Tafsir of Maryam 19:22

"So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him..."

(So she conceived him): The fa is faṣīḥah (eloquent/explicative), meaning she felt reassured by his statement. He drew near her and breathed into the opening of her garment, and the breath entered into her body, and she conceived him. This is narrated from Ibn Abbas. It is also said: He did not draw near, peace be upon him, but rather breathed from a distance, and the wind reached her, and she conceived. It is also said the breath was into her sleeve; this is narrated from Ibn Jurayj. It is also said it was in her lower garment, and it is also said it was in her mouth.

There is disagreement regarding her age at that time. It is said thirteen years; from Wahb and Mujahid, fifteen years; it is said fourteen years; it is said twelve years; and it is said ten years. She had experienced menstruation twice before she conceived. Muhammad ibn al-Haysam, the leader of the Haysamiyyah sect of the Karramiyyah, related that she had not yet menstruated at all. It is said that she, peace be upon her, did not menstruate at all, but was purified from menstruation.

Similarly, they disagreed on the duration of her pregnancy. In one narration from Ibn Abbas, it was nine months, as is the case for all women. This is what is narrated from al-Baqir—may Allah be pleased with him—because if she had differed from them in this natural habit, it would have been appropriate to mention it during this strange story. In another narration from him, it was a single hour, just as she conceived and withdrew. This is supported by the subsequent sequence (al-ta‘qīb) and by the fact that He, Glory be to Him, said in describing him, "The likeness of ‘Īsā with Allah is as the likeness of Ādam: He created him from dust, then He said to him, 'Be!' and he was." This is apparent in that He—the Almighty—said to him "Be!" and he was, so a period of pregnancy is not conceivable therein. From ‘Aṭā’, Abū al-‘Āliyah, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk, it was seven months. It is said it was six months. It is said she conceived him in an hour and delivered him in an hour when the sun had declined that day. The most famous view is that it was eight months. It is said that no newborn survived who was delivered at eight months except him, peace be upon him.

Al-Naysābūrī reported from the astrologers that this is because pregnancy reverts to the nurturing of the moon, so coldness and moisture overcome it; this is apparent in the matter of the pregnancy’s nurturer in the first months being the moon, and in the eighth, the matter returns to it according to the astrologers. This contradicts what is in Kifāyat al-Ta‘līm from them, which states that the first of the months is attributed to Saturn, the second to Jupiter, and so on until the seventh, which is attributed to the moon, then the attribution returns to Saturn, then to Jupiter. It also contains that the ignorant astrologers say that the nuṭfah (drop) in the first month accepts coldness from Saturn and freezes; in the second, it accepts the growing power from Jupiter and begins to grow; in the third, it accepts the irascible power from Mars; in the fourth, the power of life from the Sun; in the fifth, the power of desire from Venus; in the sixth, the power of speech from Mercury; and in the seventh, the power of motion from the moon, thus the creation of the embryo is completed. If born at that time, it lives; otherwise, if born in the eighth, it does not live because it accepts the power of death from Saturn; and if born in the ninth, it lives because it has accepted the power of Jupiter. Such words are superstitions, and every woman knows that if the nuṭfah passes three months, it moves. Natural scientists have mentioned that the minimum duration of birth is six months, and the duration of movement is one-third the duration of birth, so its minimum is two months. Those who have examined miscarriages know that the creation is completed in less than fifty days. The words of the jurists in this matter are not hidden from you. It is possible for an eight-month-born child to live, though it is rare, so this is not one of his unique characteristics—peace be upon him—if [the claim] is even authentic. Nothing of these turbulent and contradictory views is authentic to me, although I incline toward the first, and the reasoning for the second, from what you have heard, is not free from scrutiny.

(And she withdrew with him): That is, she separated herself while he was in her womb. The bā’ denotes attachment and accompaniment, like in the Almighty’s saying, "...growing with oil," and the words of al-Mutanabbī describing horses: "They passed without shying away, treading upon heads and skulls with them (binā)." The prepositional phrase is a stable circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) from her hidden pronoun; meaning she withdrew while attached to him. (to a remote place): Distant from her people, behind the mountain.

‘Abdullāh ibn Aḥmad narrated in Zawā’id al-Zuhd from Nawf that Gabriel, peace be upon him, breathed into her garment and she conceived. When she became heavy, she suffered what women suffer. She was in the house of prophecy, so she felt shy and fled out of shyness from her people. She took the direction of the East, and her people went out in search of her, and they began to ask, "Have you seen a girl such-and-such?" But no one informed them of anything. Thus, what Allah Almighty informed of came to pass.

Al-Tha‘labī narrated in al-‘Arā’is from Wahb, saying: When Maryam conceived, she had with her a cousin of hers named Yūsuf the Carpenter. They were heading to the mosque near Mount Zion, and they were together serving that mosque, and it was not known that anyone among the people of their time was more diligent or worshipful than them. The first to know of her affair was Yūsuf, and he was bewildered by it, due to his knowledge of her complete righteousness and chastity, and that she had never been away from him for an hour. He said to her, "Something has occurred in my mind regarding your affair that I could not hide, and I found that speaking about it would soothe my chest." She said, "Speak a beautiful word." He said, "O Maryam, tell me, does crops grow without seed? Does a tree grow without rain? And does a child exist without a male?" She said, "Yes. Do you not know that Allah Almighty made crops grow the day He created them without seed? Do you not know that Allah Almighty made the tree grow without rain, and through His power, He made rain the life of the tree after He had created each of them separately? Do you say that Allah—may He be glorified—cannot make a tree grow until He seeks help from water?" He said, "I do not say that, but I say that Allah Almighty is capable of whatever He wills by saying 'Be!' and it is." She said, "Do you not know that Allah Almighty created Ādam and his wife without a male or female?" Upon that, what he was feeling vanished. He would take her place in serving the mosque because of the weakness that overcame her due to the pregnancy and the constriction of her heart. When her labor approached, Allah Almighty revealed to her to depart from the land of your people, lest they kill your son. Yūsuf carried her to the land of Egypt on a donkey of his. When she reached that land, labor overtook her, and what the Almighty narrated took place. It is also said she withdrew to the farthest part of the house, which is more fitting with the short duration of the pregnancy.