Vocabulary

Yuʿallimuhu ("And He will teach him"): The subject pronoun refers to God and the object pronoun refers to Jesus (a.s.), and the reading Nuʿallimuhu (with nūn, signifying "We will teach him") supports this possibility; not that the subject pronoun refers to Jesus and the object pronoun to “people,” as appears from some expressions in al-Mīzān.(361)

Rasūlan ("a messenger"): Several possibilities have been suggested for the accusative case of “rasūlan”: 1. It is in the form of “yajʿaluhu rasūlan” ("And He will make him a messenger") because the speech indicates an omission.(362)

1. “Rasūlan” is in the accusative case to serve as a circumstantial phrase and is coordinated with “wajīhan.”(363)
2. The implied meaning was “yuʿallimuhu al-risāla” ("He will teach him the message") The use of rasūl in the meaning of risāla is common.(364)

Bi-āyatin ("...a sign..."): Āya is a singular noun that denotes category rather than oneness, because the tāʾ in it is for indicating genus. Therefore “bi-āyatin” in “jiʾtukum bi-āyatin” ("I... brought you a sign...") encompasses all the miracles mentioned in the verse as it refers to the genus.(365)

Akhluq ("I will create"):(366) “Khalq” means gathering components and raw materials(367) to prepare for forming and then giving life. Jesus (a.s.) would also gather components and breathe life into them by God’s permission.

Fa-anfukh ("then I will breathe into it"): “Nafkh” means blowing air into something, and from this meaning comes the breathing of spirit into humans in this world: “And I breathed into him of My spirit.”(368) Nafkh is sometimes purely physical, like “He said: Blow until he made it fire”,(369) and sometimes purely spiritual, like “And I breathed into him of My spirit”, and sometimes it is physical blowing mixed with spiritual blowing, like the verse under discussion.(370)

Al-akmah ("the blind"): “Akmah” refers to one born blind and sometimes is also applied to someone who has lost their sight.(371)

Al-abraṣ ("the leper"): “Baraṣ” is an incurable whiteness that appears on the skin (leprosy).The word abraṣ denotes a permanent attribute, therefore signifying one afflicted with leprosy.(372)

Taddakhirūn ("you have stored"): “Dhakhr” means keeping and preserving something for future use.(373) Iddikhār is from the pattern of iftiʿāl where, according to the special rules of this pattern, both the letters dhāl and tāʾ are changed to dāl and then merged.