Did You Know that Muslims Love Mary, Mother of Jesus, Too?

The Quran devotes a lot of attention to Mary, mother of Jesus. Remarkably, she is the only woman mentioned in the Quran by name. The 19th chapter (or “sura”) of the Quran is named after her (“Maryam,” which is Mary in Arabic).

In the Quran, Muhammed identifies Mary as the holiest and most important of all women:

And [mention] when the angels said, “O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds.” (3:42).

The uniqueness of Mary is emphatic in the Quran and is connected to her special, prominent role in giving birth to Jesus. A prominent Hadith (commentary on the Quran), traditionally attributed to Muhammed, says that both Mary and her son Jesus were the only people to be untouched by the devil at their birth:

“Every child is touched by the devil as soon as he is born and this contact makes him cry. Excepted are Mary and her Son.”

This, as one theologian notes, suggested an idea similar to the Catholic doctrine of the “immaculate conception” of Mary and sinlessness of Jesus. The immaculate conception was not (Protestants are often mistaken about this) a reference to the virginal conception of Jesus, but to the sinlessness of Mary when she was born. The doctrine does not claim that Mary was born supernaturally of a virgin, but that the Spirit ensured she was born without the stain of original sin nonetheless.

The third chapter of the Quran tells a brief story of the birth of Mary to her parents (her father is named “Imran,” while her mother is unnamed, but referred to as the “wife of ‘Imran”):

[Mention, O Muhammad], when the wife of ‘Imran said, “My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated [for Your service], so accept this from me. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing” (3:35).

when Mary is born, her mother acknowledges, “My Lord, I have delivered a female,” names her Mary, and then prays for God’s protection over her and her descendants (3:36).

The story is reminiscent of the Old Testament story of Hannah, who prayed fervently for a child, and dedicated her son Samuel to the temple in service to God. Although, in this case, the child born of God’s (Allah, which is God in Arabic) grace was female. Nonetheless, she was given in service to the temple and to the priest Zachariah, as the next verse clearly implies:

So her Lord accepted her with good acceptance and caused her to grow in a good manner and put her in the care of Zechariah. 

The story is also clearly indebted to the “origin story” of Mary given in the “Infancy Gospel of James,” the apocryphal Christian gospel written around 145 AD. That text became the prototype for later stories about the life of Mary (including those included in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew) and it became the grist for the mill of theological speculation about Mary–including the doctrine of the “perpetual virginity of Mary” and the “assumption of Mary” in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

A key element of the Infancy Gospel of James was the dedication of Mary to the temple, when she was only three years old. Her parents, named there as Josiah and Anna, brought her to the temple and–the writer of the gospel tells us–“the child had not turned back to look at them,” so dedicated was she to her new religious vocation in the temple. As in the Quran, in the Infancy Gospel the priest Zechariah is named as an overseer of Mary.

The next verse tells us that during her service in the temple Mary was “fed like a dove and received food from the hand of an angel.”

The Quran contains this idea too:

Every time Zechariah entered upon her in the prayer chamber, he found with her provision. He said, “O Mary, from where is this [coming] to you?” She said, “It is from Allah. Indeed, Allah provides for whom He wills without account.” (3:37).

In the chapter named after Mary (Surah 19), the Quran includes a story of the virgin birth of Jesus. It differs in some intriguing ways from the gospel accounts in the Bible. But, like the Bible’s accounts (as well as the apocryphal Gospel of James and Pseudo-Matthew), it emphasizes the prominent role of Mary in the birth of Jesus and of God’s work in the world.

And mention, [O Muhammad], in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she

withdrew from her family to a place toward the east.

And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen. Then We sent to her Our Angel, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man.

She said, “Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, [so leave me], if you should be fearing of Allah.”

He said, “I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy.”

He said, “Thus [it will be]; your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter [already] decreed.'”

And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree. She said, “Oh,

I wish I had died before this and was in oblivion, forgotten.”

But he called her from below 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, ‘Indeed, I have vowed to the Most Merciful abstention, so I will not speak today to [any] man.’ ” (19:16-26).

Notice that Mary is again fed and provided for miraculously by the hand of God, via an angel.

Another miracle occurs immediately following, when the newly born Jesus speaks on behalf of Mary and her chastity–to those who are suspicious of her, proclaiming his uniqueness as a prophet and “servant of Allah”:

[Jesus] said, “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah . He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet.

And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive

And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant.

And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive.”

That is Jesus, the son of Mary – the word of truth about which they are in dispute. (19:30-34).

As a Christian theologian, one who is sadly too unfamiliar with the Quran, it’s fascinating and inspiring to read what the Quran has to say about Mary, the mother of Jesus.

There are obvious differences, particularly between the details of the Quran and the details of the two canonical gospels that speak of Mary and the birth of Jesus. But there are interesting similarities and points of connection, too. This is especially clear when we recognize the influence of the apocryphal Christian gospel on both the Quran and the theologies of Mary that develop widely in Christian tradition.

The impulse of Christians is so often to emphasize points of contrast, of difference, between Christianity and Islam. But we don’t have to dig too deep to find commonalities, either. Rather than approach these similarities with skepticism and defensiveness, why not view them as opportunities?

As Muslim writer Hesham A. Hassaballa concluded in a blog post from 2010:

And thus, it makes me sad that all Muslims – who universally love and honor all of the Prophets of God – are lumped together with the tiny number of criminals who commit crimes in Islam’s name. In any number of the mosques that dot the American landscape, on any given day, the verses of the Quran that extol the virtues and honor of the Virgin Mary are being read out in ritual prayer. Thus, it is neither right nor proper that they be attacked – such as the mosque in Oregon – whenever a Muslim happens to be arrested for committing a crime anywhere in the world.

If more people would know such things as how much Islam honors and reveres the Virgin Mary and her holy son; if more people knew that Islam condemns all acts of violence against innocent people; if more people knew that we Muslims are not like the criminals who act in the name of our faith, it would go a long way to bring harmony and peace among all the faith communities in our great nation.

By the way, see also Hassaballa’s post on this topic for Patheos.

We don’t need to be naive about theological and scriptural differences between major faiths (and between the innumerable iterations of those faiths) to honor and appreciate points of connection that can also serve to remind us of our common humanity.

And scholars can cast a critical, scholarly gaze at textual and theological elements involved in the Christian and Islamic veneration of Mary–including those elements that seem wedded to and emerging from patriarchal societies (e.g. the assumption that women’s virtue is equated with sexual virginity). We can ask–both of Christianity and of Islam–whether elevating Mary to this extent is truly appropriate or misguided.

Nonetheless, for Christians in particular, what better time than the Christmas season to let a shared appreciation for Mary in both Christianity and Islam prompt our thoughts in the direction of our common humanity?

That is Jesus, the son of Mary – the word of truth about which they are in dispute. (Quran, Surah 19:34).