Surah 19. Maryam, Ayah 30

Although the Qur'an mentions in 3:46 that Jesus would "speak unto men [while yet] in his cradle" - i.e., would be imbued with wisdom from his early childhood - verses {30-33} seem to be in the nature of a trope, projecting the shape of things to come by using, for the sake of emphasis, the past tense to describe something that was to become real in the future. (See also next note.)

Since it is not conceivable that anyone could be granted divine revelation and made a prophet before attaining to full maturity of intellect and experience, 'Ikrimah and Ad-Dahhak - as quoted by Tabari - interpret this passage as meaning, "God has decreed (qada) that He would vouchsafe unto me revelation...", etc., thus regarding it as an allusion to the future. Tabari himself applies the same interpretation to the next verse, explaining it thus: "He has decreed that He would enjoin upon me prayer and charity". However, the whole of this passage (verses {30-33}) may also be understood as having been uttered by Jesus at a much later time - namely, after he had reached maturity and been actually entrusted with his prophetic mission: that is to say, it may be understood as an anticipatory description of the ethical and moral principles which were to dominate the adult life of Jesus and particularly his deep consciousness of being only "a servant of God".