How could Jesus (as) be born without a father?

Through a miracle of God that does not contradict nature. The same God who created the laws of nature can work through hidden ways within them, and nature itself knows reproduction without mating.

Many think that the birth of Jesus (as) without a father is unreasonable. Yet there can be no contradiction between the word of God and the work of God. The same God who revealed the Holy Qur’an also created nature. When He does something extraordinary, He does not act against His own laws, but often through laws that are still hidden from us.

Nature itself offers clues. Life passed through a long period in which there was not yet any division into male and female. Offspring then came about without mating. Even today there are living creatures in which females produce offspring without males. Such cases are rare, but they show that something like this is possible in principle.

Among human beings such a case would hardly have been verifiable in the past. If a woman said no man had touched her, no one would have believed her. With Mary it was different. Her purity was well known, and she herself was astonished, as the first verse above shows. What exactly happened within her, God alone knows. For the people of that time it was a miracle, a sign from God, as the second verse says.

It is worth considering the alternative, too. Whoever rejects the miraculous birth would have to regard Jesus (as) as a child of a forbidden relationship. Neither a Christian nor a Muslim would ever accept that. Christians in any case believe that God can create even out of nothing.

The third verse puts everything in its proper light. Jesus (as) is before God like Adam. A birth without a father does not make him divine. It makes him a sign of God's power.