He also says, “The one who guarded her chastity—so We breathed into her of Our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign to all peoples” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:91).

Here Allah states that He breathed into Mary of His Spirit just as He states that He breathed into Adam of His Spirit. He has further clarified that He sent His Spirit to her: “He appeared to her as a well-proportioned man. She said, ‘I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing.’ He said, ‘I am only a messenger of your Lord, sent to grant you a pure son.’ She said, ‘How can I have a son when no man has touched me, nor have I ever been unchaste?’ He said, ‘So it shall be; your Lord says, “That is easy for Me, and We shall make him a sign for mankind and a mercy from Us.” It is a matter already decreed.’ So she conceived him” (Maryam 19:17–21).

The Spirit that Allah dispatched to her so as to bestow upon her a pure son is created; it is the rūḥ al-qudus (Holy Spirit) from which—together with Mary—the Messiah was brought into being. If the source itself is created, then how could the offshoot that arises from it—that is, from the rūḥ al-qudus, be anything but created?

Concerning the Messiah He says, “and a Spirit from Him.” The Messiah was singled out with this description because his mother conceived him from that very breath of the Spirit, something distinct from the personal spirit he shares with the rest of humankind. His uniqueness lies in having been conceived through the breathing of the Spirit; hence he is called “a Spirit from Him.”

For this reason a number of Qur’anic commentators have said that “a Spirit from Him” means “a messenger from Him.” He was given the same designation as the angelic Spirit who breathed into her. Just as he is called “a Word,” so he is also called