The baby that spoke in the cradle
Yes. One of the numerous lessons in the birth, life, and death of Prophet Isa – Jesus Christ (alayhi salaam) – is the inimitable powers of the Almighty to work wonders and make the ordinarily impossible a reality. As far as He is concerned, everything in the phenomena are signifiers (aayaat), the semiotics of which […]
The baby that spoke in the cradle
Yes. One of the numerous lessons in the birth, life, and death of Prophet Isa – Jesus Christ (alayhi salaam) – is the inimitable powers of the Almighty to work wonders and make the ordinarily impossible a reality. As far as He is concerned, everything in the phenomena are signifiers (aayaat), the semiotics of which appropriate the totality of existence.
As far as He is concerned, everything in the phenomena are signifiers (aayaat), the signified being His unknowable decrees and designs, His inimitable power in the cosmos and His everlasting authority.
Yes. In the birth, life and death of Prophet Isa – Jesus Christ (a.s) all of these coalesce for our contemplation. In the last testament, the Glorious Qur’an, this becomes crystal clear. In the latter, Prophet Isa is mentioned nothing less than twenty-five (25) times. In fact, he, together with his mother, Maryam (Alayha Salam) are referenced as signs, symbols or signifiers. In other words, they are pointers to an authority other than themselves. The Almighty says- ‘And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign and sheltered them within a high ground having level (areas) and flowing water’ (Qur’an 23:50). That they represent pointers to the inimitability of the Almighty and the unknowability of His ways manifested themselves in the conception of Prophet Isa without a father (Qur’an 19: 20). That they represent pointers to the inimitability of the Almighty, the unknowability of His ways and His capacity to do anything from nothing again manifested themselves when Maryam began to receive delightful foods and drinks from the celestial while she was in the terrestrial. When Prophet Imran (alayhi salaam) asked her: ‘Where comes this food’? Maryam responded: ‘It is from the Almighty who provides sustenance to whoever He wishes without measure’ (Quran 3:37)
But here comes the nadir, the ultimate in the effulgence and the unveiling of the powers of the Inimitable, the Almighty. After Maryam gave birth to her son, not and never the son of God, she proceeded to meet her people. When they saw a baby in her hands, in the hands of the previously chaste woman who had not yet got married, they felt scandalized. They began to question her. They wanted an explanation. ‘O Maryam! You have certainly done a horrible thing O sister (i.e., descendant) of Harun, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste.”(Qur’ran 19: 27-28).
Under inspiration, Maryam pointed to the child. Once again, her people felt insulted. They said: “How can we speak to one who is in the cradle as a child?”. It was at that moment that her vindication came through the profound speech that was uttered by baby Isa. It was a speech of and for the divine. It was one that testified to the innocence of Maryam of all iniquities and presaged his mission as a Prophet of the Almighty in the future. He says, “Indeed, I am the servant of the Almighty. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has blessed me wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakāh as long as I remain alive. And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. And peace shall be on me the day I was born and the day I shall die and the day I shall be resurrected. (Qur’an 19: 30-33).
Though he was not the only baby who talked while in the cradle in Islamic tradition, the speech uttered by Prophet Isa that day remains locus classicus with reference to, one, the necessity for the establishment of tawhid (unity of the Almighty), two, the humanity, not divinity of Jesus Christ and, three, the ultimate triumph of faith over faithlessness in all societies. It is a speech that combines ideology with communality; it is that which emphasizes the grace and glory that lie in service to the Almighty and one’s parents, particularly at this time when the relativity of truth has become the doxa of modernity.