Surah Maryam (Mary) 19 : 17

Overview (Verses 16 - 21)

The Most Remarkable Birth in History
 
Relate in the book [the story of] Mary and how she withdrew from her family to a place in the east, where she kept herself in seclusion from them. We, then, sent to her Our angel, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being. She said: May the Most Merciful protect me from you. [Do not come near me] if you fear God.’ ‘I am but an emissary of your Lord,’ he said, [and have come] to give you a son endowed with purity. ‘She said: ‘How shall I have a child when no man has ever touched me and I have never been a loose woman?’ He answered: ‘Thus did your Lord speak: This is easy for Me. We will make him a sign for mankind and an act of grace from Us. It is a matter [We have] decreed.’ (Verses 16-21)
 
This is the first scene: Mary is a young, virgin woman, a saint whose mother vowed, when she was still an unborn baby, that she would serve in the temple. No one had ever witnessed from her anything other than perfect purity and chastity. In fact people associated her with Aaron, the first of the temple’s devout servants. For generations, her family were renowned for being God-fearing and a model of piety.
 
We see this young woman going off to be alone. The sūrah does not specify why she wanted to be alone, but there must have been something to so require her to be by herself, unseen by anyone else. It may have been a very private matter that girls normally experience.
 
Once she is alone, screened from everyone and assured of complete privacy, she receives a great shock. She finds in front of her a man in his prime: “We, then, sent to her Our angel, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being.” (Verse 17) She is both shocked and shaken, which is only the normal reaction of a chaste virgin. Her immediate reaction is to seek God’s protection and to appeal to Him for support. She appeals to the man’s sense of fearing God. She reminds him of God so that he may be restrained from attempting anything evil. So she says to him: “May the Most Merciful protect me from you. [Do not come near me] if you fear God.” (Verse 18) Should he be a God-fearing person, he would respond to the mere mention of God’s name and His attribute of mercy. He would then resist any evil motive and restrain his desire.
 
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. That is the second great shock for Mary.
 
“She said: How shall I have a child when no man has ever touched me and I have never been a loose woman?” (Verse 20) Now she speaks frankly and plainly to him. She is all alone with him, and the reason why he surprised her is now clear. She does not know yet how he will give her a child. Nor does it make matters any easier or less worrying for her that he has declared himself to be God’s emissary. Nothing that he says about that child, stating that he will be pure and that nothing evil will be attached to his birth or moral conduct, is sufficient to reassure her. It is a situation where modesty is completely out of place. She must have the matter out and clear at once. How, then, could she have a child when she is a virgin, untouched by any man? She is not a loose woman about to agree to a sexual act that could produce a child.
 
Her questioning in this fashion suggests that up to that moment she could not conceive of any way by which that person could give her a child except the familiar way of sexual contact between a male and a female. This is the natural way, according to human perception.
 
“He answered: Thus did your Lord speak. That is easy for Me. We will make him a sign for mankind and an act of grace from Us.” (Verse 21) This miraculous event that Mary cannot even begin to imagine is easy for God to accomplish. His is the power that says to anything, ‘Be,’ and it immediately exists. Hence, everything is easy for Him, whether it is accomplished according to natural laws that are familiar to man or in some other fashion. The angel, who is referred to in this instance as ‘the Spirit’ tells her that it is God who says that it is easy for Him, and that He wants this unique and remarkable event to be a sign for all mankind, making clear to them His power and free, unshackled will. He also wants this child to be a mercy and a blessing to the Israelites in the first place and to all humanity thereafter. It is by showing them this miraculous event that they know Him, believe in Him and worship Him, seeking to earn His pleasure.
 
Thus ends the dialogue between the trusted angel and the Virgin Mary. The sūrah does not mention what happened after that exchange, leaving a gap in the story, which frequently happens in the Qur’ān. But it does mention that what the angel said to Mary about the birth of her son is a matter that has been settled and finalized. “It is a matter [We have] decreed.” (Verse 21) But how? Nothing is mentioned here by way of explanation.
 
However, we can refer here to the use of the phrase, Our Spirit, which is mentioned in this instance and in another sūrah. Here it occurs in the verse: “We, then, sent to her Our Spirit, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being.” (Verse 17) In the other context, the phrase occurs as follows: “And Mary, daughter of `Imrān, who guarded her chastity, whereupon We breathed of Our Spirit into her.” (66: 12)
 
Now the question arises as to whether the reference in these two sūrahs is to the same thing or not. From our point of view, the references would appear to be different on each occasion. In the present sūrah, Mary, it refers to Gabriel, the Holy Spirit, who was God’s emissary to Mary. In Sūrah 66, The Prohibition, it refers to the spirit that God breathed into Adam when He created him to make of him a human being. He again breathed of it into Mary to bring about her conception. It is this divine breathing of the spirit that gives life with all its human characteristics. These include the qualities and faculties that enable man to be in contact with the Supreme Society, while also giving him his human feelings, intellect, thought, emotions and inspiration. In Mary’s case, Gabriel carried this breath of the spirit from God to place it into her. We must also add however that we do not know anything about the nature of the spirit, neither when it refers to Gabriel himself, nor when it has a different connotation. Both belong to the realm which is beyond our perception. We simply try to understand the relevant text in the two sūrahs and consider that the usage differs in each case.