The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 24
CH. 19 MARYAM was considered as a mark of beauty and girls who were corpulent were considered beautiful and therefore named Maryam. Maryam also seems to be a popular name among the Jews in the time of Jesus. See also 3:37. (to the east) means, (1) facing the east; (2) to the east. means, a place to the east; a place facing the east; a place in which the sun shines; an open dwelling place (Lane). (the Book) may refer both to the Bible and the Quran. Commentary: It seems relevant and necessary to mention, as a prelude to the somewhat detailed account of Jesus' fatherless birth as given in the next several verses, some facts related about Mary in the Quran and the Bible. her above The New Testament sheds practically no light on the life of Mary before she became pregnant. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke give an extremely brief and discursive description of circumstances before the important event took place while Mark and John are completely silent over it. According to Matthew, Mary, on being married to Joseph, was found to be with a child. Joseph intended secretly to put her away but was refrained from taking this extreme step by an angel saying to him in a dream: "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife" (Matt. 1:19, 20). According to Luke, Mary was relation of Zachariah's wife and used to go to their house. Apart from this unimportant additional fact Luke a PT. 16 leaves us quite in the dark about Mary's account prior to her marriage with Joseph. But the Quran gives us a much more detailed account of Mary's family, the circumstances that attended her birth, the VOW of her mother, her childhood being dedicated to the service of the Church and lastly of her having conceived Jesus (3:36-38). The present Surah, however, gives a still more detailed account of Mary having conceived Jesus and of what happened to her and to Jesus after his birth and after he was commissioned with his divine mission. The Quran has provided us with all necessary details about Mary that have any bearing on the important subject of prophethood which was about to be transferred from the House of Israel to that of Ishmael and which forms the principal thesis of the present Sūrah. If anything the Bible has given a very sorry picture of Jesus and his relations with his mother. Whereas the Quran depicts him to be kind, dutiful and very compassionate towards his mother, the Gospels show that he did not like his mother because she did not believe in him (Matt. 12:46-50). Mark 3:31-35 and Luke 8:19-21 show that besides Mary, Jesus' other relations did not believe in him while the Gospel of John keeps discreetly silent over this painful subject. We also know that the Jews used to taunt Jesus by saying that if his mission was true why his own relations did not believe in him (Matt. 13:55-56). Some of his relations and friends went so far as to lay hold on him for they said that he 1938