In this lecture, Vivienne Stacey explores Mary in the Quran. The mother of Jesus plays a prominent role in both Islam and Christianity. There are common areas of belief for Muslims and Christians regarding Mary as well as some differences which are addressed in this lecture. This lecture was delivered at Columbia International University (CIU) in partnership with the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies. We also have a course study guide that you might find helpful.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Vivienne Stacey’s Lecture on Mary in the Qur’an and the Bible:
So let’s pray to start our session this morning, which is on Mary in the bible and the Quran. Guide us, oh lord, into thy truth as we look at the person of Mary, who is for our Muslim friends and for us an example of faith and obedience. In the name of the one God, the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit. Amen. Ideally, you should read, but we don’t have quite the time to do it just now, the gospel of Luke.
And and if you’ve got your Bibles, you could open them up. Luke chapter 1, and, ideally, you could read from verse 30 to verse 56, but I’ll just pick out a few points. I’m sure you’re familiar with this passage, but there are always things that come up, which call for further reflection. And the things that I want to emphasize from this come in verse 38 and verse 48, where Mary said in verse 38, behold, I am the handmaiden of the lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
And 48, for he in the Magnificat, as we say, Mary’s song, for he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. Now handmaiden in the Greek is dulai. It’s the feminine of dulos. So Mary is saying, that she, I am the dulai of the Lord. It means I am the slave of the Lord.
This is willing submission. This is true Islam. Islam means submission to God, and this was this is an example. And it’s remarkable that Mary, is the only woman named in the Quran, and there are more the verses or more references to Mary in the Quran than there are in the bible. And, she is the the main I should think the most famous woman in the Quran and the bible.
It depends how you define fame. But, anyway, she’s the an outstanding woman in the Quran and is named. She’s an outstanding woman in the bible. Then just another section that I want to mention is verse 42 of Luke chapter 1, where her cousin Elizabeth, on hearing that, well, on seeing her and getting greet receiving Mary’s greeting, said, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why is this granted me that the mother of my lord should come to me?
For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her of the lord. Blessed, blessed, blessed. But in the Greek, the first two words, blessed, come from or It’s a, a verb in Greek from which we get the word eulogy. So it means blessed or be praised.
She’s to be praised because of the fruit of her womb, because she is bearing such a famous son. She is because she is the one who bears, the Messiah. But it’s not such an important word as the word for blessed in verse 45, where it’s the word makarios. Makarios with the feminine for that. But, makarios means supremely blessed.
She is supremely blessed. Why? Blessed or supremely blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. So she’s a model for believers, both for Muslims and for Christians. And the primary thing is not that she is the mother of Jesus, although that is very important, but it is the primary point is that she is a woman of faith.
She is a woman of obedience. But there are differences between Muslim and Christian views about Mary. We’re going to, to hear from Trish, is it? Trish? She has read Encounter, which is number a 151.
It’s a monthly cheap magazine. It’s my favorite reading matter, actually. I’ve reached magazines differently when they arrived, but this one I always receive with great joy. It comes from from Rome and is published under the Roman Catholic Church’s arrangements. I advise subscribing to it, And number a 151, just as about Mary, mother of Jesus in the Islamic tradition.
And I think we will pick up a few points which will help us. That this is in the Islamic tradition. Okay. Would you like to share? Maybe maybe you’ve come here.
It’s alright. Welcome. Okay. Alright. I learned a lot from this article.
The first thing I learned is that, the historical position was that, Mary was a prophet, but now most Muslim commentators say that Mary should not be considered a prophet. All Muslim scholars are agreed that Mary possessed a quality enjoyed by the prophets, which was sinfulness or sinlessness, sorry. Sinlessness. And all babies, according to the Quran, were considered touched by Satan at birth, but, Mary and Jesus were not touched by Satan at birth, so they were sinless. Mary was also prepared from birth for a life as a woman saint, is what they they would say.
And saint in the sense of, spiritual closeness with god. And, her name, I guess, in I’m not sure what languages, Arabic, I guess, is the worshiping servant. I also found out that she was considered to be raised by Zechariah, and that she was supposedly nourished without his providing the food. So she just she just somehow didn’t eat food. And also that her being chosen was, what they considered her being chosen was that that she was visited by angels.
And, she was visited once, and then the second time she was visited was the Annunciation. So, also, she was considered to have never menstruated, that that was considered a bodily and spiritual purification. So I guess that kinda is part of their concept of sinlessness, and that she was placed above all other women, at one point, and I’ll talk about that later. But, let’s see. And and what what placed her above all other women was her virginity even though she had Jesus.
So even though she had the son, she kept her virginity. So that placed her above all women. So that’s kind of their emphasis. Her greatness was thought of as unrivaled among women until, later on, she was, I guess, considered equal or even a I guess, well, a person that was considered equal or even maybe above her was Asaiah. Is that the name?
The wife of the pharaoh. I don’t know how to pronounce it, but that may be it. And, Khadija, the first wife of Mohammed, and the mother of the faithful is what she was considered. And Fatima, Mohammed’s daughter, was considered above. And, actually, now they see Fatima as above all other women.
So it kinda depends on I I kinda got a sense. It depends on, maybe the sect or or who you talk to. But, Mary is still considered very important. During the Annunciation, that was her second angelic visitation, and, the story shows Mary as believing and Joseph as slow to believe. So Mary, right away, supposedly believed, easily that God was gonna do this and that Joseph was needed some convincing.
It was they consider that the angel Gabriel came, but they call they call him the spirit and, that he was kind of a manifestation of God’s light is how they describe it. Let’s see. References there’s references to the spirit being breathed into her in the Quran, but most say that Gabriel breathed into her keeping, the proper distance between god and the virgin. But I guess the more mystical sex of I don’t know if they consider it sex, but of, Islam would emphasize the intimacy between Mary and the source of divine light is what they is like Gabriel or whoever visited her. So they’re they’re they think a little bit more of, like, the spirit as being maybe different than Gabriel.
And they also emphasized Mary’s they emphasized Mary’s chastity as a special virtue, and they they would say son of Mary for Jesus instead of son of the father’s name, and usually they’d use the father’s name. And, that the they’re they’re using that title son of Mary, was understood in Islam as as being real different and special making Mary highly exalted. And it was understood in Islam Mary’s chastity was understood in Islam as miraculous evidence of her own purity, not a mark of supernatural quality in her child. So, they didn’t emphasize as much Jesus’ the fact that he was so supernaturally conceived, but they would emphasize Mary’s purity in it all. And, so let’s see.
And that it manifested also the perfection of God’s creative power. They really emphasized God’s creative power in all of this and Allah and how he, creates. The birth there’s 3 significant points about the birth, and the first one is Mary’s pain. Said that she had an anguished cry and, they say that that was the moral pain, in the foreknowledge of the accusation of her immorality that’d be laid on her by her family. So she already knew that she was gonna be she was gonna be considered immoral and, that made her cry foreknowledge of the mistaken and idolatrous doctrines of mariology and Christology that Christians would lay on the event of Jesus’ birth.
The second significant thing about the nativity is that her shaking of the palm tree, and this is supposedly a sign of her sinlessness. And the reason why it was because she she shook the palm tree in that and then, fruit came from that, and then she was able to eat that and sustain herself. But more than that, the tree was supposedly dead. And when she shook it, it came alive and gave all this fruit, so that showed that she was sinless, that she could make a tree come alive like that. And the last thing is, Mary’s fast, and, she vowed to a fast of silence to abstain from from talking, from so that was significant to them.
And the last thing is, an accusation the accusation against Mary that, she was supposedly accused of being immoral and she would have faced capital punishment. But, Jesus, according to the Quran, Jesus spoke out from the cradle or from his mother’s arms in defense of Mary. And she he introduced his own person in ministry as God’s servant and prophet and, that that was to defend Mary’s innocence. Thank you very much, Trish. Very good.
You actually have, in, in your handbook and materials, geez a paper called Mary and Jesus in the Quran, and it’s from here are the translations of the of the Arabic or the renderings of the Arabic by AJ Arbery, who was a famous, orientalist, and his translation is a very good one. So you have it clearly laid out, every verse in the Quran, which mentions mentions Jesus and Mary. So you can see for yourself what is actually written, and you can note, that, Mary, it says about, Yusuf Ali writes this way, his rendering. He says, in Quran, in Surah 21 verse 29, we wish to appoint him, that is that is Jesus, as a sign unto men and a mercy for us. That’s Sura 1921, but Sura 2191, and made her and a son and her son assigned to the worlds.
So god made her, Mary, and her son assigned to the worlds. So that was a very good, certificate of, integrity and morality and chosenness. The other, Encounter Magazine is number 230, dated December 1996, and the title of this one is How Mary Holds Muslims and Christians in Conversation, because Mary does. And, I’ll only quote a little. You’ve we’ve already referred to the sign, and it does say, as our friend, Etrish, has said, oh lord, I dedicate your to your service that which is within my womb and totally free, accept it from me.
It’s totally unblemished. And then Mary then it’s written, god has chosen you and made you pure, and he has chosen you above the women of the universe. Surah 3 verse 42. The name of the Surah is the family of Imran. So according to the Quran, Mary is a saintly woman woman and, with Jesus destined as a sign to the universe.
So that’s pretty high status. Now, I’d like to just refer to Stoaise, who on page 69 of her book, can’t can’t see it. What the name of her book is, what? Stuassa’s book? The Quran and Women in the Quran, traditions and interpretations.
Women in the Quran. Traditions and interpretations. Oh, and so she raises the question too, page 69, that Mary was a a Quranic prophet for some Muslims. It’s a a debatable matter as to whether she is or not a prophet or prophetess. It’s I find this very interesting, because in saying that when Mary says, I am the handmaiden of the Lord, I am the doula of the Lord, she is in fact putting herself in the biblical prophetic tradition.
If you look at Amos chapter 3 and verse 7, you will read, God does nothing without make revealing his will to his servants, the prophets. And if you look at the Greek translation, of that verse, you will find the word douloi used, the same word, douloi. Paul describes himself as a slave of Jesus Christ, doulos, and, that puts him in the prophetic tradition. Muslims understand this very well. I did 40 hours of bible study with with a young Muslim who had trained in the Al Azhar in Cairo and come back to Pakistan to train others to be Muslim leaders, religious leaders.
And he wanted to study Romans with me, but when I said, well, we’ll study Romans then, he said, well, who was Paul? And I think the best answer I gave him, out of several, was Paul is doulos. He is the doulos of Christ. So he is and we looked at Amos 3 verse 7. He is in this prophetic tradition.
And so immediately, he was happy to study, Romans. And, Mary, by her own declaration and the fact that what the Magnificat and other things are written here in Luke, she comes in that prophetic tradition. So what she says is of great significance. So it is indeed, a a matter that how Mary holds Muslims and Christians in conversation. There will be differences, but there is a lot that’s in common.
The obedience of Mary is in common. The faith of Mary is in common. And, with Roman Catholics and Muslims, the chastity of Mary in that she remained a virgin. I mean, that is, the Roman position. It still doesn’t make her unchaste that she was the wife of Joseph, and I understand the scripture to say that.
The implication in Matthew is that she she became his wife after giving birth to Jesus later on. I mean, became his, that they had sexual relations and probably children, so it doesn’t take away from her chastity. So here are three things, three ideas, which are very important both for Muslims and Christians. The idea of, obedience. I am the handmaid of the Lord.
This is a classic description of submission to God. And faith, tremendous faith. And then, purity and chastity, where the Muslim will take it further and the Christian not. But still, the concept of chastity and and purity and holiness is is there. So some of these things can well be explored.
I sometimes would chat with a Muslim, woman about the name of her child. I do meet Maryam every now and then. Miriam is the name generally given to Mary. It’s used in the in the Luke uses it in if you look in the Greek, and, it’s used in the Quran for Mary. Okay.
So so here we have a great opportunity. You see little Merriam running around, and you can talk about Merriam, Merriam and Merriam. Now you’ll notice a few other things when you read through Mary and Jesus in the Quran. You’ll see, you’ll see that Jesus is off is described several times as Isa ibnay Mariam, Jesus, son of Mary. And, he is described in also in other ways.
You will see that Sura 19 has the title, Maryam, that’s the name of the Sura, and it is mainly about her. So I would invite you to consider how you might discuss with your Muslim friend, about Maryam. Now the one of the ways to learn how to discuss is to do it, and then you find your way, and then you later go home, and you analyze the conversation that you had, and you take out a principle or 2, and that’s a that’s the classic way to learn, in my opinion. There’s a Finnish proverb, which says, the worker learns by his work. I’m quoting it slightly inaccurate.
I know it, The worker is trained by his work. So do it, see how the Holy Spirit leads you, have the conversation, and then go over go home and think about it, and, find the principle in it, or the principles in it, or the mistakes in it, and you will be being trained by a conversation that you had over tea somewhere in some gracious Muslim woman’s home, whether it’s a humble home or a very wealthy home. So Mary, the mother of Jesus, so, common and very highly regarded in these two faiths. Let’s pray. Help us, oh lord, as we meditate upon Mary, Let us learn the lessons of her life, her obedience, her purity, and her faith, and help us to share these truths through our living and through our speaking.
Bless our Muslim sisters that they may come to an understanding of Mary, who was the mother of our Lord. So through this, may they come to know him who is Lord and Saviour, even Jesus. Amen!