About a year ago someone wrote to me asking me to explain why Mary is the only woman mentioned in the Quran if Jesus is not the son of God. S/he claimed that Mary is the most important woman in the history of Islam because God had chosen her Himself:
“Behold! the angels said: ‘O Mary! God hath chosen thee and purified thee – chosen thee above the women of all nations.’” (3:42).
Mary is a very important woman in Islam but she is not the only woman mentioned in the Quran. While she is the only one mentioned by name, other women mentioned are:
· Eve (20-120),
· Sarah (11:71-72),
· wives of Lot and Noah (66:10),
· mother and sister of Moses (28:7,10,11),
· wife of Moses (28:23-27),
· women of Aziz (12:23, 31, 51),
· Asiya the wife of a Pharaoh (66:11),
· Queen Sheeba (27: 23-24, 34-35, 42-44),
· wife of Imran (3:33-36),
· and Khoulah bint Thalabah (58:1).
Hagar is mentioned 21 times in the Torah, by name, but she is not mentioned in the Quran at all although like the Jewish Matriarch Sarah, Hagar is the Muslim Matriarch.
So what is it about Mary?
Mary’s name appears in the Quran many times and Jesus is called Jesus the son of Mary. The entire Surah 19 is named after Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Other places where she appears are:
· Mary’s birth when her mother says “And not wise is the male like the female.” (3:34)
· Gabriel comes to Mary (3:45)
· Immaculate conception (3:47) and (66:12)
· Her choice as mother of Jesus (3:42)
· Her chastity and obedience to God (66:12)
Mary is mentioned by name because she is the only woman about whom truth is severely distorted in the Gospel. Not so in the Old Testament but in the New Testament, Mary is literally made the Mother of God and that is the one most serious issue with God – partnership.
If duality of God was acceptable, Abraham the great Patriarch of monotheism would have been taught that, but he wasn’t. Duality of God and the belief in Trinity is explicitly forbidden by the Quran and is called the greatest sin. God ensures in the Quran to unambiguously announce that Jesus is not the son of God and the “Holy Spirit” is but only the angel Gabriel – the Ruhul Qudus.
Thus, Quran mentions Mary by name not only because she is an important woman but also because the lie attached to her is the most important to address:
Surah Mary (34-35):
Such was Jesus, son of Mary: (this is) a statement of the truth concerning which they doubt. It befitteth not (the Majesty of) Allah that He should take unto Himself a son. Glory be to Him! When He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is.
