His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "He said, 'So it will be.' Your Lord said, 'It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign for the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter already decreed.'" "So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a remote place." "And the pains of labor drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, 'Oh, I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten.'"

The angel said to her: "So it is as I have described, but your Lord said, and it is possible that He means: 'In this state your Lord said.' The meaning is similar. And 'the sign' is the lesson presented for contemplation. The pronoun in His saying: 'We will make him' refers to the boy. "And a mercy from Us," meaning: a path of guidance for a great world, so they will attain mercy through that. Then He informed her that the matter had been decreed and accomplished. And 'the matter' here is one of the matters, and it is not a source: 'He commanded.' It has been narrated that Gabriel, peace be upon him, when he spoke to her this saying, blew into the opening of her garment, and the breath spread by the permission of Allah until she conceived from it. This was said by Wahb ibn Munabbih and others. Ibn Jurayj said: He blew into the opening of her garment and her hand. And Ubayy ibn Ka'b, may Allah be pleased with him, said: The spirit that was blown entered through her mouth, so that is His saying: "So she conceived him," meaning: she conceived the boy.

It is mentioned that she was thirteen years old. When she felt that and feared the reproach of the people and that evil would be suspected of her, she withdrew with him, meaning: she moved to a distant place out of modesty and to escape from them. It has been narrated regarding this that she fled to the land of Egypt or something similar, as said by Wahb ibn Munabbih. It has also been narrated that she went to a place known as Bayt Lahm, which is four miles from Jerusalem.

And 'the pains of labor drove her' means: it compelled her. 'Drove' is the transitive form of 'came' with the hamzah. Shibl ibn Azrah read - and it was narrated from Asim -: 'So it surprised her,' from the surprise. And in the Mushaf of Ubayy ibn Ka'b: 'So when the pains of labor drove her.' And Zuhayr said:

"And a neighbor who relied upon you, fear and hope drove her."

And the majority read: 'the pains of labor' with a fatḥah on the mīm. Ibn Kathir read in what was narrated from him - with a kasrah, and it is the ease and severity of childbirth and its pains. It has been narrated that she reached a place where there was a trunk of a palm tree, dry at its root, with a stream of water flowing, and the matter intensified for her there. She embraced the trunk due to the severity of the pain and gave birth to Jesus, peace be upon him. She said at the time of her giving birth - due to what she saw of the pains and the estrangement and the denial of her people and the difficulty of the situation without any way out -: 'Oh, I wish I had died and this fate had not befallen me.'

And al-Hasan, Abu Ja'far, Shaybah, Asim, Abu Amr, and a group read: 'I had died' with a dammah on the mīm. And al-A'raj, Talhah, Yahya, and al-Amash read with a kasrah. There was a difference regarding Nafi'. And Maryam wished for death due to her religion; she feared that evil would be suspected of her in her religion, and she would be reproached, and that would lead her to be tempted. And on this basis, Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, and a group of the righteous wished for it. And the prohibition of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, against wishing for death is only due to harm that has befallen the body, and he permitted it in his saying:

(p-20) "There will come a time upon the people when a man will pass by the grave of another man and say, 'I wish I were in his place.'" The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is because it is a time of trials in religion. And she said: ﴿And I was a thing forgotten﴾, meaning: something left behind and despised. Forgetting in the speech of the Arabs refers to a trivial thing whose matter is such that it is forgotten, and one does not feel pain for its loss, like a peg or a rope for a traveler and the like. It is said: nasy and nisy with the opening and the breaking of the noon. The majority read with the breaking, while Hamzah alone read with the opening. There is a difference reported from Asim. And like Hamzah's reading, Talhah, Al-Amash, and Yahya read. And Muhammad ibn Kab al-Qurazi read: "nisy" with the hamzah and the breaking of the noon. And Nawf al-Bikali read: "nasy" with the opening of the noon. Abu al-Fath and Abu Amr al-Dani narrated it from Muhammad ibn Kab al-Qurazi. And Bakr ibn Habib read: "nass" with a strong sīn and the opening of the noon without hamzah. And Al-Shanfarā said:

As if it has in the earth a nassy that it tells When it nourishes, and if it speaks, it is ruined.

And Al-Tabari narrated in its stories that when she was pregnant with Isa, her sister also became pregnant with Yahya. Her sister came to visit her and said: O Mary, do you feel that I am pregnant? Mary said to her: Do you feel that I am pregnant? She said to her: And I find what is in my womb prostrating to what is in your womb. And that is because it was narrated that she felt her fetus prostrating its head towards the side of Mary's belly. Al-Suddi said: That is His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿Confirming a word from Allah﴾ [Al-Imran: 39].

(p-21) The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And in all of this, there is weakness, so reflect on it. And likewise, Al-Tabari mentioned in its stories that she fled with a man from the Children of Israel named Yusuf the carpenter, who used to serve with her in the mosque. Al-Tabari elaborated on this, so I have abbreviated it due to its weakness. And this story necessitates that she was pregnant and continued to be pregnant according to the custom of women, and she was shy of that and fled because of it while she was pregnant. This is the view of the majority of the interpreters. It was narrated from Abdullah ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, that he said: It is only that she became pregnant and gave birth in one hour, and Allah knows best.

And the apparent meaning of His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree﴾ indicates that she was according to the custom of women. And the narrations have agreed that she gave birth to him after eight months; and therefore, a child of eight months does not survive, preserving the uniqueness of Isa, peace be upon him. It is said: She gave birth to him after seven months, and it is said: after six months.