يَٰيَحْيَىٰ خُذِ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ بِقُوَّةٍ وَءَاتَيْنَٰهُ ٱلْحُكْمَ صَبِيًّا · وَحَنَانًا مِّن لَّدُنَّا وَزَكَوٰةً وَكَانَ تَقِيًّا · وَبَرًّۢا بِوَٰلِدَيْهِ وَلَمْ يَكُن جَبَّارًا عَصِيًّا
"'O John! Take hold of the Book with strength.' We gave him judgement while he was still a child; and from Our presence a tenderness of heart and a purity as well. He was one who guarded himself; he was good to his parents; he was not a tyrant, nor disobedient."
The root ح-ن-ن occurs here for the first time in the series, and the word ḥanān is found only here in the Qurʾān.
The sense the lexicographers give: tenderness, turning towards someone in mercy, longing and pity. A relation is recorded between the root and the sound a camel makes towards its young (ḥanīn) — a tenderness, that is, that comes out as sound.
I record this as an observation: alongside the Book and judgement, tenderness too is counted as a gift. Knowledge of the text is thus not the whole of what is given.
وَلَمْ يَكُن جَبَّارًا عَصِيًّا — when the word jabbār is used of a human being it means one who compels; it was treated in Qāf 50/45 and in al-Ḥashr. I do not repeat it here.
And this sentence will return in the thirty-third verse of the sūra — this time from Jesus's own mouth: wa's-salāmu ʿalayya yawma wulidtu wa yawma amūtu wa yawma ubʿathu ḥayyā.
The two sentences are word for word the same; only the pronouns change. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and it is the sūra's way of binding the two accounts to one another.
I record this as my own reading: all three days are days not in a person's own hands — the day he is born, the day he dies, the day he is raised. The greeting of peace is placed precisely at the three points where no choice can be made.