The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 29
PT. 16 MARYAM 23. So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a remote place. 2167 great Sign for the Israelites. It pointed to the impending transition of prophethood from the House of Israel to that of Ishmael. It also constituted a warning to the Israelites in the sense that they had become spiritually so corrupt and morally so degenerate that no male among them was fit enough to become the father of a Prophet of God. So God decreed to bring about Jesus' birth independently of a father. Jesus had an Israelite mother only and had no father. As the final step in the process of transition, however, the Great and Noble Messenger who was to follow him was to have neither an Israelite father nor an Israelite mother. He was to appear from another people, from among the Ishmaelites, the brethren of the Israelites, in accordance with the Divine promise made to Moses (Deut. 18:18). It is in this sense that Jesus has been spoken of as 'a Sign of the Hour' in the Quran (43:62), i. e. a Sign of the time when prophethood was to have passed from the Israelites to the Ishmaelites. See Introduction to this Sūrah. also Jesus has also been spoken of 'as a mercy from Us. ' He was a mercy from God in the sense that he taught meekness and humility to the Jews who had become hard-hearted and conceited to the core. He was also a mercy in the sense that he came as a forerunner of the Holy Prophet who himself 'was sent as a mercy for all the worlds' (21:108). Again Jesus was CH. 19 فَحَمَلَتْهُ فَانْتَبَذَتْ بِهِ مَكَانًا قَصِيَّا a divine mercy inasmuch as he paved the way for the revelation of the Quran which has also been referred to as 'a mercy from the Lord' (29:52; 43:33). But this use of the words, 'That We may make him a Sign unto men and a mercy from Us' should not be understood to entitle Jesus to any special spiritual status. Other persons and prophets of God have also been styled 'as a mercy and a Sign from God' in the Quran (2:260; 7:74; 10:93; 21:108). The expression, and it is a thing decreed, means that God had decreed that a fatherless son would be born to Mary and that this Divine decree was irrevocable. The Quran has used two words and to express the sense of Divine decree. They are sometimes erroneously taken one for the other. But while means designing or determining, means decreeing. When a scheme or plan is only designed to be put into execution, it is called but when it is decreed by God that it should be carried into actual effect, it is named The fatherless birth of Jesus was a (Divine decree) of God and not aʊ. 2167. Important Words: 1943 (she withdrew) is derived from. They say i. e. he cast, threw or flung it away. means, he withdrew or retired aside or apart from others; separated himself from others. means, he withdrew انتبذ مكاناً قصيا or retired from his people