking Him for what He had bestowed upon the Children of Israel.⁸⁰ So al-Quraẓī believed that this was the mother of Jesus. This is a slip and a grievous error; rather, she bore the same name as this one, for they used to name after their prophets and righteous ones, as Imām Aḥmad said:

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs related to us: I heard my father mention it from Simāk, from ʿAlqamah ibn Wāʾil, from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me to Najrān, and they said: What do you make of what you recite, O sister of Aaron (19:28), when Moses was before Jesus by such-and-such a span? He said: So I returned and mentioned that to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), and he said: “Why did you not tell them that they used to take names after the prophets and righteous ones who were before them?”

Muslim alone of the two Ṣaḥīḥs transmitted it, as did al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī, from the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs, from his father, from Simāk, with the same chain. Al-Tirmidhī said: ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ gharīb; we do not know it except from the ḥadīth of Ibn Idrīs.

Ibn Jarīr said: Yaʿqūb related to me: Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Ṣadaqah, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, who said: I was informed that Kaʿb said: His words O sister of Aaron (19:28) do not refer to Aaron the brother of Moses. He said: ʿĀʾishah said to him: You have lied. He said: O Mother of the Believers, if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said it, then he knows best and is best informed; otherwise, I find between the two of them six hundred years. He said: So she fell silent. There is some doubt about this chronology.

Ibn Jarīr also said: Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, regarding His words O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste (19:28); he said: She was of a house known for righteousness and not known for corruption. Among people there are those who are known for righteousness and beget offspring in it, and others who are known for corruption and beget offspring in it. Aaron was a righteous man, beloved among his clan; he is not Aaron the brother of Moses, but another Aaron. He said: And it was mentioned to us that on the day he died forty thousand of the Children of Israel, all of them named Aaron, followed his funeral procession.

His words: So she pointed to him. They said: How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29), that is, when they had become suspicious of her situation and found her case objectionable, and said to her what they said, insinuating accusation against her and charging her with the slander—and she was fasting and silent that day—she referred the speech to him, and indicated to them that they should address him and speak to him. So they said, mocking her, and thinking that she was holding them in contempt and making sport of them: How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29)

Maymūn ibn Mihrān said: So she pointed to him (19:29): she said: Speak to him. They said: On top of the calamity she has brought upon us, she commands us to speak to one who is in the cradle, a child!

Al-Suddī said: When she pointed to him they became angry and said: Her mockery of us, in commanding us to speak to this child, is harder on us than her fornication.

They said: How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29), that is, one who is present in his cradle in the state of his childhood and infancy—how can he speak? He said: I am the servant of God (19:30). The first thing he spoke was to declare the transcendence of his Lord, Exalted, and to exonerate God from having a child, and to affirm for himself servanthood to his Lord.

His words: He has given me the Book and made me a prophet (19:30): an exoneration of his mother from the indecency that had been attributed to her.

Nawf al-Bikālī said: When they said to his mother what they said, he was suckling at her breast, so he withdrew the breast from his mouth, leaned on his left side, and said: I am the servant of God. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet (19:30), down to His words as long as I live (19:31).

Ḥammād ibn Salamah said, from Thābit al-Bunānī: He raised his forefinger above his shoulder as he said: I am the servant of God. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet (19:30), to the end of the verse.

ʿIkrimah said: He has given me the Book (19:30), that is, He decreed that He would give me the Book, in what He decreed.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: my father related to us: Muḥammad ibn al-Muṣaffā related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ziyād, from Anas ibn Mālik (may God be pleased with him), who said: Jesus son of Mary had studied the Gospel and mastered it in his mother’s womb; and that is His saying: I am the servant of God. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet (19:30).

Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-ʿAṭṭār al-Ḥimṣī is abandoned (matrūk).

His words: And He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31). Mujāhid, ʿAmr ibn Qays and al-Thawrī said: And He has made me a teacher of good. And in another report from Mujāhid: greatly beneficial.

Ibn Jarīr said: Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Khunays al-Makhzūmī related to us: I heard Wuhayb ibn al-Ward, the client of Banū Makhzūm, say: A learned man met a learned man who was above him in knowledge, and said to him: May God have mercy on you; what of my works should I make public? He said: Commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong, for it is the religion of God with which He sent His prophets to His servants. The jurists are agreed upon the words of God, And He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31); and it was asked: What was his blessing? He said: Commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong, wherever he was.

His words: and He has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving as long as I live (19:31), are like the words of the Exalted to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): And worship your Lord until the certainty comes to you (15:99).

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim said, from Mālik ibn Anas, regarding His words and He has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving as long as I live (19:31); he said: He informed him of what would be of his affair until he died. How firmly this establishes the case against the partisans of free will (ahl al-qadar)!⁸¹

His words: and dutiful to my mother (19:32), that is, and He commanded me to be dutiful to my mother. He mentioned it after obedience to God his Lord, because God, Exalted, very often joins the command to worship Him with obedience to parents, as the Exalted said: And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and kindness to parents (17:23), and He said: Give thanks to Me and to your parents; to Me is the final return (31:14).

His words: and He has not made me a tyrant, wretched (19:32), that is, He has not made me a tyrant, arrogantly disdaining His worship and obedience and dutifulness to my mother, so that I should become wretched thereby.

Sufyān al-Thawrī said: The wretched tyrant is the one who gives himself over to anger.

One of the early generations said: You will not find anyone undutiful to his parents without finding him a wretched tyrant; then he recited: and dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a tyrant, wretched (19:32). He said: And you will not find anyone who mistreats those under his authority without finding him conceited and boastful; then he recited: and those whom your right hands possess; indeed God does not love anyone who is conceited and boastful (4:36).

Qatādah said: It was mentioned to us that a woman saw the son of Mary bringing the dead to life and healing the one born blind and the leper, among the signs over which God had given him power and in which He had given him permission, and she said: Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you were suckled! The prophet of God Jesus (peace be upon him) said in reply to her: Blessed is he who recites the word of God and follows what is in it, and is not a tyrant, wretched.

His words: And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive (19:33): an affirmation on his part of his servanthood to God, Mighty and Majestic, and that he is a creature among the creatures of God, who lives and dies and is raised up like the rest of created beings; but he has safety in these states, which are the most arduous that servants face. God’s blessings and peace be upon him.

On 21:91

Thus does He, Exalted, join the story of Mary and her son Jesus (peace be upon him) to the story of Zachariah and his son John (peace be upon them both): He first mentions the story of Zachariah and then follows it with the story of Mary, because the former paves the way for the latter. For the former is the bringing into being of a child from an aged old man far advanced in years and from an elderly barren woman who had not borne children in the days of her youth; then He mentions the story of Mary, which is more wondrous still, for it is the bringing into being of a child from a female without a male. So it occurs in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān and in Sūrat Maryam, and here too He mentioned the story of Zachariah and then followed it with the story of Mary. So His words: And she who guarded her chastity (21:91) mean Mary (peace be upon her), as He said in Sūrat al-Taḥrīm: And Mary daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into it of Our spirit (66:12).

And His words: and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds (21:91), that is: a proof that God has power over all things and that He creates whatever He wills, and that His command, when He wills a thing, is only that He says to it “Be”, and it is (36:82). This is like His words: and that We may make him a sign for mankind (19:21).

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father related to us: ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad related to us, from Shabīb—meaning Ibn Bishr—from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: for the worlds (21:91), he said: “the worlds” are the jinn and mankind.

On 23:50

He, Exalted, says, informing about His servant and messenger Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon them both), that He made the two of them a sign for mankind, that is, a decisive proof of His power over whatever He wills: for He created Adam without father or mother, created Eve from a male without a female, created Jesus from a female without a male, and created the rest of mankind from a male and a female.

And His words: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50). Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: the “height” (rabwah) is the elevated part of the earth, and it is the best ground for vegetation. So too said Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Qatādah.

Ibn ʿAbbās said: And His words a place of rest (23:50): He says, a place of fertility; and flowing water (23:50) means water visible on the surface.

Mujāhid said: a level height.

Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: a place of rest and flowing water (23:50): the water lay level upon it. Mujāhid and Qatādah said: and flowing water (23:50): running water.

Then the exegetes differed as to the location of this height: in which of God’s lands is it? ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam said: There are no heights except in Egypt: when the water is released, the heights are what the villages stand upon, and were it not for the heights the villages would be drowned.

Something like this is related from Wahb ibn Munabbih, and it is very far-fetched.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Muqriʾ related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning His words, Exalted: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: It is Damascus.

He said: And something like that is related from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, al-Ḥasan, Zayd ibn Aslam and Khālid ibn Maʿdān.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj related to us: Wakīʿ related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās: a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: the rivers of Damascus.

Layth ibn Abī Sulaym said, from Mujāhid: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: Jesus son of Mary and his mother, when they took refuge in the Ghūṭah of Damascus⁸² and its surroundings.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq said, from Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the paternal cousin of Abū Hurayrah, who said: I heard Abū Hurayrah say, concerning His words: on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: It is Ramlah in Palestine.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father related to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyābī related to us: Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāḥ related to us: ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād al-Khawwāṣ Abū ʿUtbah related to us: al-Saybānī related to us, from Ibn Waʿlah, from Kurayb al-Saḥūlī, from Murrah al-Bahzī, who said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say to a man: “You will die at the height (al-rabwah)”, and he died at Ramlah. This is a very strange (gharīb) ḥadīth.

The nearest of the opinions on this is what al-ʿAwfī related from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words: and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50), he said: the “flowing water” (maʿīn) is running water, and it is the stream of which God, Exalted, said: Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24).

So too said al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Qatādah: on a height, a place of rest and flowing water (23:50): it is Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis). This—and God knows best—is the most evident view, because it is what is mentioned in the other verse; and the Qurʾan explains one part of itself by another. That is the most fitting means by which it is to be explained, then the sound ḥadīths, then the transmitted reports (āthār).

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

Tanwīr al-Miqbās, Tanwīr al-miqbās min tafsīr Ibn ʿAbbās (d. compiler d. 817 AH / 1414 CE), about 4,220 words

On 3:33-64

3:33. This verse was revealed when the Jews said: We are upon the religion of Adam, Muslims. So God sent down Indeed God chose Adam: He elected Adam for Islam; and Noah: for Islam; and the family of Abraham: the children of Abraham, for Islam; and the family of ʿImrān: Moses and Aaron, for Islam; above the worlds: the people of their age. And it is said that ʿImrān was not the father of Moses and Aaron.

3:34. Offspring, one from another: some of them upon the religion of others, and some of them born of others; and God is All-Hearing: of the saying of the Jews, “We are the sons of God and His beloved ones, upon His religion”; All-Knowing: of their punishment, and of who is upon His religion.

3:35. And remember, O Muḥammad, when the wife of ʿImrān said: Ḥannah, the mother of Mary; My Lord, I have vowed to You: I have made over to You; what is in my womb, consecrated: as a servant for the sanctuary of Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis); so accept it from me; indeed You are the All-Hearing: of supplication; the All-Knowing: of the answer, and of what is in my womb.

3:36. Then when she delivered her: gave birth to her, and behold, she was a girl; she said: My Lord, I have delivered her, a female: I have given birth to her, a girl; and God knows best what she delivered: what she gave birth to; and the male is not: in service and in the matter of nakedness (ʿawra); like the female: like the girl; and I have named her Mary, and I seek refuge for her with You: I place her under Your protection and guard her by You; and her offspring: if she should have offspring; from Satan the accursed: the damned.

3:37. So her Lord accepted her with a gracious acceptance: that is, He dealt graciously with her, so that He accepted her in place of a boy; and made her grow in a goodly growth: He nourished her in worship, through the years and the months and the days and the hours, with a goodly nourishment; and Zachariah took charge of her: he took her to himself to raise her; whenever Zachariah entered upon her in the sanctuary: meaning her chamber in which she used to worship; he found with her provision: the fruit of winter in summer, such as sugar-cane, and the fruit of summer in winter, such as grapes; he said: O Mary, whence comes this to you?: from where do you have this, out of its season?; She said: It is from God: Gabriel brought it to me; indeed God provides for whom He wills: He gives to whom He wills, in its season and out of its season; without reckoning: without measure and without stint.

3:38. There: at that; Zachariah prayed: and hoped; to his Lord; he said: My Lord, grant me: give me; from Yourself: from Your presence; a goodly offspring: a righteous child; indeed You are the Hearer of prayer: the Answerer of prayer.

3:39. Then the angels called him: meaning Gabriel; while he stood praying in the sanctuary: in the place of worship; that God gives you glad tidings of John: of a son to be named John; confirming a Word from God: Jesus son of Mary, that he comes to be by a word from God, created without a father; and a master: forbearing in the face of ignorance; and chaste: he had no desire for women; and a prophet from among the righteous: from among the messengers.

3:40. He said: My Lord: Zachariah said to Gabriel: O my master; how shall I have a boy: from where shall I have a child; when old age has reached me: when old age has overtaken me; and my wife is barren: sterile, she does not bear; He said: Gabriel; Thus: as I have told you; God does what He wills: as He wills.

3:41. He said: Zachariah; My Lord: that is, O my Lord; appoint for me a sign: a mark of my wife’s pregnancy; He said: Your sign: your mark of your wife’s pregnancy; is that you shall not speak to people: you will not be able to speak to people; for three days: without being dumb; except by gesture: except by a movement of the lips, the eyebrows, the eyes and the hands; and it is said, except by writing on the ground; and remember your Lord: with the tongue and the heart; much: in every state; and glorify Him in the evening and the early morning: pray in the morning and in the evening as you used to pray.

3:42. And when the angels said: meaning Gabriel; O Mary, indeed God has chosen you: it is said, He elected you for Islam and worship; and purified you: from unbelief, polytheism and impurities; and it is said, He saved you from being killed; and chosen you: elected you; above the women of the worlds: the women of your age, by the birth of Jesus.

3:43. O Mary, be devout to your Lord: obey your Lord, in gratitude for that; and it is said, prolong the standing in prayer, in gratitude to your Lord; and prostrate and bow: its meaning is, bow and prostrate, by bowing and prostrating; with those who bow: with the people of prayer.

3:44. That: this which I have related of the account of Mary and Zachariah; is of the tidings of the unseen: of the reports of what is hidden from you, O Muḥammad; which We reveal to you: He says, We send Gabriel to you with it; and you were not with them: meaning with the rabbis; when they cast their pens: into the running water; as to which of them should take charge: should take; of Mary: to raise her; and you were not with them: in their presence; when they disputed: argued with proofs over the raising of Mary.

3:45. When the angels said: meaning Gabriel; O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him: of a son who will come to be by a word from God, created; whose name is the Messiah: he is called the Messiah because he travels (yasīḥ) through the lands; and it is said, the Messiah means the king; Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world: he has rank and station in this world among people; and the Hereafter: and in the Hereafter, with God, he has rank and station; and of those brought near: to God, in the Garden of Eden.

3:46. And he will speak to people in the cradle: in the lap, at forty days old: “I am the servant of God and His Messiah”; and in maturity: after thirty years, with prophethood; and of the righteous: of the messengers.

3:47. She said: My Lord: Mary said to Gabriel: O my master; how shall I have a child: from where shall I have a boy, a child; when no man has touched me: neither lawfully nor unlawfully; He said: Gabriel; Thus: as I have told you; God creates what He wills: as He wills; when He decrees a matter: when He wills to create a child from you without a father; He only says to it, Be, and it is: a child without a father.

3:48. And He will teach him the Book: the books of the prophets; and it is said, writing; and the Wisdom: the lawful and the unlawful; and it is said, the wisdom of the prophets before him; and the Torah: in his mother’s womb; and the Gospel: after his coming forth from his mother’s womb.

3:49. And a messenger: after thirty years; to the Children of Israel: and when he came to them he said: I have come to you with a sign: with a mark; from your Lord: of my prophethood. They said: And what is the mark? He said: I create: I fashion; for you from clay the likeness of a bird: the semblance of a bird; then I breathe into it: like the breathing of a sleeper; and it becomes a bird: it turns into a bird that flies between heaven and earth; by God’s leave: by God’s command. So he fashioned for them a bat, and they said: This is sorcery; have you anything else? He said: Yes. And I heal: I make sound; the blind from birth: he who has never ceased to be blind; and the leper: likewise; and I give life to the dead by God’s leave: by the greatest name of God, “O Living, O Self-Subsisting”. When he had done that, they said: This is sorcery; have you anything else? He said: Yes. And I inform you: I tell you; of what you eat: morning and evening; and what you store up: what you put away from the morning meal for the evening meal, and from the evening meal for the morning meal; in your houses. Indeed in that: in what I have told you; is a sign: a mark; for you: of my prophethood; if you are believers: assenting.

3:50. And confirming: and I have come to you in agreement, in the profession of God’s oneness, in religion; what was before me of the Torah: what was before me of the Torah and the rest of the scriptures; and to make lawful for you: to grant you licence and make clear to you; some of that which: the making lawful of some of that which; was forbidden to you: such as the flesh of camels, the fat of cattle and sheep, the Sabbath, and other things. And I have come to you with a sign: with a mark; from your Lord; so fear God: so be in awe of God in what He has commanded you, and turn to Him in repentance; and obey me: and follow my command and my religion.

3:51. Indeed God is my Lord: He is my Lord; and your Lord, so worship Him: so declare Him One; this: the profession of His oneness; is a straight path: an upright religion with which He is pleased, and it is Islam.

3:52. Then when he perceived: knew; Jesus, from them, unbelief: and saw from them killing, when they wanted to kill him; and it is said, “he perceived” means he heard from them the repetition of unbelief; he said: Jesus; Who are my helpers: who are my supporters; towards God: with God, against His enemies; the disciples said: his chosen ones, the fullers (al-qaṣṣārūn), and they were twelve men; We are the helpers of God: your supporters, with God, against His enemies; we believe in God, and bear witness: know, you, O Jesus; that we are Muslims: acknowledging God with worship and the profession of His oneness.

3:53. Our Lord: O our Lord; we believe in what You have sent down: of the Book, meaning the Gospel; and we follow the Messenger: the religion of the Messenger, Jesus; so write us down among the witnesses: so make us among the foremost, the first ones, who bore witness before us; and it is said, so make us of the community of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

3:54. And they schemed: they intended, meaning the Jews, the killing of Jesus; and God schemed: God intended the killing of their companion Qaṭyānūs⁸³; and God is the best of schemers: the strongest of those who intend; and it is said, the most excellent of those who contrive.

3:55. When God said: O Jesus, I am going to take you and raise you: this is an advancing and a postponing in the order of words; He says: I am going to raise you; to Myself, and purify you: deliver you; from those who disbelieve: in you; and make those who follow you: who follow your religion; above those who disbelieve: in proof and in victory; until the Day of Resurrection: then I am going to take you, seizing you in death after the descent; and it is said, taking your heart away from love of this world; then to Me is your return: after death; and I shall judge between you: I shall decide between you; in that wherein you: in religion; used to differ: used to dispute.

3:56. As for those who disbelieve: in God and His Messenger Muḥammad, and in Jesus; I shall punish them with a severe punishment in this world: by the sword and the poll-tax (jizya); and the Hereafter: by the Fire; and they shall have no helpers: none to ward off from them the punishment of God in this world and the Hereafter.

3:57. And as for those who believe: in God, the Book, and the Messenger Muḥammad, and in Jesus; and do righteous deeds: between themselves and their Lord, sincerely; He will pay them in full: He will give them in abundance; their rewards: their recompense in the Garden on the Day of Resurrection; and God does not love the wrongdoers: the polytheists, for their wrongdoing and their polytheism.

3:58. That: which I have related, O Muḥammad, of the account of Jesus; We recite to you: We send down Gabriel to you with it; of the signs: He says, of the verses of the Qur’an, with command and prohibition; and the wise Reminder: the one made firm with the lawful and the unlawful; and it is said, in agreement with the Torah and the Gospel; and it is said, the Preserved Tablet.

3:59. Then He made clear the creation of Jesus without a father, because of the words of the delegation of the Banū Najrān: “Bring us a proof from the Qur’an for your claim that Jesus is not the son of God.” So God said: Indeed the likeness of Jesus: the likeness of the creation of Jesus; with God: without a father; is as the likeness of Adam; He created him from dust: without father or mother; then He said to him: to Jesus; Be, and he was: a child without a father.

3:60. The truth: it is the true report; from your Lord: that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner; so do not be of the doubters: of those who doubt what I have made clear to you of the creation of Jesus without a father.

3:61. Then He mentioned the dispute of the delegation of the Banū Najrān with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), after it had been made clear to them that his likeness with God is as the likeness of Adam; they said: It is not as you say, that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner. So God said: Then whoever argues with you concerning him: whoever disputes with you concerning him, concerning Jesus; after what has come to you of knowledge: of the clear exposition that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner; say: Come, let us call our sons: let us bring out our sons; and your sons: bring out, you, your sons; and our women: let us bring out our women; and your women: bring out, you, your women; and ourselves: let us come out ourselves; and yourselves: come out, you, yourselves; then let us pray earnestly: let us humbly implore and strive in supplication; and invoke: and lay; the curse of God: in what is between us; upon the liars: against God concerning Jesus.

3:62. Indeed this: which I have related, O Muḥammad, of the account of Jesus and of the delegation of the Banū Najrān; is the true narrative: the true report, that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner; and there is no god but God: without child and without partner; and indeed God is the Mighty: in vengeance against him who does not believe in Him; the Wise: God commanded that none other than He be worshipped; and it is said, the Judge (al-ḥakam): He decreed against them the mutual cursing (mulāʿana), but they turned away from it and did not go out to the mutual cursing with the Prophet (upon him be blessings and peace), because they knew that they were liars and that Muḥammad was a truthful prophet, sent, whose description and attributes are in their scripture.

3:63. So God said: Then if they turn away: from your call to the mutual cursing with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); then indeed God is All-Knowing of the corrupters: of the Christians of the Banū Najrān.

3:64. Then He called them to the profession of God’s oneness and said: Say: O People of the Book, come to a word: “There is no god but God”; equitable: just; between us and you, that we worship none but God: that we declare none One but God; and associate nothing with Him: of created beings; and that none of us take others as lords: that none of us obey any of the chiefs in disobedience to God; besides God. But they refused that too, so God said: Then if they turn away: turn aside and withdraw from the profession of God’s oneness; then say: Bear witness: know, you; that we are Muslims: acknowledging Him with worship and the profession of His oneness.

On 19:16-37

19:16. And mention: O Muḥammad; in the Book: in the Qur’an; Mary: the account of Mary; when she withdrew: she went apart and secluded herself; from her family to an eastern place: on the eastern side of their house.

19:17. And took, apart from them: she let down, apart from her family; a screen: a veil, so as to wash herself therein from menstruation; then We sent to her: after she had finished; Our Spirit: Our messenger Gabriel; and he appeared to her: he took on a likeness for her; as a well-proportioned man: in the form of a young man lacking nothing.

19:18. She said: Mary; I seek refuge: I seek protection; in the Most Gracious from you, if you are God-fearing: obedient to the Most Gracious; and it is said, al-Taqī was the name of a wicked man, and she thought that he was that man, and for that reason she sought refuge from him.

19:19. He said: Gabriel, to her; I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you: so that God may grant you; a pure boy: a righteous child.

19:20. She said: Mary, to Gabriel (peace be upon him); How shall I have a boy: from where shall I have a child; when no man has touched me: no husband has come near me; and I have not been unchaste: an adulteress.

19:21. He said: Gabriel, to her; Thus: so it is, as I have told you; your Lord has said: It is easy for Me: his creation is easy for Me, without a father; and that We may make him: so that We may make him; a sign: a mark and a lesson; for people: for the Children of Israel, a child without a father; and a mercy from Us: for him who believes in him; and it is a matter decreed: a decree that is to be, that he should be a child without a father.

19:22. So she conceived him: Mary; and her pregnancy with him lasted nine months, and it is said, a single day; and she withdrew: she went apart; with him: with her giving birth to him; to a distant place: far from people.

19:23. And the pangs of childbirth drove her: the labour-pains compelled her; to the trunk of the palm-tree: to the base of a dried-up palm; she said: Would that I had died before this: this child; and it is said, before this day; and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind: a thing abandoned and not remembered; and it is said, a discarded menstrual cloth; and it is said, a miscarriage.

19:24. Then he called to her from beneath her: from below her, meaning Gabriel; Do not grieve: O Mary, over the birth of Jesus; your Lord has placed beneath you a sariyy: a prophet; and it is said, “then he who was beneath her called to her”, if you read it with the fatḥa on the mīm⁸⁴, meaning Jesus: Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a sariyy, a small stream.

19:25. And shake towards you: take hold, towards you; the trunk of the palm-tree: the base of the palm, and move it; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates: tender and fresh.

19:26. So eat: of the fresh dates; and drink: from the stream; and be comforted: be of good cheer at the birth of Jesus (peace be upon him); and if you see of mankind: of human beings; anyone: after this day; then say: I have vowed to the Most Gracious a fast: a silence; so I shall not speak today to any human: to any son of Adam; then keep silent after that, until Jesus speaks in your excuse.

19:27. Then she brought him: Jesus; to her people: to her people; carrying him: when he was forty days old; they said: O Mary, you have done a thing unheard of: a tremendous abomination.

19:28. O sister of Aaron: O you who resemble Aaron in worship; and Aaron was a righteous man, among the best of people; and it is said, Aaron was a wicked man and they likened her to him; and it is said, Aaron was her brother on her father’s side; your father was not a man of evil: a fornicating man; nor was your mother unchaste: an adulteress.

19:29. So she pointed to him: to Jesus (peace be upon him), meaning: speak to him; they said: to her; How can we speak to one who is in the cradle: in the lap; and it is said, in the bed; a child: a small one, forty days old. Then Jesus (peace be upon him) spoke.

19:30. He said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book: He taught me the Torah and the Gospel in my mother’s womb; and made me a prophet: after my coming forth from my mother’s womb.

19:31. And He has made me blessed: a teacher of good; wherever I am: wherever I am and wherever I dwell; and has enjoined upon me prayer: the completion of prayer; and almsgiving: charity; as long as I live: as long as I am alive.

19:32. And dutiful to my mother: kind to my mother; and He has not made me a tyrant: in my religion, one who kills in anger; wretched: disobedient to my Lord.

19:33. And peace be upon me the day I was born: safety for me when I was born, from the prick of Satan; and the day I die: when I die, from the squeeze of the grave; and the day I am raised alive: when I am raised alive from the grave.

19:34. That is Jesus son of Mary: the account of Jesus son of Mary; the word of truth: the true report; about which: about Jesus; they doubt: they are in doubt, meaning the Christians: some of them said he is God, some of them said he is the son of God, and some of them said he is His partner.

19:35. It is not for God: it does not befit God; to take any son. Glory be to Him: He declared Himself transcendent above child and partner; when He decrees a matter: when He wills to create a child without a father; He only says to it, Be, and it is: a child without a father, like Jesus. And when Jesus came with the message to his people, he said: I am the servant of God and His Messiah.

19:36. And indeed God: He; is my Lord: my Creator and my Provider; and your Lord: your Creator and your Provider; so worship Him: declare Him One; this: the profession of His oneness which I command you; is a straight path: an upright religion with which He is pleased, and it is Islam.

19:37. But the factions differed: the unbelievers; among themselves: between themselves; some of them said he is God, some of them said he is the son of God, and some of them said he is His partner; so woe: Woe (al-wayl) is a valley in Hell of pus and blood; and it is said, a pit in the Fire; and it is said, “so woe” means severe punishment; to those who disbelieve: who formed factions concerning Jesus; from the witnessing of a tremendous Day: from the punishment of the Day of Resurrection.

On 21:91

21:91. And she who: and mention her who; guarded her chastity: guarded the opening of her shift; so We breathed into her of Our Spirit: Gabriel breathed into the opening of her shift, by Our command; and We made her and her son a sign: a mark and a lesson; for the worlds: for the Children of Israel: a child without a father, and a birth without being touched.

On 23:50

23:50. And We made the son of Mary: meaning Jesus; and his mother a sign: a mark and a lesson: a child without a father, and a birth without being touched; and We gave them refuge: We brought them back; to a height: to an elevated place; of settled ground: level, possessed of comfort; and flowing water: visible running water; and it is Damascus.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

al-Jalālayn, Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (d. 864 AH / 1459 CE and 911 AH / 1505 CE), about 1,390 words

On 3:42

And (3:42) remember when the angels said, that is, Gabriel, O Mary, truly God has chosen you, selected you, and purified you from the touch of men, and chosen you above the women of the worlds, that is, the people of your time.

On 3:43

O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43), obey Him, and prostrate and bow with those who bow, that is, pray with those who pray.

On 3:44

That (3:44), what has been mentioned of the affair of Zachariah and Mary, is of the tidings of the unseen, the reports of what was hidden from you, which We reveal to you, O Muḥammad; and you were not with them when they cast their pens into the water, drawing lots so that it might become clear to them which of them should take charge of, should bring up, Mary; nor were you with them when they disputed over her guardianship, such that you would know that and report it; rather, you knew it only by way of revelation.

On 3:45

Remember when the angels said (3:45), that is, Gabriel, O Mary, truly God gives you good tidings of a Word from Him, that is, a son, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary. He addressed her attributing him to her, to draw attention to the fact that she would bear him without a father, since the custom with men is that they are attributed to their fathers; honoured, possessed of standing, in this world, through prophethood, and the Hereafter, through intercession and the highest degrees, and one of those brought near to God.

On 3:46

And he shall speak to people in the cradle (3:46), that is, as an infant, before the time of speech, and in maturity, and shall be one of the righteous.

On 3:47

She said: My Lord, how (3:47), in what way, shall I have a child when no man has touched me, whether by marriage or otherwise? He said: The matter is so, God’s creating a child from you without a father; God creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, wills to create it, He only says to it “Be”, and it is, that is, and so it comes to be.

On 19:16

And mention in the Book (19:16), the Qurʾān, Mary, that is, her story, when, at the time when, she withdrew from her family to an eastern place, that is, she secluded herself in a place towards the east of the house.

On 19:17

And she took a screen apart from them (19:17): she let down a curtain to conceal herself behind, so as to delouse her head, or her clothes, or to wash herself after her menses. Then We sent to her Our Spirit, Gabriel, and he took on for her – after she had put on her clothes – the likeness of a well-proportioned man, perfect in form.

On 19:18

She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), so that you will desist from me on account of my seeking refuge.

On 19:19

He said: I am only the messenger of your Lord, to grant you a boy who is pure (19:19), through prophethood.

On 19:20

She said: How shall I have a boy when no man has touched me (19:20), by marriage, nor have I been unchaste, a fornicatress?

On 19:21

He said (19:21), Gabriel: The matter is so, God’s creating a boy from you without a father; your Lord has said: It is easy for Me, that is, by Gabriel’s breathing into you at My command, so that you conceive him. And since what has been mentioned has the sense of a cause, the following is conjoined to it: and so that We may make him a sign for people, of Our power, and a mercy from Us for whoever believes in him; and it was, his creation, a matter decreed, in My knowledge. So Gabriel breathed into the opening of her shift, and she felt the conception in her womb, already formed.

On 19:22

So she conceived him, and she withdrew (19:22), retired, with him to a far place, distant from her family.

On 19:23

Then there drove her (19:23), brought her, the pangs of childbirth, the pain of labour, to the trunk of the palm-tree, so that she might lean upon it; and she gave birth – the conception, the formation and the birth all took place within a single hour. She said: O – for calling attention – would that I had died before this affair, and been a thing forgotten, consigned to oblivion, something abandoned, neither known nor remembered.

On 19:24

Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that is, Gabriel, who was lower down than she: Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet, a stream of water which had dried up.

On 19:25

And shake towards you the trunk of the palm-tree (19:25) – it was withered, and the bāʾ is redundant – it will drop – originally with two tāʾs (tatasāqaṭ), the second changed into sīn and assimilated into the sīn; in one reading it is left out – upon you dates, a specification (tamyīz), fresh and ripe, its adjective.

On 19:26

So eat (19:26) of the fresh dates, and drink of the rivulet, and be comforted of eye by the child – a specification (tamyīz) transposed from the subject, that is, “so that your eye be comforted by him”, meaning that it be at rest and not look towards anything else. And if – here the nūn of the conditional in is assimilated into the redundant mā – you should see – from it the final radical and the middle radical of the verb have been elided, the vowel of the latter transferred to the rāʾ, and the yāʾ of the pronoun given a kasra because of the meeting of two unvowelled letters – any human being, who then asks you about your child, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, that is, an abstention from speaking about his affair and other matters with human beings, as is shown by: so I shall not speak today to any human, that is, after this.

On 19:27

Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27) – a circumstantial clause (ḥāl) – and they saw him. They said: O Mary, you have indeed done a monstrous thing, a grave thing, in that you have brought a child without a father.

On 19:28

O sister of Aaron (19:28) – he was a righteous man; that is, O you who are like him in chastity – your father was not an evil man, that is, a fornicator, nor was your mother unchaste, that is, a fornicatress; so from where have you this child?

On 19:29

Then she pointed (19:29), to them, to him, [as if to say] speak to him. They said: How shall we speak to one who is, that is, who is found, in the cradle, a child?

On 19:30

He said: I am the servant of God. He has given me the Book (19:30), that is, the Gospel, and made me a prophet.

On 19:31

And He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31), that is, greatly beneficial to people – an announcement of what had been decreed for him – and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms, He commanded me with them both, as long as I live.

On 19:32

And dutiful towards my mother (19:32) – in the accusative, governed by an implied “He has made me” – and He has not made me arrogant, self-aggrandising, wretched, disobedient to his Lord.

On 19:33

And peace (19:33), from God, be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised alive. What was said earlier regarding the lord John is said of this too.

On 21:91

And (21:91) remember Mary, she who guarded her chastity, protected it from being touched, so We breathed into her of Our Spirit, that is, Gabriel, in that he breathed into the opening of her shift and she conceived Jesus, and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds, mankind, the jinn and the angels, in that she bore him without a male.

On 23:50

And We made the son of Mary (23:50), Jesus, and his mother a sign – He did not say “two signs”, because the sign in the two of them is one: his birth without a male – and We gave them refuge on a height, an elevated place, which is the Holy House (Bayt al-Maqdis), or Damascus, or Palestine – various opinions – possessed of a settled place, that is, level, on which its inhabitants settle, and a flowing spring, that is, running water, visible, which the eyes see.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

al-Durr al-Manthūr, al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE), about 13,480 words

On 3:42-45

His words, Exalted: And when the angels said: O Mary, indeed God has chosen you (3:42), and the following verses

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, concerning His words Indeed God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42), that he said: Abū Hurayrah used to relate from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: “The best women who ever rode camels are the women of Quraysh: the most tender towards a child in its infancy, and the most careful of a husband in what his hand possesses.” Abū Hurayrah said: And Mary daughter of ʿImrān never rode a camel. The two Shaykhs⁸⁵ recorded it without the verse.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Mardawayh recorded from ʿAlī: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The best of its women is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid.”⁸⁶

Al-Ḥākim recorded, and declared it sound (ṣaḥīḥ), from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The most excellent of the women of the worlds are Khadījah, Fāṭimah, Mary and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh.”

Ibn Mardawayh recorded from Anas, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Indeed God has chosen four above the women of the worlds: Āsiyah daughter of Muzāḥim, Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid and Fāṭimah daughter of Muḥammad.”

Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhī, who declared it sound, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ḥākim recorded from Anas that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Sufficient for you among the women of the worlds are Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid, Fāṭimah daughter of Muḥammad and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh.”

Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded it from al-Ḥasan as a mursal report.⁸⁷

Ibn Abī Shaybah, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mājah and Ibn Jarīr recorded from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many among men attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh; and the excellence of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the excellence of tharīd over other food.”⁸⁸

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Ibn Jarīr recorded from Fāṭimah (may God be pleased with her), who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: “You are the mistress of the women of the people of Paradise, except for Mary the Virgin (al-Batūl).”

Ibn Jarīr recorded from ʿAmmār ibn Saʿd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Khadījah was given excellence over the women of my community just as Mary was given excellence over the women of the worlds.”

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The mistress of the women of the people of Paradise is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, then Fāṭimah, then Khadījah, then Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh.”

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded, by way of Muqātil, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “Four women are the mistresses of their world: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah daughter of Muzāḥim, Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid and Fāṭimah daughter of Muḥammad; and the most excellent of them in her world is Fāṭimah.”

Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Fāṭimah is the mistress of the women of the worlds after Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh and Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid.”

Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded from Makḥūl, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The best women who ever rode camels are the women of Quraysh: the most tender towards a child in its infancy, and the most careful of a husband in what his hand possesses. And had I known that Mary daughter of ʿImrān ever rode a camel, I would not have preferred anyone above her.”

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Mujāhid, concerning His words Indeed God has chosen you and purified you (3:42), that he said: He made you pure in faith.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from al-Suddī: and purified you (3:42) — he said: from menstruation; and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42) — he said: above the women of that age in which they were living.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: Mary was confined in the sanctuary (al-kanīsah), and with her in the sanctuary was a youth named Joseph, whose mother and father had dedicated him as a votary to be confined there, so the two of them were in the sanctuary together. Whenever Mary’s water and Joseph’s water ran out, they would take their two jars and set off for the wilderness in which the water was; they would fill them and then return. In the midst of that the angels would come to Mary: O Mary, indeed God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42). When Zachariah heard that he said: The daughter of ʿImrān has a great matter in store indeed.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr recorded from Mujāhid: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43) — he said: Prolong the standing still, meaning standing in prayer.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr recorded from Mujāhid, who said: When it was said to her be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43), she stood until her feet swelled.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from al-Awzāʿī, who said: Mary used to stand in prayer until pus flowed from her feet.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Ibn Saʿīd, who said: Mary used to pray until her feet swelled.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43) — he said: Be sincere.

He recorded from Qatādah: be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43) — he said: Obey your Lord.

Ibn Abī Dāwūd recorded in al-Maṣāḥif from Ibn Masʿūd that he used to recite: “and bow and prostrate among those who prostrate”.⁸⁹

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Qatādah, concerning His words and you were not with them (3:44): meaning Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded, by way of al-ʿAwfī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary (3:44), that he said: When Mary (peace be upon her) was placed in the sanctuary, the people of the place of prayer, who used to write down the revelation, cast lots for her; they cast lots with their pens as to which of them should take charge of her. So God said to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, and you were not with them when they disputed (3:44).

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary (3:44), that he said: They cast their pens into the water, and they were carried off with the current, but Zachariah’s pen rose up against it; so Zachariah took charge of her.

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from al-Rabīʿ, who said: They cast their pens — he means their staves — towards the current of the water, and Zachariah’s staff went against the current of the water, and so he won the lot over them.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Ibn Jurayj, who said: their pens (3:44) — he said: those with which they used to write the Torah.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd recorded the like of it from Mujāhid.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from ʿAṭāʾ: their pens (3:44), meaning: their lot-arrows (qidāḥ).

Isḥāq ibn Bishr and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When God had granted John to Zachariah and he had reached three years of age, God gave Mary the glad tidings of Jesus. While she was in the prayer-niche (miḥrāb) the angels said — and it was Gabriel alone — O Mary, indeed God has chosen you and purified you (3:42) from indecency, and chosen you, meaning: and selected you, above the women of the worlds: the world of her own community. O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43), meaning: pray to your Lord. He says: stand still before your Lord in prayer with long standing; and she used to stand until her feet swelled. and prostrate and bow with those who bow (3:43), meaning: with those who pray, with the reciters of the Holy House.⁹⁰ God says to His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44), meaning: by way of the tiding of the unseen in the story of Zachariah, John and Mary; and you were not with them, meaning: in their presence, when they cast their pens for the guardianship of Mary. Then He said: O Muḥammad — informing him of the story of Jesus — When the angels said: O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world (3:45), meaning: having a firm standing with God in this world, and among those brought near (3:45) in the Hereafter; and he will speak to the people in the cradle (3:46), meaning: in swaddling clothes, and in maturity (3:46): and he will speak to them as a man of mature age when he has reached his full strength, before he is raised up to heaven; and among the righteous (3:46), meaning: among the messengers.

Isḥāq ibn Bishr and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Wahb, who said: When Mary’s pregnancy had become established and Gabriel had given her the glad tidings, she trusted in God’s honouring of her and was at rest; her soul was at ease and her resolve grew strong. With her among those dedicated to the sanctuary was a son of her maternal uncle called Joseph. He used to serve her from behind the curtain, speak with her and hand her things from behind the curtain. He was the first to notice her pregnancy, and it troubled him and grieved him; he feared from it a calamity he had no strength to withstand, and he did not know from where Mary had been approached. It distracted him from attending to his own affairs and his own works, for he was a devout and wise man. Before Mary drew the curtain over herself she used to be with him, and he had grown up with her. Whenever Mary’s water and Joseph’s water ran out, they would take their two jars and set off for the wilderness in which the water was; they would fill their two jars and then return to the sanctuary, while the angels came to Mary with the glad tidings: O Mary, indeed God has chosen you and purified you (3:42); and Joseph would marvel at what he heard. When Mary’s pregnancy became evident to Joseph, something concerning her fell into his heart, until he was almost led into temptation. But when he was about to suspect her in his heart, he remembered how God had purified her and chosen her, and what God had promised her mother, that He would protect her and her offspring from the accursed Satan, and what he had heard of the words of the angels: O Mary, indeed God has chosen you and purified you (3:42). So he recalled the excellences with which God had favoured her, and he said: Zachariah has secured her in the prayer-niche so that no one enters upon her, and Satan has no way to reach her; so from where is this? Then, when he saw how her colour had changed and her belly was showing, it weighed heavily upon him, and he hinted at it to her, saying: O Mary, can there be a crop without seed? She said: Yes. He said: And how is that? She said: God created the first seed without any plant, and He made the first crop grow without any seed. Perhaps you will say: He was not able to create the first crop except by means of seed? And perhaps you will say: Had He not sought the help of seed for it, it would have overcome Him, so that He could neither create it nor make it grow? Joseph said: I take refuge with God from saying that. You have spoken truly, and you have spoken with light and wisdom. Just as He was able to create the first crop and make it grow without seed, He is able to make a crop without seed. But tell me: do trees grow without water or rain? She said: Do you not know that the seed, the crop, the water, the rain and the trees have one Creator? Perhaps you will say: Were it not for the water and the rain, He would not be able to make the trees grow? He said: I take refuge with God from saying that; you have spoken truly. Then tell me: can there be a child and a pregnancy without a male? She said: Yes. He said: And how is that? She said: Do you not know that God created Adam and his wife Eve without any pregnancy, and without female or male? He said: Indeed so. Then tell me your news. She said: God has given me the glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45), up to His words and among the righteous (3:46). So Joseph knew that this was a matter from God, by reason of some good He intended for Mary, and he kept silent about her. She remained in that state until the pangs of birth seized her, whereupon she was called: Go out from the prayer-niche. So she went out.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Qatādah, concerning His words When the angels said: O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings (3:45), that he said: The angels addressed her with that face to face.

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him (3:45), that he said: Jesus is the Word from God.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: None of the prophets had two names except Jesus and Muḥammad (peace be upon them both).

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Ibrāhīm, who said: the Messiah (3:45): the veracious one (al-ṣiddīq).

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Saʿīd, who said: He was called the Messiah only because he was anointed (musiḥa) with blessing.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Thaqafī that Jesus was a wanderer (sāʾiḥ), and for that reason he was called the Messiah: he would pass the evening in one land and the morning in another; and that he never married until he was raised up.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr recorded from Qatādah, concerning His words and among those brought near (3:45): He says: and among those brought near to God on the Day of Resurrection.

On 3:46-47

His words, Exalted: and he will speak to the people in the cradle (3:46)

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir recorded, by way of Ibn Jurayj, who said: It reached me from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: The cradle is the infant’s resting-place during his suckling.

Al-Bukhārī and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “None spoke in the cradle except three. Jesus. And there was among the Children of Israel a man called Jurayj. He was praying when his mother came to him and called him, and he said: Shall I answer her, or go on praying? So she said: O God, do not let him die until You have shown him the faces of the harlots. Jurayj was in his hermitage when a woman presented herself to him and spoke to him, but he refused. So she went to a shepherd and gave herself to him, and she bore a boy, and she said: It is Jurayj’s. They came to him, broke down his hermitage, brought him down and reviled him. He performed ablution and prayed, then he came to the boy and said: Who is your father, O boy? He said: The shepherd. They said to him: We shall build your hermitage of gold. He said: No; only of clay. And there was a woman among the Children of Israel suckling a son of hers, when a man of fine appearance rode past her, and she said: O God, make my son like him. He left her breast and turned towards the rider and said: O God, do not make me like him. Then he turned back to her breast and sucked it. Then a slave-girl was brought past, being dragged along and made sport of, and she said: O God, do not make my son like this one. He left her breast and said: O God, make me like her. She said: Why is that? He said: The rider is a tyrant among tyrants; while as for this slave-girl, they say to her: You have committed adultery, and she says: God is sufficient for me; and they say: You have stolen, and she says: God is sufficient for me.”

Abū al-Shaykh and al-Ḥākim, who declared it sound, recorded from Abū Hurayrah (may God be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “None spoke in the cradle except Jesus, the witness of Joseph, the companion of Jurayj, and the son of Pharaoh’s hairdresser.”⁹¹

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr recorded from Qatādah: and he will speak to the people in the cradle and in maturity (3:46) — he said: He speaks to them as a small child and as a grown man.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded, by way of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās: and in maturity (3:46) — he said: at the age of a man of mature years (kahl).

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Mujāhid, who said: The man of mature years (kahl) is the forbearing one.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, who said: The man of mature years is one who has reached the utmost of forbearance.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Abū Zayd, concerning the verse, who said: Jesus has already spoken to them in the cradle, and he will speak to them when he kills the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl), and on that day he will be a man of mature years.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: He said: Thus God creates what He wills (3:47): He does what He intends, and creates what He wills, whether human or other than human; when He decrees a matter, He only says to it “Be”, and it is (3:47): of whatever He wills and however He wills, and so it is as He intended.

On 19:16

His words, Exalted: And mention in the Book Mary (19:16) — the verse.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words when she withdrew (19:16) — that is, went apart — from her family to an eastern place: he said: towards the east, far off and set apart.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words she withdrew from her family to an eastern place: he said: a place where the sun screened her from being seen by any of them.

Al-Firyābī, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Christians took the east as their direction of prayer (qiblah) only because Mary withdrew from her family to an eastern place, and so they took his birthplace as a qiblah; and the Jews prostrated on the side of the face only because, when the mountain was raised up above them, they began to be afraid while they looked at it, fearing that it would fall upon them, and so they prostrated with a prostration that God was pleased with, and they took it as a custom.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The People of the Book had prayer towards the House and pilgrimage to it prescribed for them, and nothing turned them away from it except your Lord’s saying when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place. He said: She went out from them to an eastern place, and so they prayed towards the rising-place of the sun.

Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When Mary came of age, while she was in her house, secluded, a man came in to her without permission, and she feared that he had come in to assault her, so she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18). He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure boy (19:19). She said: How can I have a boy, when no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste? (19:20). He said: Thus said your Lord (19:21). Gabriel kept repeating that to her while she said How can I have a boy (19:20); then Gabriel caught her off guard and blew into the opening of her shift, and rose and left her, and her pregnancy proceeded. She said: “If I go out towards the west, the people pray towards the west; rather I shall go out towards the east, where no one will see me.” So she went out towards the east, and while she was walking the birth-pangs came suddenly upon her. She looked to see whether she could find something to screen herself with, and saw nothing but the trunk of the palm-tree, and said: “I shall screen myself from the people with this trunk.” Beneath the trunk there was a flowing stream, and she pressed close to the palm-tree. When she gave birth to him, everything that was worshipped besides God, in the easts of the earth and its wests, fell down prostrate on its face. Iblīs took fright and went out; he ascended, and saw nothing he found amiss; he came to the east, and saw nothing he found amiss; he entered the earth, and saw nothing he found amiss; and he began to lose patience, so he came to the west to look, and saw nothing he found amiss. While he was going round, he passed by the palm-tree, and behold, there was a woman with a boy to whom she had given birth, and behold, the angels had encircled her, her son and the palm-tree. He said: “Here the thing has happened.” He turned towards them and said: “What is this thing that has happened?” The angels spoke to him and said: “A prophet born without a male.” He said: “Well then, by God, I shall surely lead astray most of the worlds by means of him.” He led the Jews astray, so they disbelieved in him; and he led the Christians astray, so they said: he is the son of God. He said: And an angel called to her from beneath her: Your Lord has placed beneath you a stream (19:24). Iblīs said: “No female has ever conceived except with my knowledge, and none has ever given birth except upon my palm — save this boy: I did not know of him when his mother conceived him, and I did not know of him when she gave birth to him.”

Al-Ḥākim — who declared it sound — al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt, and Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of al-Suddī, from Abū Mālik, from Ibn ʿAbbās, and from Murrah ibn Masʿūd⁹², who both said: Mary went out to the side of the sanctuary (miḥrāb) because of a menstruation that had come upon her, and when she became pure, behold, there was a man with her, who appeared to her as a man (19:17). She took fright and said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18). She went out wearing her outer wrap (jilbāb), and he took hold of her sleeve and blew into the opening of her shift, which was slit at the front, and the breath entered her breast, and she conceived. Her sister, the wife of Zachariah, came to visit her one night, and when she opened the door to her she embraced her, and the wife of Zachariah said: “O Mary, do you know that I have found myself to be pregnant?” Mary said: “I too have found myself to be pregnant.” The wife of Zachariah said: “Then I feel what is in my belly prostrating to what is in your belly.” That is His words: confirming a word from God (3:39). The wife of Zachariah gave birth to John; and when the time came for Mary to give birth, she went out to the side of the sanctuary, and the birth-pangs drove her to the trunk of the palm-tree; she said, “Would that I had died before this” (19:23) — the verse — and he called to her (19:24) — Gabriel — from beneath her: “Do not grieve” (19:24). When she gave birth to him, Satan went and told the Children of Israel that Mary had given birth. When they wanted her to speak, she pointed to Jesus, and he spoke and said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30) — the verses. And when he was born, there remained no idol on the earth but fell down on its face.

Isḥāq ibn Bishr and Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words And mention in the Book Mary (19:16): he says: Recount her story to the Jews, the Christians and the polytheists of the Arabs; when she withdrew — meaning, went out — from her family to an eastern place: he said: She had gone out from Jerusalem on the side facing the east; and took a screen apart from them (19:17). That was because, when God wished to begin bestowing honour upon her and to give her the glad tidings of Jesus — and she had bathed after menstruation — she went to the eastern side and placed between herself and her people a screen (19:17), meaning a mountain, so that the mountain was between her seat and Jerusalem. Then We sent to her Our Spirit (19:17) — meaning Gabriel — and he appeared to her as a man (19:17) — in the form of human beings — well-formed (19:17) — meaning upright, a young man, white of face, with tightly curling hair, at the age when his moustache was just darkening. When she looked at him standing before her, she said, “I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing” (19:18). That was because she likened him to a young man who used to see her and had grown up with her, called Joseph, of the Children of Israel, who was one of the servants of Jerusalem; and she feared that Satan had caused him to slip, and for that reason she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18) — meaning, if you fear God. Gabriel said, smiling: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure boy (19:19) — meaning, obedient to God, without a man. She said, “How can I have a boy, when no man has touched me (19:20) — meaning a husband — and I have not been unchaste?” (19:20) — that is, a harlot. Gabriel said: Thus (19:21) — meaning, so it is — said your Lord: it is easy for Me (19:21) — meaning, to create him without a man — and that We may make him a sign for the people (19:21) — meaning, a lesson for the people (and “the people” here means the believers specifically) — and a mercy from Us for whoever believes that he is the messenger of God; and it is a matter decreed (19:21) — meaning, bound to be, that he should be without a man. Then Gabriel drew near and blew into the opening of her garment, and the breath entered her inward parts, and she conceived as women conceive, in the womb and the afterbirth, and she gave birth to him as women give birth. Thirst came upon her, so God made a rivulet flow for her from the Jordan; that is His words: Your Lord has placed beneath you a stream (19:24) — and the stream (sarī) is the rivulet. And the trunk at once bore fresh ripe dates (19:25). Then Gabriel called to her from beneath her: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm-tree (19:25) — there were no fronds on its top, and it had been dry for a long age, but God revived it for her and it bore fruit; that is His words: it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25) — meaning fresh, with their bloom still upon them. So eat (19:26) — of the fresh dates — and drink (19:26) — from the rivulet — and be comforted (19:26) — by your child. She said: “But how will it be with me when they ask me, ‘Where did this come from?’” Gabriel said to her: And if you see (19:26) — meaning, when you see — any human being (19:26) who presses you hard about your affair, then say, “I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful” (19:26) — meaning a silence concerning the matter of Jesus — “so I shall not speak today to any human” (19:26) — concerning his matter, until he himself is the one who speaks for me and for himself. He said: They missed Mary from her sanctuary and asked Joseph, who said: “I have no knowledge of her, and the key of the door of her sanctuary is with Zachariah.” So they sought out Zachariah and opened the door, and she was not in it; so they suspected him, seized him and berated him. Then a man said: “I saw her in such-and-such a place.” So they went out in search of her, and heard the sound of a magpie at the top of the trunk beneath which Mary was, and they set off towards it. That is the word of God: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27). Ibn ʿAbbās said: When she saw that her people had come towards her, she carried the child towards them so as to meet them with him; that is His words: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27) — that is, fearing neither suspicion nor accusation. When they looked at her, her father tore his tunic and put dust on his head, as did her brothers and the family of Zachariah, and they said: “O Mary, you have indeed done a monstrous thing” (19:27) — meaning, an enormous thing. O sister of Aaron (19:28) — she was of the family of Aaron — your father was not a wicked man, nor was your mother unchaste (19:28) — meaning, an adulteress; so from where have you brought this, with this righteous brother, righteous father and righteous mother? Then she pointed to him (19:29), saying to them: “Speak to him, for he will inform you; for I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful (19:26), not to speak to you about his matter, for he will speak for me and will be for you a sign and a lesson.” They said (19:29): “O wonder! How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child?” (19:29) — meaning, one who is in swaddling cloths, an infant who does not speak. Then God made him speak, and he spoke for his mother, and it was a lesson for them; he said: I am the servant of God (19:30). When he had said that, John began — he being three years old — and he was the first to believe in him; he said: “I bear witness that you are the servant of God and His messenger,” in confirmation of God’s word: confirming a word from God (3:39). Then Jesus said: He has given me the Book and made me a prophet (19:30) — to you; and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31). Ibn ʿAbbās said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The blessing which God placed in Jesus was that he was a teacher and an instructor wherever he turned.” And He has enjoined on me prayer and almsgiving (19:31) — meaning, He has commanded me — and to be dutiful to my mother (19:32) — so I shall not be undutiful to her. Ibn ʿAbbās said: When he said and to be dutiful to my mother (19:32), Zachariah said: “God is most great!” and took him and clasped him to his breast, and they knew that he had been created without a man. And He has not made me an overbearing wretch (19:32) — meaning, arrogant, a shedder of blood. And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive (19:33). God says: That is Jesus son of Mary — the word of truth about which they are in doubt (19:34) — meaning, they doubt; He says this of the Jews. Then Jesus refrained from speech until he reached the age at which people reach it.

Ibn Abī Shaybah transmitted from Abū Ḥātim, and Abū Nuʿaym from Mujāhid, who said: Mary said: “When I was alone, Jesus would talk to me and speak with me while he was in my womb; and when I was with people, he would glorify God and magnify Him in my womb while I listened.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Firyābī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning Mary: he said: As soon as she conceived, she gave birth.

Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted from al-Ḥasan, who said: It has reached me that Mary was pregnant for seven, or for nine, hours, and gave birth to him the same day.

Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of ʿIkrimah from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Mary gave birth at eight months; and for that reason no child is born at eight months but dies, so that Mary should not be reviled on account of Jesus.

Al-Ḥākim transmitted from Zayd al-ʿAmmī, who said: Jesus was born on the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd transmitted from Nawf, who said: Mary (peace be upon her) was a virgin maiden, and Zachariah was the husband of her sister; he took charge of her, and she was with him, and he would come in to her and greet her, and she would offer him the fruit of winter in summer and the fruit of summer in winter. Zachariah came in to her once, and she offered him some of what she used to offer; he said, “O Mary, from where do you have this?” She said, “It is from God; truly God provides for whom He wills without reckoning.” There Zachariah called upon his Lord — up to His words — “Your sign is that you shall not speak to the people for three days except by gesture” (3:37–41). He said: Your tongue shall be sealed, so you shall not speak to the people for three nights, being sound (19:10) — in health. So he went out to his people from the sanctuary and signalled to them (19:11) — he wrote it for them — to glorify morning and evening (19:11). He said: While she was sitting in her dwelling, behold, a man was standing before her, having broken through the veils. When she saw him, she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18). When she mentioned the All-Merciful, Gabriel (peace be upon him) took fright, and said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure boy (19:19) — up to His words — and it is a matter decreed (19:21). Then Gabriel blew into the opening of her garment, and she conceived; until, when she grew heavy, she felt the pain that women feel, and she was in the house of prophethood, so she was ashamed and fled out of shame before her people, and made towards the east. Her people set out in search of her, and began asking: “Have you seen a girl of such-and-such a description?” but no one could tell them anything. And the birth-pangs took her to the trunk of the palm-tree (19:23), and she leaned her back against the palm-tree; she said: Would that I had died before this, and been a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten! (19:23) — he said: a menstrual cloth cast away after another.⁹³ Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24) — he said: Gabriel, from the far end of the valley — “Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a stream” (19:24) — he said: a rivulet — “and shake towards you the trunk of the palm-tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates” (19:25). When Gabriel said that to her, her back grew strong and her soul was comforted, and she cut his navel-cord, wrapped him in a cloth and carried him. Her people, while they were searching for her, met a cowherd, and said: “O herdsman, have you seen a girl of such-and-such a description?” He said: “No; but last night I saw from my cattle something I had never seen from them before.” He said: “I saw them spend the night prostrating towards this valley.” So they went to where he had described to them, and when Mary saw them, she sat down and began suckling Jesus. They came and stood over her; they said: “O Mary, you have indeed done a monstrous thing” (19:27) — he said: an enormous thing. Then she pointed to him (19:29) — “speak to him” — and they were astonished at her; they said: How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29) — and the cradle was her lap. When they said that, Jesus left her breast, leaned upon his left side, and then spoke: He said, “I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book and made me a prophet; and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined on me prayer and almsgiving as long as I live; and to be dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me an overbearing wretch; and peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive” (19:30–33). He said: And the people differed about him.

On 19:17

His words, Exalted: and took a screen apart from them (19:17).

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb: “Why have the Christians come to favour curtains over their altars?” He said: “The Christians favoured curtains over their altars and their places of worship only because of the word of God: and took a screen apart from them (19:17).”

His words, Exalted: Then We sent to her Our Spirit (19:17).

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Abū Ṣāliḥ concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit: he said: God sent an angel to her, and he blew into the opening of her garment, and it entered into the womb.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit: he said: Gabriel.

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr and Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit — the verse: he said: Gabriel blew into her shift, and it reached wherever God willed.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār: that Gabriel came to her in the form of a man and drew aside the screen; when she saw him she sought refuge from him, and he blew into the hem of her shift, and it reached its mark. That was talked of in the city, and Zachariah was shunned and abandoned, whereas before that he used to be consulted for rulings and people would come to him — so much so that he would greet a man and the man would not speak to him.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḥākim — who declared it sound — al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt, and Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb concerning His words and he appeared to her as a well-formed man (19:17): he said: The spirit of Jesus appeared to her in the form of a man; so she conceived him (19:22) — he said: she conceived the one who had addressed her; he entered into her mouth.

On 19:18-23

His words, Exalted: She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you (19:18), and the following verses.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Wāʾil, concerning His words She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that he said: Mary knew that the God-fearing man is one who possesses restraint.

Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that he said: She feared only that he wanted her for himself. He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, that I may grant you a boy (19:19): they claimed that he breathed into the opening of her shift and into her sleeve.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿĀṣim that he read li-ahaba laki (“that I may grant you”) with the hamzah written with alif, and that in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh⁹⁴ it is li-yahaba laki (“that He may grant you”) with the yāʾ.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim, reported from Qatādah, concerning His words a pure boy (19:19), that he said: righteous.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words nor have I been unchaste (19:20), that he said: a fornicatress.

Ibn Jarīr reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words a distant place (19:22), that he said: far away.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words a distant place (19:22), that he said: remote. And concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23), he said: compelled her.

Al-Ṭastī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq⁹⁵ said to him: Tell me about His words, Mighty and Majestic, and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23). He said: compelled her. He said: And do the Arabs know that? He said: Yes; have you not heard Ḥassān ibn Thābit saying:

When we made a true charge, we drove you to the foot of the mountain.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23), that he said: forced her.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23), that he said: brought her.

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree (19:23), that he said: it was a dry trunk.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported by way of Hilāl ibn Khabbāb, from Abū ʿUbayd Allāh: and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23); he said: to the trunk of a dry palm, which had been brought so that a house might be built with it, called Bayt Laḥm⁹⁶; she shook it, and behold, it was a palm tree.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Qudāmah, who said: A palm tree was made to grow for Mary, to which she clung as a woman clings to another woman at childbirth.

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: I had not been created, and had not been anything.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: a cast-off menstrual discharge.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: a menstrual discharge.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Nawf al-Bikālī and al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that they both said: a cast-off menstrual discharge.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: She says: I am not known, and no one knows who I am.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: it is the miscarried foetus.

On 19:24

His words, Exalted: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), to the end of the verse.

Abū ʿUbayd, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿAlqamah that he read: fa-khāṭabahā man taḥtahā (“then he who was beneath her addressed her”).

Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that he said: Gabriel; and Jesus did not speak until she brought him to her people.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿIkrimah, who said: The one who called to her was Gabriel.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk and ʿAmr ibn Maymūn the like of it.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Barāʾ: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24); he said: an angel.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that he said: Gabriel, from the lower part of the valley.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that he said: Jesus.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24); he said: it is Jesus.

Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The one who addressed her was the one she had carried in her womb; he entered through her mouth.

Abū ʿUbayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh that he read fa-nādāhā man taḥtahā (“then he who was beneath her called to her”).

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that is, the angel, from beneath the palm tree.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan, who said: Whoever reads min taḥtihā (“from beneath her”), for him it is Gabriel; and whoever reads man taḥtahā (“he who was beneath her”), for him it is Jesus.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, who said: ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd read fa-nādāhā man taḥtahā with the accusative. He said: And ʿĀṣim said: Whoever reads it with the accusative, for him it is Jesus, and whoever reads it with the genitive, for him it is Gabriel.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: a prophet, namely Jesus.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, who said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Jaʿfar asked me: What do your companions say about His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24)? He said: I said to him: I heard Qatādah say: the rivulet. He said: Then inform Qatādah from me: the Qurʾan came down in our language; it is the noble man (al-rajul al-sarī).

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24): He means himself; and what noble one is nobler than he! It was said: What of those who say that the sarī is the stream? He said: It is not so; were it so, it would have been at her side, and the river would not have been beneath her.

Al-Ṭabarānī, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn al-Najjār reported from Ibn ʿUmar: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The sarī of which God said to Mary, Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), is a river which God brought forth for her that she might drink from it.”

Al-Ṭabarānī in al-Ṣaghīr and Ibn Mardawayh reported from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: “The river.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Firyābī, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḥākim, who declared it sound, and Ibn Mardawayh reported from al-Barāʾ, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: It is the rivulet, which is the small river.

Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: the river of Jesus.

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from ʿUthmān ibn Miḥṣan, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about His words a sarī (19:24). He said: the rivulet; have you not heard the saying of the poet:

A sluice from which you see the bucket-man bent awry, when it gurgles and roars in the sarī.

Ibn al-Anbārī in al-Waqf and al-Ṭastī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq said to him: Tell me about His words, Mighty and Majestic, beneath you a sarī (19:24). He said: The sarī is the small river, which is the rivulet. He said: And do the Arabs know that? He said: Yes; have you not heard the saying of the poet:

Easy of nature, glorious, a giver of gifts, like the sarī which the rivers feed.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words a sarī (19:24), that he said: the rivulet.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn and Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī the like of it.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Qatādah that al-Ḥasan recited this verse while at his side was Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥimyarī: Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24). He said: He was indeed noble (sarī), and he was indeed generous. Ḥumayd said: O Abū Saʿīd, it is the rivulet. He said to him: That is why we delight in your company, but the governors have got the better of us where you are concerned.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿIkrimah, who said: The sarī is water.

Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words a sarī (19:24), that he said: a river, in Syriac.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words a sarī (19:24), that he said: a river, in Nabataean.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: By God, he was noble (sarī), meaning Jesus (peace be upon him). Khālid ibn Ṣafwān said to him: O Abū Saʿīd, the Arabs call the rivulet the sarī. He said: You have spoken truly.

On 19:25

His words, Exalted: And shake towards you (19:25), to the end of the verse.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd, concerning His words And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree (19:25), that he said: move it.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn al-Anbārī in al-Maṣāḥif reported from Mujāhid: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree (19:25); he said: it was an ʿajwah palm⁹⁷.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr reported from al-Barāʾ that he read yassāqaṭ ʿalayki (“it will drop upon you”) with the yāʾ.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan that he read yassāqaṭ ʿalayki with the yāʾ, meaning the trunk.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Masrūq that he read tasāqaṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban janiyyan (“it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates”) with the tāʾ.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿĀṣim that he read tassāqaṭ with the doubled consonant, with the tāʾ.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd reported from Ṭalḥah al-Iyāmī that he read tassāqaṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban with the doubled consonant.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Nahīk that he read tusqiṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban (“it will let fall upon you fresh ripe dates”).

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words fresh ripe dates (19:25), that he said: fresh.

Al-Khaṭīb in Tālī al-Talkhīṣ reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25), that he said: with their bloom upon them.

Ibn al-Anbārī and al-Khaṭīb reported from Abū Jabāb the like of it.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Rawq, who said: Mary came to a trunk that had no crown, and God made a crown grow for it, and made grow upon it fresh ripe dates, and pointed unripe dates, and bananas; and when she shook the palm tree there fell upon her some of everything that was on it.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd reported from Abū Qudāmah that a palm tree was made to grow for Mary, to which she clung as a woman clings at childbirth.

Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Sunnī and Abū Nuʿaym, both in al-Ṭibb al-Nabawī, al-ʿUqaylī, Ibn ʿAdī, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from ʿAlī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Honour your paternal aunt the palm tree, for it was created from the clay from which Adam (peace be upon him) was created, and there is no tree that is pollinated except it.” And the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Feed your women who have given birth fresh ripe dates, and if there are no fresh ripe dates then dried dates; for there is no tree more honoured with God than the tree beneath which Mary daughter of ʿImrān came down.”

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said: We asked the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): From what was the palm tree created? He said: “The palm tree, the pomegranate and the vine were created from what remained of the clay of Adam (peace be upon him).”

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Salamah ibn Qays, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Feed your women dates during their confinement after childbirth, for whoever has dates as her food during her confinement, her child comes forth a forbearing child; for that was the food of Mary when she gave birth to Jesus, and had God known of a food better for her than dates He would have fed it to her.”

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Shaqīq, who said: Had God known of anything better for women in confinement than fresh ripe dates, He would have commanded Mary to take it.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, who said: There is nothing better for women in confinement than fresh ripe dates or dried dates. And he said: God said: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25).

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym, who said: In my view there is no remedy for women in confinement like fresh ripe dates, nor for the sick like honey.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from al-Shaʿbī, who said: Caesar wrote to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb: My envoys have come to me from your side and have claimed that in your land there is a tree which seems fit for no good thing: it puts forth something like the ears of donkeys, then splits open upon something like white pearls, then becomes like green emerald, then becomes like red ruby, then ripens and matures and becomes like the finest fālūdhaj⁹⁸ ever eaten, then dries and becomes a sustenance for the one who stays at home and provision for the traveller. If my envoys have not told me the truth, then I can only think this tree one of the trees of Paradise. ʿUmar wrote back to him: Your envoys have told you the truth. This tree is with us: it is the tree which God made grow over Mary when she gave birth to Jesus.

On 19:26

His words, Exalted: And if you see any human being (19:26), to the end of the verse.

Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast (19:26), that he said: a silence.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from al-Shaʿbī the like of it.

Al-Firyābī, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Anbārī in al-Maṣāḥif and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Anas ibn Mālik that he used to read: innī nadhartu li-l-Raḥmāni ṣawman ṣamtan (“I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, a silence”).

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Anbārī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that he read it I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast (19:26), “a silence”. And he said: It was nothing other than that she conceived and gave birth.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd, concerning His words I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast (19:26), that he said: Among the Children of Israel there were those who, when they strove in devotion, fasted from speech as they fasted from food, except from the remembrance of God.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ḥārithah ibn Muḍarrib, who said: I was with Ibn Masʿūd when two men came; one of them gave the greeting of peace and the other did not, and then they sat down. The people said: What is the matter with your companion, that he did not give the greeting? He said: He has vowed a fast, that he will not speak to any human being today. ʿAbd Allāh said: Wretched is what you have said. That was only that woman, and she said that so that it might be an excuse for her when she was questioned, for they used to deny that there could be a child without a husband except through fornication. Speak, and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, for that is better for you.

Ibn al-Anbārī reported from al-Shaʿbī, who said: In the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb it is innī nadhartu li-l-Raḥmāni ṣawman ṣamtan (“I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, a silence”).

On 19:27

His words, Exalted: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27), to the end of the verse.

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27), that he said: after forty days, after she had recovered from her confinement.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words You have certainly done a monstrous thing (19:27), that he said: a grave thing.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd reported from Qatādah, concerning His words You have certainly done a monstrous thing (19:27), that he said: a grave thing.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who said: In the time of the Children of Israel there was in Jerusalem, near the spring of Siloam (ʿAyn Sulwān), a spring; and when a woman committed an offence they would bring her to it and she would drink from it, and if she was innocent it did her no harm, and otherwise she died. When Mary conceived they brought her to it, and they mounted her on a mule, which stumbled with her, so she prayed to God that its womb be made barren, and from that day it was barren. When she came to the spring she drank from it and only increased in goodness. Then she prayed to God that no believing woman be exposed to disgrace by it, and the spring sank away.

On 19:28

His words, Exalted: O sister of Aaron (19:28).

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Aḥmad, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ṭabarānī, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī in al-Dalāʾil reported from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me to the people of Najrān, and they said: Have you considered what you recite, O sister of Aaron (19:28), when Moses was before Jesus by such and such a time? He said: So I returned and mentioned that to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), and he said: “Why did you not tell them that they used to name themselves after the prophets and the righteous who were before them?”

Al-Khaṭīb and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: He was a righteous man among the Children of Israel; his funeral was attended by forty thousand men named Aaron besides him.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Qatādah, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28): He was a righteous man among the Children of Israel named Aaron, and they likened her to him, saying: O you who resemble Aaron in righteousness.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: She was from a household known for righteousness and not known for corruption; and among people there are those who are known for righteousness and beget children in it, and others who are known for corruption and beget children in it. Aaron was a righteous man, beloved in his clan; he is not Aaron the brother of Moses, but another Aaron. It was mentioned to us that on the day he died his funeral was followed by forty thousand of the Children of Israel, every one of them named Aaron.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Sufyān, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: We heard that it is a name that coincided with a name.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Sīrīn, who said: I was informed that Kaʿb said: His words O sister of Aaron (19:28) do not refer to Aaron the brother of Moses. ʿĀʾishah said to him: You have lied. He said: O Mother of the Believers, if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said it, then he knows best and is better; otherwise, I find between the two of them six hundred years. And she fell silent.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: She was ascribed to Aaron son of ʿImrān because she was of his tribe, as you would say: O brother of the Anṣār.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Suddī, who said: She was of the tribe of Aaron, so it was said to her O sister of Aaron (19:28); she was called by the name of his tribe, as a man says to a man: O brother of the Banū Layth, O brother of the Banū So-and-so.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: Aaron was from an evil people, fornicators, so they ascribed her to them.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, who said: In the reading of Ubayy it is qālū yā dhā al-mahd (“they said: O you of the cradle”).

On 19:29

His words, Exalted: So she pointed to him (19:29), to the end of the verse.

Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn Jurayj, concerning His words So she pointed to him (19:29): that is, “speak to him”.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words So she pointed to him (19:29), that he said: she bade them speak to him. And concerning His words in the cradle (19:29), he said: in the lap.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, who said: When Mary gave birth she brought him to her people, and they picked up stones for her to stone her; so she pointed to him, and he spoke, and they let her be.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿIkrimah, who said: The cradle (mahd) is the murbāh. Ibrāhīm said: The marbāh is the swinging cradle.

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Hilāl ibn Yisāf, who said: None spoke in the cradle except three: the child of Jurayj⁹⁹, Jesus, and the child of the Abyssinian woman.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: Four spoke in the cradle: Jesus, the witness in the story of Joseph, the child of Jurayj, and the son of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s daughter.

On 19:30-33

His words, Exalted: He said: I am the servant of God (19:30), and the following verses.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words He said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30), to the end of the verse, that he said: He decreed, among what He decreed, that I should be thus.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Anas, who said: Jesus had studied the Gospel and mastered it in his mother’s womb; and that is His saying I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30).

Al-Ismāʿīlī in his Muʿjam, Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah, Ibn Lāl in Makārim al-Akhlāq, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn al-Najjār in his Tārīkh reported from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The saying of Jesus, and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31): he said, He has made me one who brings benefit to people wherever I turn.”

Ibn ʿAdī and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Ibn Masʿūd, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31); he said: “A teacher and an instructor.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31), that he said: a teacher of good.

Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: For the one who teaches people good, every creature asks forgiveness, even the fish in the sea.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Mujāhid: and He has made me blessed (19:31); he said: a guide, rightly guided.

Al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Mujāhid: and He has made me blessed (19:31); he said: one who brings benefit to people.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Nawf: and dutiful to my mother (19:32), that is: I have no father.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and He has not made me a tyrant, wretched (19:32): he says, disobedient.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Sufyān, who said: The wretched tyrant is the one who kills in anger.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab, who said: You will scarcely find a man undutiful to his parents without finding him a tyrant. Then he recited this verse: and dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a tyrant, wretched (19:32).

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Shaʿbī, who said: The moments of loneliness of the son of Adam are three: the day he is born, the day he dies, and the day he is raised up; and they are what Jesus mentioned in His words And peace be upon me (19:33), to the end of the verse.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn ʿAsākir reported by way of Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Jesus did not speak except with the verses with which he spoke, until he reached the age at which children speak.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Abū Hurayrah that God loosed the tongue of Jesus once more in his childhood, and he spoke three times before he reached the age at which children speak. He spoke and praised God again with a praise the like of which no ears had heard, when He made him speak as an infant, and said: “O God, You are the Near in Your loftiness, and the Exalted in Your nearness, raised high above everything of Your creation. You are He whose sight penetrates Your creation, while all sights are bewildered short of looking upon You. You are He before whom all sights are veiled; through You the heights tower in light, and through You the lofty edifice shines forth in the far distances. You are He who has dispelled the pitch-blackness of darkness with Your light; You are He through the radiance of whose light the densest glooms have been illumined, and through whose greatness the pillars of the Throne glitter with light; and none has attained by his attribute to Your attribute. Blessed are You, O God, Creator of creation by Your might, Determiner of affairs by Your wisdom, Originator of creation by Your greatness.” Then God withheld his tongue until he came of age.

On 21:91

His words, Exalted: And she who guarded her chastity (21:91), to the end of the verse.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Caesar wrote to Muʿāwiyah: Peace be upon you. To proceed: inform me of the noblest of His servants in His sight, and of the noblest of His handmaids in His sight. So he wrote to me asking me, and I said to him: To proceed: as for the noblest of His servants in His sight, it is Adam, whom He created with His hand and taught all the names; and as for the noblest of His handmaids in His sight, it is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words so We breathed into her of Our spirit (21:91), that he said: He breathed into the opening of her garment.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Muqātil, who said: He breathed into her private part.

On 23:50

His words, Exalted: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50).

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50); he said: she gave birth to him without any father that he had.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, concerning His words And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50), that he said: a lesson.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from al-Ḥasan: and We gave them both refuge (23:50); he said: Jesus and his mother.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid: and We gave them both refuge (23:50); he said: Jesus and his mother, when they took refuge in the Ghūṭah¹⁰⁰ and its surroundings.

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: The height (rabwah) is the level ground, and the flowing spring (maʿīn) is running water; and it is the river of which God said: Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24).

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is the place raised above the earth, and it is the best place for vegetation to grow; of settled ground (23:50): of fertility; and a flowing spring (23:50): water that is visible.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid: on a height (23:50); he said: level; of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50); he said: running water.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning the verse, that he said: The height is the raised part of the earth, the settled ground is the level part, and the flowing spring is water that is visible.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning the verse, that he said: The height is the raised place, and it is Jerusalem; and the flowing spring is water that is visible.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Qatādah: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: We used to be told that the height is Jerusalem; of settled ground (23:50): of abundant fruit; and a flowing spring (23:50): running water.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Wahb ibn Munabbih: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is Egypt.

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: Egypt. He said: And the heights are nowhere but in Egypt; when the water is released, the heights have the villages upon them, and were it not for the heights those villages would be drowned.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Zayd ibn Aslam: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is Alexandria.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported by way of Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that Jesus son of Mary refrained from speech after he had spoken to them as an infant, until he reached the age that boys reach; then after that God made him speak with wisdom and clear exposition. When he reached seven years his mother handed him over to a man to teach him as boys are taught, and the man taught him nothing without Jesus anticipating him in knowing it before he taught it to him. He taught him abū jād¹⁰¹, and Jesus said: What is abū jād? The teacher said: I do not know. Jesus said: Then how do you teach me what you do not know? The teacher said: Then teach me. Jesus said to him: Then rise from your seat. He rose, and Jesus sat in his seat and said: Ask me. The teacher said: What is abū jād? Jesus said: Alif is the bounties (ālāʾ) of God; bāʾ is the splendour (bahāʾ) of God; jīm is the beauty (bahjah) of God and His loveliness (jamāl). The teacher marvelled at that, and so the first to interpret abū jād was Jesus. Jesus used to show wonders in his childhood by inspiration from God, and that spread among the Jews; and Jesus grew up, and the Children of Israel resolved to do him harm, and his mother feared for him, so God revealed to her that she should go away with him to the land of Egypt. That is His saying: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50). Ibn ʿAbbās was asked: Why did He not say “two signs”, when they are two signs? Ibn ʿAbbās said: He said a sign only because Jesus came from his mother and was not from a father; no one shared with her in Jesus, so he became a single sign. And We gave them both refuge on a height of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50); he said: He means the land of Egypt.

Wakīʿ, al-Firyābī, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tammām al-Rāzī in Faḍāʾil al-Nubuwwah, and Ibn ʿAsākir with a sound chain, reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words on a height (23:50), that he said: We have been informed that it is Damascus.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, concerning His words and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50), that he said: It is Damascus.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Yazīd ibn Shajarah the Companion, who said: Damascus is the blessed height.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported with a weak chain from Abū Umāmah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he recited this verse: and We gave them both refuge on a height of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50), and said: “Do you know where it is?” They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “It is in Syria, in a land called the Ghūṭah, a city called Damascus; it is the best of the cities of Syria.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is Damascus.

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Murrah al-Bahzī: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The height is al-Ramlah.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḥākim in al-Kunā and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Hurayrah, concerning His words and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50), that he said: It is al-Ramlah in Palestine.

And Ibn Mardawayh reported it from his ḥadīth, traced back to the Prophet.

Al-Ṭabarānī, Ibn al-Sakan, Ibn Mandah and Abū Nuʿaym, all in Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥābah, and Ibn ʿAsākir, reported by several routes from al-Aqraʿ ibn Shufayy al-ʿAkkī, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came in to me during my illness, visiting me, and I said: I think nothing other than that I shall die of my illness. He said: “Not so; you will surely live on, and you will surely emigrate to the land of Syria, and you will die and be buried on the height in the land of Palestine.” And he died in the caliphate of ʿUmar and was buried in al-Ramlah.

Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words and We gave them both refuge on a height of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50), that he said: It is a land of trees and rivers, meaning the land of Damascus. And in one wording he said: of fruits and abundant water; it is Damascus.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān fī tafsīr kalām al-Mannān (d. 1376 AH / 1956 CE), about 3,480 words

On 3:42

Then He, Exalted, returned to the mention of Mary, and that she reached a mighty degree in worship and perfection, and so He, Exalted, said: And when the angels said: O Mary, indeed God has chosen you, that is, He has selected you and granted you majestic attributes and beautiful qualities; and purified you from base qualities; and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42). For this reason the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many men attained perfection, but none of the women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiya daughter of Muzāḥim¹⁰² and Khadīja daughter of Khuwaylid; and the excellence of ʿĀʾisha over women is like the excellence of tharīd¹⁰³ over all other food.”

On 3:43

So the angels called to her, at God’s command to them to do so, that she might rejoice in God’s blessings, give thanks to God, fulfil His rights and busy herself with His service. For this reason the angels said: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, that is, multiply obedience, submission and humility before your Lord and persist in it; and prostrate and bow with those who bow (3:43), that is, pray with those who pray. So she carried out all that she was commanded, and she stood out and surpassed others in her perfection.

On 3:44

Since this story and others like it are among the greatest proofs of the messengership of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), in that he related it in detail and with accuracy, with neither addition nor omission, and that was only because it is revelation from God, the Mighty, the Wise, not something learnt from people, He, Exalted, said: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you; and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, when her mother brought her and they disputed over which of them should take charge of her, because she was the daughter of their leader and foremost man, and each of them desired goodness and reward from God, until the dispute brought them to the point of drawing lots over her: they cast their pens to draw lots, and the lot fell to Zachariah, as a mercy from God to him and to her.

So you, O Messenger, were not present at that scene to know it and relate it to people; rather God informed you of it. This is the greatest purpose in the narration of the stories: that a lesson be drawn from them, and the greatest of lessons is the use of them as evidence for the oneness of God, for messengership, for the resurrection and for the other great fundamentals.

On 3:45

When the angels said: O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near (3:45): that is, he possesses eminence and great standing in this world and the Hereafter among created beings; and together with that he is, with God, among those brought near, who are the nearest of creatures to God and the highest of them in degree. This is a glad tiding which no other glad tiding resembles.

On 3:46

Part of the completeness of this glad tiding is that he would speak to people in the cradle, so that his speaking would be one of the signs of God and a mercy from Him to his mother and to created beings. Likewise he would speak to them in maturity, that is, in the state of his mature manhood, and this is the speech of prophethood, of calling and of guidance. His speech in the cradle contained signs and proofs of his truthfulness and his prophethood, and of his mother’s innocence of the evil suspicions that were entertained about her; and his speech in his maturity contained his great benefit to created beings and his being an intermediary between them and their Lord in His revelation and in conveying His religion and His law. Together with that, he is among the righteous: those whose hearts God has made sound through knowledge of Him and love of Him, whose tongues He has made sound through praising Him and remembering Him, and whose limbs He has made sound through obeying Him and serving Him.

On 3:47

She said: My Lord, how shall I have a child when no human being has touched me? This is one of the things that provoke astonishment. He said: Thus; God creates what He wills, so that the servants may know that He has power over all things and that nothing can resist His will: when He decrees a matter, He only says to it Be, and it is (3:47).

On 19:16

When He had mentioned the story of Zachariah and John, which was one of the wondrous signs, He moved on from it to what is more wondrous still, by degrees, from the lesser to the greater, and said: And mention in the Book, the noble Book, Mary (peace be upon her). This is among the greatest of her merits: that she is mentioned in the mighty Book which the Muslims recite in the east of the earth and its west, mentioned in it with the finest mention and the most excellent praise, as a reward for her excellent work and her perfect striving. That is: and mention in the Book Mary in her goodly state, when she withdrew, that is, she went far away from her family, to an eastern place (19:16), that is, on the side towards the east from them.

On 19:17

And she took, apart from them, a screen, that is, a covering and a barrier. This withdrawal of hers and her taking a screen were so that she might seclude herself and be alone in the worship of her Lord, and be devoutly obedient to Him in a state of sincerity, submission and lowliness before God, Exalted. That was in compliance on her part with His words, Exalted: And when the angels said: O Mary, indeed God has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds. O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord and prostrate and bow with those who bow (3:42–43). And His words: Then We sent to her Our Spirit, who is Gabriel (peace be upon him), and he took for her the form of a well-proportioned human being (19:17), that is, a perfect man in a beautiful appearance and a goodly form, with no defect or deficiency in him, because she could not have borne the sight of him as he really is.

When she saw him in this state, while she was secluded from her family and alone away from people, having taken a screen even against the dearest of people to her, namely her family, she feared that he was a man who had come upon her with evil intent and desired her, so she sought protection in her Lord and sought refuge from him.

On 19:18

She said to him: I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, that is, I take shelter in Him and hold fast to His mercy, lest you reach me with any harm; if you are God-fearing (19:18), that is, if you fear God and act in fear of Him, then leave off approaching me. So she combined seeking protection in her Lord with making him afraid and warning him, and commanding him to hold to the fear of God. She was in that solitary situation, in youth and far from people, and he was in that dazzling beauty and that perfect, well-proportioned human form, yet he had not uttered any evil to her or made any advance towards her; it was only fear on her part. This is the utmost that can be of chastity and distance from evil and its causes. This chastity, especially given the conjunction of the motives and the absence of anything to prevent, is among the most excellent of deeds, and for this reason God praised her and said: And Mary daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into it of Our Spirit (66:12), and: And she who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into her of Our Spirit and made her and her son a sign for the worlds (21:91). So God recompensed her for her chastity with a child who was one of the signs of God and a messenger among His messengers.

On 19:19

When Gabriel saw her alarm and fear, he said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, that is, my function and my business is only to carry out my Lord’s message concerning you, to grant you a pure boy (19:19). This is a great glad tiding of the child and of his purity, for purity entails his being cleansed of blameworthy traits and his being characterised by praiseworthy traits.

On 19:20

She marvelled at the existence of a child without a father, and said: How shall I have a boy when no human being has touched me and I have not been unchaste? (19:20) For a child comes into existence only by that means.

On 19:21

He said: Thus; your Lord has said: It is easy for Me, and that We may make him a sign for people, pointing to the perfection of the power of God, Exalted, and to the fact that none of the causes has independent effect of itself; rather their effect is by God’s determination. So He shows His servants the breaking of the customary order in some of the ordinary causes, lest they stop short at the causes and cut off their regard from the One who determines them and brings them about. And a mercy from Us, that is, and that We may make him a mercy from Us to him, to his mother and to people. As for God’s mercy to him, it is because God singled him out with His revelation and bestowed upon him what He bestowed upon the messengers of firm resolve. As for His mercy to his mother, it is because of the honour, the fair praise and the great benefits that came to her. As for His mercy to people, the greatest of His favours upon them is that He sent among them a messenger who recites to them His signs, purifies them and teaches them the Book and wisdom, so that they believe in him and obey him, and the happiness of this world and the Hereafter is obtained for them. And it was, that is, the existence of Jesus (peace be upon him) in this manner, a matter decreed (19:21), a prior decree; so this determination and decree had of necessity to take effect, and Gabriel (peace be upon him) breathed into the opening of her garment.

On 19:22

That is: when she conceived Jesus (peace be upon him), she feared disgrace, and so she withdrew far from people to a distant place.

On 19:23

When her delivery drew near, the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. When the pain of childbirth hurt her, together with the pain of being cut off from food and drink and the pain in her heart at what people would say, and she feared she would not be able to bear it, she wished that she had died before this event and had been a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten, so that she would not be mentioned. This wish was on account of that distressing situation, and there was no good or benefit for her in this wish; the good and the benefit lay rather in the decree of what came to pass.

On 19:24

Then at that point the angel calmed her alarm and steadied her heart, and called to her from beneath her, perhaps from a place lower than her place, and said to her: Do not grieve, that is, do not be distressed or anxious, for your Lord has placed beneath you a stream (19:24), that is, a river from which you may drink.

On 19:25

And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25), that is, fresh, delicious and nourishing.

On 19:26

So eat, of the dates, and drink, from the river, and be comforted in eye, with Jesus. This was her reassurance as regards safety from the pain of childbirth and the obtaining of wholesome food and drink. As for what people would say, He commanded her that if she saw any human being she should say, by way of gesture: I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast, that is, silence, so I shall not speak today to any human being (19:26), that is, do not address them with speech, so that you may be relieved of their talk and their words; and it was known among them that silence was one of the prescribed acts of worship. She was not commanded to address them in denial of that concerning herself only because people would not believe her and there was no benefit in it, and so that her exoneration by the speech of Jesus in the cradle might be the greatest witness to her innocence. For a woman’s bringing a child without a husband, and her claiming that it was from no one, is among the greatest of claims, such that even if a number of witnesses were produced it would not be believed; so the proof of this breach of the customary order was made something of the same kind, namely the speech of Jesus while he was still very small.

On 19:27

For this reason He, Exalted, said:

That is: when Mary had recovered from her confinement, she came to her people with Jesus, carrying him. That was because of her knowledge of her own innocence and purity, so she came unconcerned and untroubled. They said: You have indeed brought an unheard-of thing (19:27), that is, something grave and disastrous; and by that they meant unchastity, far be she from that.

On 19:28

O sister of Aaron: the apparent meaning is that he was a real brother of hers, and so they attributed her to him. Your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste (19:28), that is, your parents were nothing but righteous, free of evil, and especially this evil to which they were pointing. Their intent was: how then are you unlike the two of them in character, and have done what they never did?! That is because offspring for the most part take after one another in righteousness and its opposite, so they marvelled, in accordance with what arose in their hearts, at how this had come from her.

On 19:29

So she pointed them to him, that is, speak to him. She pointed only because she had been commanded, when people addressed her, to say: I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human being (19:26). When she indicated to them that they should speak to him, they marvelled at that and said: How shall we speak to one who is a child in the cradle? (19:29), because that had never been the customary way of things nor had it ever come from anyone at that age.

On 19:30

Then at that point Jesus (peace be upon him) said, while he was a child in the cradle: Indeed I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book and made me a prophet (19:30). So he addressed them describing himself as a servant, and that there was in him no attribute by which he would deserve to be a god or a son of God. Exalted is God above the saying of the Christians, who contradict Jesus in his words Indeed I am the servant of God while claiming to agree with him. He has given me the Book, that is, He has decreed that He will give me the Book, and made me a prophet (19:30). So he informed them that he is the servant of God, and that God taught him the Book and made him one of the company of His prophets; this is from his perfecting of himself.

On 19:31

Then he mentioned his perfecting of others, and said:

And He has made me blessed wherever I may be, that is, in whatever place and whatever time. The blessing God placed in me consists in teaching good and calling to it, forbidding evil and calling to God in his words and his deeds; so everyone who sat with him or met with him received his blessing, and his companion was made happy through him. And He has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving as long as I live (19:31), that is, He has enjoined upon me the fulfilment of His rights, the greatest of which is prayer, and the rights of His servants, the most important of which is alms-giving, for the duration of my life; that is, I comply with my Lord’s injunction, acting upon it and carrying it out.

On 19:32

And He has enjoined upon me also that I be dutiful to my mother, treating her with the utmost kindness and discharging what is due to her, on account of her nobility and her excellence, and because she is a mother who has the right of motherhood and what follows from it. And He has not made me arrogant, that is, haughty towards God and self-exalting over His servants, or wretched (19:32), in my worldly life or my Hereafter. He has not made me so; rather He has made me obedient to Him, submissive, humble, lowly and modest towards the servants of God, happy in this world and the Hereafter, I and whoever follows me.

On 19:33

When perfection and praiseworthy traits had been completed for him, he said: And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die and the day I am raised up alive (19:33), that is, by the grace of my Lord and His generosity, safety from evil, from Satan and from punishment has come to me on the day of my birth, the day of my death and the day of my resurrection. That entails his safety from the terrors and from the abode of the wicked, and that he is among the people of the Abode of Peace. This, then, is a mighty miracle and a dazzling proof that he is truly the messenger of God and the servant of God.

On 21:91

That is: and mention Mary (peace be upon her), praising her, making plain her worth and proclaiming her nobility, and so He said: And she who guarded her chastity, that is, she kept it from what is unlawful and from approaching it, and indeed even from what is lawful, for she did not marry, because of her occupation with worship and her time being wholly taken up with the service of her Lord. And when Gabriel came to her in the form of a well-proportioned human being, perfect in form and beauty, she said: I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18). So God recompensed her with the like of her deed and granted her a child without a father; rather Gabriel (peace be upon him) breathed into her, and she conceived by God’s leave. And We made her and her son a sign for the worlds (21:91), in that she conceived him and gave birth to him without anyone having touched her; in that he spoke in the cradle and cleared her of what the accusers suspected of her, and told of himself in that state; and in that God caused to be wrought at his hands the extraordinary deeds and miracles that are well known. So she and her son were a sign for the worlds, spoken of generation after generation, and from which those who take heed draw their lesson.

On 23:50

That is: and We bestowed favour upon Jesus son of Mary and made him and his mother among the wondrous signs of God, in that she conceived him and gave birth to him without a father, and he spoke in the cradle as a child, and God caused to be wrought at his hands the signs that He wrought. And We gave them both refuge on a height, that is, an elevated place, and this, and God knows best, was at the time of her delivery, having a place of rest, that is, a settled abode and ease, and a flowing spring (23:50), that is, running water, as shown by His words: your Lord has placed beneath you, that is, beneath the place in which you are, because of its elevation, a stream (19:24), that is, a river, which is the flowing spring; and shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates. So eat and drink and be comforted in eye (19:24–26).

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

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Notes

Luke 11:27-28. Thomas says “the Father’s word” where Luke says “the word of God”, and it is read here as Luke has it (see the note on “Father” on the page of sayings set aside). Agrees with Qur’an 3:42-47, where Maryam is honoured, and with 19:30-31, where the child states what he was commanded. ↩
Qur’an 3:45; 19:19. Compare Luke 1:26-38. ↩
The Qur’an has no Joseph. It records that Mary’s people accused her when she came back carrying the child (19:27-28). Compare Matthew 1:18-25. ↩
Qur’an 19:22-23: Mary withdrew to a remote place, and the pains of labour brought her to the trunk of a palm tree. The Qur’an says nothing of a cave, a census, an inn or a manger. Compare Luke 2:1-7. ↩
Not in the Qur’an or in the canonical gospels. The Qur’an defends Mary through the speech of the infant (19:29-33), not through a test. ↩
Abū Jaʿfar is al-Ṭabarī himself, speaking in his own voice. ↩
Abū Jaʿfar is al-Ṭabarī himself, speaking in his own voice. ↩
al-ʿAjjāj. ↩
That is, the husband of the sister of Mary’s mother, as the fuller versions of this report make clear. ↩
The nickname of the leader of the Khārijites slain at Nahrawān, whose deformed arm ended in a lump of flesh resembling a breast. ↩
There is a gap in the manuscripts at this point; what has apparently fallen out is the chain of transmission for this report from Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī. ↩
Qaṭʿ is the Kūfan grammarians’ term for what the Baṣrans call the circumstantial accusative (ḥāl). ↩
ʿUdhāfir al-Fuqaymī. ↩
Ruʾbah ibn al-ʿAjjāj, the Umayyad-era master of the rajaz metre. ↩
The hock has no marrow; only one in utter want would resort to it, so the proverb is said of being driven by necessity to what is worthless. ↩
Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā, the pre-Islamic poet. ↩
The highlands around Medina and the Ḥijāz, whose Arabic the grammarians often cite. ↩
Īliyāʾ, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, from Aelia Capitolina. ↩
Al-Shanfarā, the pre-Islamic outlaw-poet; the verse describes a modest woman who walks with her eyes on the ground as though tracing a thing she had lost. ↩
That is, the reading man taḥtahā, “the one who was beneath her”, with a on man and on the final letter of taḥta, as against min taḥtihā, “from beneath her”, with i. ↩
Al-Ḥasan here takes sarī in its other sense, “noble, eminent”, as a description of Jesus; see the second opinion below. ↩
Labīd ibn Rabīʿah al-ʿĀmirī, the pre-Islamic poet and Companion; the line is from his Muʿallaqah, describing a wild ass and his mate coming down to water. ↩
ʿAjwah is a prized variety of date palm, especially associated with Medina. ↩
The markh is a desert tree whose wood kindles readily; the shabahān is a thorny shrub of the Yemen. The line is cited because bi-l-markh has the bāʾ where plain al-markh would mean the same. ↩
ʿAmr ibn ʿAdī al-Lakhmī, nephew of the Lakhmid king Jadhīmah al-Abrash. Sent out with others to gather truffles for the king, he alone brought back the best of what he found instead of eating it, and said these words, which became a proverb for one who gives his companion the pick of what he has. ↩
Ḍāqa bihim dharʿan, in which dharʿan, capacity, stands in the accusative in the same way as ʿaynan and nafsan in the examples just given. ↩
The lines are ascribed to Zurārah ibn Ṣaʿb, addressing a woman of the Banū ʿĀmir. Daqal is the poorest grade of date, and ḥujrī refers to Ḥujr, a town of al-Yamāmah. To “work the mighty work” (yafrī al-fariyya) is to do something prodigious; the poet mocks her for making a great show over worthless dates. ↩
That is, kāna here is the full verb meaning “to come to be, to exist”, not the copula “to be” that links a subject to a predicate. ↩
Arḥab is a clan of Hamdān to which a famous breed of riding camels was attributed. ↩
Abū Nahīk read birran, with kasrah on the bāʾ, “dutifulness”, the verbal noun, instead of the standard barran, “dutiful”. ↩
That is, “the best of the women of its world”, Wakīʿ indicating by his gesture that the pronoun refers to the world of each one’s age. ↩
A dish of bread sopped in broth, prized by the Arabs. ↩
Masīḥ al-qadam: having a foot smooth and flat, with no arch. ↩
Lazarus. ↩
That is, man taḥtahā, “he who was beneath her called to her”. ↩
A dish of bread sopped in meat broth, esteemed by the Arabs as the best of foods. ↩
A relative within the degrees that bar marriage. ↩
Qaʿnab ibn Abī Qaʿnab al-ʿAdawī, a Basran reader known for irregular readings; the printed text gives the name as Abū al-Sammān. ↩
Lydda, a town in Palestine near Jerusalem. ↩
Īliyāʾ, Aelia, the old name of Jerusalem. ↩
That is, man taḥtahā, “he who was beneath her”, and min taḥtihā, “from beneath her”. ↩
Salm: a bucket with a single handle, like a water-carrier’s; al-dālī: the one who draws water with the bucket; harhara: the sound of running water. ↩
From his Muʿallaqah; the two are the wild ass and his mate, parting the plants that grow upon the water. ↩
Barnī: a kind of round yellow date, reckoned the finest of dates. ↩
A prized variety of date. ↩
The line continues: “the flight of dawn beneath the skirts of night.” ↩
The line continues: “a swaggering time of reversal and despair.” ↩
Abū Isrāʾīl had vowed to stand and not sit, not to take shade, not to speak, and to fast; the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Order him to speak, to take shade and to sit, and to complete his fast.” ↩
Zurārah ibn Ṣaʿb, answering al-ʿĀmiriyyah, who had mocked him on a journey to fetch provisions from al-Yamāmah; Ḥajr was the chief town of al-Yamāmah, and daqal is the poorest kind of date. ↩
Ziyād ibn al-Ḥārith al-Ṣudāʾī, whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had ordered to give the call to the dawn prayer; when Bilāl wished to give the iqāmah, the Prophet said this. ↩
With “your father” in the accusative as the predicate of kāna and the indefinite “a man of evil” as its noun. ↩
The second hemistich of a line by al-Farazdaq; the first runs: “And how, when you see the dwellings of a people”. ↩
The singular pronoun “Him” with a double subject, which al-Farrāʾ explains by the elision of one of two parallel predicates. ↩
At Qurʾān 4:171. ↩
At Qurʾān 21:91. ↩
At Qurʾān 2:265. ↩
A great city of Palestine, formerly its chief town and a frontier post of the Muslims. ↩
A dish of bread sopped in meat broth, esteemed by the Arabs as the finest of foods. ↩
Al-Jamāʿah: the six canonical collections, those of al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Mājah. ↩
Jurayj was a devout worshipper among the Children of Israel who was falsely accused of fathering a child; the infant spoke and named its true father, clearing him. ↩
Two canonical readings (qirāʾāt) of 19:19: li-yahaba, “that He may grant”, with God as the subject, and li-ahaba, “that I may grant”, with the angel speaking as God’s instrument. ↩
Two readings of 19:24: man taḥtahā, making “the one beneath her” the subject who called, and min taḥtihā, “from beneath her”, the reading of the majority. ↩
ʿAjwah is a prized variety of date, especially associated with Medina. ↩
Ṣarafānah is a variety of date palm bearing hard, dense dates. ↩
The variant readings of 19:25 differ in the form of the verb “drop”: tassāqaṭ and tasāqaṭ (the palm tree lets fall), tusāqiṭ (causative), and, in the reading ascribed to al-Barāʾ, the masculine form with the trunk (jidhʿ) as subject. ↩
Exodus 15:20-21, where Miriam the sister of Aaron leads the women with timbrels. ↩
The Qadariyyah, who denied that human actions are foreordained by God; Mālik’s point is that Jesus was told in his cradle what he would do until his death. ↩
The irrigated oasis of orchards surrounding Damascus. ↩
The name given in this commentary to the man upon whom the likeness of Jesus was cast and who was killed in his place; it is spelt variously in the manuscripts (Qaṭyānūs, Ṭaṭyānūs). ↩
The reading man taḥtahā, “he who was beneath her”, in place of min taḥtihā, “from beneath her”. ↩
al-Bukhārī and Muslim. ↩
That is, the best of the women of her age, and the best of the women of this age. ↩
A report in which a Successor relates directly from the Prophet without naming the Companion between them. ↩
Tharīd: bread crumbled into meat broth, the most esteemed dish of the Arabs. ↩
A variant reading (qirāʾa) of 3:43, whose standard text reads “and prostrate and bow with those who bow”. ↩
Bayt al-Maqdis, the Temple in Jerusalem. ↩
The witness of Joseph is the infant who testified to his innocence (12:26); the companion of Jurayj is the infant in the preceding report; the son of Pharaoh’s hairdresser is the infant who spoke to encourage his mother, the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s daughter, as she was martyred for her faith. ↩
So the text; al-Suddī’s customary chain runs from Murrah al-Hamdānī, from Ibn Masʿūd. ↩
The gloss takes nasyan mansiyyan, “a thing forgotten”, in the sense of the rag discarded after menstruation. ↩
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, the Companion whose codex preserved a number of readings differing from the ʿUthmānic text. ↩
The Khārijite leader Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq, whose questions to Ibn ʿAbbās on rare Qurʾanic words, answered with citations of Arabic poetry, form a well-known collection. ↩
Bethlehem. ↩
The ʿajwah is a prized variety of date palm of Medina. ↩
A sweet confection of starch, honey and water. ↩
Jurayj was a devout Israelite monk falsely accused of fathering a child; the infant spoke to clear him, as related in a well-known ḥadīth. ↩
The fertile oasis surrounding Damascus. ↩
The traditional alphabet sequence (abjad) by which the letters were taught and their numerical values memorised. ↩
The wife of Pharaoh. ↩
A dish of bread sopped in meat broth, regarded by the Arabs as the finest of foods. ↩

Section 2: The annunciation and the birth of Jesus

From the Gospel of Thomas

From the Infancy Gospel of James

From the commentaries on 3:42-47, 19:16-33, 21:91, 23:50

On 3:42

On the interpretation of His words: And when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42)

On 3:43

On the interpretation of His words: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate, and bow with those who bow (3:43)

Those who said this

Those who said this

Those who said this

On 3:44

On the interpretation of His words: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44)

On the interpretation of His words: and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary (3:44)

Those who said this

On the interpretation of His words: and you were not with them when they disputed (3:44)

On the interpretation of His words: When the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45)

On 3:45

On the interpretation of His words: eminent in this world and the Hereafter, and of those brought near (3:45)

On 3:46

On the interpretation of His words: and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous (3:46)

Those who said this

On 3:47

On the interpretation of His words: She said: My Lord, how shall I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: Thus does God create what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: Be, and it is (3:47)

On 19:16-17

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: And mention in the Book Mary, when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place, (16) and took a screen apart from them. Then We sent to her Our Spirit, and he appeared to her as a well-formed human being (17) (19:16–17)

Those who said this

Those who said this

On 19:18-19

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: She said: I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing. (18) He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to bestow on you a pure boy (19) (19:18–19)

On 19:20-23

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a far-off place. (22) Then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm-tree. She said: Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, out of mind! (23) (19:22–23)

Those who said this

Those who said this

Those who said this

Those who said this

Those who said this

On 19:24-25

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: Then he called to her from beneath her: Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a stream. (24) And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh, ripe dates. (25) (19:24-25)

Those who said: the one who called to her from beneath her was the angel

Those who said: Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him) called to her

Those who said this

Those who said this

His words: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree (19:25)

Those who said this

Those who said this

His words: ripe (janiyyan)

On 19:26

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: So eat and drink and be comforted; and if you see any human being, say: I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human. (26) (19:26)

His words: and if you see any human being (19:26)

Those who said this

Those who said this

Those who said this

Those who said this

On 19:27

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said: O Mary, you have done a monstrous thing. (27) (19:27)

His words: They said: O Mary, you have done a monstrous thing (19:27)

Those who said this

On 19:28

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste. (28) (19:28)

Those who said this

Those who said this

His words: your father was not a man of evil (19:28)

On 19:29

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: Then she pointed to him. They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (29) (19:29)

His words: They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29)

Those who said this

On 19:30-31

On the interpretation of His words: He said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet, (30) and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving as long as I live (31) (19:30–31)

Those who said this

Those who said this

Those who said this

On 19:32-33

On the interpretation of His words: and dutiful towards my mother, and He has not made me arrogant, wretched. (32) And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive (33) (19:32–33)

On 21:91

On the interpretation of His words: And she who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds (91) (21:91)

On 23:50

On the interpretation of His words: And We did give Moses the Scripture, that they might be guided. (49) And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign, and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water (50) (23:49–50)

Those who said this

Those who said this