3. Sura al-Imran

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

إِنَّ اللّهَ اصْطَفَى آدَمَ وَنُوحًا وَآلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَآلَ عِمْرَانَ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ ﴿٣٣﴾

3: 33. Allah did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham and the family of Imran above all people.

ذُرِّيَّةً بَعْضُهَا مِن بَعْضٍ ...

3: 34. Offspring, one of the other;

C374. The Prophets in the Jewish-Christian-Muslim dispensation form one family literally. But the argument is wider. All men of God form spiritually one family. If you love and obey Allah, love and obey His Messenger; your love, obedience and discipline will be the test of your Faith.

... وَاللّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ ﴿٣٤﴾

and Allah heareth and knoweth all things.

Asad’s Version:

3:33 BEHOLD, God raised Adam, and Noah, and the House of Abraham, and the House of 'Imran above all mankind,

(3:34) in one line of descent. 22 And God was all-hearing, all-knowing 23

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22 Lit., "offspring of one another" - an allusion not merely to the physical descent of those prophets but also to the fact that all of them were spiritually linked with one another and believed in one and the same fundamental truth (Tabari). Thus, the above passage is a logical sequence to verses 31-32, which make God's approval contingent upon obedience to His chosen message-bearers. The names which appear in this sentence circumscribe, by implication, all the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an inasmuch as most of them were descendants of two or more of these patriarchs. The House of 'Imran comprises Moses and Aaron, whose father was 'Imran (the Amram of the Bible), and Aaron's descendants, the priestly caste among the Israelites - thus including John the Baptist, both of whose parents were of the same descent (cf the reference, in Luke i,5, to John's mother Elisabeth as one "of the daughters of Aaron"), as well as Jesus, whose mother Mary - a close relation of John - is spoken of elsewhere in the Qur'an (19:28) as a "sister of Aaron": in both cases embodying the ancient Semitic custom of linking a person's or a people's name with that of an illustrious forebear. The reference to the House of 'Imran serves as an introduction to the stories of Zachariah, John, Mary, and Jesus.

23 My joining of this phrase with the following passage is in agreement with the interpretation advanced by Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida' (Manar III, 289). But when she had given birth to the child, 24 she said: "O my Sustainer! Behold, I have given birth to a female" - the while 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 25 - "and I have named her Mary. And, verily, I seek Thy protection for her and her offspring against Satan, the accursed." And thereupon her Sustainer accepted the girl-child with goodly acceptance, and caused her to grow up in goodly growth, and placed her in the care of Zachariah. 26 Whenever Zachariah visited her in the sanctuary, he found her provided with food. He would ask: "O Mary, whence came this unto thee?" She would answer: "It is from God; behold, God grants sustenance unto whom He wills, beyond all reckoning." 27