A Comparative Analysis of Selected Qur’ānic Verses

Excerpt:
All five translators have side-stepped the word underlined in the transliteration, that is farjahā and translated it as her body, or ‘therein’ or qualified it with ‘sleeve of her shirt or garment’. Any basic Arabic to English dictionary shows that the word means ‘her pudendum or sexual organ’. Without ta’wīl it is extremely difficult to do a literal translation of this āyat. In ta’wīl, as has been explained in the Shish Faṣl of Ḥakīm Nāṣir-i Khusraw, the pudendum symbolises the ear into which the Spirit of God was breathed and which led to Ḥaz̤rat Maryam’s spiritual development and progress. The endnote given by Professor Ivanow in his translation of Shish Faṣl is very interesting in this regard. It reads: “Early Christian Gnostics who denied Christ’s physical nature, often taught that Christ entered the Virgin Mary through her ear (and was born from the other). The ear was considered the natural entrance for the Word of God (Christ), probably symbolically, but such entry was often depicted on early Eastern Christian icons.”

This excerpt has been taken from pages 11 and 12.