What the Qur'an says about the Messiah, son of Maryam
The Qur'an honours Isa, whom English calls Jesus, among the greatest of God's messengers. He is the Messiah, son of Maryam, born without a father, taught the Torah and the Gospel, and sent to the Children of Israel with signs performed by God's permission. Maryam is the only woman the Qur'an calls by name, and one of its chapters carries her name.
His birth is told twice, and both times the answer to Maryam's question is the same. She asks how she can have a son when no man has touched her, and she is told that God creates what he wills. Surah Maryam then stays with her rather than moving on: the labour under the palm tree, the voice from below the ground telling her not to grieve, the dates shaken down within reach, and the accusation waiting for her when she carries the child home.
The first thing Isa says, as an infant in the cradle, sets the terms for everything said about him afterwards: "I am a servant of God". The titles he carries are extraordinary and he holds them the way a servant holds them. Each miracle arrives with the same phrase attached, by God's permission, and he closes by pointing past himself: "God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship him".
Where the Qur'an parts from Christian teaching it says so plainly, and it does so from inside that honour rather than against it. Isa is God's word delivered to Maryam and a spirit from him, and the sonship is declined. For the birth itself the parallel the Qur'an reaches for is Adam, whom God "created him from dust" and then told to be, which makes a beginning without ordinary means the smaller of the two miracles.
Christian readers often come to these verses braced for a dispute and find a familiar story told from a different angle, including a warm word for those who followed him: God placed compassion and mercy in their hearts. Muslim readers are required to believe in him, so the honour here is a matter of creed. The verses below run from the annunciation to what Isa said about himself; Maryam's own standing is set out further in verses about women, and how we read and translate is explained in our principles.
3:45 — When the angels said, "Maryam, God gives you good news of a word from him: his name is the Messiah, Isa, son of Maryam, honored in this world and the next, and among those brought near to God.
3:49 — And he will be a messenger to the Children of Israel: 'I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. I shape for you from clay the likeness of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird, by God's permission. And I heal the blind from birth and the leper, and I bring the dead to life, by God's permission. And I tell you what you eat and what you store in your houses. In that is a sign for you, if you are believers.'
3:59 — Indeed, the likeness of Isa before God is as the likeness of Adam: he created him from dust, then said to him, "Be," and he is.
19:21 — He said, "So it will be. Your Lord says: it is easy for me. And we will make him a sign for the people and a mercy from us. It is a matter already decreed."
19:30 — He said, "I am a servant of God; he has given me the scripture and made me a prophet."
19:33 — And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive.
4:171 — People of the Book, do not go to excess in your way, and say nothing about God except the truth. The Messiah, Isa son of Maryam, was only a messenger of God, his word delivered to Maryam, and a spirit from him. So believe in God and his messengers, and do not say 'Three.' Stop — it is better for you. God is only one God. Glory be to him, far above having a son. To him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth, and God suffices as guardian.
5:46 — And in their footsteps we sent Isa, son of Maryam, confirming the Torah that came before him; and we gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light, confirming the Torah that came before it — a guidance and a reminder for those mindful of God.
57:27 — Then we sent our messengers to follow in their footsteps, and we sent Isa, son of Maryam, after them, and gave him the Gospel. And we placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy. As for the monasticism they invented — we did not prescribe it for them — they took it on only seeking the pleasure of God, yet they did not observe it as it should have been observed. So we gave those among them who believed their reward, but many of them are deviant.