MOTHERS

3. Sura al-Imran

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَةُ عِمْرَانَ ...

3: 35. Behold! a woman of Imran said:

C375. Now we begin the story of Jesus.

As a prelude we have the birth of Mary and the parallel story of John the Baptist, Yahya the son of Zakariya.

Yahya's mother Elisabeth was a cousin of Mary the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:36), and therefore John and Jesus were cousins by blood, and there was a spiritual cousinhood in their birth and career.

Elisabeth was of the daughters of Aaron (Luke 1:5), of a priestly family which went back to Aaron the brother of Moses and son of Imran. Her husband Zakariya was actually a priest, and her cousin Mary was presumably also of a priestly family.

By tradition Mary's mother was called Hannah (in Latin, Anna, and in English, Anne), and her father was called Imran. Hannah is therefore both a descendant of the priestly house of Imran and the wife of Imran,-"a woman of Imran" in a double sense,

... رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي...

"O my Lord!

I do dedicate unto thee what is in my womb for Thy special service, so accept this of me,

C376. Muharrar: freed from all worldly affairs and specially dedicated to Allah's service.

She expected a son, who was to be a special devotee, a miraculous son of the old age of his parents, but Allah gave her instead a daughter. But that daughter was Mary the mother of Jesus, the chosen one among the women: 3:42.

...إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ ﴿٣٥﴾

for Thou hearest and knowest all things."

Asad’s Version:

3: 35 (Mary’s mother’s prayer while she was pregnant}.: “ …unto Thee do I vow (the child) that is in my womb, to be devoted to Thy service…..