uncover her body. Likewise, when Gabriel came to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—while ʿĀ’isha was undressed, he would not look at her in that state. Thus, he breathed into the neck opening of Mary’s garment, and the breath reached her private part. What was intended was precisely to breathe into her private part, as Allah states in two verses. Otherwise, breathing only into the garment, without the breath reaching her private part, would contradict the Quran and would have no effect in bringing about a child. None of the leading Muslim scholars said this, nor has anyone transmitted it from any recognized scholar of the early generations.

The point here is that the Messiah was created from two sources: Gabriel’s breath and his mother Mary. This breathing was not the breathing that takes place after four months have passed, when the fetus is a lump of flesh. That is breathing into a body that has already been created, whereas when Gabriel breathed, the Messiah had not yet been created, nor had Mary conceived. She conceived him only after the breathing, as shown by His words:

“He said, ‘I am only a messenger from your Lord, to grant you a pure boy.’”

“So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a distant place.”

When Gabriel breathed into her, she conceived him. This is why the Messiah was described as “a spirit from Him,” with reference to this breathing. Allah, glorified is He, has made clear that the messenger who is His spirit—Gabriel—is the spirit who addressed her and said, “I am only a messenger from your Lord, to grant you a pure boy.” Thus, His words, “We breathed into her,” or “into it of Our Spirit,” mean: from this spirit, who is Gabriel. Jesus is a spirit from this spirit, and so he is a spirit from Allah in this