English Interpretation by Shakir –

The Messiah, son of Marium is but a messenger; messengers before him have indeed passed away; and his mother was a truthful woman; they both used to eat food. See how We make the communications clear to them, then behold, how they are turned away.

Her story is one all us Muslim women constantly draw strength from. The task assigned to her – a virgin birth – was tremendous, extremely difficult and one in which she would have no human being to help her. There is no Joseph in the Muslim narration, no one who is by her side as she delivers, except her Creator. There is no man around who will help or honor her as she faces pregnancy at a very young age. Having being orphaned at a young age, she is looked after by her guardian the prophet Zachariah (peace be upon him), however when she is informed that she is to bear a blessed virgin birth, she herself makes the difficult choice to move away from him, in order to save his good name, recognizing that there is no thing he can do to save her or himself from slander once news of her pregnancy is known. This is an example of her deep wisdom, and her extreme strength of character, peace be upon her. These are some of the qualities we Muslim women absorb from her station and presence.Her story resembles the narrative of that of our brothers and sisters, the Christians, in many ways, and there are also certain notable differences. In a commendation of a academic book ‘Mary, the blessed virgin of Islam’ by Professor Aliah Schleifer (which I link here), praise is given to the work by Christian clergy, who say, it contributes useful information to the Christian narrative and therefore useful to all to read.

Among the commonalities, the most important is the virgin birth. Among the differences that are most striking is the manner in which she gave birth, which I mentioned above. A second point, Muslims commentators on the Quran will draw attention to is the story of the birth of Maryam herself. The lady Hannah (=Anne in English), her mother a devout woman, dedicated her child-to-be-born, to the service of God in the Jewish temple. This is given in the 3rd Surah in the Quran, called A’li Imran (=the tribe or people of Joachim…who is Maryam’s father). The important point is that she delivered a female child! and this was strange as only boys served in the temple.

So from the beginning we see that there is a male bias in society,  and God counters this by honoring and elevating a girl.

إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَتُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ – 3:35

فَلَمَّا وَضَعَتْهَا قَالَتْ رَبِّ إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا أُنثَىٰ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالْأُنثَىٰ ۖ وَإِنِّي سَمَّيْتُهَا مَرْيَمَ وَإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ – 3:36

فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنبَتَهَا نَبَاتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَهَا زَكَرِيَّا ۖ كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا الْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِندَهَا رِزْقًا ۖ قَالَ يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّىٰ لَكِ هَٰذَا ۖ قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ – 3:37

Quran Surah 3: verses 35-37

English interpretation by Shakir –

When a woman of Imran said: My Lord! surely I vow to Thee what is in my womb, to be devoted (to Thy service); accept therefore from me, surely Thou art the Hearing, the Knowing.

So when she brought forth, she said: My Lord! Surely I have brought it forth a female– and Allah knew best what she brought forth– and the male is not like the female, and I have named it Marium, and I commend her and her offspring into Thy protection from the accursed Shaitan.

So her Lord accepted her with a good acceptance and made her grow up a good growing, and gave her into the charge of Zakariya; whenever Zakariya entered the sanctuary to (see) her, he found with her food. He said: O Marium! whence comes this to you? She said: It is from Allah. Surely Allah gives to whom He pleases without measure.

The above verses also show how lovingly God protected and nurtured the upbringing of this ‘chosen daughter’.

The second difference is the delivery itself. The Quran gives the delivery scene is terms strikingly revealing for ancient times. They are intimately related. It is mentioned how the labor pains were so great, that this great lady, Maryam (peace be upon her), chosen and purified and strengthened, was still driven crazy by it, and cried out wishing to be dead rather than bear this.

I especially find this narration very touching. It is nothing like what a man would write of a labour scene – one can imagine a man would gloss it over, be too shy to even mention it, or if very magnanimous, may cloak the mother in a saintly halo during the birth. There is none of this, there is very raw, very personal, very great – PAIN. I guess any woman who has gone through a natural delivery will say, ‘yep, that’s what it is’. Nothing reduces from the greatness of motherhood, of course, but biology is the way it is.

I am not sure if it is different or not, but it is her baby, the blessed beloved Isa (=Jesus), peace be upon him, who defends her honor, speaking miraculously as a baby. Indeed, even during the birth itself according to one way of reading  the Quranic text.

This beautiful part of the story is given in Surah 19 of the Quran. The chapter or Surah, is titled ‘Maryam’, and in Quranic recitation, the language of the Surah is known to be among the highest in musicality and is very beautiful to be listened to – its recitation.

The link is below. There is a great deal of rhyme and rhythm and most verses end with the sound ‘aiyyah’. It’s too much to copy the Quranic text refering to the scene here, but it comes between verses 20 to 29 in chapter 19. The part mentioned above, is from about min 4 to 6 in the video.

Recently there is a beautiful movie released on youtube made based on the Quranic narration on the story of Maryam, peace be upon her. I hope you can watch it. It is beautifully done and will provide much lost insight into this gentle, pious, sincere and completely honest lady, who the entire Muslim world honors, and deeply reveres. I do not think the scene of her delivery is done justice too and its a bit different from the Quranic interpretation I am used to, but then again, it is hard to do justice to, and likely the director (God bless him) is male :).

It is the last movie I watched with my beloved mother, who I call ‘Mumsy’. She had many qualities that remind me of Maryam – her gentleness and absolute honesty among them. As the anniversary of her death approaches (may God elevate her soul and make her grave among the gardens of the gardens of paradise, and join us to her swiftly in his highest heaven), I think of Maryam and so wanted to share the movie.

It is long, but well worth the watching. It does nicely capture the patriarchical attitudes in society then (which we still fight today), and which the Quranic narrative draws attention to. We watched the original Farsi version with English subtitles, but I am linking one dubbed in English (its strange watching Middle Easterners speak in English, but maybe easier for you my dear readers). I suggest you make yourself a nice cup of tea and sit down to this, this beautiful long weekend in Canada, and wherever else you may be.