Appearance
Examples of Divine Support
Some verses of the Qur’an are like a main text (matn) for which other verses serve as explanation and elaboration. The phrase “When I supported you” in comparison with the other phrases of this same verse is like this; that is, the contents after it are examples of divine support (taʾyīd):
First, his preaching in both childhood and adulthood: “He will speak to people in the cradle and in adulthood” : The mention of Jesus speaking in adulthood indicates that both the principle of his speech and his words were expressions of revelation and supported by divine support (taʾyīd), otherwise mere speaking in adulthood does not require the support of the Holy Spirit, because God has given the power of speech to all humans in this period, both righteous and wicked; but the expression of revelation is not granted to everyone and requires divine support.
Sometimes the principle of speech itself is a miracle, as when Jesus spoke as a child in the cradle; and sometimes the speech itself is the miracle, like the Prophet whose words were miraculous, not merely his speaking; and sometimes both (the principle of speech and the words) are miraculous, like the speech and supernatural words of Jesus, both of which were supported by the Holy Spirit.
It should be noted:
Some exegetes (163) have supposed that Jesus’s speaking in the cradle was only to exonerate his mother?! However, his words contained higher matters in addition to exonerating his mother, as can be understood from these verses: “Thereat she pointed to him. They said, ‘How can we speak to one who is yet a baby in the cradle?’ He said, ‘Indeed I am a servant of Allah! He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. He has made me blessed, wherever I may be, and He has enjoined me to [maintain] the prayer and to [pay] the zakat as long as I live, and to be good to my mother, and He has not made me self-willed and wretched. Peace is to me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised alive.’”(164)
Some hold that the Messiah is still alive and will descend from heaven, because he was raised from earth before reaching maturity (kuhūla) and his speech during the period of maturity was not realized, and they have drawn support from Ibn ʿAbbās’s words about the time of his mission and the duration of his stay among people and the time of that personage’s ascension - all of which occurred before the age of thirty-four.(165)
Second, Learning the Book and wisdom and the Torah and the Evangel from God: “When I taught you the Book and wisdom, the Torah and the Evangel” is among the miraculous knowledge and divine support (taʾyīdāt) that God granted to the Messiah.
The mention of the Torah and the Evangel after the title of Book and wisdom can be of the type of mentioning the specific after the general; like: “Be watchful of your prayers, and [especially] the middle prayer.”(166) Therefore, the possibility that the meaning of “Book” (kitāb) is writing (167) seems unlikely, because prophets are teachers of the knowledge of the Book and wisdom, not teachers of penmanship. Yes, it is possible that some of their functions involve writing; but the basis of teaching the Book is the same as teaching divine knowledge.
Third, Creating the form of a bird from clay by God’s permission and breathing into it and its coming to life by divine command: “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.” This action of Jesus had three stages:
a. He would make from clay a model like the shape of a bird; that is, he would give form to clay that resembled the appearance of birds. Of course, the Messiah did not only make the form of a bird, but in addition to creating the external shape, he also made the brain and heart and digestive system and other things, because the Messiah was the manifestation of divine will and God’s creativity (khāliqiyya), and creativity is an attribute of God’s action, not an attribute of His essence: the same work that God Himself performs essentially (bil-dhāt) and primarily (bil-aṣāla) in the creation of humans and creatures, the Messiah performed accidentally (bil-ʿaraḍ) and secondarily (bil-tabaʿ) with animals and birds. According to the verse “Indeed I am about to create a human being out of clay. So when I have proportioned him…”,(168) God in creating humans did not create his statue but created a complete physical being that had all internal and external systems; likewise, the Messiah also in the stage of making would create the real form of a bird that had all internal and external systems; then he would breathe into it and it would come to life.
b. He would breathe into this real form that was made to resemble the form of a bird, by God’s permission; not into the external form, because the pronoun in “and you would breathe into it” (fa-tanfukhu fīhā) refers back to the “kāf” in “like the form” (ka-hayʾat) not to the word “form” (hayʾa), because the “kāf” here has a nominal meaning; that is, “when you create from clay a form similar to the form of a bird” where the pronoun “into it” (fīhā) refers back to the first form and the similar one, not to the second form and the example, because the second form was not made by Jesus the Messiah but rather the first form was his creation.
Supporting this point is the verse “I will create for you out of clay the form of a bird, then I will breathe into it, and it will become a bird by God’s leave”(169) in which these same divine miracles are mentioned and in “then I will breathe into it” (fa-anfukhu fīhi) the pronoun is masculine and the verb after it also comes in masculine form “and it will become” (fa-yakūnu); that is, the pronoun refers back to that same “kāf” and if it referred back to “form” (hayʾa), the pronoun should have been feminine. Moreover, Jesus did not breathe into the form of a bird; that is, he did not breathe into the form of a dove or bird, but rather he breathed into that clay which he had fashioned into the shape of a bird.
In both verses, the pronoun refers back to the “kāf”; however, in the verse of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān it comes as masculine, because what is meant by “kāf” in that is “like” (mithl) and in the verse under discussion it comes as feminine, because what is meant by “kāf” in this verse is “similar form” not that which is similar to.