[19].Surah Maryam [Mary] : Ayat 22-23

Ayat 22. So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a far place (i.e. Bethlehem valley about 4-6 miles from Jerusalem).

Ayat 23. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: "Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight!"

[Tafseer] The annunciation and the conception, we may suppose, took place in Nazareth (of Galilee). The delivery took place in Bethlehem about 6 miles south of Jerusalem . It was a remote place, Bethlehem itself the birth was in an obscure corner under a palm tree, from which perhaps the babe was afterwards removed to a manger in a stable. She was but human, and suffered the pangs of an expectant mother, with no one to attend to her. The circumstances being peculiar, she had gotten far away from her people.

Hazrat Talhah bin Ubaidullah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: At the sight of the new moon (of the lunar month), the Prophet [SAWW](PBUH) used to supplicate: "Allahumma ahillahu `alaina bil-amni wal-iman, was-salamati wal-Islam, Rabbi wa Rabbuk-Allah, Hilalu rushdin wa khairin (O Allah, let this moon appear on us with security and Iman; with safety and Islam. (O moon!) Your Rubb and mine is Allah. May this moon be bringing guidance and good).''

[At-Tirmidhi Hadith # 3451].

Lesson : After sighting the moon, one should recite the prayer which was recited by the Prophet (PBUH). The prayer cited in the text of this Hadith is one of them. Welcome Hijri year 1434 with this Dua.