A Brief Reflection on The Beginning of the Surah Maryam (19) in the Quran

I read the Quran in English—the wonderful translation of Abdel Haleem—with fresh eyes and ears and heart. The last one, ‘heart’, is the most important. I was a disbeliever and with God’s grace I came back to religion. I will surely go back one day and read the Quran in Farsi and I know some Arabic words, but for now reading the Quran in English has been so illuminating to me. It creates that sense of distance to look at it with fresh eyes, as if I am reading it for the first time. Now, I realize that how misleading it is to glorify words of scriptures without relating to the content of what they are talking about. The youths need to relate to the content of scriptures, without being lost in empty glorification. The magnitude of message is in the content.

The surah “Marayam” (Mary, 19) starts with the story of Zachariah. He supplicates to God to have an heir, even if he is old, God grants him a son, John. Zachariah says:

“‘Lord, how can I have a son when my wife is barren, and I am old and frail?’ He said, ‘This is what your Lord has said: “It is easy for Me: I created you, though you were nothing before.” ’

He said, ‘Give me a sign, Lord.’ He said, ‘Your sign is that you will not [be able to] speak to anyone for three full [days and] nights.’ He went out of the sanctuary to his people and signalled to them to praise God morning and evening.

[We said], ‘John, hold on to the Scripture firmly.’ While he was still a boy, We granted him wisdom, tenderness from Us, and purity. He was devout, kind to his parents, not domineering or rebellious. Peace was on him the day he was born, the day he died, and it will be on him the day he is raised to life again.” (19:8-15)

It is strange and interesting to me now that the sign that God gave to Zachariah is not being able to speak for three days. The characteristics of a divine disposition also are truly these: wisdom, tenderness, purity, devotion, being kind to parents, not being domineering or rebellious. This is a guidance for me personally and as a father how to raise my children. I have lived enough to know what these characteristics are and why we need them: human excess, self-centeredness, excessive craving for pleasures, and desire for power is canceric and [self-]destructive.

The surah moves to the story of Mary. Miracles happen to her as to Zachariah. Zachariah was too old to bear a child and God granted him John. And Mary was a virgin and chaste and God granted her Jesus. But why? What does this “anomaly” mean? Why should God wait for Zachariah to get too old and to let virgin Mary have a child, Jesus? We are unable to fathom some of God’s actions and these miracles. The closest that come to my mind is that for Zachariah, he had to arrive at certain spiritual growth to have John and for Mary—human beings were not and are not yet ready for the great leap: not to be reactive, to be able to overcome the reptilian brain, to distance themselves with wisdom, not folly, from constant fear of survival and desire for power. If John was humanly conceived for heralding Jesus, human beings had not been ready yet for emaculate conception of Jesus—the one who does not react but acts. Human beings were not ready to let go of the domineering ego, so that to become fruitfully righteous and tender. In a strange loop, we go back to the divinely given dispositional characteristics of John: wisdom, tenderness, purity, devotion, being kind to parents, not being domineering or rebellious.

And then again, the same strange sign: silence:

"And so it was ordained: she conceived him. She withdrew to a distant place and, when the pains of childbirth drove her to [cling to] the trunk of a palm tree, she exclaimed, ‘I wish I had been dead and forgotten long before all this!’ but a voice cried to her from below, ‘Do not worry: your Lord has provided a stream at your feet and, if you shake the trunk of the palm tree towards you, it will deliver fresh ripe dates for you, so eat, drink, be glad, and say to anyone you may see: “I have vowed to the Lord of Mercy to abstain ["sawm" can mean ‘abstinence’ from food or from speech.] from conversation, and I will not talk to anyone today.”’ (19:22-26)

And silence, sometimes we need silence to ponder and to let the miracle happen.