Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 50 of 118
Al-Mu'minun 23:50
وَجَعَلْنَا ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ وَأُمَّهُۥٓ ءَايَةً وَءَاوَيْنَـٰهُمَآ إِلَىٰ رَبْوَةٍ ذَاتِ قَرَارٍ وَمَعِينٍ
“And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign and sheltered them within a high ground having level [areas] and flowing water.”
Saheeh International
Essence
Maryam and her son became one sign together, and Allah drew them in to a raised, settled place with fresh water flowing.
A reflection
Four ways to make a human being
At three in the morning, a maternity ward is quiet. A dozen newborns lie asleep in clear plastic cots. Every one of them was made in the ordinary way. And every one of them is beyond anything its parents could have designed, from the fingernails to the heartbeat.
The ayah calls Maryam and her son a sign. One commentator explains what kind. It is a decisive proof of Allah's power to do whatever He wills. Then he sets out a striking list. Allah created Adam without a father or a mother. He created Hawwa from a male without a female. He created ʿIsa from a female without a male. And He created all the rest of humanity from a male and a female.
Four ways. Every possible arrangement, and all of them His.
That list dismantles a certain kind of pride. We study the ordinary way so carefully that we start to think it is a rule binding the One who made it. It is not a rule over Him. It is His habit, which He breaks when He wills, to remind us whose habit it is.
It also restores wonder to the ordinary. The baby in the cot was not made by the parents' cleverness. Their part was real, but tiny. The sign of Maryam's son points back at every cradle and says: this was Allah too.
None of this is Allah boasting for an audience. He needs nothing. The sign is for us, so that we stop taking life for granted.
The next time you hold a newborn, say quietly: You made this, as You made Adam, Hawwa and ʿIsa.
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