At the time Mary had become pregnant without getting married, adultery carried death sentence, especially for the women. Since prophet Zakariya was a powerful man, it would have been impossible for her to claim that the child she was carrying was his. Her failure to tell the truth spelt death for her.  

We surmise that the Quran’s Marry moved to a solitary place to hide her pregnancy from the people. Here she contrived the rest of the story that blends well with the one that Muhammad himself had fabricated in connection with his alleged ascension to the heavens and his face-to-face meeting with Allah. 

At the time Mary became pregnant with Jesus Christ, the Jews believed that angels do come down to earth and meet Allah’s selected people. They brought good news for some; to others they brought prosperity and happiness. They, however, differed on the forms or shape the angels assumed during their encounters with humans. 

Being herself a Jew, Mary knew well that her co-religionists would treat her leniently, if she told them that the child she was carrying was given to her by Allah through an angel. She was right; the Jews did not punish her even after knowing that she had become a mother without getting married to a man. 

The Jews could not have punished her, even if some of them wanted to, for she presented her case in such a convincing manner that was enough to put them off their course. She told them that the angel who had visited her was a ‘man in all respects,’ implying that it was he who had made her pregnant. 

The biblical story on Mary’s conception does not name a particular angel; the Quran does. According to it, there is an archangel by the name of Gabriel, who represents Allah, whenever a representation on His behalf becomes necessary. In fact, without him, Allah cannot survive, hence his title Ruhul Quddus,[1] i.e. the Soul of Quddus, Quddus meaning Holy, and it being one of the ninety-nine lofty titles of Allah. 

As the Quran says, it was this archangel whom Allah had given the responsibility to make Mary pregnant on His behalf. This is what the Arabic version of verse 7 says, but the translator[2] whose translation we are using in our commentary intentionally distorted it with a particular intention: when angel Gabriel is Allah’s Soul, it goes without saying that whatever he did he did it for and on behalf of Allah, as He cannot do many things by Himself. 

Confession by the Muslims that Allah was Christ’s father will nullify Islam, for the Quran claimed that it is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. ...[3]  It also insists that Allah has no partner, hence the term la sharik used to describe His unitary status. Whoever thinks that Allah had or has a son becomes a renegade, a sin that is punishable with death penalty. 

It was on account of the above reason that the translator of the verse translated it in a way as was necessary for him to protect his Islamic belief. To us, his action amounted to dishonesty and forgery. Had he been an upright man, his translation should have read thus: 

“She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to her Our Soul, and it appeared before her as a man in all respects.”[4] 

The Quran does not tell us the number of souls Allah has. Believing that He has only one soul, we wonder what happens to Him when He transfers His soul to Gabriel. 

Does not having a soul make Allah a human-like entity? Does Allah become a statue during the time His soul goes out and remains in Gabriel’s body? These are difficult questions for which we have no answer. Perhaps, Islamic scholars or theologians can help us with the answer, as many of them appear to know even those events which take place in heaven, between Allah and His angels. 

Seeing a young man in her solitary chamber, Mary panicked. Knowing not how to protect her virginity, she begged of the man not to force her into sex. The man replied: I am the messenger of your Lord, and have come to give you a holy son. 

Mary asked him innocently: How shall I bear a child, when I am a virgin, untouched by man? 

The man replied: Such is the will of your Lord, implying that he was there to break her virginity, as there is no difficult thing for Him {to perform}. {The child I am going to give to you) shall be a sign to mankind, says the Lord, “and a blessing from Ourself. This is Our decree.[5] 

Verse 22: So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place. 

Verse 23: And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: she cried (in her anguish): “Ah! Would that I had died before this would! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight! 

Verse 24: But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): “Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee; 

Verse 25: And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee. 

Being assured that the man was not a rapist; that he was carrying Allah’s soul in his body, and that the child he would help her produce would be Allah’s son, Mary agreed gladly to let him sleep with her. Her one time affair with him made her pregnant with Jesus Christ, and this she realized soon after the man departed from her chamber. 

Instead of staying in her chamber where she could be cared for in her advance stage by her relatives, Mary took flight once again; this time landing herself beneath a palm-tree of a desert. Here she lived all by herself, until she was ready to deliver her baby. 

As it happens to all would-be mothers, Mary, too, was overtaken by the pains of her child’s birth. Finding no human around who could extend a helping hand to help ease the delivery, she cried out: Would that I had died and passed into oblivion! 

Instead of helping Mary deliver His son, Allah made someone cry out to her from below the surface where she was laboring: Do not despair. Your Lord has provided a rivulet that runs at your feet, and if you shake the trunk of this palm-tree it will drop fresh ripe dates in your lap. 

We are amazed by the lack of sensibility as well as sensitivity in Allah. Here is a woman with His child, and she is crying with pains of childbirth, He does nothing but to assure her of the food and water He arranged for her to live on, provided she survived the threat posed to her life by the un-assisted delivery of His baby!

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