The Quran

Preface

فَتَقَبَّلَها رَبُّها بِقَبولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنبَتَها نَباتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَها زَكَرِيّا ۖ كُلَّما دَخَلَ عَلَيها زَكَرِيَّا المِحرابَ وَجَدَ عِندَها رِزقًا ۖ قالَ يا مَريَمُ أَنّىٰ لَكِ هٰذا ۖ قالَت هُوَ مِن عِندِ اللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَرزُقُ مَن يَشاءُ بِغَيرِ حِسابٍ

Yusuf Ali

Right graciously did her Lord accept her: He made her grow in purity and beauty: To the care of Zakariya was she assigned. Every time that he entered (Her) chamber to see her, He found her supplied with sustenance. He said: “O Mary! Whence (comes) this to you?” She said: “From God. for God Provides sustenance to whom He pleases without measure¹.”

Mary grew under God’s special protection. Her sustenance, under which we may include both her physical needs and her spiritual food, came from God, and her growth was indeed a “goodly growth” which I have tried to express in the text by the words “purity and beauty”. Some aprocryphal Christian writings say that she was brought up in the Temple so the age of twelve like a dove, and that she was fed by angels.