“He said, ‘My Lord, appoint for me a sign.’ He said, ‘Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gestures. And remember your Lord much, and glorify Him in the evening and early morning.’” (41)

“And when the angels said, ‘O Mary, Allah has chosen you, purified you, and chosen you above the women of all worlds.’” (42)

His saying, exalted is He, “He said, ‘My Lord, appoint for me a sign,’” means: a sign by which I will know when my wife conceives, so that I may increase in worship out of gratitude to You. “He said, ‘Your sign is that you shall not speak to people’”: that is, you are to refrain from speaking “for three days” and devote yourself wholly to My worship. This does not mean that He prevented his tongue from speaking; rather, it was a prohibition against speaking while he was healthy and sound. As He says in Surat Maryam, verse 10: “that you shall not speak to people for three nights, though sound in health.” This is indicated by His saying, exalted is He: “And glorify Him in the evening and early morning.” Thus, He commanded him to remember Allah and prohibited him from speaking with people.

Most exegetes said that his tongue was restrained from speaking with people for three days. Qatadah said: His tongue was withheld from speech as a punishment for his asking for a sign after the angels had addressed him directly; thus, he was unable to speak for three days. His saying, “except by gestures,” means: by indication. Such indication may be made with the tongue, the eye, or the hand. His gesture was made with his index finger. Al-Farraʾ said: A gesture may be made with the tongue without making the meaning clear; it is a faint sound resembling a whisper. Ataʾ said: It refers to fasting for three days, because when they fasted, they would not speak except by gestures.

“And remember your Lord much, and glorify Him in the evening and early morning.” It was said that glorification here means prayer. The evening extends from the sun’s decline from its zenith until sunset; hence the noon and afternoon prayers are called the two afternoon prayers. The early morning extends from the dawn prayer until midmorning.

His saying, exalted is He, “And when the angels said,” means Gabriel: “O Mary, Allah has chosen you,” that is, selected you; “and purified you.” It was said: from contact with men; and it was said: from menstruation and postpartum bleeding. Al-Suddi said: Mary did not menstruate. It was also said: from sins. “And chosen you above the women of all worlds.” It was said: above the women of her time. It was also said: above all the women of the worlds, in that she gave birth without a father, something that had not been granted to any other woman. It was also said: through her consecration for service in the mosque, for no female had been consecrated in this way.

Abd al-Wahid al-Mulayhi informed us; Ahmad ibn Abdullah al-Nuʿaymi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yusuf informed us; Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil informed us; Ahmad ibn Rajaʾ informed us; al-Nadr reported from Hisham, from his father, who said: I heard Abdullah ibn Jaʿfar say: I heard Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, say: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: “The best of its women is Mary, daughter of Imran, and the best of its women is Khadijah.” (1) It was also narrated by Wakiʿ and Abu Muʿawiyah from Hisham ibn Urwah, and Wakiʿ gestured