“Kāf. Hā. Yā. `Ayn. Şād.” (Verse 1) These are separate letters of the Arabic alphabet.

A number of sūrahs begin with such separate letters which we explain as being some of the letters used in the composition of the Qur’ān. Yet the Qur’ān has its unique, inimitable style, the like of which human beings can never produce, despite the fact that the same letters and words are available to them. They simply cannot devise any construction that even remotely approaches the style employed by the divine power that produced this Qur’ān.

Having mentioned these letters, the sūrah immediately begins the first story of Zachariah and John, in which compassion provides both the central idea and the overall atmosphere. Hence grace is mentioned at the outset: “This is an account of the grace which your Lord bestowed on His servant Zachariah.” (Verse 2) The story begins with a scene of earnest supplication by Zachariah in total secrecy:

When he called out to his Lord in the secrecy of his heart, he prayed: My Lord! Feeble have become my bones, and my head glistens with grey hair. But never, my Lord, has my prayer to You remained unanswered. Now, I fear [what] my kinsmen [will do] after I am gone, for my wife is barren. Bestow, then, upon me, out of Your, a grace, a successor who will be my heir as well as an heir of the House of Jacob; and make him, my Lord, one with whom You are pleased.’ (Verses 3-6)

He is alone, addressing his appeal to God, away from watching eyes and listening ears. He wants to lay his troubled heart open before his Lord, recounting his worries.

He addresses Him as if he were speaking to someone who is very close, without even using the Arabic address article, Yd. Needless to say, his Lord hears and sees, without the need to be addressed or called upon. But a person troubled by worries finds comfort in vocalizing his concern. Most Gracious as He is, God knows this to be part of human nature. Hence, He likes that His servants pray to Him, making a clean breast of all that worries them: “Your Lord says: Pray to Me and I will answer you.” (40:

60) When they do, they find relief from their heavy burden. They are reassured because they have assigned such burdens to the One who is more able and powerful.

They feel that they are in contact with the Most Merciful who will not disappoint anyone who appeals to Him and relies on Him.

Zachariah complains to his Lord that his bones have become feeble, and when bones are feeble, the whole body is weak. After all, the bones are the stiffest part of the body. They form the skeleton which the muscles flesh up. He also complains that his head glistens with grey hair. The Qur’ānic expression here, ishta`ala al-ra’su shaybā, shows the greyness of hair like a fire being ignited, and the man’s head covered with this fire, so as to leave no black hair. Both feeble bones and grey hair signify old age and the weakness associated with it. It is this weakness that is the subject matter of Zachariah’s complaint as he presents his case, and his hopes, to his Lord.

The moment of truth comes: the prayer is answered, bringing with it God’s grace and acceptance. It is the Lord Himself that calls out to His servant from His sublime presence: “Zachariah!” He immediately gives him the good news: “We bring you the happy news of [the birth of] a son.” (Verse 7) He bestows on him further kindness, by choosing for him the name of that son: “Whose name shall be John.” (Verse 7) This is a special name, not previously given to anyone: “Never have We given this name to anyone before him.” (Verse 7)

This is but an example of God’s grace as it is given in abundance to His servant whose secret supplication was passionate, and which clearly expressed his fears and hopes. Zachariah’s prayer was motivated by fear that his heirs would not be able to look after the heritage of the true faith properly. He feared that they would not fulfil the trust in a way that earns God’s pleasure. Hence, God bestowed on him what corresponded to his good intention.

Zachariah, who was deeply involved in his supplication, passionately expressing his desire and urging his case, was suddenly alerted by this speedy answer to his prayer. The reality stares him in the face: he is well advanced in years, his bones feeble, his hair completely grey, and his wife barren, having given him no child when he was in his prime. How is he to have a child of his own? He wants to be reassured and to know the means by which God will give him this son: “My Lord! How can I have a son when my wife is barren, and I am well advanced in years?” (Verse 8)

He is facing the reality, as well as God’s promise. He certainly trusts that God’s promise will be fulfilled. He only wants reassurance and to know how, considering his circumstances, the fulfilment will take place. That would give him much needed reassurance. It is a perfectly normal condition in a situation like that faced by the noble and God-fearing prophet, Zachariah. Needless to say, he was only a human being who cannot ignore the reality. Hence, he would love to know how God will reverse it.

The answer to all his enquiries is straightforward. It is all perfectly easy for God to accomplish. God reminds him of something that he knows well, namely his own bringing into existence. This is something to be considered by every living creature.

It applies to everything in this universe: “He said: Thus it is. Your Lord says, ‘This is easy for Me; even as I had earlier created you when you were nothing.’” (Verse 9)

With regard to creation, there is nothing to be classified as easy or difficult in as far as God is concerned. In all cases of creation, whether it is something large or small, trivial or gigantic, the method is the same: it is only a matter of God willing that thing to be and it comes into existence. It is God who makes a barren woman childless, and an old man unable to procreate. He is certainly able to reverse this situation, removing the cause of a woman’s barrenness and renewing a man’s ability to cause his wife to conceive. By human standards, this is easier than initiating life in the first place. But with God, everything is easy, whether it involves origination or rebirth.

The sūrah now leaves Zachariah in complete silence dealing with other people and his glorification and praise of God. As that scene closes, the sūrah reveals a new one in which we see John, the child given to Zachariah, as fully grown. It is his Lord who calls out to him from on high: “John! Hold fast to the book with [all your] strength.” (Verse 12) This follows the Qur’ānic method of highlighting only the most important events, portraying images that are full of life and vigour.

Before we have even a single word about John himself, his account commences with an address from on high. It portrays an awesome scene giving us a good idea of John’s position. It also shows us how God responded to Zachariah’s prayers when he requested an heir who would fulfil the trust that he himself had been fulfilling, as it related both to faith and kin. Thus the first scene in which John is involved is the one where he is elected to bear the highest responsibility: “John! Hold fast to the book with [all your] strength.” (Verse 12) The book referred to here is the Torah, given to Moses.

All the Israelite prophets were charged with its preservation and implementation.

They were also given the task of educating people in the Torah, so that they would know what was lawful to them and what was unlawful. John inherited his father Zachariah. He is here told to rise to the task and fulfil his trust with all his resolve and strength. He must never weaken or slacken. He should never abdicate his responsibilities.

The sūrah tells us what John was given to equip him for the great tasks he was assigned: “We granted him wisdom while he was still a youth, as well as, by Our grace, compassion and purity; and he was [always] righteous.” (Verses 12-13) These were indeed the qualifications that suited him for his task. They provided great help in the fulfilment of his duties. Now let us look closer at these qualifications.

God granted him wisdom in his youth, which made him unique in his personality, as he was unique in his birth and name. Wisdom is normally acquired as one grows in years, but in John’s case, God granted him this in his early years.

God also granted him compassion as a special gift implanted in his very nature.

He did not have to train or persuade himself to be compassionate. Such compassion is necessary for a prophet who takes care of people’s hearts and souls, trying always to set them on the course of goodness with ease.

John was further granted purity and cleanliness of heart and practice. Thus, he was able to counter the effects of other people’s hard natures and wickedness and so help them grow in purity.

The other quality that served John well was his righteousness. He keenly sensed his close tie with God, and knew that He was not only watching him but with him in all situations, public or private. That completes the qualities that John was given to qualify him for his task. They were given to him when he was still in his youth, so that he could inherit his father, who had appealed to God to give him an heir.

John’s birth, remarkable as it is, is not however the most wonderful that the sūrah tells us about. It has another story to tell, even more remarkable and wonderful. This is the birth of Jesus. The sūrah gives its account of John’s birth first, with its remarkable aspect of him being born to a barren mother and a father well advanced in years. Jesus, on the other hand, was born to a virgin mother who had had no intimate contact with any man in her life. This is indeed far more wonderful and remarkable.

If we leave aside for a moment the creation of man in his present form and in the way God tells us of how He created him, the birth of Jesus, son of Mary, should be considered the most remarkable event of human history. It is an event that has no parallel.

Man did not witness his own creation, a remarkable event that heralded human life. That involved the creation of the first man ever to exist, born of no father and no mother. Countless centuries then passed before divine wisdom willed to bring about a second most remarkable event. This was the birth of Jesus without a father. In this, the event does not follow the pattern that subsequently applied after the creation of the first human being. This new birth was witnessed by human beings and remained an event of great importance to which people’s attentions were drawn generation after generation. Needless to say, the creation of the first human being could not have been witnessed by people, as it was this creation that first ushered in human life on earth.

Divine wisdom has determined that life continues through procreation, involving the union of a male and a female. This applies to all species without exception. Even in the case of species where there are no fully distinguished males and females, every creature has male and female cells in its body. This law of procreation continued in operation for endless periods of time. People thought it was the only method of creation, forgetting the first event that brought man into existence, because that event was special, and could not be compared with procreation.

It was God’s will, then, to give them this example of the creation of Jesus, son of Mary, to remind people of His free-will and unrestrained power which cannot be subject to the laws He sets in operation. Jesus’ birth has not been repeated in history, because it is only proper that God’s law should come into operation and be seen with all its effects. This single event remains for all time indisputable evidence that God’s will is always free, unshackled by any factor whatsoever. Hence God says of Jesus:

“We will make him a sign for mankind.” (Verse 21)

Because the event was so remarkable and unfamiliar, some people could not conceive of how it could happen and could not appreciate the wisdom of publicizing it in this way. Hence, they attributed to Jesus, son of Mary, qualities of divinity, inventing tales and superstitions about his birth. They thus fell foul of God’s purpose, distorting the pure faith based on God’s oneness.

Relate in the book [the story of] Mary and how she withdrew from her family to a place in the east, where she kept herself in seclusion from them. We, then, sent to her Our angel, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being. She said: May the Most Merciful protect me from you. [Do not come near me] if you fear God.’ ‘I am but an emissary of your Lord,’ he said, [and have come] to give you a son endowed with purity. ‘She said: ‘How shall I have a child when no man has ever touched me and I have never been a loose woman?’ He answered: ‘Thus did your Lord speak: This is easy for Me. We will make him a sign for mankind and an act of grace from Us. It is a matter [We have] decreed.’ (Verses 16-21)

This is the first scene: Mary is a young, virgin woman, a saint whose mother vowed, when she was still an unborn baby, that she would serve in the temple. No one had ever witnessed from her anything other than perfect purity and chastity. In fact people associated her with Aaron, the first of the temple’s devout servants. For generations, her family were renowned for being God-fearing and a model of piety.

We see this young woman going off to be alone. The sūrah does not specify why she wanted to be alone, but there must have been something to so require her to be by herself, unseen by anyone else. It may have been a very private matter that girls normally experience.

Once she is alone, screened from everyone and assured of complete privacy, she receives a great shock. She finds in front of her a man in his prime: “We, then, sent to her Our angel, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being.” (Verse 17)

She is both shocked and shaken, which is only the normal reaction of a chaste virgin.

Her immediate reaction is to seek God’s protection and to appeal to Him for support.

She appeals to the man’s sense of fearing God. She reminds him of God so that he may be restrained from attempting anything evil. So she says to him: “May the Most Merciful protect me from you. [Do not come near me] if you fear God.” (Verse 18) Should he be a God-fearing person, he would respond to the mere mention of God’s name and His attribute of mercy. He would then resist any evil motive and restrain his desire.

We can visualize this young woman, a pure devout virgin, and what she might have gone through in that moment when she was surprised by a young man appearing before her in her place of privacy. This was her first shock.

Yet what answer does she receive? The man tells her something she could never have imagined: “‘I am but an emissary of your Lord,’ he said, ‘[and have come] to give you a son endowed with purity.’” (Verse 19) We can imagine the panic and shock that must have overwhelmed Mary when that perfect man, whom she did not yet know to be an emissary from her Lord, spoke to her. For all she knew, he might have been an assailant playing a trick on her, exploiting her innocence. Yet what he tells her, in the privacy of that place, well away from others, is that he wants to give her a child.

The sūrah does not mention how she conceived Jesus or the length of her pregnancy. It gives no details about whether it was an ordinary pregnancy, with the breathing of spirit into Mary starting the life process within the egg, which then goes through the growth process, with the implantation of the conceived egg that becomes a germ-cell then a morsel, to which bones are then added before they are covered with flesh. That would mean that the foetus completed its normal period of nine- months gestation. All this is possible. Equally possible in this special case is that the female egg took a different course so as to reduce the different stages of growth, and ensure the development of the foetus so rapidly that the period of pregnancy was made much shorter. There is nothing in the text of the sūrah to indicate either. Hence, there is no point in pursuing this avenue further.

As we read on, we see Mary in a remote place, away from her family and community. She is now in a far more terrible situation. Previously, she was up against all that her upbringing has instilled in her of moral values; but that was an internal struggle with herself. Now she is about to be faced with a public scandal.

Besides, she was in great physical pain added to her psychological distress. In the midst of labour and childbirth she is driven to lean against the trunk of a palm tree.

She is all alone, a true virgin and suffering the pains of childbirth, not knowing about how to cope with the situation and having none to give her even moral support. In her anguish she cries: “Would that I had died before this and passed into complete oblivion!” (Verse 23) We almost see her face, feel her confusion, and sense her agony as she wishes herself into oblivion.

In the midst of all this anguish, she is confronted with the greatest surprise:

But [a voice] from below cried out to her: Do not give in to grief. Your Lord has provided a brook running beneath you. And if you shake the trunk of the palm tree towards you, it will drop you fresh ripe dates. So eat and drink and be happy. Should you see any human being, just convey this to him: I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful and will not speak today to any human being.’ (Verses 24-26)

O God! What is happening here! A child born this very moment crying out to her, comforting her and reaffirming her bond with her Lord, directing her as to how to obtain food and drink, and providing her with the argument and evidence to use when she sees people.

The first thing the voice says to her is that she must not grieve. “Your Lord has provided a brook running beneath you.” (Verse 24) God has not forsaken you. Indeed, He has made this brook run at your feet, which most probably started its course at that very moment, either from a spring or from a high point nearby. Besides, the palm tree against which she leant provided food. She only need to shake it and “it will drop you fresh ripe dates.” (Verse 25) Thus she has essential food and water. Sweet food is good for a mother who has just delivered her baby. Dates are perhaps the best food she could eat. “So eat and drink and be happy.” (Verse 26) All the necessary reassurance is given her.

Then we glimpse a highly dramatic scene: “She went to her people carrying the child.” (Verse 27) We can easily imagine the great surprise on their faces. Most probably, these were her immediate family. They had known their daughter, Mary, to be exemplary in her purity. She was indeed a virgin dedicated to worship in the temple; but there she was with a baby in her arms. Hence their exclamation: “Mary, you have indeed done an amazing thing! Sister of Aaron, your father was not a wicked man, nor was your mother a loose woman!” (Verses 27-28)

They start by reproaching her: “You have done an amazing thing!” It is a wicked, most dreadful thing that you have perpetrated. But then their reproach takes a different tone, adding sarcasm and ridicule. They call her: ‘Sister of Aaron!’ Aaron was a prophet who was in charge of the Temple, passing this duty to his offspring.

Mary was often associated with Aaron because of her exemplary devotion in the service of the Temple. How ironic that the girl associated with Aaron’s perfect devotion should perpetrate such an enormity: “Your father was not a wicked man, nor was your mother a loose woman!” (Verse 28) Such a sin is only committed by loose women and prostitutes.

In her own defence, Mary says nothing other than carrying out what her amazing child has instructed her to say: “But she pointed to the child.” (Verse 29) Again we are left to imagine their amazement, anger and fury at this young woman, virgin as she was, carrying her child openly in her arms, and then refusing to answer their questions, only pointing to the child and indicating that they should ask him. “They said: How can we talk to a babe in the cradle?” (Verse 29) But then a supernatural event occurs again and the baby speaks out:

Whereupon he said: I am a servant of God. He has vouchsafed to me revelations and made me a prophet, and made me blessed wherever I may be. He has enjoined on me prayer and charity as long as I live. He has made me kind to my mother, not haughty or bereft of grace. Peace was on me on the day when I was born, and [will be on me] on the day of my death and on the day when I shall be raised to life again.’ (Verses 30- 33)

Thus Jesus declared his status: a servant of God. He is not God’s son, as some sects claim; nor was he divine as claimed by others, nor one of a Trinity constituting one God while being three, as claimed by others. He declares that God has made him a prophet, which means that he was neither God’s son nor partner. God has blessed him and enjoined him to keep his prayers and be charitable throughout his life.

He is also enjoined to be very kind towards his mother and to show humility to his people. This means that he has a limited life duration, he dies and will be resurrected. God has bestowed on him peace, security and reassurance on the day of his birth, the day of his death and the day of his resurrection. The statement is very clear here in respect of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It admits no argument or different interpretation.

This is the whole truth about Jesus. It has nothing of the claims advanced by those who assign to him a divine nature, or those who make false accusations against his mother. What God states here is the complete truth, giving details of his origin and birth. There is no room for doubt or argument. It is not for God to take for Himself a son. Most sublime is He in His glory. He needs no son, because offspring are only needed by mortals, so that their line of existence is continued. Alternatively, offspring are needed by the weak so that they have the support of their children against their enemies. But God is immortal, and able to do what He wills, having power over all things. All creatures come into existence when He says to them, ‘Be’.

This means that He accomplishes any purpose of His merely by willing it to take place, not by having help from a son or partner.

Jesus concludes his words by declaring the truth that God is his Lord and the Lord of all mankind. Hence, they must worship Him alone, assigning to Him no partners:

“God is my Lord and your Lord; so worship Him alone. That is a straight path.” (Verse 36)

With this statement made by Jesus himself, and with this account of his birth there is no room left for legend or myth in the whole affair. This is the full import of his statement and the way it is phrased.

The sūrah then refers to the conflicting views and beliefs advanced by various groups concerning Jesus, his birth, nature and status. All are highly objectionable as compared with the clear and simple truth.

“Yet are the sects at variance among themselves.” (Verse 37) Constantine, the Roman Emperor, held one of three famous synods, attended by 2,170 bishops. They differed a great deal about Jesus. Each group expressed a certain view. Some said that he was God who descended to earth in person, giving life to whomever He willed and caused others to die, before returning to heaven. Some said that he was God’s son, while others claimed that he was one of the three entities forming the Godhead: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. A different group claimed that he was one of three deities: God was one, Jesus another and his mother the third. However, another group said that Jesus was God’s servant, messenger, spirit and word. Others made yet different claims. All in all, no more than 308 agreed on any one view. The Emperor decided to support that view, expelling all those who did not agree, and persecuting those who opposed it, particularly those who advocated God’s oneness.

Since such deviant beliefs were established by synods composed of large numbers of bishops, the sūrah warns unbelievers about what happens to those who deviate from the faith based on God’s oneness. This warning tells them of a scene that will take place on a great and eventful day witnessed by much larger numbers:

Woe, then, to the unbelievers when a momentous day arrives. How well they will hear and see on the day they will appear before Us. Truly the wrongdoers are today in evident error. Hence, warn them of the Day of Distress, when everything will have been determined while they remain heedless, persisting in unbelief (Verses 37-39)