Tafsir of Al Imran 3:47

(She said: "My Lord, how will I have a child?") This is a resumption [of the narrative] based on an implied question, as if it were said: "What was her response when the angels told her that?" It is said: She said, "My Lord, how will I have a child?" It is possible that the interrogation is metaphorical, intended to express astonishment at that and to indicate its improbability according to the ordinary course of events. It is also possible that it is literal, meaning: "How will it come to pass? Will it be through marriage or otherwise?" And it is said: It is possible that it is an interrogation regarding who the person would be. The grammatical parsing of this sentence is similar to the parsing of the preceding sentence in the story of Zechariah (peace be upon him).

(And no man has touched me) This is a circumstantial clause confirming what preceded and strengthening it. "Touching" here is a metonymy for sexual intercourse. This is a general negation of marriage and anything else. "Man" (bashar) applies to both the singular and the plural, and the indefinite form denotes universality; the intent is the universality of the negation, not the negation of universality. He is called bashar (human/skin) either because his skin is visible, or because Allah, the Exalted, fashioned his father and created him with His [own] hands.

(He said) This is a resumption like the one before it. The agent [of the verb] is a pronoun referring to the Lord, and the angel recounted to her what was said, which is His statement, the Sublime: (Thus Allah creates what He wills)—either without change, in which case there is a shift in address, or with change. It is said: Allah, the Exalted, said this to her without the mediation of an angel. The first view is based on the premise that the Exalted did not speak to anyone other than the prophets, or rather, to anyone other than the elite among them (peace be upon them). It is said: The speaker is Gabriel (peace be upon him), and it is not in the form of a narration. The evidence for this is the mention of the angels (peace be upon them) before it, though carrying "Lord" in the previous context to mean that is more far-fetched. You have already passed over the discussion regarding such a sentence, except that the expression here is "creates" (yakhluq) while there it was "does" (yaf'al), due to the difference in the strangeness of the two stories; for the second is stranger, and therefore "creation," which is based on origination, is more appropriate for it.

That is why He followed it up with an explanation of its manner, saying, the Exalted: (When He decrees a matter), meaning: when He wills a thing, for "matter" is one of the [various] affairs. "Decree" (qada) originally means to judge, and it has been applied to the definitive Divine Will related to the bringing into existence of the non-existent and the rendering of the existent non-existent. It is called this because it necessitates whatever it is related to, absolutely. It is also applied to a command, from which is [the verse]: "And your Lord has decreed."

(He only says to it, "Be," and it is) meaning: it comes into being, i.e., it occurs. According to the majority, this is an allegory for the effect of His power upon what He wills, similar to the command of one who is obeyed [being executed] by the one who obeys in the attainment of the commanded task without obstruction, delay, or the need to undertake work or use an instrument. The thing represented is the thing brought into existence quickly without labor or instrument, and the thing representing it is the command of the one who is obeyed to the one who is obedient, which is fulfilled immediately. This expression is borrowed for that from this.

You know that it is permissible for it to be literal, by intending the inner speech [of Allah] regarding the thing that occurs. In any case, the intent of this answer is to clarify that Allah, the Exalted, is not rendered incapable of creating a child without a father, because it is a thing possible in itself, and thus it is valid to be an object of [His] will and power. How could it be otherwise, when we frequently observe the occurrence of many animals by way of spontaneous generation, such as the occurrence of mice from mud, snakes from rotting hair, scorpions from baduraj, and flies from beans, to other such examples? At most, it is considered unlikely, and improbability does not necessitate conjecture, let alone knowledge. Once the Truthful [Allah] informs us of the existence of such a possibility, one must be certain of its validity.

As for the argument that the "material" exists in [cases like] baduraj and the like, and upon its existence there is no doubt of the possibility—unlike the case we are in, where the material of a human is semen, and there is either only one [type of] semen or no semen at all—therefore it is impossible for creation [to occur]... this is baseless. According to our school of thought, bringing into existence is not dependent upon the precedence of matter, otherwise there would be an infinite regress. As for the school of the deniers, it is possible that it [the child] comes from the female's semen alone, or through what joins it of that which no one knows except Allah, the Exalted, in a state that is fit to serve as material. The utmost that this necessitates is the labeling of it as "unlikely," and that does not yield any benefit in such contexts. It is also permissible that Allah, the Exalted, place something other than semen in the place of semen. What impossibility is necessitated by that? Do you not see how soil was placed in the position of semen in the origin of the species? The claim that this placement is conditional upon that "other thing" being outside the womb, while its placement within the womb is impossible, is neither clear nor explained. Rather, the intellect does not distinguish between the two regarding possibility; it only distinguishes between them in terms of agreement with habit and the lack thereof, and that is a matter beyond what we are dealing with.

Some people have explained this matter by [stating that] mental imaginations are often the causes for the occurrence of events, such as imagining the presence of that which is contrary to anger, or such as imagining falling, which results in the fall of someone walking on a trunk laid over a space, unlike [what would happen] if he were on the surface of the earth. Philosophers have made this a foundation in explaining the possibility of miracles and wonders. So what prevents one from saying: when she imagined the form of Gabriel, that was sufficient for the conception of the child in her womb, because a man's semen is only for the purpose of [forming] the embryo, and once the conception of the woman's semen occurs through another way, the conception of the child is possible? This is worthless, because it returns with deficiency to the station of the Virgin, and [the need] to purify her arena from such imagination is obvious.

In the response of this pure one to Joseph the Carpenter is support for what we have said. Isaac bin Bishr and Ibn Asakir recorded from Wahb that he said: When Mary’s pregnancy was confirmed and Gabriel gave her the glad tidings, she trusted in the grace of Allah, the Exalted, and found peace and comfort. The first to discover her pregnancy was a cousin of hers called Joseph. He was concerned and saddened by this, fearing scandal because he used to serve her. When he saw the change in her complexion and the size of her belly, it weighed heavily upon him. He said to her, alluding to his concern: "Can there be crops without seeds?" She said: "Yes." He said: "And how can that be?" She said: "Allah, the Exalted, created the first seeds without plants, and He caused the first crops to grow without seeds." [She added:] "Perhaps you say: He was not able to create the first crop except by seed? And perhaps you say: If Allah, the Exalted, had not been aided by seeds in that, He would have been overcome, such that He would not be able to create or grow it?" Joseph said: "I seek refuge in Allah from saying that! You have spoken the truth; you have spoken with light and wisdom. Just as He was able to create the first crop and grow it without seed, He is able to produce a crop without a seed. So tell me, does a tree grow without water or rain?" She said: "Do you not know that seeds, water, rain, and trees have one Creator? Perhaps you say that without water and rain, He would not have been able to grow the tree?" He said: "I seek refuge in Allah, the Exalted, from saying that! You have spoken the truth. So tell me your story." She said: "Allah, the Exalted, gave me the glad tidings of (a Word from Him, his name being the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary)..." up to His saying: (And [he will be] among the righteous.) Joseph then knew that this was a matter from Allah for a purpose He intended through Mary, so he remained silent about her. She continued in that state until the labor pains struck her, and she was called out to go forth from the prayer niche, and she went out.