وَجَعَلْنَا ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ وَأُمَّهُۥٓ ءَايَةً وَءَاوَيْنَٰهُمَآ إِلَىٰ رَبْوَةٍ ذَاتِ قَرَارٍ وَمَعِينٍ
"We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign, and We gave the two of them shelter on a height with a place to settle and with running water."
The word order must be recorded, and this is the most striking place in the verse: two persons are named (ibna maryama wa ummahū), but āya comes in the singular — āyatan, not the plural.
| Explanation | Ground |
|---|---|
| 1 | The two together are one sign — neither can be thought of apart from the other |
| 2 | The singular reports the kind; it does not attend to number |
| 3 | The sign proper is the event of the birth; the two of them are the parties to that single event |
I pass the explanations on; I do not impose a preference. The first explanation is the closest to the text, and I record it as an observation, its ground being that the pronoun is dual: the continuation of the sentence has āwaynāhumā (the two of them). The sentence, that is, keeps the duality in number and unites it in the attribute.
The distinction between jaʿala and khalaqa was recorded at al-Zukhruf 43/3 and cited at the thirteenth verse: jaʿala reports the putting of a thing from one state into another.
I give this as an observation about the word order: the verse speaks not of the creation of the two persons but of what they were made into. The two are set into the condition of a sign.
The concrete sense of the root: to take refuge in a place, to be sheltered. Maʾwā — a shelter; īwāʾ — the giving of shelter. The root was treated at al-Najm 53/15 (jannatu'l-maʾwā) and at al-Nāziʿāt 79/39. And the verb īwāʾ occurs regularly in the Qurʾān in the setting of being taken into protection (al-Ḍuḥā 93/6 — a-lam yajidka yatīman fa-āwā; treated in al-Ḍuḥā).
The root ر-ب-و: to increase, to rise, to swell. The root was worked out at al-Baqara 2/275 (ribā) and treated again at al-Rūm 30/39 and at Fuṣṣilat 41/39 (ihtazzat wa rabat). I do not repeat it here.
Rabwa — a high place, a height. The word occurs at al-Baqara 2/265 as well (ka-mathali jannatin bi-rabwatin).
قَرَار — the root ق-ر-ر was treated at the thirteenth verse. And a link within the sūra is built here, and it must be recorded:
| Verse | Construction | The place of what |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | fī qarārin makīn | The place where the forming began |
| 50 | rabwatin dhāti qarārin wa maʿīn | The place taken refuge in |
The same word, once the place where the body is formed, once the place where two people are sheltered. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
I record this as my own reading, its ground being the core sense of the word: qarār is the place where one stops, where one comes to rest. Both verses describe a place of protection — one unseen, the other geographical.
| View | Root | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ع-ي-ن | Water seen by the eye, running on the surface — ʿayn (a spring, an eye) |
| 2 | م-ع-ن | Flowing abundantly — maʿn, to flow |
Both views are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The outcome is the same on both: running, reachable water. The word occurred at al-Wāqiʿa 56/18 (kaʾsin min maʿīn) and at al-Mulk 67/30 (bi-māʾin maʿīn).
And the pairing of the two adjectives is worth recording: qarār reports standing still, maʿīn flowing. The place is fixed, the water runs. I record this as an observation about the language.
The verse does not say where the height is. A few place names are transmitted in the classical commentaries; I do not pass them on, since I am not certain of their sources. Per the method (Method), I do not add to the narrative a detail the Qurʾān does not give.