Maryam and the Word of Allah

After that the account turns to Maryam (peace be upon her), whose story is a long one. She goes to Bayt Laḥm, Bethlehem, and there she is to have a child. When she discovers that she is pregnant — after the encounter with an angel, who does not touch her but tells her that he will breathe the spirit into her — and when, after that, she becomes pregnant, she conceals it, and so has to flee. She flees to Bayt Laḥm, and there she gives birth to the child. There is a miraculous account of it. Sūrat Maryam, the chapter of Maryam, is a full discourse on it in detail, which there is not the space to enter upon here. The remainder of the discussion is found there, and can, inshāʾAllāh, be read.

ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) is called in this passage kalimat Allāh, the Word of Allah, because he was born from the Word of Allah given to Maryam (peace be upon her). It is then related that he will have ʿilm and taqwā, zuhd and ʿibādah, and so forth; and the same is said of Yaḥyā (peace be upon him). The more difficult, more comprehensive story of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) is left to Sūrat Maryam, where it is told in somewhat greater detail. Some elements are mentioned here, and other details there.

A further point arises here as ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) grows up. In the Qur'an — and equally in the Bible, in the Old Testament and the New Testament — the discussion of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) in the New Testament covers only the first stage, the miraculous birth. Then he suddenly disappears; there is no mention of him in the Qur'an. Then, just as suddenly, he reappears, and he is giving daʿwah: he is propagating, inviting people to Allah, at about thirty years of age. Of the interval between there is hardly any account, whether in the New Testament or in the Qur'an.

Unfortunately, the Banū Isrāʾīl of the time, even though Jesus, peace be upon him, was one of them, did not believe in him. Some believed, but the majority did not. Eventually matters reach the point at which he is to be assassinated. Allah (swt) speaks of this here, in verse 52:

When he perceives that they are going to disbelieve — that they will not believe — he asks: who are my assistants? Who are my helpers towards Allah? The ḥawāriyyūn — his very special companions — reply: naḥnu anṣār Allāh, āmannā billāh, washhad bi-annā muslimūn. Allah then concludes that passage by saying:

They had every strategy and plot in place to finish him. But Allah's (swt) strategy was greater, and for that reason he was raised up.

Very briefly, the story of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) is that he was sitting in a room when he learned that they were coming to take him away, or to assassinate him, whichever it was. One account is that he asked one of his students, his disciples, who would go out in his likeness, wearing his garments — and face whatever awaited outside — and so be close to him in Paradise. One of them did so. He went out; he was made to resemble ʿĪsā (peace be upon him); and it was he who was crucified, while ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) was raised up to the heavens. That comes in the sixth juzʾ, where it is discussed in detail, and it is not entered into here. The discussion of it is left to the sixth juzʾ.

After that, in the last quarter:

Idh qāla Allāhu yā ʿĪsā innī mutawaffīka wa-rāfiʿuka. Allah tells ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) that He will eventually give him death; that He will raise him to Himself; that He will purify him of those who disbelieved; and that He will make him among those who are followed, until the Day of Judgement, in the right way — indeed, He will set him above those who disbelieved. Thumma ilayya marjiʿukum: in the end, all must return. So ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) will eventually come back, but not as a prophet. When he returns, he will return as an ummatī, a member of the nation of the Prophet (peace be upon him). He does not return in the capacity of a prophet, though he is a prophet; he does not return actively performing the office of a prophet.