| THE MESSAGE: 3: 45 TO 49 The Message of The Quran translated and explained by Muhammad Asad
3:45 Lo! The angels said: "O Mary! Behold, God sends thee the glad tiding, through a word from Him, [of a son] who shall become known as the Christ32 Jesus, son of Mary, of great honour in this world and in the life to come, and [shall be] of those who are drawn near unto God. (3:46) And he shall speak unto men in his cradle, 33 and as a grown man, and shall be of the righteous." 32 Lit., "whose name shall be 'the Anointed' (al-masih)". The designation al-masih is the Arabicized form of the Aramaic meshiha which, in turn, is derived from the Hebrew mahsiah, "the anointed" - a term frequently applied in the Bible to the Hebrew kings, whose accession to power used to be consecrated by a touch with holy oil taken from the Temple. This anointment appears to have been so important a rite among the Hebrews that the term "the anointed" became in the course of time more or less synonymous with "king". Its application to Jesus may have been due to the widespread conviction among his contemporaries (references to which are found in several places in the Synoptic Gospels) that he was descended in direct - and obviously legitimate - line from the royal House of David. (It is to be noted that this could not have related to his mother's side, because Mary belonged to the priestly class descending from Aaron, and thus to the tribe of Levi, while David descended from the tribe of Judah.) Whatever may have been the historical circumstances, it is evident that the honorific "the Anointed" was applied to Jesus in his own lifetime. In the Greek version of the Gospels - which is undoubtedly based on a now-lost Aramaic original - this designation is correctly translated as Christos (a noun derived from the Greek verb chriein, "to anoint"): and since it is in this form - "the Christ" - that the designation almasih has achieved currency in all Western languages, I am using it throughout in my translation. 33 A metaphorical allusion to the prophetic wisdom which was to inspire Jesus from a very early age. As regards the expression min al-muqarrabin ("of those who are drawn near", i.e., unto God), see 56:11, where the most excellent among the inmates of paradise are thus described. 3:47 Said she: "O my Sustainer! How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me?" [The angel] answered: "Thus it is: God creates what He wills: 34 when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, 'Be' - and it is. (3:48) And he will impart unto thy son35 revelation, and wisdom, and the Torah, and the Gospel, (3:49) and [will make him] an apostle unto the children of Israel." 36 "I HAVE COME unto you with a message from your Sustainer. I shall create for you out of clay, as it were, the shape of [your] destiny, and then breathe into it, so that it might become [your] destiny by God's leave; 37 and I shall heal the blind and the leper, and bring the dead back to life by God's leave; 38 and I shall let you know what you may eat and what you should store up in your houses. 39 Behold, in all this there is indeed a message for you, if you are [truly] believers. 34 See 19:16-22 and the corresponding notes. In the context of the story of Mary in Al-'Imran, the announcement made to her, as well as the parallel one to Zachariah (verses 39-40 above), is meant to stress God's unlimited power of creation - specifically, in both cases, His power to create the circumstances in which His will is to manifest itself - and thus to bring about any event, however unexpected or even improbable it might seem at the time of the announcement. 35 Lit., "to him". 36 The passage which follows here - up to the end of verse 51 - may be understood in either of two ways: as part of the announcement made to Mary (implying that he would thus speak in the future) or, alternatively, as a statement of what, at a later time, he actually did say to the children of Israel. In view of the narrative form adopted in verses 52 ff., the second of these two alternatives seems preferable. 37 Lit., "[something] like the shape of a bird (tayr); and then I shall breathe into it, so that it might [or "whereupon it will"] become a bird...". The noun tayr is a plural of ta'ir ("flying creature" or "bird"), or an infinitive noun ("flying") derived from the verb tara ("he flew"). In pre-Islamic usage, as well as in the Qur'an, the words ta'ir and tayr often denote "fortune" or "destiny", whether good or evil (as, for instance, in 7:131, 27:47 or 36:19, and still more clearly in 17:13). Many instances of this idiomatic use of tayr and ta'ir are given in all the authoritative Arabic dictionaries; see also Lane V, 1904 f. Thus, in the parabolic manner so beloved by him, Jesus intimated to the children of Israel that out of the humble clay of their lives he would fashion for them the vision of a soaring destiny, and that this vision, brought to life by his Godgiven inspiration, would become their real destiny by God's leave and by the strength of their faith (as pointed out at the end of this verse). 38 It is probable that the "raising of the dead" by Jesus is a metaphorical description of his giving new life to people who were spiritually dead; cf. 6:122 - "Is then he who was dead [in spirit], and whom We thereupon gave life, and for whom We set up a light whereby he can see his way among men - [is then he] like unto one [who is lost] in darkness deep, out of which he cannot emerge?" If this interpretation is - as I believe - correct, then the "healing of the blind and the leper" has a similar significance: namely, an inner regeneration of people who were spiritually diseased and blind to the truth. 39 I.e., "what good things you may partake of in the life of this world, and what good deeds you should lay up as a treasure for the life to come".
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