The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 36
CH. 19 MARYAM PT. 16 فَكُلِي وَاشْرَ بِي وَقَرِى عَيْنًا ۚ فَإِمَّا تَرَينَ So eat and drink, and cool. 27 thine eye. And if thou seest any مِنَ الْبَشَرِ اَحَدًا فَقُولِى اِنّى نَذَرْتُ man, say, “I have vowed a fast لِلرَّحْمَنِ صَوْمًا فَلَنْ أُكَلِّمَ الْيَوْمَ إِنْسِيَّان to the Gracious God; I will therefore not speak this day to any human being. ””2171 difficulty arose and one invention led to another. It may be added here that the whole-trouble of fixing the date of Jesus' birth seems to have arisen from a confusion of the date of Mary's conception. The pregnancy of Mary seemed to have taken place sometime in November or December and not in March or April as the Church historians would have us believe. When after four or five months' conception, pregnancy became too obvious to be concealed any longer, Joseph was prevailed upon to take Mary to his house in the month of March or April of the next year. Thus Christian historians mistake the date when Joseph took Mary to his house for the date of her actual conception which had taken place four or five months earlier. As recent research into the origins of Christianity has proved that Jesus was not born in December but in August-September, therefore the conception could not have taken place in March or April. So the Quranic view that Jesus was born in August or September is based not only on historical facts but is also quite in accordance with Luke's own narrative and therefore is the only safe and sensible conclusion. It also appears from the present verse that Mary was lying in a sheltered place in the upper part of the hill and the date-palm was standing on the slope and therefore she could easily reach to its trunk and shake it. That the territory of Bethlehem abounded in date-palms is clear from the Bible (Judges 1:16) and from "A Dictionary of the Bible" by Dr. John D. Davis, D. D. as Moreover, the fact of Mary having been guided to a fountain, mentioned in the preceding verse, in order to drink of its water and wash herself, points to Jesus' birth having taken place in the month of August or September because in the icy cold weather of Judaea in December Mary could not have washed herself in the open. 1950 2171. Commentary: Some commentators of the Quran are of the view that Mary was commanded completely to abstain from talking. But that is not the case. Like Zachariah she was directed to abstain from talk as far as possible, but not completely, and to devote all her time in the remembrance of God. The expression (and say) itself shows that the command about abstaining from talk was not unqualified. A new baby had been born and as the birth of a new child