The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 40
CH. 3 ĀL-E-'IMRĀN female child she had brought forth was superior to the male child she desired to have. If taken to have been spoken by Mary's mother, they would mean that the female child she had given birth to could not be like the male child she desired, inasmuch as only a boy was fit to do the special service to which she desired to dedicate him. The clause, I have named her Mary, contains an implied prayer to God to make the girl as exalted and as good and virtuous as the name Mary, meaning exalted or a pious worshipper, signified. PT. 3 assumption that Mary's mother had a vision that her daughter would have a son is not unfounded. It finds mention in the Gospel of Mary (3:5) though perhaps in a somewhat different form. There was nothing unusual about the prayer of Hanna, Mary's mother, that Mary and her offspring might be protected from satanic influences. All pious parents are actuated by such a desire for their children and pray that they should grow up to lead good and virtuous lives. But unfortunately this simple and natural prayer of Mary's mother, coupled with a saying of the Holy Prophet to the effect that Mary and her son Jesus were free from the touch of Satan, has given rise to widespread misunderstanding and has been made the basis of an entirely erroneous and misleading belief among a section of Muslims, besides affording to Christians a welcome excuse for attacking Islam. A section among the latter-day Muslims has come to believe that of all men and women, Jesus and his mother, Mary, alone were immune from the evil influences of Satan. The words, I commit her and her offspring to Thy protection from Satan, the rejected, offer some difficulty. If Mary's mother intended her child to be dedicated to the service of God, she must have known that the child would remain unmarried for life. What is, then, the sense in offering prayer for the child's offspring? The most probable explanation is that God had told her in a vision that her daughter would grow up to womanhood and would have a child, whereupon she prayed As hinted above, this doctrine is that Mary and her child might both be based on a tradition of the Holy granted God's protection from Satan, Prophet which says: "No child is the rejected. In spite of this, however, born but Satan touches it at the time she appears to have left the future of of its birth and makes it cry, except Mary in God's hand and dedicated Jesus and his mother Mary" her, as she had originally intended, to (Bukhārī). Unfortunately, this saying the service of God (3:38; 3:45; also of the Holy Prophet has been shorn of Gospel of the Birth of Mary). This its true setting and utterly must have been an exceptional case, misunderstood. These words of the for ordinarily only males were Prophet, besides being not strictly eligible for such dedication. The relevant as they refer only to the 480