The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 23
PT. 16 R. 2. MARYAM CH. 19 وَاذْكُرْ فِي الْكِتَبِ مَرْيَمَ إِذِ انْتَبَذَتْ And relate the story of Mary. 17 as mentioned in the Book. When she withdrew from her people to a place to the east. 2161 parents (19:15). مِنْ أَهْلِهَا مَكَانًا شَرْقِيَّان established fact of history. The words 7. He was kind-hearted, pure and "peace was on him" used in the verse pious (19:14). 8. He was not haughty and rebellious (19:15). 9. God was pleased with him and he was unequalled in some respects (19:7-8). seem to have given rise to this manifestly wrong view but they lend no support to it. The word "peace" has not been used in a physical but a spiritual sense. In fact the verse refers to three periods or states of man's life. 10. Divine peace enveloped him The first state begins with his birth (19:16). 11. His name Yaḥyā was given to him by God (19:8). By instituting this comparison we should not be understood to mean that Jesus and John were of absolutely equal spiritual standing and there was nothing to distinguish one from the other. Jesus did indeed possess a higher spiritual status than John. What the Quran wants to make clear is the fact that there was nothing in Jesus which should raise him to the pedestal of Divinity. He was no doubt a great Prophet of God and was immune from sin but so were all other Divine Messengers, John being one of them. About him Jesus says: "For I say unto you, among those that are born of woman there is not a greater prophet than John, the Baptist" (Luke 7:28). The verse should not be understood to signify that Prophet Yaḥyā was not murdered but died a natural death, a view mistakenly held in certain quarters, because it runs counter to an 1937 and ends with his death. The second state which is called (Barzakh), literally meaning 'the period of earning merit or demerit is over', commences with death and continues till doom. The third state has been called "The Day of Resurrection" in the Quran. It is the day of the complete manifestation of God's glory. It is these three states or periods of man's existence to which which, it says, Yaḥyā will enjoy the present verse refers and in all of spiritual peace. 2161. Important Words: مر یم (Mary) is probably a compound word consisting of and and possesses, in Hebrew, a variety of meanings. Some of these meanings are: 'bitter sea'; 'drop of the sea'; 'star of the sea'; 'bitterness'; 'mistress or lady'. The word also means 'exalted'. It may also mean 'pious worshipper'. From two alternative roots the word might also mean, 'the rebellious', or 'the corpulent'. It seems that among the Jews and the Arabs corpulence