The Connection of “By God’s Permission”

Some have said: The reason why Jesus Christ (a.s.) uttered the words “by God’s permission” when bestowing spirit but did not say it regarding the creation of the bird, is that the bestowing of spirit is extraordinary while the creation of the bird is ordinary.(399)

This statement cannot be accepted, because the phrase “by God’s permission” is an indirect object and due to grammatical contention (tanāzuʿ) relates to all three verbs; like the phrase “over the months” in the supplication “and this is the month that You have magnified, honored, ennobled and preferred over the months”(400) which relates to all four preceding verbs. Therefore, one cannot say that because giving life is more difficult, it was attributed to God’s permission, while healing the blind and the leper, being easier, was not attributed to God. Rather, healing the blind and the leper, like giving life to the dead, is also by permission. In other words, “and I heal the blind and the leper and give life to the dead by God’s permission” means “and I heal the blind by God’s permission and I heal the leper by God’s permission and I give life to the dead by God’s permission,” just as in the verse “When God will say, O Jesus son of Mary, remember My blessing upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, so you would speak to the people in the cradle and in adulthood, and when I taught you the Book and wisdom, the Torah and the Evangel, and when you would create from clay the form of a bird, with My leave, and you would breathe into it and it would become a bird, with My leave; and you would heal the blind and the leper, with My leave, and you would raise the dead, with My leave; and when I held off [the evil of] the Children of Israel from you when you brought them manifest proofs, whereat the faithless among them said, ‘This is nothing but plain magic.’”(401) The word “My leave” is repeated four times and shows that in the verse under discussion, all the mentioned cases are by God’s permission, not just giving life.

The secret of this repetition is that it was not easy for the masses to accept the miracles of Christ (a.s.). Therefore, he repeatedly reminded them that his miracles were by God’s permission, so that on one hand, people would recognize these miracles as signs of his prophethood, and on the other hand, the illusion of trinity and being the son of God would not take shape.

Note: The expression “by My leave” or “by God’s permission” which indicates the performance of an act by God’s permission, regarding Christ’s (a.s.) miracles, sometimes appears with the word “when” (idh)(402) and sometimes, like in the verse under discussion, without it. “When” (idh) is for recalling the scene of the action.