Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Apostate prophet is baffled; who were Mary's parents?

In answer to the video "One Mistake Destroys Islam"

This is a non-issue to Muslims, explained long ago by the prophet of God himself. But since the misinformed critics with little knowledge of Islam like bringing it up every now and then, we Muslims will face them and refute them every now and then.

There are no records in scriptures of the past as to who Mary's parents were. This is itself is enough to discard all these conspiracists' theories to the dustbin of baseless conjectures. But let us still delve into that issue further and leave them no chance at exploiting this ambiguity to serve their malicious objectives.

The Quran says Mary's mother was married to a man named Imran 3:35. This is where the conspirasists jump for joy and begin their tirades. The Quran they say, makes an anachronistic error because it names Mary's father Imran, who also happens to be the father of another Mary that lived centuries prior in the Bible.

As if people within a tribe dont share the same names, or that for example Zechariah is the only prophet to hold that name or that Joseph who is believed by Christians to be Mary's husband was the first man ever among Israel to bear that name? Or was Mary actually married to the Joseph who ruled Egypt? There are many instances within the Bible to corroborate for example Jethro's 7 different names are shared by other people too, some of them were his contemporaries and others came after him. Same thing with Elihu ben Barachel, whose name many people share over different generations for example the prophet Samuel's great-grandfather 1Sam1:1, a brother of the prophet King David 1Chron27:18, a chief of the Manasheh tribe 1Chron12:20 and a descendant of Korah 1Chron26:7.  It is however interesting to note that in extra Biblical tradition, Mary's father is name Joachim. Ethymologically, Imran and Joachim share a similar origin. Joachim is "the one whom Yahweh set up" while Imran may stem from aamr/to build up, rise up.

In her pregnancy, Imran's pious wife vowed to offer what was in her womb to the devotion of God 3:35 as denoted with "muharraran" to mean that the child is free of any other obligation or attachment. She desired a male whom she wanted to follow in the footsteps of the priestly family, living in devotion to God and serving Him in the Temple. This religious function was prescribed exclusively for the male descendants of the Levites branch. It was Harun/Aaron who is said to have initiated that function for the Israelites Ex28:1,29,40:13,Lev8,1:3,Num3:10,18:4-7 and renewed again by Phinehas Numbers25:13.

But when she brought forth a female whom she thought wouldnt be able to live up to her spiritual expectations and duties in the Temple, she was explained that her excellence would go far beyond any hopes and desires she had entertained

3:36"God had been fully aware of what she would give birth to, and [fully aware] that no male child [she might have hoped for] could ever have been like this female".
She named her Maryam and invoked Allah's protection on her and her offspring 3:36.
In the ahadith we read that in answer to her mother's prayers, the divine protection and supervision of Mary, extended to her son Jesus to the point that Allah prevented a seemingly harmless event of the unseen, that every human being is made to experience at birth 
"No child is born but that, Satan touches it when it is born whereupon it starts crying loudly because of being touched by Satan, except Mary and her son".

The hadith does not speak of sin, nor of sinful nature, rather conveys the idea that Allah will protect them both from the assaults of evil entities, from birth till they return to Him.

Maryam was orphaned early on which is why she was given at a young age to one of God's prophets, Zakariyya, for care 3:37,44.

God received Mary's mother's prayers and manifested them in the best way; under Zakariya's close guardianship, she was taken care of to develop physically and spiritually. The Arabic in 3:37 uses a beautiful imagery saying literally

"her nurturing Lord accepted her with beautiful reception, and made her planted a good planting, and He made Zachariah to take care of her".
Mary remained in total devotion to God, mostly practicing worship in seclusion in her own private area of prayers, almihrab. The root H-R-B means war or distancing and separation. It also means the person’s money or the most important place in the house. Here the word implies the most important part of the house and the place of prayer is included within that meaning. As a side note, Zakariyya was Jesus' uncle through marriage with Elizabeth, who is Mary's relative, and who is a prophet according to the NT in Lk1:67-79.

A priest's daughter or "Bat-Kohen" is considered unique compared to the other Israelite daughters. That uniqueness is due to her scrupulous modesty, thereby portraying the values of maintaining a life dedicated to holiness, as well as her inherent ability to cope with above average and even intense levels of spirituality due to her upbringing by a Kohen/priest, whose life is dedicated to God's service.

Since Mary belonged to the priestly caste, whose founder was the renowned Harun, she was associated to him with the metaphorical phrase "sister of Harun" by the slanderers who saw her with an newborn 19:27-28. This was to stress the shamefulness of her act in relation to the illustruous names in her family, most relevant to her status as a priest's daughter.

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