We have walked from the clay of Adam, through the ark and the broken idols and the well and the sea and the bowed kings, and we arrive at the most carefully prepared birth in all of it. Allah readied the mother before He gave the child. A girl dedicated to the sanctuary before she was even born, raised in a curtained corner of the house of worship, kept pure in reputation and character and worship, and then visited by an angel with news no woman had ever been given.
This is day twenty-nine, the finale, and the most carefully told of them all, because here belief itself is at stake. Mufti Menk says he will give the name in English first, the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, precisely so that everyone is clear about what a Muslim believes regarding him: that he is a servant and a messenger of Allah, born by Allah's word, working wonders by Allah's leave, raised up and not killed, and the last prophet to point by name at the one who would come after him ﷺ.
The mother Allah chose
وَإِذْ قَالَتِ ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ يَٰمَرْيَمُ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ٱصْطَفَىٰكِ وَطَهَّرَكِ وَٱصْطَفَىٰكِ عَلَىٰ نِسَآءِ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
“And [mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds.”
Surah Aal Imran 3:42 Read 3:42 with tafsir
Before Isa, there is Maryam, peace be upon her, and the Qur'an honours her more than it honours almost anyone. A whole surah carries her name. Another carries the name of her family, Aal Imran. Her father Imran was a deeply upright man who led the people in prayer, and her mother had vowed the child in her womb to the service of the sanctuary, not knowing she was carrying a girl. When the girl came, the promise was kept. Imran had already passed away, so she grew up an orphan in the care of her uncle Zakariyya, peace be upon him, the same Zakariyya whose own old-age son Yahya we met yesterday. Under him she became a girl of rare devotion, given knowledge and wisdom, barely leaving her corner except for need.
Mufti Menk lingers on the words the angels brought her, because they are a portrait of a soul Allah Himself groomed for something enormous. Chosen, purified, and chosen again above all the women of her time: pure in her reputation, pure in her conduct, and above everything pure in her worship, which she rendered to no one but her Maker. And the instruction that followed was not rest but more devotion: O Maryam, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, prostrate, and bow with those who bow. The one Allah was preparing for the greatest sign was told, first, to pray harder.
A word from Him
إِذْ قَالَتِ ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ يَٰمَرْيَمُ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُبَشِّرُكِ بِكَلِمَةٍ مِّنْهُ ٱسْمُهُ ٱلْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَجِيهًا فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْءَاخِرَةِ وَمِنَ ٱلْمُقَرَّبِينَ
“[And mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary - distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah].”
Surah Aal Imran 3:45 Read 3:45 with tafsir
قَالَتْ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِى وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ يَمْسَسْنِى بَشَرٌ ۖ قَالَ كَذَٰلِكِ ٱللَّهُ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَآءُ ۚ إِذَا قَضَىٰٓ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُۥ كُن فَيَكُونُ
“She said, "My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?" [The angel] said, "Such is Allah; He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, 'Be,' and it is.”
Surah Aal Imran 3:47 Read 3:47 with tafsir
The angel came to her in seclusion in the form of a well-made man, and her first instinct was protection: I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you fear Allah. He answered that he was no threat but a messenger of her Lord, come to give her a pure boy. And then the news Mufti Menk presses on as the heart of everything that follows. The child is announced as a word from Allah. His name is given before he is born, the Messiah, Isa son of Maryam, and he is named for his mother, not his father, which Mufti Menk notes is itself part of the sign: every one of us is called the child of a man, and he alone is called the son of a woman. He will be honoured in this life and the next, brought near to Allah, and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity.
She asks the only question a pure woman could ask: how can I have a child when no man has touched me? And the answer closes a circle that this whole series has been drawing. Allah made Adam with neither father nor mother. He made Hawwa from a man with no woman. He made the rest of us from man and woman together. One possibility remained, to show you the full reach of His power: a child from a woman with no man. That last sign He kept for Isa. So when He decrees a thing He says to it 'Be', and it is. Not a son of God, Mufti Menk stops to say plainly, but a servant created by the word of God, exactly as Adam was, and the Qur'an itself draws the comparison.
Born under the palm
فَأَجَآءَهَا ٱلْمَخَاضُ إِلَىٰ جِذْعِ ٱلنَّخْلَةِ قَالَتْ يَٰلَيْتَنِى مِتُّ قَبْلَ هَٰذَا وَكُنتُ نَسْيًا مَّنسِيًّا
“And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, "Oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten."”
Surah Maryam 19:23 Read 19:23 with tafsir
فَنَادَىٰهَا مِن تَحْتِهَآ أَلَّا تَحْزَنِى قَدْ جَعَلَ رَبُّكِ تَحْتَكِ سَرِيًّا
“But he called her from below her, "Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream.”
Surah Maryam 19:24 Read 19:24 with tafsir
She carried him away from her people, to Bethlehem, and the worry pressing on her was not only the pain of delivering alone. It was the other dread: she knew she was pure, but she also knew exactly what they would say when she walked back holding a child. The pains drove her to the trunk of a palm tree, and she cried out the most human words, wishing she had died before this day and been long forgotten. She is not rejecting Allah's decree, Mufti Menk is careful to say. She is a young woman, alone, terrified, and honest.
And then mercy answered from below her. There are two narrations of who called, the angel or the newborn himself, and Mufti Menk leans toward the child, having just been delivered: do not grieve. Look beneath you, your Lord has set a stream running in the desert where there was no water. Shake the trunk of the palm and ripe dates will fall, the very fruit, rich in iron, that a woman needs most after childbirth, dropped fresh from a dead winter trunk. So eat, drink, and be comforted. And He gave her the one instruction that would carry her through what came next: if anyone speaks to you, say you have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast of silence, and will not speak to a soul today.
The baby who spoke
قَالَ إِنِّى عَبْدُ ٱللَّهِ ءَاتَىٰنِىَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَجَعَلَنِى نَبِيًّا
“[Jesus] said, "Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet.”
Surah Maryam 19:30 Read 19:30 with tafsir
وَٱلسَّلَٰمُ عَلَىَّ يَوْمَ وُلِدتُّ وَيَوْمَ أَمُوتُ وَيَوْمَ أُبْعَثُ حَيًّا
“And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive."”
Surah Maryam 19:33 Read 19:33 with tafsir
She came back to her people late in the afternoon, calm, her face lit, holding the child close. And exactly what she feared began. These were not strangers; these were her own, the children of Israil, priests and teachers of the religion who knew her family's piety going back to the prophet Harun, peace be upon him. Sister of Harun, they said, your father was no sinner, your mother was no sinner, what is this you have brought? An accusation of grave immorality, leveled at the most chaste woman among them. She said nothing. She pointed to the baby. How, they scoffed, do we speak to a child in the cradle?
And the cradle answered. The very first words out of the infant's mouth were not a defence of himself but a confession of his place in the order of things: I am the servant of Allah. He gave me the Scripture and made me a prophet, blessed wherever I am, commanded to prayer and charity as long as I live, made dutiful to my mother, and not a wretched tyrant. Mufti Menk pauses on that line, dutiful to my mother, because there was no father in the picture, so the honour of the parent here falls wholly on her, a rule that still binds every one of us to both our parents. Then the closing words, the same Allah spoke over Yahya, that Isa here speaks over himself: peace upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive. The rabbis stood silent. This was no magic and no trick. It was a sign from the Creator, and they knew it. Some believed. Others saw a child who would one day pull the carpet from under them, and decided, from that moment, to fight him.
Wonders, but by His leave
إِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ٱذْكُرْ نِعْمَتِى عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَىٰ وَٰلِدَتِكَ إِذْ أَيَّدتُّكَ بِرُوحِ ٱلْقُدُسِ تُكَلِّمُ ٱلنَّاسَ فِى ٱلْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًا ۖ وَإِذْ عَلَّمْتُكَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ وَٱلْإِنجِيلَ ۖ وَإِذْ تَخْلُقُ مِنَ ٱلطِّينِ كَهَيْـَٔةِ ٱلطَّيْرِ بِإِذْنِى فَتَنفُخُ فِيهَا فَتَكُونُ طَيْرًۢا بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَتُبْرِئُ ٱلْأَكْمَهَ وَٱلْأَبْرَصَ بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَإِذْ تُخْرِجُ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَإِذْ كَفَفْتُ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ عَنكَ إِذْ جِئْتَهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ فَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ إِنْ هَٰذَآ إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُّبِينٌ
“[The Day] when Allah will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, remember My favor upon you and upon your mother when I supported you with the Pure Spirit [i.e., the angel Gabriel] and you spoke to the people in the cradle and in maturity; and [remember] when I taught you writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you designed from clay [what was] like the form of a bird with My permission, then you breathed into it, and it became a bird with My permission; and you healed the blind [from birth] and the leper with My permission; and when you brought forth the dead with My permission; and when I restrained the Children of Israel from [killing] you when you came to them with clear proofs and those who disbelieved among them said, "This is not but obvious magic."”
Surah al-Ma'idah 5:110 Read 5:110 with tafsir
He grew, and Allah gave him exactly what was promised the mother: the Scripture, wisdom, the Torah, and a revelation of his own, the Injil. He was sent as a messenger to the children of Israil, and he preached one thing above all, the thing every prophet in this series preached: Allah is my Lord and your Lord, my Maker and yours, so worship Him alone. Mufti Menk dwells here, because it is the cleanest summary of the whole chain. We do not worship a person, a stone, a stick, a prophet, or a grave. We worship the One who made us, with no intermediary, no priest, no confession booth, the believer turning straight to his Maker in the dark of the night. He gives the example of Khalid ibn al-Walid, too sharp a mind to stay blind to the truth, and the Prophet's ﷺ word to him that Islam wipes clean everything before it, deleting the bad and keeping the good: a selective formatting of the heart.
And the wonders that came through Isa's hands were extraordinary, in an age when medicine itself was at its peak. From clay he shaped a bird, breathed into it, and it flew off alive. He passed his hand over eyes blind from birth and they opened. He touched the leper and the skin came back clean. And greatest of all, he stood before the dead and they rose. But notice the refrain the Qur'an repeats over and over, and that Mufti Menk will not let pass: by My permission, by My permission, by My permission. Not one of these was Isa's own power. The doctors of the day could prolong a life; Allah, through His servant, gave life back to the dead, to put every human claim in its place. Even the laid table, the maidah that gives a whole surah its name, came down from heaven only after the disciples asked and Isa supplicated his Lord for it, a feast as a sign, with a warning attached for anyone who saw it and still disbelieved.
They did not kill him
وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّا قَتَلْنَا ٱلْمَسِيحَ عِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولَ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَٰكِن شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ ۚ وَإِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱخْتَلَفُوا۟ فِيهِ لَفِى شَكٍّ مِّنْهُ ۚ مَا لَهُم بِهِۦ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلَّا ٱتِّبَاعَ ٱلظَّنِّ ۚ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًۢا
“And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.”
Surah an-Nisa 4:157 Read 4:157 with tafsir
بَل رَّفَعَهُ ٱللَّهُ إِلَيْهِ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا
“Rather, Allah raised him to Himself. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise.”
Surah an-Nisa 4:158 Read 4:158 with tafsir
His following grew, and so did the jealousy of those losing their hold on the people. They went to the king with a lie, that this man of Bethlehem was after the throne, calling himself the king, and the king, asking nothing, sent his men to seize him. The disciples knew where he was. One of them, the name given is Judas, turned traitor, the devil getting hold of him, and led the men to the room where Isa was. Mufti Menk ties this back to the opening promise, the salam, the peace, that was declared over Isa at his birth, which carries within it that no harm shall reach him. As the traitor entered to confirm the man was inside, Allah cast the likeness of Isa upon his face and raised Isa up to Himself through the window, whole and unharmed, in the very human body he had, before any hand could touch him.
So they took the wrong man, sure they had their prize, while he protested that he was Judas, and the confusion has never lifted: the Qur'an says those who dispute over it are in plain doubt, following nothing but guesswork, and they certainly did not kill him. Mufti Menk handles the rest with great care and no spite. We do not believe Isa died on a cross for anyone's sins, because to punish an innocent man for the crimes of the guilty is not mercy, it is injustice, and Allah is never unjust. And we do not call him God, or a son of God, or a part of God, for the One who needs only to say 'Be' takes no son. This is the Muslim's reverence for Isa, not a lowering of him but a refusal to let him be made into something he himself never claimed: an honoured messenger, raised by his Lord, alive, who will return near the end of time to break the cross, establish the truth of one God, and then, like every soul, taste death.
The name he gave before he left
وَإِذْ قَالَ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ يَٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ إِنِّى رَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ إِلَيْكُم مُّصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَىَّ مِنَ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ وَمُبَشِّرًۢا بِرَسُولٍ يَأْتِى مِنۢ بَعْدِى ٱسْمُهُۥٓ أَحْمَدُ ۖ فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ قَالُوا۟ هَٰذَا سِحْرٌ مُّبِينٌ
“And [mention] when Jesus, the son of Mary, said, "O Children of Israel, indeed I am the messenger of Allah to you confirming what came before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad." But when he came to them with clear evidences, they said, "This is obvious magic."”
Surah as-Saff 61:6 Read 61:6 with tafsir
وَإِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ سُبْحَٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ
“And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'" He will say, "Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right.”
Surah al-Ma'idah 5:116 Read 5:116 with tafsir
Here is where twenty-nine days arrive at their point. Before Isa was taken up, he turned to his people and did something no prophet in this series had done so directly: he named the one coming after him. I am the messenger of Allah to you, confirming the Torah before me, and bringing good news of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad. Ahmad, from the same root as Muhammad, the praised one. Mufti Menk lets the weight of it land: the last prophet of the children of Israil pointed his finger straight down the centuries at the first and final Prophet of all mankind ﷺ. The chain that began with Adam shaped from clay does not trail off at Isa. It ends with an arrow, and the arrow has a name on it.
And on the Day of Judgment, the Qur'an shows us Isa cleared once and for all of everything that was loaded onto him after he left. Allah will ask him: did you tell the people to take you and your mother as gods? And he will answer, glory be to You, it was never mine to say what is not my right; I told them only what You commanded, to worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. It is the same answer he gave from the cradle, the same answer every prophet gave. And it is why, at the very end of his own life, the Prophet ﷺ warned his companions with urgency: do not raise me beyond my limit the way Isa was raised beyond his; call me only the servant of Allah and His messenger. The two are bound together, the foretelling and the warning. Isa announced him; he ﷺ honoured Isa by refusing the very exaggeration that had been built around Isa's name.