His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "So she pointed to him. They said, 'How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?' He said, 'Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive. And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. And peace is upon me the day I was born and the day I die and the day I am raised alive." Maryam, peace be upon her, adhered to what she was commanded regarding silence, and it is not mentioned in this verse that she spoke with 'Indeed, I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast' [Maryam: 26], but it is mentioned that she pointed. Thus, the saying of those who said that her command in 'So say' was intended to be a gesture is strengthened. It is narrated that when she pointed to the child, they said: 'Her dismissiveness towards us is more severe than her fornication.' Then they said to her - in a manner of questioning - 'How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?' And 'was' here is not intended to mean the past; for every one of them has been in the cradle a child. Rather, it is in the meaning of: he is 'now.' It is possible that it is the incomplete form, but the more apparent is that it is the complete form. Abu Ubaidah said: 'was' here is superfluous. Al-Zajjaj and Al-Farra' said: 'who' is conditional in His saying, blessed and exalted is He: 'who was.' The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And the counterpart of this 'was' is the saying of Ru'bah: 'And the head had a wound.' And 'a child' is either the news of 'was' in a figurative and imagined sense if it is considered incomplete, or it is a state [if it is assumed to be additional or complete] for the stability of the implied in the speech. It is narrated that the cradle refers to the lap of his mother. Jesus said to them from his resting place: 'Indeed, I am the servant of Allah' - the verse. It is narrated that he stood leaning on his left side and pointed to them with his right index finger. And 'the Scripture' refers to the Torah, and it is possible that it refers to both the Torah and the Gospel. And 'He has given me' means: He decreed that and executed it in His previous judgment. This is similar to His saying, exalted and majestic is He: 'The command of Allah has come' [An-Nahl: 1] and others. Al-Kisai inclined 'He has given me' and 'He has enjoined upon me,' while the others do not incline. Abu Ali said: The inclination in 'He has given me' is better than in 'He has enjoined upon me.' And 'blessed' Mujahid said: Its meaning is: beneficial. Sufyan Al-Thawri said: Its meaning is: a teacher of good. And it was said: commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong. A man said to one of the scholars: What should I announce of my knowledge? He said: Commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong; for it is the religion of Allah with which He sent His prophets. And Al-Naqqash attributed to Al-Dahhak that he said: 'Blessed' means: fulfilling needs. The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: 'blessed' encompasses these faces and others. And 'prayer and zakah' it is said: They are the prescribed acts in the body and wealth. It is said: The zakah of the heads in the fitrah. It is said: Prayer is supplication, and zakah is purification from every defect and shortcoming and sin. And 'I remained' was read with a dammah on the dal by Asim and a group, and 'I remained' was read with a kasrah by the people of Medina, Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr, and a group.

The majority read "and a righteous one" with the opening of the letter ب - and this is the common reading of righteousness - and its accusative case is based on his saying: "blessed." Abu Nahik, Abu Mujlaz, and a group read "a righteous one" with the breaking of the letter ب. Some of them said: its accusative case is based on the conjunction with his saying: "blessed," as if he said: this is righteousness, thus it is described by the noun like justice and similar. Others said: its accusative case is based on his saying: "and He commanded me," meaning: and He commanded me to be righteous to my mother, omitting the preposition, intending: and He commanded me to be righteous to my mother. Al-Zahrawi narrated this reading "and righteous" with the genitive case, in conjunction with "the zakah," and his saying: "to my mother" clarifies that he has no father, and by this saying, her people exonerated her.

And "the Compeller": the one who is exalted, and it is a trait associated with misery because it contradicts all people, so its possessor does not encounter anyone except with dislike. And Jesus, blessings of Allah be upon him, was in the utmost humility. He would eat from the trees, wear hair, sit on the ground, and take refuge wherever the night sheltered him, having no dwelling. Qatadah said: And he would say: Ask me, for the soft-heartedness is small in my soul. And it has been previously mentioned regarding his greeting upon himself and his humility in that, and the mention of the places that he specified because they are times of a person's need for the mercy of Allah.

And Malik ibn Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said regarding this verse: How severe it is upon the people of dignity. Jesus informed about what was decreed regarding his matter and what will happen until he dies. And in the story of this verse from Ibn Zayd and others, when they heard the words of Jesus while he was in the cradle, they submitted and said: Indeed, this is a great matter. It has been narrated that Jesus, peace be upon him, spoke in his childhood with this verse, then returned to the state of children until he grew up according to the nature of humans. A group said: Indeed, Jesus was given the scripture while he was at that age, and he would fast and pray.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And this is in the utmost weakness, explicitly stating the ignorance of its speaker.