The Family Of Imran

And they (the disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers.

The Family of Imran (Arabic: Ali-Imran) is the third sura of the Qur'an.

Jesus
The family of the title is none other than the family which Jesus belongs to, Imran being the father of the Virgin Mary. You won't find him in the New Testament, but you may find him in Exodus: Imran is the Arabic version of the name Amram, the father of Moses. There is speculation that Mohammed had managed to confuse Mary, mother of Jesus, with Miriam, sister of Moses.

Annunciation
In a minor but interesting addition to the familiar story of Christ's birth, the angel who appears to Mary provides a curious anecdote about a clay bird coming to life: "Allah createth what He will... And will make him a messenger unto the Children of Israel, (saying): Lo! I come unto you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird, by Allah's leave". That's, er, nice.

Contradictory battle
The Sura also contains an account of the battle of Badr, which the Muslims won because Allah sent 3000 angels to help them. Elsewhere the Qur'an claims that it was just one thousand angels, but there we go.

Bin Laden
One part of the sura was quoted by Osama bin Laden: "Think not of those, who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living." Nope, sorry, they're dead.