Maryam

The surah opens with mercy. Zakariyya, old and with a barren wife, calls out in a quiet prayer for an heir, and is given good news of a son, Yahya. His sign is that he will not speak to people for three nights. Then Maryam withdraws from her family, and the angel Jibril appears to her as a man, to give her a pure son. “How can I have a son, when no man has touched me?” “It is easy for Me.” The pains of labour drive her to the trunk of a palm tree, and a voice tells her not to grieve: there is a stream beneath her, and ripe dates will fall when she shakes the trunk. She brings him to her people, who accuse her, and she points to him. From the cradle he says, “I am the servant of Allah,” and asks peace on the day he was born, the day he dies and the day he is raised. The surah then says plainly that it is not for Allah to take a son. Ibrahim gently begs his father to leave his idols, is threatened with stoning, and answers, “Peace be upon you.” Musa, Harun, Isma‘il and Idris are mentioned in turn, prophets who fell in prostration, weeping, when the verses were recited. Later people neglected prayer, yet those who repent will enter the Gardens of Eden. Everyone will come to the Fire, and the mindful will be saved. The heavens almost tear apart at the claim that the Most Merciful has a son; every one of them will come to Him alone, as a servant. Those who believe and do good, the Most Merciful will give them love.