around this time of year i see a lot of articles and op eds from muslims and non-muslims alike about what jesus means in islam and to muslims. which makes sense. there is undeniable year-round pressure to assure christians that muslims have jesus too, just in a different way, a pressure which only intensifies around christmastime.
but we also have mary. and what i often don’t see is talk of her, despite mary being one of the most important female figures in islam, despite mary being one to lead souls into paradise, despite the qur'anic story of the birth of jesus coming from a chapter named for his mother. and i think we should talk about mary more.
the qur'an tells us not just about mary as a single woman giving birth to a prophet, but as a woman who was once a little girl, who was once a surprising answered prayer from allah. mary’s parents were old and childless when her mother hannah saw a mother bird feeding her babies. the sight awakened a desire in hannah to have a child, so she prayed for a child, and as you may guess, allah granted her request and when hannah became pregnant, and her husband died before the child was born, she prayed again.
“Allah listened when a woman of the family of Imram said, ‘My Lord! I do hereby vow to you what is in my womb to be dedicated to your service.’…But when she gave birth she said, ‘My Lord! I have given birth to a female,’ and Allah knew best what she had given birth to, and the male she was thinking of was not like this female she had brought forth. ‘I have named her Mary and I commend her and her offspring to your protection from satan, the accursed.’” (3:35-36)
basically, hannah had expected a boy, and so promised that he would be raised in the service of god. so when she turned out to have a daughter, she went, “uhh, god? you gave me a girl,” and allah was like, “i know what i did,” and hannah said, “well, okay! i named her mary and i’m gonna follow through of my promise even though it’s gonna be kinda weird. please protect her and her future children.” so mary grew up in the temple under the care of the prophet zechariah.
and it was obvious that mary was blessed.
“Every time Zechariah visited her in her chamber, he found her with provisions. He said, ‘From where do you get all this, Mary?’ She replied with all conscientiousness, ‘It is from Allah. Allah provides whomsoever he wills without measure.’” (3:37)
and mary’s righteousness caused zechariah to pray for a child for himself and his wife elizabeth, despite his old age and her infertility, and the child they were blessed with was yahya, aka john the baptist, a prophet like his father.
and when an angel appeared to mary in the form of an attractive man, she immediately called out for allah to defend her from this strange man, bc women have always had reason to be afraid when finding themselves alone around men (and in one translation she says, “make him leave me alone” which i love for obvious reasons), but the angel reassured her, bringing her the message of the child she was about to conceive.
and mary did not have a joseph.
and mary went off into the desert all alone to give birth to jesus, and delivered her son under a dried up dead palm tree, and wished aloud, in her physical and emotional pain, that she had died before all this happened to her, before she would have to endure single motherhood, before she could experience the agony of labor, before she would have to cope with how her family and friends and society would treat her when she returned as a still-unmarried young woman with a baby.
and mary, hungry and dehydrated and without a support network and now with a newborn, wished that she had been utterly forgotten.
but mary would not be forgotten by allah, for after all, her mother had prayed for her protection, and for the protection of the child she had just given birth to, and allah listens to all things.
“But he called her, ‘Do not grieve; your Lord has provided beneath you a stream. And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates. So eat and drink and be contented. And if you see from among humanity anyone, say, ‘I have vowed a fast to the Most Merciful, so I will not speak to anyone today.’” (19:24-26)
and so mary did not have to answer to anyone who would speak out against her when she returned home with an infant, defend herself against any name she would be called, because she answered to allah alone.
and - my favorite bit of all of mary’s story - is this:
“And remember when the angels said, ‘Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above all the women of the worlds.’” […] And remember when the angels said, ‘Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings through a prophetic word from him about the birth of a son, whose name will be Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary - distinguished in this world and the hereafter and among those nearest to Allah.’“ (3:42, 45)
and mary was chosen twice.
and the story would not be told casting her as mary, mother of jesus. no, it was and is mary’s story. and jesus, one of the most important prophets in islam, would be called, son of mary.
and mary would not be forgotten.
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