[Professor Wahl understands this last verse to refer to Paradise, but the Muslim commentators all refer it to the place of abode; and al-Baiẓāwī and Ḥusain say it was either in Jerusalem, or Damascus, or Ramleh! Ḥusain says Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The expression, “O sister of Aaron,” as applied to the Virgin Mary, suggests an anachronism of some consequence, but the commentators get over the difficulty. The Kamālān say it is a figurative expression implying that she was pure and righteous like a sister of Aaron. But al-Baiẓāwī says it means that she was of the tribe of Aaron. European authors suggest that there was a confusion between Miriam the Virgin and Miriam the sister of Moses. Al-Baiẓāwī says: “The palm to which she fled, that she might lean on it in her travail, was a withered trunk, without any head or verdure; and this happened in the winter season, notwithstanding which, it miraculously supplied her with fruits for her refreshment, as is mentioned immediately.” Mr. Sale says: “It has been observed, that the Mohammedan account of the delivery of the Virgin Mary very much resembles that of Latona, as described by the poets, not only in this circumstance of their laying hold on a palm-tree (though some say Latona embraced an olive-tree, or an olive and a palm, or else two laurels), but also in that of their infants speaking; which Apollo is fabled to have done in the womb.” (See Homer, Hymn. in Apoll.; Callimach, Hymn. in Delum.)]
III.—The Miracles of Jesus.
[Sūrah iii. 43–46]: “And He will teach him the Book, and the Wisdom, and the Law, and the Evangel; and he shall be an apostle to the children of Israel. ‘Now have I come,’ he will say, ‘to you with a sign from your Lord: Out of clay will I make for you, as it were, the figure of a bird: and I will breathe into it, and it shall become, by God’s leave, a bird. And I will heal the blind, and the leper; and by God’s leave will I quicken the dead; and I will tell you what ye eat, and what ye store up in your houses! Truly in this will be a sign for you, if ye are believers.’ And when Jesus perceived unbelief on their part, He said, ‘Who my helpers with God?’ The apostles said, ‘We will be God’s helpers! We believe in God, and bear thou witness that we are Muslims. O our Lord! we believe in what thou hast sent down, and we follow the apostle; write us up, then, with those who bear witness to him.’ ”
[The commentators al-Jalālān say Jesus made for his disciples a bat, for it is the most perfect of birds in make, and it flew while they looked at it; but when it had gone out of their sight, it fell down dead. That he cured in one day fifty thousand persons, and that he raised Lazarus (ʿĀzar) from the dead; also Shem, the son of Noah, who had been dead 4,000 years, but he died immediately; also the son of an old woman, and the daughter of a tax-collector.]
[Sūrah v. 112–115]: “Remember when the Apostles said: ‘O Jesus, Son of Mary! is thy Lord able to send down a furnished table to us out of Heaven?’ He said: ‘Fear God if ye be believers.’ They said: ‘We desire to eat therefrom, and to have our hearts assured; and to know that thou hast indeed spoken truth to us, and to be witnesses thereof.’ Jesus, Son of Mary, said: ‘O God, our Lord! send down a table to us out of Heaven, that it may become a recurring festival to us, to the first of us and to the last of us, and a sign from thee; and do thou nourish us, for thou art the best of nourishers.’ And God said: ‘Verily, I will cause it to descend unto you; but whoever among you after that shall disbelieve, I will surely chastise him with a chastisement wherewith I will not chastise any other creature.’ ”
[Mr. Sale, in his commentary on this miracle, says (quoting from al-Baiẓāwī):—“This miracle is thus related by the commentators. Jesus having, at the request of his followers, asked it of God, a red table immediately descended in their sight, between two clouds, and was set before them. Whereupon he rose up, and having made the ablution, prayed, and then took off the cloth which covered the table, saying, ‘In the name of God, the best provider of food!’ What the provisions were, with which this table was furnished, is a matter wherein the expositors are not agreed. One will have them to be nine cakes of bread and nine fishes; another, bread and flesh; another, all sorts of food, except flesh; another, all sorts of food, except bread and flesh; another, all except bread and fish; another, one fish, which had the taste of all manner of food; and another, fruits of paradise; but the most received tradition is, that when the table was uncovered, there appeared a fish ready dressed, without scales or prickly fins, dropping with fat, having salt placed at its head, and vinegar at its tail, and round it all sorts of herbs, except leeks, and five loaves of bread, on one of which there were olives; on the second, honey; on the third, butter; on the fourth, cheese; and on the fifth, dried flesh. They add, that Jesus, at the request of the apostles, showed them another miracle, by restoring the fish to life, and causing its scales and fins to return to it; at which the standers-by, being affrighted, he caused it to become as it was before: that one thousand three hundred men and women, all afflicted with bodily infirmities or poverty, ate of these provisions, and were satisfied, the fish remaining whole as it was at first; that then the table flew up to heaven in the sight of all; and everyone who had partaken of this food were delivered from their infirmities and misfortunes; and that it continued to descend for forty days together, at dinner-time, and stood on the ground till the sun declined, and was then taken up into the clouds. Some of the Mohammedan writers are of opinion that this table did not really descend, but that it was only a parable; but most think the words of the Koran are plain to the contrary. A further tradition is, that several men were changed into swine for disbelieving this miracle, and attributing it to magic art; or, as others pretend, for stealing some of the victuals from off it.”]
IV.—The Mission of Jesus.
[Sūrah lvii. 26, 27]: “And of old sent we Noah and Abraham, and on their seed conferred the gift of prophecy, and the Book; and some of them we guided aright; but many were evil doers. Then we caused our apostles to follow in their footsteps; and we caused Jesus the son of Mary to follow them; and we gave him the Evangel and we put into the hearts of those who followed him kindness and compassion: but as to the monastic life, they invented it themselves. The desire only of pleasing God did we prescribe to them, and this they observed not as it ought to have been observed: but to such of them as believed gave we their reward, though many of them were perverse.”
[Sūrah v. 50, 51]: “And in the footsteps of the prophets caused we Jesus, the son of Mary, to follow, confirming the law which was before him: and we gave him the Evangel with its guidance and light, confirmatory of the preceding Law; a guidance and warning to those who fear God;—And that the people of the Evangel may judge according to what God hath sent down therein. And whoso will not judge by what God hath sent down—such are the perverse.”
[Sūrah ii. 81]: “Moreover, to Moses gave we ‘the Book,’ and we raised up apostles after him; and to Jesus, son of Mary, gave we clear proofs of his mission, and strengthened him by the Holy Spirit. So oft then as an apostle cometh to you with that which your souls desire not, swell ye with pride, and treat some as impostors, and slay others?”