Syeda Muneeba Masood, a devout Muslim woman, wrote in Banglarnari: Ibn Jarir and others narrated that one day Maryam ran out of water. She asked her cousin, Yusuf, the son of Yaqub to go with her to get some. He declined, saying he had his sufficiency for that day, so Maryam went to fetch water alone. There, she found Jibril, whom Allah had sent to her in the shape of a man.   

     Response: This is what the Quran tells us about Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. My tafsir of the Quranic verses and the inferences I have drawn from them are more realistic than what Ibn Jarir and others have narrated about her and her conception with a son whose father was not a human being but Allah Himself: 

19: Sura Maryam, or Mary 

It seems to us that Allah always derived great pleasure from violent deaths of His beloved people. Not only in the case of John but also in the case of Jesus Christ, He looked the other way when the Jews of Jerusalem put His beloved son to excruciating pains before putting him to death through crucifixion, a method of execution the very thought of which makes many of us tremble today with extreme fear. But the people of the past were not like the people of today: like Allah, they, too, took great pleasure from great pains they inflicted on their victims. 

And yet, we, the common folks, believe that the same Allah can save us from the tyranny of our rulers, without giving any thought to His past failures! This blind belief in many of us developed from reading what are stated in some of the most disgusting Books we call Religious Scriptures; they being made sweet and effective by the preaching of the priests of all hue and characters. 

With their forceful voice, the priests can lift many listeners off their feet. With their well articulated but often circuitous arguments, they can turn a rat into a lion. With the power of their penetrating eyes, they can mesmerize even those who refuse to be influenced by anything they do not believe without verifying its efficacy or truthfulness. 

Fooling people in the name of religions has become a high-paying job for many people. It is their priesthood that helps them thrive in this world. It is their ability to fool others that has turned many of them into multi-millionaires; their economically hard-pressed victims being unable to draw any tangible benefit from any of the things they tell them in their sermons. Yet, they flock to their congregations to be fooled again and again. 

How long humans would continue to be fooled, we do not know. But we are sure of one thing and it is this: the sharks in the garbs of priests would continue to feast on their unsuspecting victims for so long as they would not be able to realize their tactics and the banality of their religious sermons. 

The story of Zakariya and John over (as stated in the beginning of Sura Maryam), Allah asked Muhammad to relate or narrate in the Quran the story of Mary: how she left her people and took herself to a solitary place to the east. Following His instruction, this is what Muhammad narrated, in his own words, in the Quran: 

Verse 17: She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to her our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects.

Verse 18: She said: I seek refuge from thee to (Allah) Most Gracious: (come not near) if thou dost fear Allah:

Verse 19: He said: Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son.

Verse 20: She said: How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?

Verse 21: He said: So (it will be): they Lord saith, 'That is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and Mercy from Us': it is a matter (so) decreed. 

 Muhammad's ability to narrate Mary's story was not better than Allah's ability. In fact, both of them seem to be handicapped by their inability to narrate clearly the stories of the past, most of which were, though, essential for laying the foundation of Islam. 

Moreover, he contradicted himself in many places of the Quran. His statement in verse 17 is one of them. In this verse, he said that just one angel i.e. Gabriel had appeared before Mary as a man in all respects. He made quite a different statement in verse 3:42 and 45. 

According to these verses, the number of angels who assembled in Mary's chamber was not only more than one; they even fought over the question of who among them was going to take care of her. This contradiction makes it abundantly clear that the Quran is a brainchild of Muhammad and that to attribute its contents to Allah is simply a fallacious invention on the part of the Muslims. 

Despite the fact that some of the verses, quoted above, belong to the category of unclear verses, yet, we will make our best efforts to find out what exactly they mean and what lessons we humans are supposed to take from them. 

Improving upon the part of Mary's story that was narrated by Allah in Sura al-Imran, Muhammad tells us through verse 16, above, that there was a time in her life when she withdrew from her family and went to a place in the East where she hid herself behind a screen, without giving a reason for her doing such an irrational thing. Some Muslim scholars, Maulana Abul Modudi, being one of them, explained Mary's action thus: 

Dedicated by her mother to the worship of Allah, Mary took up residence in a chamber of Baitul Muqqadus {it being the other name of the Farthest Mosque, or Masjidul Aqsa, mentioned in 17:1} under the supervision of prophet Zakariya.  Her chamber was located in the eastside of it. Following a requirement of isolationism {known as ehtehkaf in Arabic} practiced by the isolationists, she hung a curtain to hide herself from the eyes of the onlookers.[1]

The structure the learned scholar he has referred to as Baitul Muqqadus did not exist at the time Mary is believed to have lived. It was built in 690 A.D., or thereabouts by the Muslim Caliph Abd-ul-Malik at the grounds where once stood the Temple of Solomon . Titus destroyed it in 70 A.D., whereafter it was never rebuilt. Hence, his attempt at clarifying Muhammad's statement is not only misplaced, it is also a blatant lie. [2]

Whatever the location of the place, the verse does not give us a clear-cut reason that required a young Mary to withdraw herself from her family, and to move to the east, unless the prophet under whose care she was given by her mother had made her pregnant.

At the time Mary had become pregnant without getting married, adultery carried death sentence, especially for the women. Since prophet Zakariya was a powerful man, it would have been impossible for her to claim that the child she was carrying was his. Her failure to tell the truth spelt death for her.  

We surmise that the Quran's Marry moved to a solitary place to hide her pregnancy from the people. Here she contrived the rest of the story that blends well with the one that Muhammad himself had fabricated in connection with his alleged ascension to the heavens and his face-to-face meeting with Allah. 

At the time Mary became pregnant with Jesus Christ, the Jews believed that angels do come down to earth and meet Allah's selected people. They brought good news for some; to others they brought prosperity and happiness. They, however, differed on the forms or shape the angels assumed during their encounters with humans. 

Being herself a Jew, Mary knew well that her co-religionists would treat her leniently, if she told them that the child she was carrying was given to her by Allah through an angel. She was right; the Jews did not punish her even after knowing that she had become a mother without getting married to a man. 

The Jews could not have punished her, even if some of them wanted to, for she presented her case in such a convincing manner that was enough to put them off their course. She told them that the angel who had visited her was a 'man in all respects,' implying that it was he who had made her pregnant. 

The biblical story on Mary's conception does not name a particular angel; the Quran does. According to it, there is an archangel by the name of Gabriel, who represents Allah, whenever a representation on His behalf becomes necessary. In fact, without him, Allah cannot survive, hence his title Ruhul Quddus,[3] i.e. the Soul of Quddus, Quddus meaning Holy, and it being one of the ninety-nine lofty titles of Allah. 

As the Quran says, it was this archangel whom Allah had given the responsibility to make Mary pregnant on His behalf. This is what the Arabic version of verse 7 says, but the translator[4] whose translation we are using in our commentary intentionally distorted it with a particular intention: when angel Gabriel is Allah's Soul, it goes without saying that whatever he did he did it for and on behalf of Allah, as He cannot do many things by Himself. 

Confession by the Muslims that Allah was Christ's father will nullify Islam, for the Quran claimed that it is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. ...[5]  It also insists that Allah has no partner, hence the term la sharik used to describe His unitary status. Whoever thinks that Allah had or has a son becomes a renegade, a sin that is punishable with death penalty. 

It was on account of the above reason that the translator of the verse translated it in a way as was necessary for him to protect his Islamic belief. To us, his action amounted to dishonesty and forgery. Had he been an upright man, his translation should have read thus: 

"She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to her Our Soul, and it appeared before her as a man in all respects."[6]

The Quran does not tell us the number of souls Allah has. Believing that He has only one soul, we wonder what happens to Him when He transfers His soul to Gabriel. 

Does not having a soul make Allah a human-like entity? Does Allah become a statue during the time His soul goes out and remains in Gabriel's body? These are difficult questions for which we have no answer. Perhaps, Islamic scholars or theologians can help us with the answer, as many of them appear to know even those events which take place in heaven, between Allah and His angels. 

Seeing a young man in her solitary chamber, Mary panicked. Knowing not how to protect her virginity, she begged of the man not to force her into sex. The man replied: I am the messenger of your Lord, and have come to give you a holy son. 

Mary asked him innocently: How shall I bear a child, when I am a virgin, untouched by man? 

The man replied: Such is the will of your Lord, implying that he was there to break her virginity, as there is no difficult thing for Him {to perform}. {The child I am going to give to you) shall be a sign to mankind, says the Lord, "and a blessing from Ourself. This is Our decree.[7]

Verse 22: So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.

Verse 23: And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: she cried (in her anguish): "Ah! Would that I had died before this would! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!

Verse 24: But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): "Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee;

Verse 25: And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee. 

Being assured that the man was not a rapist; that he was carrying Allah's soul in his body, and that the child he would help her produce would be Allah's son, Mary agreed gladly to let him sleep with her. Her one time affair with him made her pregnant with Jesus Christ, and this she realized soon after the man departed from her chamber. 

Instead of staying in her chamber where she could be cared for in her advance stage by her relatives, Mary took flight once again; this time landing herself beneath a palm-tree of a desert. Here she lived all by herself, until she was ready to deliver her baby. 

As it happens to all would-be mothers, Mary, too, was overtaken by the pains of her child's birth. Finding no human around who could extend a helping hand to help ease the delivery, she cried out: Would that I had died and passed into oblivion! 

Instead of helping Mary deliver His son, Allah made someone cry out to her from below the surface where she was laboring: Do not despair. Your Lord has provided a rivulet that runs at your feet, and if you shake the trunk of this palm-tree it will drop fresh ripe dates in your lap. 

We are amazed by the lack of sensibility as well as sensitivity in Allah. Here is a woman with His child, and she is crying with pains of childbirth, He does nothing but to assure her of the food and water He arranged for her to live on, provided she survived the threat posed to her life by the un-assisted delivery of His baby!

We do not know of any human who would do what Allah, the Quran says, had done to Mary. First, He impregnated her without letting anyone know about His affairs with her; then He made her leave the company of her relatives. He made her deliver His baby by the trunk of a desert palm-tree, where there was no other human being to extend her a helping hand. He capped His inane behavior by talking to her about food and water, which she would have needed only after she had safely delivered the child, instead of giving her help, together with the words of consolation, encouragement and love. 

Was it a manner in which Allah should have treated the mother of His only son? We wonder! If what He did to Mary was the standard bearer of His behavior, is there any way for us to believe that He is capable of treating us any differently? 

Verse 26: So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye. And if thou dost see any man, I have vowed a fast to (Allah), Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into no talk with any human being.

Verse 27: At length she brought the (babe) to her people, they said: O Mary! Truly an amazing thing has thou brought!

Verse 28: O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!

Verse 29: But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle? 

Verse 30: He said: I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet;

Verse 31:  And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me prayer and Charity as long as I live; 

Verse 32: (He) hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable;

Verse 33: So Peace be on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)!

Verse 35: It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory to Him! When He determines a matter, He only says to it, Be, and it is.

Mary somehow delivered her baby. She also removed his umbilical cord with her own effort, perhaps, by using the edge of a palm-leave!  

Seeing both the mother and her baby safe and in good health, Allah asked Mary to eat and drink and to cool her eye by staring at him with an instruction not to talk to any stranger, should she happened to see one approaching her. She was to tell him: I have vowed a fast to Allah and I will not enter into any talk with any human being. 

What kind of a fast did Allah talk about in the verse? Does it resemble the one Muslims keep in the Lunar Month of Ramadhan, and also on other occasions? Do they eat and drink during their fasts? 

If answers to the questions are in negative, then did not the instruction Allah gave Mary to eat and drink but to tell others that she was fasting amount to telling a great lie? 

Some Muslim scholars have found an easy way to slip out of a tight situation the above question puts them in. According to them, the fast Allah had instructed Mary to keep was not the one Muslims keep today; it was a fast that the Children of Bani Israel of ancient time observed through silence.[8]

Even if the Children of Israel kept their fast through silence, they must have had some rules, as do the Muslims of today that governed their fasts. Muslims begin their fast before the break of the day; they break it in the evening before it becomes dark. 

In the interim period of the day, Muslims do not drink or eat anything. Eating or drinking automatically nullifies a Muslim's fast. Did the Children of Israel have similar rule for their community? 

 If they did, then was not Mary's statement to a stranger that 'she vowed a fast to Allah' sufficient to break her fast of silence?  If it was, then why Allah taught her such a foolish thing? Does it indicate that He is an All-knowing deity whom Muslims should worship with so much of reverence and fervor? 

The fact that the Children of Israel did not talk once they begin their fast is evident from verse 29. Instead of answering people's question on her baby, Mary signaled them to talk to him, for if she had said anything, it would have broken her fast. 

Why Allah did not ask Mary to talk to the strangers in a sign language, instead of telling her to open up her mouth, which she was not supposed to do during her fast? 

Trained well how to deal with the people she would be confronting on the question of her baby, Mary returned to her town. Immediately, its people began asking her questions on Jesus Christ. Instead of herself responding to their questions, she pointed to the baby and signaled them to talk to him. 

Since no human had ever seen or heard of a babe taking from his cradle, they thought that Mary had gone made. But the babe saved his mother's reputation, and began telling them: 

I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet. ... 

How people must have reacted to a newborn baby talking to them from his cradle we do not know, but we are pretty sure that many of them must have died of heart failures. Others must have left the town, thinking that it had become an abode of a ghost; those who could not go away must have kept their children hidden in their homes, lest they become the dinner of a demon they never saw before. 

The baby's claim that he began receiving revelations from Allah immediately after his birth must have created great uproar among the priestly people of the town. Driven by the news, they must have come, and fallen to his feet, beseeching him to become their chief priest then and there. They must also have asked him to lead them in their congregational prayers; to attend to their funerals and to arbitrate their disputes. And to do all other things they themselves were incapable of doing even after reaching their old age. 

But we do not find any record of the people of Mary's town responding to such a never-heard of, earth-shattering and sky-falling happening that evolved around a newly-born baby who talked from his cradle and that, too, in a clear language! Was it possible that all of them had died as result of heart failures, caused by the fear of the baby's speaking ability? Or, was it due to the reason that, like all the newborn babies in the world, Mary's baby could not have talked immediately after his birth, hence the non-availability of its record to substantiate the Quran's absurd claim?