Surah Ali 'Imran 3:31-41 - Quran Translation Commentary

35. And (it is worth mentioning) when the wife of Imran prayed: “O My Lord ! I have vowed to You what is in my womb, exclusively for your worship,⁴⁸ so accept this from me. Verily You hear and know all things.

36. Then she delivered a female child, she said: “I have delivered a female child” and Allah knew best of what she had delivered,⁴⁹ And the male is not like the female ⁵⁰ and I have named her Maryam, and verily, I give her and her offsprings in Your protection from Satan, the outcast.”

37. So her Lord accepted her with goodly acceptance and made her grow up with a goodly growth, and made Zakaria her guardian.⁵¹ Whenever Zakaria entered the cell of sanctuary,⁵² he found some food with her. He asked: “O Maryam ! Whence does this come to you ?” She replied: “It is from Allah.⁵³ ” Verily, Allah provides sustenance to whom He wills without measure.

38. Thereupon⁵⁴ Zakaria prayed to his Lord, saying: “O My Lord! Grant to me from Your presence goodly offspring Surely, You are the Hearer of Prayer.”

39. Then the angels called to him as he stood praying in the cell: “Allah gives you glad tidings of a Yahya,⁵⁵ who will confirm the truth of a word from Allah⁵⁶,⁵⁷ will be a leader,⁵⁸ chaste and a prophet of the company of the righteous.

40. He said: “My Lord! How can I have a son when age has overtaken me already and my wife is barren?”⁵⁹ (Allah said) “Thus Allah does what He wills.⁶⁰

41. He said: “O my Lord ! Appoint to me a sign.” (Allah ) said: “Your sign is that you shall not speak to man for three days, but by gesture. Remember your Lord very often, and recite His holiness in the evening and morning.⁶¹”

Commentary

44. This verse clearly shows that mere oral claim or lip service about Allah’s love is not sufficient, but that the proof of love for Allah should be provided by our acts and practice, and this can be done by following His Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Through this verse all the followers of all the religions and the entire mankind have been invited to follow the teachings of the last Prophet and it has been quite clearly declared that without this no relationship of love can be established with Allah.

In this verse there is also a lesson for those muslims who claim to love Allah and in actual practice avoid following His Messenger.

45. The topic which begins here goes on up to verse No.63. Its central point is to present the personality of Prophet Eesa (Jesus) in its true colour and to clarify that the belief of the Christians about his divinity is absolutely wrong and false.

In this connection the mention of Adam, Nooh and the families of Ibrahim and Imran is made as a preamble, as they were honoured by Allah. All these were humans and none of them was a god nor the son of god. Prophet Eesa was also a virtuous slave of Allah like the other virtuous slaves. Then what is the point in elevating him to the rank of a god ?

46. Imran bin Matan was the name of the father of Maryam (Mary), who is the maternal grand father of Prophet Eesa. He was a descendent of Prophet Dawood (David). The idea is to show that Maryam and Eesa belonged to a very respectable and well-known family. Both of them were humans who were blessed by Allah with virtuousness. As it is not proper to doubt their purity, similarly it is not proper to consider them as gods.

47. It means that if you ascribe some improper thing to these virtuous persons. then know well that Allah hears all these things and He also knows your false-statements.

48. When Imran’s wife (Hannah) became pregnant, Imran died. She made a pledge to Allah that when a child would be born to her, he would be dedicated for the worship of Allah and the practice of such a dedication among the bani Israel was that the child was to be confined for worship to a secluded room attached to the cell.

49. This is a parenthetical sentence, which was stated by Allah. In between the statement of Maryam, which means that Allah knew of what grand stature the girl was ! And what a great personality has taken birth in the house of Imran !

50. Hannah had expected that a boy would be born to her. But when a daughter was born to her, she felt sorry, because she did not know how a girl would be useful for the purpose for which she had given a pledge. However, if Allah accepted this offering, it will be His great favour.

Hannah said: “A male child is not like a female child.” She did not say that a female child is not like the male child, when the offspring was a girl. Such a statement would have expressed some sign of ungratefulness, which was contrary to the etiquette of praying. Therefore, she fully appreciated the favour bestowed on her by Allah and merely expressed her sorrow.

51. Maryam was an orphan and she was also required to be secluded in the place of worship, therefore the question of her guardianship arose. Accordingly, Allah made Zakaria, who was a prophet and also an uncle of Maryam, her guardian.

52. By “Mehrab” (sanctuary) is meant that room in which Maryam was secluded for worship. In Baitul Maqdis such types of rooms were constructed for the worshippers.

53. Maryam was an honoured and virtuous slave of Allah. For her Allah had made special arrangement of providing sustenance. And making such unusual arrangements is not difficult for Allah.

54. Prophet Zakaria was the guardian of Maryam and had to go to her for looking after her. He was very much impressed by Maryam’s devotion to Allah and her virtuousness in her childhood. The extraordinary way in which Allah was providing her food made him wish for a virtuous offspring for him.

55. In the Bible the name of Prophet Yahya appears as Yuhanna (John). He was born six months before the Christ.

56. ‘Kalimatim-Min-Allah’ (A word from Allah) means Prophet Eesa (Jesus Christ). As his birth had taken place without a father, by a word from Allah, “Be” he has been given the title of a word from Allah, It also makes it clear that like countless words from Allah. Prophet Eesa is also a word from Allah. and as countless creatures have been created by a word, (Kun) ‘Be’ from Allah: in the same way Prophet Eesa was also created. This refutes the belief of Christians about the divinity of the Christ.

57. The mention of Prophet Yahya’s confirming the coming of Eesa is found in Injeel also:

John bore witness to him and cried. “This was he of whom I said.” ’He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me. (John 1: 15)

58. That is: Prophet Yahya will have the qualities of nobility, leadership and that he would not be an ascetic, he would be a leader and guide of men.

59. It was not a negatory question, but an interrogatory question as to what would be its form.

60. That is: Inspite of your being an old man and your wife being a barren woman, your wife will give birth to a child, for the main thing is Allah’s will. When He will anything no external or material cause can prevent it for He rules over the world of cause and effect.

The event of the birth of Prophet Yahya has been mentioned here as a preamble to the event of the birth of Prophet Eesa. It is done with a view to showing that if the birth of Prophet Eesa had taken place without his having a father, the birth of Prophet Yahya had taken place inspite of his father being an old man and his mother being barren. If this extraordinary event did not make Yahya a god then how come the extraordinary nature of Prophet Eesa’s birth can make him a god. The reality is that Allah effects changes to show to the world the perfect power that He has in the world of cause and effect and He causes extraordinary and intellect- baffling events in the world. This helps in bringing in to focus the concept of oneness of Allah, but those people who have gone astray make these also a cause of their polytheism.

61. That is: For three nights and days you would not be able to speak. However, you would be able to remember and recite Allah’s holiness. The locking of the speech for preventing the person to talk to the people and the same person’s ability to recite Allah’s holiness is a clear sign of the oneness of Allah and the symptom of some extraordinary event that was likely to take place. This state cannot be termed as dumbness, for in dumbness the organs of speech do not work at all while the organs of speech of Prophet Zakaria could work in a normal way for reciting the praises of Allah.