Blessing or Burden? YOU be the Judge
The founding Document of Islam, The Koran,
Serialized by Four Common Americans
PART THIRTY EIGHT
Surah 19 - "Mary"
By LTC Daniel Marvin, USASF (ret)
Muhammad tells of Mary and the baby Jesus in this Surah. It is
interesting that Muhammad has the angel Gabriel appear before the Virgin
Mary and tell her, "I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow
upon thee a holy son." Mary replied, "How shall I have a son, when man
hath never touched me? and I am not unchaste." Gabriel answered, "So
shall it be. Thy Lord said: 'Easy is this with me;' and we will make him
a sign to mankind, and a mercy from us. For it is a thing decreed." The
Koran then states: "And she conceived him, and retired with him to a
far-off place."
Strangely enough, Muhammad tells of Mary then going "with her babe to
her people," making a sign to her people, pointing towards the babe as if
to tell the people the babe would answer their many questions, even about
her having done "a strange thing." Her people responded to Mary, "How
shall we speak with him who is in the cradle, an infant?" Muhammad, in
verse 31 of Surah 19, appears to tell of the infant Jesus answering the
people, saying, "Verily, I am the servant of God; He hath given me the
Book [the Koran], and he hath made me a prophet; and He [God] hath made
me blessed wherever I may be, and hath enjoined me prayer and almsgiving
so long as I shall live. And the peace of God was on me the day I was
born, and will be the day I shall die, and the day I shall be raised to
life."
Muhammad goes on to say, "This is Jesus, the son of Mary; this is a
statement of the truth concerning which they doubt." It is interesting
that Muhammad, in verse 109 of Surah 5, seems to claim that God Himself
spoke to Jesus, stating unequivocally, "O Jesus, Son of Mary! call to
mind my favor upon thee and upon thy mother, when I strengthened thee
with the Holy Spirit (as if setting aside any recognition of the Holy
Trinity), that thou shouldest speak to men alike in the cradle, and when
grown up..." Did the baby Jesus speak as if a man of wisdom, born a
man-baby and not a part of the Holy Trinity? More to come: You be the
judge of it all!