Surah Al-i-‘Imrân 3:49

وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنِّي قَدْ جِئْتُكُم بِآيَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ ۖ أَنِّي أَخْلُقُ لَكُم مِّنَ الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ فَأَنفُخُ فِيهِ فَيَكُونُ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَأُبْرِئُ الْأَكْمَهَ وَالْأَبْرَصَ وَأُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَأُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا تَأْكُلُونَ وَمَا تَدَّخِرُونَ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ

3:49 The words “a messenger to the Children of Israel” وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ show that the mission of Jesus was confined to the Tribes of Israel. He was not a universal Messenger (Mark 10.5-6; 15.24; 18.11-12; 19.28; Luke 19.10; 15.4; 22.28-30; Acts 3.25-26; 13.46). Paul first put forward the idea that Jesus message was for all the nations of the world. In these verses is the negation of the Christian claim that Jesus came with universal message.

In order to understand the significance of other passages that follow, we must bear in mind that the chief characteristic of Jesus speech was that he spoke in parables and preferred to express his message in allegorical language. This way of talking had been predicted in the previous Scriptures to be the characteristic of his speech (Matt. 13.34-35). If this is kept in mind, the reader will find little difficulty in understanding these passages.

Khalaqaأَخْلُقُ has the meaning of measuring, proportioning, determining or fashioning of a thing, to be apt for a thing, be fit, to behave kindly (Tâj, Baidzawî). In the sense of creating a new being with life, the act of khalq خلقْ has been attributed in the Holy Qur’ân to Allâh alone. This is a point of fundamental importance; in particular, it says that any created being considered by people to be a god, does not and cannot truly create anything as they themselves have been created (16:20; 25:3). Likewise, the groundless notion that the power to create, although the exclusive prerogative of God, might have been temporarily delegated by Him to another is rejected by the Holy Qur’ân (31:9-11). We also find in the Holy Qur’ân, “What you worship apart from Allâh are only false gods, they are the creation of your lies” (29:17). Therefore khalaq خلَقَis used here to signify the measuring, proportioning, determining, and fashioning of a thing (Tâj, Baidzawî). The word was also used in this sense in pre-Islamic poetry.

The mission of Prophet is beyond the need of making real or toy birds, which would serve no meaningful moral purpose (Baidzawî). There is no mention in the New Testament of the so-called miracle of creating birds, as believed by some Muslims to have been performed by Jesus. If Jesus had really created physical birds, it is curious that the New Testament omits to mention it. Such a miracle would have lent support to the claim of the divinity of Jesus. The Holy Qur’ân says, “And the things they call upon apart from Allâh can create nothing. Rather they are themselves created” (16:20). This is the Divine Law, and there is no reason to make an exception to it for Jesus who is also called upon.

A human being is spoken of in the Holy Qur’ân as being created from tîn طين that is clay or mud. Clay or mud is something, which can easily be molded and given a new shape. Being created from al-Tînالطِّينِ not only refers to the origin of the human being from inorganic particles, but metaphorically it also stands for his humble origin, which can be molded to any form. It also stands for a person who possesses a docile nature suitable for being molded like malleable clay. The word Tair طَيْر (“bird”) is a metonymy for one who soars into the higher spiritual regions (cf. 2:260). Jesus talked in the language of metaphors. When he said, “I determine from clay a bird, and then I shall breathe into it so that he becomes a flier,” to deduce from it that Jesus created a bird from dead clay is not correct. What Jesus meant was that if ordinary people of humble origin, but possessing the inherent power of spiritual and moral growth and development, understood and accepted his teachings, they would undergo a new transformation in their lives. From ordinary creatures at ground level that did not see beyond their physical and material concerns, they would change into birds soaring high into the lofty regions of the spiritual firmament. Thus under the impact of the ennobling teachings and care of their master, the humble fishermen of Galilee began soaring like birds. Here was, no doubt, mere dust, which the messenger of Allâh converted into birds soaring high by breathing the Spirit of Truth into them. We read elsewhere in the Holy Qur’ân that “There is no terrestrial creature that crawls on the earth nor bird that flies in the air with its two wings” but they are creatures and generations like us (6:38). The meaning is apparently that among human beings, there are those who only walk on the earth and do not rise above their material cares and mundane concerns, while others soar into the higher spiritual regions.

The word “bird” used here is also used in the sayings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) for believers occupying high ranks. He said, “In Paradise the souls of the martyrs will be in the deep interior of green bird(s)” (Abû Muslim). Verse 46:4 rejects categorically the notion that Jesus created birds in the following words: “Do you realize what it is you call on, apart from Allâh? Show me what portion of the earth they have created.” In the words that follow—ائْتُونِي بِكِتَابٍ مِّن قَبْلِ هَـٰذَا أَوْ أَثَارَةٍ مِّنْ عِلْمٍ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ, “Bring me any Book (revealed) before this or some vestige of knowledge (to confirm your practices) if you are truthful (in your claim)”—the use of words “relics and vestige of knowledge” indicate that human knowledge, science and reason also lend no support to such thinking. The verse also indicates that only the revealed Scripture can form the basis for determining faith.

As for absolving the blind and the leprous, it is evident from the Bible that people suffering from certain diseases (e.g. leprosy) were considered unclean and were not allowed to be exposed to others. Jesus removed the discrimination that afflicted the people suffering from such maladies. Ubri’u أُبْرِئُ “I absolve,” is derived from bera’ برئ meaning, “he was or became clear or free from a thing. “The phrase برئ من الدين ابرئmeans, he became clear of debt; he declared him free from the defect attributed to him; he acquitted him or he absolved him (Tâj; Lane). By using the term ubri’u أُبْرِئُ “I absolve”, Jesus rejects the belief in the reincarnation of souls, a belief originally from Hinduism and apparently in the minds of the people at the time of Jesus. According to this belief, to be leprous, lame, or blind was the result of sins in the previous lives.

Prophets of Allâh are spiritual physicians. They restore sight to those who have lost spiritual vision, hearing to those who are spiritually deaf, and life to those who are spiritually dead (cf. Qur’ân 8:24; Matt. 13.15). Further references to this include “They that need not a physician but they that are sick” (Matt. 9.12), and Jesus message to John the Baptist: “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached to them” (Matt.11.5). The concluding words show that the sick, lame, and blind belong to the same category as those poor in heart. The Holy Qur’ân speaks of the blind and the deaf frequently, but it never means those who have lost the physical senses of seeing and hearing.

The words وَأُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ “And I quicken the dead by the authority of Allâh,” do not mean that Jesus literally brought the dead to life. Those who are biologically dead are never restored to life in this world. Such a belief is opposed to the whole Qur’ânic teaching (2:28; 23:99-100; 21:95; 39:52-59; 40:11; 45:26; see also Tirmidhî, Ibn Mâjah). The use of the description “the dead” and of their being raised to life is used frequently in the spiritual sense (cf. 6:122; 8:24; 35:22). We read in the Holy Qur’ân, “O you who believe! Respond to Allâh and His Messenger when he calls you to that which will give you life” (8:24), and again, “Can he, who was lifeless and to whom We gave life and We provided for him light whereby he moves among people” (6:122). The duty of the Prophets is to bring to life those who are spiritually dead (see also 2:260; 5:110).