Maryam and the Date Palm: The Birth of Isa

Maryam has separated herself from her family to a place of seclusion — makanan sharqiyyan, a place to the east — to devote herself to prayer and purification. She places a screen between herself and the world. Then a spirit appears to her in the form of a well-formed human being.

Her first words are not wonder but self-protective declaration: I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you should fear God. She does not know what this apparition is, and she is alone. The angel identifies himself: he is a messenger of her Lord, sent to give her a pure son. She asks the only rational question: How can I have a boy when no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste? The angel answers: Your Lord says it is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. It is a matter already decreed.

She conceives. She withdraws to a distant place. The pains of labor come upon her at the trunk of a date palm. In her agony she cries out: If only I had died before this, and was a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten. It is one of the most human utterances in the Quran — a woman in labor, alone, wishing for oblivion.

Then the voice comes from below her — or perhaps from the newborn himself, though commentators differ — telling her not to grieve: her Lord has placed a stream beneath her, she should shake the trunk of the palm tree, fresh dates will fall. She is to eat and drink and be comforted. And if she meets anyone, she should say only: I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast, and I will not speak to anyone today.

She returns to her people carrying the child. They are stunned and accusing. She points to the infant. How can we speak to one who is yet a child in the cradle? And Isa speaks: I am a servant of Allah. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die, and the day I am raised alive.

The Quran gives Maryam the only surah named after a woman in any of the three Abrahamic scriptures.