21 Preface قالَ كَذٰلِكِ قالَ رَبُّكِ هُوَ عَلَيَّ هَيِّنٌ ۖ وَلِنَجعَلَهُ آيَةً لِلنّاسِ وَرَحمَةً مِنّا ۚ وَكانَ أَمرًا مَقضِيًّاYusuf AliHe said: “So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, ?that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us?:1 It is a matter (so) decreed.”2The mission of Jesus is announced in two ways (1) he was to be a Sign to men; his wonderful birth and wonderful life were to turn an ungodly world back to God: and (2) his mission was to bring solace and salvation to the repentant. This, in some way or other, is the case with all prophets of God, and it was preeminently so in the case of the Prophet Muḥammad. But the point here is that the Israelites, to whom Jesus was sent, were a hardened race, for whom the message of Jesus was truly a gospel of Mercy.For anything that God wishes to create, He says “Be,” and it is (Cf. 3:47). There is no interval between His decree and its accomplishment, except such as He imposes by His decree. Time may be only a projection of our own minds on this world of relativity.