The story about Jesus’ going to the elementary school and the teacher’s attempt to explain the meanings of the Abjad letters is long-winded and affords little benefit.(1)

Ibn ʿAdī then commented, “This ḥadīth is spurious with this chain of transmission; no one relates it except Ismāʿīl.”

Ibn Lahīʿah reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hubayrah that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr used to say: When Jesus son of Mary was a boy playing with other children, he would ask one of them, “Shall I tell you what your mother has put aside for you?” The child would answer, “Yes,” and Jesus would say, “She has saved such-and-such for you.” The boy would then go to his mother and say, “Give me what you saved for me.” She would ask, “What did I save for you?” He would reply, “Such-and-such.” When she asked, “Who told you that?” he would say, “Jesus son of Mary.”

The people said, “By God, if you leave your children with the son of Mary he will surely corrupt them.” So they gathered the youngsters into a house and locked the door. Jesus went looking for them but could not find them; then he heard their commotion inside the house. He inquired about them and was told, “They are only monkeys and swine.” He prayed, “O Allah, let it be so,” and they became just that. Ibn ʿAsākir narrated this account.(2)

Isḥāq ibn Bishr related—from Juwaybir, and Muqātil from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that Jesus used to witness extraordinary things in his childhood by inspiration from Allah. News of this spread among the Jews. As he grew, the Children of Israel plotted against him; his mother feared for him, so Allah revealed to her that she should depart with him to the land of Egypt. Concerning this, the Exalted says,

“And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign, and gave them refuge upon a high ground, a place of rest and flowing water.”(3) (Q 23:50)

The early authorities and Qur’anic commentators differed over the identity of this “high ground” (rabwah) which Allah described as “secure and furnished with springs.” It is an unusual combination: an upland whose summit is level and spacious, yet despite its height it contains springs of water—maʿīn meaning water that flows openly on the surface of the earth.

Some said it is the place where Mary gave birth to the Messiah, namely the palm tree near Jerusalem; hence His words, “Then he called out to her from beneath her, ‘Do not grieve; your Lord has placed a stream beneath you’” (Q 19:24), the “stream” being, according to the majority of the early scholars, a small rivulet.(5)

A sound report from Ibn ʿAbbās states that it refers to the rivers of Damascus—perhaps likening the site to the rivers of Damascus.(6)

Others have claimed that it is in Egypt, as certain People of the Book maintain and those who received it from them—Allah knows best.

Still others said that it is Ramla.(7)