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Virgin Birth
A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. —Carl Sandburg, Remembrance Rock
And in the case of Jesus, a baby was God’s determination that revelation should
go on.
A few “progressive” churches have made a ruckus by questioning the virgin birth.
They shouldn’t. It happened. At least, that’s the mainstream Christian and Islamic
opinion.
The Christian viewpoint is well known, although the lack of convincing biblical
detail is frustrating to many. The Islamic teaching is that just as God created Adam from
nothing more than clay, He created Jesus without biological father as a sign to the
people—a miraculous origin portending messianic status. Surah 19:1722 (TMQ)
describes Mary receiving the good news of her son as follows:
She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to
her Our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects.
She said: “I seek refuge from you to (Allah) Most Gracious: (come
not near) if you fear Allah.”
He said: “Nay, I am only a messenger from your Lord, (to
announce) to you the gift of a holy son.”
She said: “How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched
me, and I am not unchaste?”
He said: “So (it will be): your Lord says, ‘That is easy for Me: and
(We wish) to appoint him as a Sign to men and a Mercy from Us’: it is a
matter (so) decreed.”
So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.
Muslims believe that through the miraculous birth of Jesus, Allah demonstrates
the completeness of His creative powers with regard to mankind, having created Adam
without mother or father, Eve from man without mother, and Jesus from woman without
father.
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