Mary in Islam

  1. Home
  2. Wiki
This article is about Mary in Islam. For other uses, see Saint Mary (disambiguation) and Virgin Mary (disambiguation).
For other persons named Maryam, see Maryam (name).
Maryam
مريم
Mary
Quranic nativity: Maryam (left) in labor shaking the date palm, with baby Isa (right) and hidden voice below
Personal life
BornMaryam bint Imran
c. 20 BCE
Nazareth
Diedc. 100–120 CE
Jerusalem
Resting placeMary's Tomb, Kidron Valley (traditional)
ChildrenJesus)
Parents
Religious life
ReligionIslam

Maryam bint Imran (Arabic: مريم بنت عمران, lit. 'Mary, daughter of Imran') holds a singularly exalted place in Islam.[1] The Qur'an refers to her seventy times and explicitly identifies her as the greatest woman to have ever lived. Moreover, she is the only woman named in the Quran.[2][3][1][4] In the Quran, her story is related in three Meccan surahs (19, 21, 23) and four Medinan surahs (3, 4, 5, 66). The nineteenth Surah, Maryam, is named after her.

According to the Quran, Mary's parents had been praying for a child. Their request was eventually accepted by God, and Mary's mother became pregnant. Her father Imran had died before the child was born. After her birth, she was taken care of by her maternal uncle Zechariah, a priest in the Temple. According to the Quran, Mary received messages from God through the archangel Gabriel. God informed Mary that she had miraculously conceived a child through the intervention of the divine spirit, though she was still a virgin. The name of her child, Jesus, was chosen by God—he was to be the Christ, the Promised Messiah in Islam. As such, orthodox Islamic belief has upheld the virgin birth of Jesus,[5] and although the classical Islamic thinkers never dwelt on the question of the perpetual virginity of Mary,[5] it was generally agreed in traditional Islam that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life, with the Quran's mention of Mary's purification “from the touch of men” implying perpetual virginity in the minds of many of the most prominent Islamic fathers.[6] Mary is believed to have been chosen by God, above all "the women of the worlds" in Islam.[5]

Modern scholarship often treats Christian apocryphal traditions mainly extant in the Gospel of James, and a later reworking of the same text called the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, as intertexts of the Quranic account of Mary's life.

Family

[edit]
Mary's relation to John and Zechariah according to traditional readings of the Qur'an

The Quran calls Mary, Arabic: مريم إبنت عمران, romanized: Maryam ibnat ʿImrān, lit. 'Mary daughter of Imran',[7] not to be confused with Arabic: عمران, romanized: ʿImrān, lit. 'Amram' ,[8] the father of Miriam and Moses. It also mentions that people called her Arabic: أخت هـٰرون, romanized: Ukht Hārūn, lit. 'Sister of Aaron',[9] not to be confused with Arabic: هـٰرون, romanized: Hārūn, lit. 'Aaron',[8] the brother of Moses and Miriam. Her mother, mentioned in the Quran only as the wife of Imran, prayed for a child and eventually conceived.[10] According to al-Tabari, Mary's mother was named Arabic: حنة, romanized: Ḥanna, lit. 'Anne' and her husband died before the child was born.[11] Expecting the child to be male, Anne vowed to dedicate him to isolation and service in the Temple.[10] However, Anne bore a daughter instead, and named her Mary.[12][13][14]

In the Quran

[edit]

Mary is mentioned frequently in the Quran,[15] and her narrative occurs consistently from the earliest chapters, revealed in Mecca, to the latest verses, revealed in Medina.

Birth

[edit]

The birth of Mary is narrated in the Quran with references to her father as well as her mother. Mary's father is called ʿImrān in Arabic, a rendering of the Hebrew name Amram. He is the equivalent of Joachim in the Christian tradition as found in the apocryphal Gospel of James, considered one of the Quran's likely sources in modern scholarship. Her mother, according to al-Tabari, is called Anne,[11] which is the same name as in the Gospel of James.[16] Muslim literature narrates that Imran and his wife were old and childless and that, one day, the sight of a bird in a tree feeding her young aroused Anne's desire for a child. She prayed to God to fulfill her desire[17] and vowed, if her prayer was accepted, that her child would be dedicated to the service of God.

E.H. Palmer, in his late 19th-century translation of the Quran, included in the Sacred Books of the East series, noted that:

Amram; who, according to the Mohammedans, was the father of the Virgin Mary, (Miriam.) A confusion seems to have existed in the mind of Mohammed between Miriam 'the Virgin Mary,' and Miriam the sister of Moses.[18][19]

This view was further corroborated in the 20th century. According to N.J. Dawood, the Quran confuses Mary, mother of Jesus with Miriam, sister of Moses, when it refers to the father of Mary as Imran, which is the Arabic version of Amram, who is shown to be the father of Moses in Exodus 6:20.[20] Dawood, in a note to Quran 19:28, where Mary is referred to as the "Sister of Aaron", and Aaron was the brother of Miriam, states: "It appears that Miriam, Aaron's sister, and Maryam (Mary), mother of Jesus, were according to the Koran, one and the same person."[21] In the 21st century this view remains common in Islamic studies, for example in Gabriel Said Reynolds' work.[22]

More recent scholarship by Angelika Neuwirth has argued that far from a geneological mistake, the Quranic account is to be understood two-fold, first as a Meccan telling (Surat al-Maryam) and later a politicized Medinan retelling (Surat al-Imran) of the same account—in its second form being a theological response to Christian objections to the initial Quranic account by incorporating polysemy found in Medinian Judaism. In her view the accounts draw on Christian traditions preserved in Byzantine hymns[a] as sources. The complexities navigated by the accounts are mainly related to the patriarchial authority of the House of Abraham and the Quran's apocryphal adoption of the possibly competeing House of Imran defined by its female members, as well as an adoption of a general concept of the Holy Family. The ultimate solution of the retelling process was an account which allowed prophetic revelation surrounding motherhood and scripture—which the Christian tradition attributes to Mary—to be recast as Arabic: أمّ الکتاب‎, romanized: Umm al-Kitab, lit. 'Mother of Scripture' originating with Muhammad—with the Abrahamic prophetic lineage also being moved from the Holy Family to Muhammad himself.[23] Michael Marx further builds on this analysis and identifies the Quranic account as a retelling of Mary as the Temple from the Christian tradition as Mary in the Temple. Thus in an attempt to eliminate the allegorical perogatives of the Christian story to avoid the conclusion of a deified Christ, only traces of pre-Islamic Mariology remain in the text.[24] Such a purposeful deviation from Christian accounts is further supported by Wensinck's argument regarding the figurative speech of the Quran and the Islamic tradition:

Maryam is called a sister of Hārūn and the use of these three names Imrān, Hārūn and Maryam, has led to the supposition that the Kur'ān does not clearly distinguish between the two Maryams of the Old and the New Testaments. It is not necessary to assume that these kinship links are to be interpreted in modern terms. The words "sister" and "daughter", like their male counterparts, in Arabic usage can indicate extended kinship, descendance or spiritual affinity. Muslim tradition is clear that there are eighteen centuries between the Biblical Amram and the father of Maryam.[25][26]

Similarly, Stowasser concludes that "to confuse Mary the mother of Jesus with Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron in the Torah is completely wrong and in contradiction to the sound Hadith and the Qur'anic text as we have established".[27][28]

Mary and the infant Jesus from a 16th century Indian manuscript.

Despite likely being familiar with narrative traditions represented in the Gospel of James, the Quranic account of Mary's birth does not affirm the Immaculate Conception.[29][30]

Early years

[edit]

As mentioned prior the Quranic narrative imagines Mary in the Temple, however diverging from the apocryphal Christian version of the Presentation of Mary, which ultimately leads to her being educated as God-Bearer in the Temple and thereby becoming God's new Temple[b] via the birth of the Christ.[24] Like in said apocryphal accounts, the Quranic narrative lets her caregiver be decided by the casting of lots. Unlike them them it places her in the care of Zechariah, not Joseph. However, much like in the Gospel of James, Zechariah in the Quran is imagined as a high priest. The Quranic narrative also borrows the Gospel of James' idea of Mary being miraculously fed in the Temple, unlike the former it however does not explicitly state that Mary had been fed by angels.[31]

Annunciation

[edit]
Annunciation in The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries, folio 162v. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Arabe 1489.

In the Qurʾān, Mary receives an annunciation and conceives Jesus by God's command in two principal passages: the angels (or a "spirit") tell her she has been chosen to bear a "pure son" (3:42–47; 19:16–22), and conception occurs through God's "breath/Spirit" (21:91; 66:12); Scholars note clear points of contact with the Gospel of Luke—Gabriel"s role, the virginal conception by (the) Spirit, Mary"s question "How can this be?", and the child's naming and destined greatness.[32][33][34]

Commentators on the Quran remark on the last verse that Mary was as close to a perfect woman as there could be, and she was devoid of almost all failings.[35] Although Islam honors numerous women, including Hawwa, Hagar, Sarah, Asiya, Khadijah, Fatimah, Aisha, Hafsa many commentators[36] followed this verse in the absolute sense, and agreed that Mary was the greatest woman of all time.[35] Other commentators, however, while maintaining that Mary was the "queen of the saints", interpreted this verse to mean that Mary was the greatest woman of that time and that Fatimah, Khadijah and Asiya were equally great.[35][37] According to exegesis and literature, Gabriel appeared to Mary, who was still young in age, in the form of a well-made man with a "shining face" and announced to her the birth of Jesus. After her immediate astonishment, she was reassured by the angel's answer that God has the power to do anything.[35]

Virgin birth

[edit]

According to the Quran, Mary was chosen twice by God: "And when the angels said, ‘O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and He has chosen you above the world’s women." (3:42); and the first choosing was her selection with glad tidings given to Imran. The second was that she became pregnant without a man, so in this regard, she was chosen over all other women in the world.[38]: 16 

The Quran narrates the virgin birth of Jesus numerous times. In Surah Maryam, verses (ayat) 17–21,[39] the annunciation is given, followed by the virgin birth in due course. In Islam, Jesus is called the "spirit of God" because he was through the action of the spirit, but that belief does not include the doctrine of his pre-existence, as it does in Christianity.[40] Quran 3:47 also supports the virginity of Mary, revealing that "no man has touched [her]". 66:12 states that Jesus was born when the spirit of God breathed upon Mary, whose body was chaste.[41]

Barbara Regine Freyer Stowasser argues that Islamic scholars believed the Jewish restrictions against women entering the Temple, came down to menstruation, thus the aforementioned Qur'anic recasting of Mary in the Temple instead of the Christian Mary as the Temple was rationalised with her virginal ritual purity of not having bled.[29]

According to the Quran, the following conversation transpired between the angel Gabriel and Mary when he appeared to her in the form of a man:

19:16 And mention in the Book Mary, when she withdrew from her family to an easterly place,
19:17 Thus did she seclude herself from them, whereupon We sent to her Our Spirit and he became incarnate for her as a perfect human.
19:18 She said, ‘I seek the protection of the All-beneficent from you, should you be Godwary!’
19:19 He said, ‘I am only a messenger of your Lord that I may give you a pure son.’
19:20 She said, ‘How shall I have a child seeing that no human being has ever touched me, nor have I been unchaste?’
19:21 He said, ‘So shall it be. Your Lord says, “It is simple for Me, and so that We may make him a sign for mankind and mercy from Us, and it is a matter [already] decided.”

— Ali Quli Qarai, Surah Maryam 19:16-21

The Qurʾanic birth narrative closely resembles ones found in Christian apocryphal texts, which modern scholars consider the Qurʾanic account to be dependent on.[42] The primary two accounts the Quʾran is thought to recount in some way are found in the Latin Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew which features a Marian date-palm (and spring) miracle in Egypt and the Gospel of James[c] which features a remote/cave birth narrative. Of additional importance are also the pictorial mosaics found in the Church of the Seat of Mary, which was converted into a mosque and served as the primary architectural inspiration for the Dome of the Rock. These mosaics already display the narrative conflation between the remote birth and the date-palm episode later found in the Quʾran. They thereby likely attest the Palestinian oral tradition recounted by the author of the Quʾran.[43]

In the Qurʾān's nativity account (principally 19:16–36 with echoes in 21:91; 66:12), Mary withdraws "to an easterly place," encounters the divine "spirit" appearing in human form, conceives by God’s command, and—seized by the pains of labor beneath a date-palm—is consoled by a voice that provides water and fruit; returning to her people, she vows silence, points to the infant, and the newborn speaks in defense of his mother and in proclamation of his mission.[44][45][46][47][48] Framed alongside the story of Zechariah and John (19:2–15 → 19:16–36), this composition echoes Luke's paired sequencing while diverging in setting and dramatis personae: both traditions affirm virginal conception by (the) Spirit and announce the child’s name and destined role, yet Luke situates the birth in Bethlehem with Joseph present and a manger and shepherds (Luke 1–2), whereas the Qurʾān places Mary alone in a remote locale with the palm-tree and rivulet motif differing from Luke in the Quran and the tradition represented by the Gospel of James—similarly the newborn's cradle speech present in Islamic scripture and the Syriac Infancy Gospel is not found in Luke.[49][50][51][52]

More recently Suleiman Ali Mourad began to venture beyond identifying these well-established pre-Islamic Christian intertexts and looking at broader mythological traditions of antiquity. He thereby identified divine birth narratives as general sources and particularly the birth of the Greek god, Apollo, as a prototype for the Quranic account.[53]

Islamic tradition

[edit]

Mary is one of the most honored figures in Islamic theology, with Muslims viewing her as one of the most righteous women to have lived as per the Quranic verse, with reference to the Angelical salutation during the annunciation, "O Mary, indeed Allāh has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds.".[54] A minority of Muslims also view her as a prophet.[55][56]

Muslim tradition, like Christian, honors her memory at Matariyyah near Cairo, and in Jerusalem. Muslims also visit the Bath of Mary in Jerusalem, where Muslim tradition recounts Mary once bathed, and this location was visited at times by women who were seeking a cure for barrenness.[57][58][59][60] Some plants have also been named after Mary, such as Maryammiah, which, as tradition recounts, acquired its sweet scent when Mary wiped her forehead with its leaves. Another plant is Kaff Maryam (Anastatica), which was used in folk practice Muslim women to help in pregnancy, and the water of this plant was given to women to drink while praying.[61]

Islamic literature does not recount many instances from Mary's later life, and her assumption is not present in any Muslim records. Nevertheless, some contemporary Muslim scholars, an example being Martin Lings, accepted the assumption as being a historical event from Mary's life.[62] One of the lesser-known events which are recorded in Muslim literature is that of Mary visiting Rome with John and Thaddeus (Jude), the disciples (al-Hawāriyūn) of Jesus, during the reign of Nero.[63][64]

Qadi al-Nu'man, the tenth century Ismaili Muslim jurist and luminary, in his book on the esoteric interpretation of faith, Asās al-Ta'wīl, talks about the spiritual birth (milad al-bātin) of Jesus, as an interpretation of his story of physical birth (milad al-zāhir). He says that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a metaphor for someone who nurtured and instructed Jesus, rather than physically giving birth to him. He also pointed out that Zachariah (The Imam of the Time) appointed Mary as one of his proofs (sing. hujja).[65]

According to Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, Jesus the son of Mary used to cry intensely as a child, so that Mary was at wits end regarding his profuse crying. He said to her, "Get some of the bark of that tree, make a tonic from it and feed me with it." When he drank it, he cried intensely. Mary said, "What sort of prescription did you give me?" He said, "Oh my mother! Knowledge of prophet-hood and weakness of childhood."[38]: 23 

The Fatimid Ismaili jurist Al-Qadi al-Nu'man holds that the virgin birth of Jesus is meant to be interpreted symbolically. In his interpretation, Mary was the follower (lāḥiq), of the Imam Joachim (‘Imran). However, when Joachim realized that she was not suited for the Imamah, he passed it to Zechariah, who then passed it to John the Baptist. Meanwhile, Mary received spiritual inspiration (mādda) from God, revealing that he would invite a man [to the faith] who would become an exalted Speaker (nāṭiq) of a revealed religion (sharīʿa). According to al-Nu’man, the verses “She said: Lord! How can I have a child when no man has touched me?” (Quran 3:47) and “neither have I been unchaste” (Quran 19:20) are symbolic of Mary's saying, “How can I conduct the invitation (daʿwa) when the Imam of the Time has not given me permission to do so?” and “Nor shall I be unfaithful by acting against his command”, respectively. To this, a celestial hierarch replies “Such is God. He creates [i.e., causes to pass] what he wills” (Quran 3:47).[65]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ In addition to the usual traditions of the apocryphal intertexts identified
  2. ^ ie his dwelling place
  3. ^ Which is itself the primary source the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew reworks.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b J.D. McAuliffe, Chosen of all women
  2. ^ Ibrahim, Ayman S. (3 November 2020). A Concise Guide to the Quran: Answering Thirty Critical Questions. Baker Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1493429288.
  3. ^ Qur'an 3:42; cited in Stowasser, Barbara Freyer, “Mary”, in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC.
  4. ^ J.-M. Abd-el-Jalil, Marie et l'Islam, Paris 1950
  5. ^ a b c Stowasser, Barbara Freyer, “Mary”, in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC.
  6. ^ e.g. Rāzī, Tafsīr, viii, 46
  7. ^ "What Islam really teaches about the Virgin Mary". America Magazine. December 18, 2015.
  8. ^ a b "Sahih Muslim 2135 - The Book of Manners and Etiquette - كتاب الآداب - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)". sunnah.com. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
  9. ^ Quran 19:28
  10. ^ a b Quran 3:35
  11. ^ a b Ayoub, Mahmoud M. (2013-05-21). The Qur'an and Its Interpreters: Volume 2: Surah 3. Islamic Book Trust. p. 93. ISBN 978-967-5062-91-9.
  12. ^ Wheeler, Brannon M. (2002). Prophets in the Quran: an introduction to the Quran and Muslim exegesis. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 297–302. ISBN 0-8264-4957-3.
  13. ^ Da Costa, Yusuf (2002). The Honor of Women in Islam. LegitMaddie101. ISBN 1-930409-06-0.
  14. ^ Quran 3:36
  15. ^ Lejla Demiri, "Mary in the Qur’an" pp. 9-11 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO, 51st year, No. 29 (2556) Friday, 20 July 2018. → Download pdf file here [1]
  16. ^ Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2018). The Qurʾān and the Bible: Text and Commentary (PDF). Yale University Press. pp. 115, 476–477. Retrieved 2025-10-13. The Qurʾān follows closely here the Protoevangelium of James, a Greek Christian work written in the late second century and translated into Syriac in the fifth century. In the Protoevangelium Mary's mother (Anna; Hb. "Hannah") is barren, but when she laments, God sends an angel from heaven to announce that she will bear a child. In thanksgiving Anna proclaims that she will consecrate the child to the service of God in the Jerusalem temple. [...] The Qurʾān here (cf. 3:45–47; 5:110) describes the birth of Jesus in a way that contrasts with the canonical Gospels but is closely related to two apocryphal Gospels. The first is the Protoevangelium of James [...] The second is the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (a Latin text likely dating from the early seventh century, dependent on earlier traditions) [...]
  17. ^ Quran 3:31
  18. ^ "The Qur'ân, part I (Sacred Books of the East volume 6), Palmer edition [1880], p.50, footnote 1". Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  19. ^ "The Qur'ân, part II (Sacred Books of the East volume 6), Palmer edition [1880], p.29, footnote 1". Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  20. ^ Dawood, N J (1956). The Koran. London: Penguin Books. p. 53. ISBN 9780141393841. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  21. ^ Dawood, N J (1956). The Koran. London: Penguin Books. p. 306. ISBN 9780141393841. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  22. ^ Yet the phrase “sister of Aaron” matches the Qurʾān’s description of Mary elsewhere (3:33; 66:12) as the “daughter of ʿImrān” [...] The Qurʾān thus departs from pre-Qurʾānic Christian tradition (e.g., in the Protoevangelium of James), which makes the father of Mary, mother of Jesus, Joachim. It is likely that the Qurʾān’s author has confused and conflated the two Biblical figures named “Mary.” [...]
  23. ^ Neuwirth, Angelika (2011). "The House of Abraham and the House of Amram — Geneology, Patriarchial Authority, and Exegetical Professionalism". In Neuwirth, A.; Sinai, Nicolai; Marx, Michael (eds.). The Qur'ān in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur'ānic Milieu. Brill. pp. 499–528.
  24. ^ a b Michael, Marx (2011). "Glimpses of a Mariology in the Qur'an". In Neuwirth, A.; Sinai, Nicolai; Marx, Michael (eds.). The Qur'ān in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur'ānic Milieu. Leiden: Brill. pp. 533–561.
  25. ^ Arent Jan Wensinck: Maryam. In: A. J. Wensinck, J. H. Kramers (Hrsg.): Handwörterbuch des Islam. pp. 421–423.
  26. ^ A. J. Wensinck (Penelope Johnstone), "Maryam" in C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs & Ch. Pellat (Eds.), The Encyclopaedia Of Islam (New Edition), 1991, Volume VI, p. 630.
  27. ^ B. F. Stowasser, Women In The Qur'an, Traditions, And Interpretation, 1994, Oxford University Press: New York, p. 393-394.
  28. ^ Aliah Schleifer, Mary The Blessed Virgin Of Islam, 1998, op. cit., p. 36.
  29. ^ a b Cleo McNelly Kearns. (2008), The Virgin Mary, Monotheism and Sacrifice, New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 254–5
  30. ^ Malik Ghulam Farid, et al. (1988) Āl ʻImrān, The Holy Quran with English Translation and Commentary Vol. II, p.386–8, Tilford: Islam International
  31. ^ Robinson, Neal (1991). Christ in Islam and Christianity. State University of New York Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780791405581.
  32. ^ Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2018). The Qurʾān and the Bible: Text and Commentary (PDF). Yale University Press. pp. 492–498.
  33. ^ Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. (2020). "Sūrat Maryam (Q. 19): Comforting Muḥammad". Journal of Qur'anic Studies. 22 (2): 60–85. doi:10.3366/jqs.2020.0425.
  34. ^ Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2003). "Christmas in the Qurʾān: The Qurʾānic Account of Jesus' Nativity and Palestinian Local Tradition" (PDF). Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 28: 21–33.
  35. ^ a b c d Bosworth, C.E. et al., The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume VI: Mahk-Mid, Brill: 1991, p. 629
  36. ^ Two such commentators were al-Razi and al-Qurtubi.
  37. ^ R. Arnaldez, Jesus fils de Marie prophete de l'Islam, Paris 1980, p. 77.
  38. ^ a b Qa'im, Mahdi Muntazir (2007). Jesus Through the Qur'an and Shi'ite Narrations (bilingual ed.). Queens, New York: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-1879402140.
  39. ^ Quran 19:17-21
  40. ^ Christianity, Islam, and the West by Robert A. Burns, 2011, ISBN page 32
  41. ^ Understand My Muslim People by Abraham Sarker 2004 ISBN 1-59498-002-0 page 127
  42. ^ Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2003). "Christmas in the Qurʾān: The Qurʾānic Account of Jesus' Nativity and Palestinian Local Tradition" (PDF). Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 28: 21. On this basis we may speculate that what was originally the setting of the story, a desert oasis, later was transformed into a miraculous event in itself, resulting in the belief that a spring suddenly gushed forth in the desert at Christ's command, as the Gospel of Ps.-Matthew describes. Nevertheless, if we have identified historical conditions that make possible the Qurʾan's borrowing of this early Christian legend, we still have not offered any explanation for the Qurʾan's somewhat unlikely transformation of this event associated with the flight into Egypt in the Christian tradition into the basis of its account of Jesus' Nativity. The dependence of the Qurʾanic Nativity account on these earlier Christian traditions of Mary and the date palm is all but certain: as modern Qurʾanic scholarship has frequently recognized, the similarities are just too striking to be mere chance.
  43. ^ Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2003). "Christmas in the Qurʾān: The Qurʾānic Account of Jesus' Nativity and Palestinian Local Tradition" (PDF). Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 28: 11–39.
  44. ^ Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. (2020). "Sūrat Maryam (Q. 19): Comforting Muḥammad". Journal of Qur'anic Studies. 22 (2): 60–85. doi:10.3366/jqs.2020.0425. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  45. ^ Abboud, Hosn (2014). Mary in the Qurʾān: A Literary Reading. Routledge Studies in the Qurʾān. Routledge. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  46. ^ Stowasser, Barbara Freyer (1994). Women in the Qurʾan, Traditions, and Interpretation. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  47. ^ Shoemaker, Stephen J. (2003). "Christmas in the Qurʾān: The Qurʾānic Account of Jesus' Nativity and Palestinian Local Tradition" (PDF). Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 28: 11–39. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  48. ^ Mourad, Suleiman A. (2002). "From Hellenism to Christianity and Islam: The Origin of the Palm Tree Story Concerning Mary and Jesus in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Qurʾān" (PDF). Oriens Christianus. 86: 206–216. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  49. ^ Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2018). The Qurʾān and the Bible: Text and Commentary (PDF). Yale University Press. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  50. ^ Robinson, Neal (1991). Christ in Islam and Christianity. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0558-1. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  51. ^ Brown, Raymond E. (1993). The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke. Doubleday. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  52. ^ Griffith, Sidney H. (2013). The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the 'People of the Book' in the Language of Islam. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15082-6. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  53. ^ Michael, Marx (2011). "Glimpses of a Mariology in the Qur'an". In Neuwirth, A.; Sinai, Nicolai; Marx, Michael (eds.). The Qur'ān in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur'ānic Milieu. Leiden: Brill. pp. 538–539.
  54. ^ Quran 3:42 -Sahih International
  55. ^ Beyond The Exotic: Women's Histories In Islamic Societies, pg. 402. Ed. Amira El-Azhary Sonbol. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005. ISBN 9780815630555
  56. ^ Calis, Halim (2024-04-08). "Mary's Prophethood Reassessed: Overlooked Medieval Islamic Perspectives in Contemporary Scholarship". Religions. 15 (4): 461. doi:10.3390/rel15040461. ISSN 2077-1444.
  57. ^ T. Canaan, Muhammaden Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine, in Journal of the Palestine Oriental Sac., iv/1–2, 1924, 1–84
  58. ^ "Fountains In Jerusalem - Madain Project". madainproject.com. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  59. ^ "Roman aqueducts: Pools in Jerusalem (Israel)". www.romanaqueducts.info. Archived from the original on 2025-07-02. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  60. ^ "Archnet > Site > Fountain of the Virgin". next.archnet.org. Retrieved 2025-10-13.
  61. ^ Saleh, Jumana; Machado, Lovina (July 2012). "Rose of jericho: a word of caution". Oman Medical Journal. 27 (4): 338. doi:10.5001/omj.2012.86. ISSN 2070-5204. PMC 3464751. PMID 23071894.
  62. ^ Muhammad, M. Lings, pg. 101
  63. ^ Bosworth, C.E. et al., The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume VI: Mahk-Mid, Brill: 1991, p. 631
  64. ^ Haddad, Yvonne (1989-01-01). "The Virgin Mary in Islamic Tradition and Commentary". The Muslim World.
  65. ^ a b Virani, Shafique (2019). "Hierohistory in Qāḍī l-Nuʿmān's Foundation of Symbolic Interpretation (Asās al-Taʾwīl): The Birth of Jesus". Studies in Islamic Historiography: 147–169. doi:10.1163/9789004415294_007. ISBN 9789004415294. S2CID 214047322.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Virgin Mary.