Traditions: Qur’an, Āl ʿImrān; Qur’an, al-Māʾidah Motif: A clay form becomes a living bird by divine permission Connection verdict: Explicit intra-Qur’anic recollection with changed speaker Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-10-29
Summary
Qur’an 3:49 presents Jesus describing a sign with clay and a bird; 5:110 recalls the act in God’s address to Jesus.
Read the two scenes
In Āl ʿImrān, Jesus tells the children of Israel of signs: he shapes something like a bird from clay and it becomes a bird by God’s permission. Al-Māʾidah recalls the same act as God addresses Jesus and lists supports and wonders granted to him. The repeated qualification matters in both scenes; it is not a claim of an independent creator beside God. Earlier comparative work paired the motif with Christian infancy literature, but these two Qur’anic uses deserve comparison on their own terms before external parallels are proposed.
What connects—and what does not
The earlier passage places the sign in Jesus’s speech to Israel; the later one lists divine favors and repeatedly stresses permission.
The same unusual act clearly links the passages, but its role shifts from prophetic sign to retrospective divine inventory.
Why read them side by side?
A distinctive miracle can function first as a sign announced to listeners and later as a favor remembered by its giver.
Sources and reading notes
- Qur’an 3:49 — Compare the Arabic and translations within the full sūra.
- Qur’an 5:110 — Compare the Arabic and translations within the full sūra.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.