Surah Maryam (Mary) 19 : 19

Explanatory Note

We can visualize this young woman, a pure devout virgin, and what she might have gone through in that moment when she was surprised by a young man appearing before her in her place of privacy. This was her first shock.

Yet what answer does she receive? The man tells her something she could never have imagined: “‘I am but an emissary of your Lord,’ he said, ‘[and have come] to give you a son endowed with purity.’” (Verse 19) We can imagine the panic and shock that must have overwhelmed Mary when that perfect man, whom she did not yet know to be an emissary from her Lord, spoke to her. For all she knew, he might have been an assailant playing a trick on her, exploiting her innocence. Yet what he tells her, in the privacy of that place, well away from others, is that he wants to give her a child. How shocked must Mary have been? We cannot even begin to imagine.