Mary and her baby: a new series (2021-07-12) ​

0:00:01 i thought it'd be interesting to
0:00:03 look at how mary the mother of jesus
0:00:06 is portrayed in the quran the new
0:00:09 testament
0:00:10 and the christian apocrypha look at me
0:00:13 looking at the relationship between them
0:00:15 and as a guide to this i want to refer
0:00:18 to the islamic jesus by
0:00:20 muslim who i once heard lecture at
0:00:23 sowes in london he's written this uh
0:00:26 fascinating book
0:00:28 he's particularly good at drawing on
0:00:30 obscure
0:00:31 historical texts to throw light on
0:00:34 passengers
0:00:35 uh in these different sources but
0:00:37 particularly um the quran he is a muslim
0:00:39 author himself the book's been
0:00:41 recommended by some quite
0:00:43 eminent scholars and he does draw on
0:00:47 some very solid recent scholarship and
0:00:49 he's particularly good in my view
0:00:51 on understanding early jewish
0:00:53 christianity as the
0:00:55 background and context for understanding
0:00:58 the crown
0:00:59 the kran's portrayal of jesus so
0:01:02 i want to do perhaps a series of videos
0:01:05 looking at various aspects of mary's
0:01:08 life
0:01:09 in those different sources and how those
0:01:11 sources interrelate to each other
0:01:14 um the first video i'm just going to be
0:01:16 looking um
0:01:18 at the koran's portrait
0:01:21 of the parents of mary and this chapter
0:01:25 is entitled
0:01:26 mary and her baby and it begins with a
0:01:30 quote from the quran
0:01:31 in english remember the one who guarded
0:01:34 her chastity
0:01:36 we breathed into her our spirit and made
0:01:39 her
0:01:40 and her son a sign for all people
0:01:44 that's the quran 21 31
0:01:47 and the chapter begins in the whole
0:01:50 quran
0:01:51 which has more than 6 000 verses there
0:01:54 is only one
0:01:55 woman mentioned by name there is even a
0:01:58 long chapter named
0:02:00 after her even more there is a longer
0:02:03 chapter named after her family
0:02:06 and yet that woman is not amina the
0:02:08 mother of the prophet muhammad
0:02:10 or khadija his first wife or fatima
0:02:14 his daughter as one could have expected
0:02:17 to see
0:02:18 she is rather mary the mother of jesus
0:02:23 mary is not just named repeatedly in the
0:02:26 muslim scripture
0:02:27 some 34 times compared to this
0:02:30 to 19 times in the new testament this is
0:02:33 very interesting
0:02:34 do christians realize that the quran
0:02:36 mentions mary
0:02:38 far more often than even the bible does
0:02:42 she is also in the quran exceptionally
0:02:45 praised
0:02:46 god has chosen you and purified you
0:02:49 angels
0:02:50 tell mary in the quran he has chosen you
0:02:53 over all other women
0:02:56 consequently mary has become respected
0:02:59 in all muslim cultures as her arabic
0:03:02 name
0:03:03 miriam has been given to countless baby
0:03:06 girls
0:03:07 there are shrines in her name in the
0:03:09 middle east which are visited
0:03:11 by not just christians but also muslims
0:03:15 among the sufis the mystics of islam
0:03:18 mary has enjoyed an even deeper
0:03:20 adoration
0:03:22 as a perfect example of devotion to god
0:03:26 that practice of course is quite
0:03:28 controversial in some questions
0:03:30 in the 20th century a group of sufis
0:03:33 even established an order named
0:03:36 meriyamiya
0:03:38 or the followers of mary whose members
0:03:41 include
0:03:42 some prominent american academics such
0:03:44 as the iranian born
0:03:46 philosopher syed hussein nasser
0:03:50 even mary as she appears in christian
0:03:53 texts
0:03:54 and contexts has received muslim
0:03:57 respect legend has it that when the
0:04:00 prophet muhammad smashed
0:04:02 the hundreds of idols in the kaaba in
0:04:05 the year
0:04:05 630 toward the end of his life
0:04:09 he spared only the frescoes of jesus and
0:04:12 mary in 1187
0:04:16 when the muslim ruler salah hiding
0:04:18 re-conquered jerusalem
0:04:20 he destroyed the churches built in the
0:04:23 city by
0:04:24 crusaders i.e the invaders
0:04:27 not those built by the eastern
0:04:29 christians
0:04:30 with whom he had no problem these were
0:04:32 the original
0:04:33 christians of the area of course but he
0:04:36 still
0:04:36 spared a crusader relic the church of
0:04:40 saint anne which was believed to be the
0:04:43 childhood home of
0:04:44 mary and then he quotes the preservation
0:04:48 of this church
0:04:49 demonstrates the islamic devotion to
0:04:52 mary
0:04:53 a catholic source appreciatively notes
0:04:56 as the muslims great reverence for our
0:04:58 lady
0:04:59 precluded them from destroying her
0:05:02 birthplace
0:05:03 this is a catholic speaking of highly of
0:05:06 muslims
0:05:07 the quranic story of mary which is
0:05:10 impressively detailed for a scripture
0:05:13 whose main focus is elsewhere and of
0:05:15 course the quran is not about jesus and
0:05:17 mary it's about
0:05:18 other much more transcendent matters the
0:05:20 chronic story of mary is placed in two
0:05:23 separate chapters the chapter mary
0:05:26 which is accepted to be meccan in other
0:05:29 words it's revealed in mecca
0:05:31 and thus relatively earlier and the
0:05:34 chapter
0:05:34 family of imran which is accepted to be
0:05:38 a medinan so it's revealed in medina
0:05:40 perhaps
0:05:41 later on there are parallels between the
0:05:44 mary accounts in these two chapters
0:05:47 but also some differences moreover
0:05:50 there are both parallels and differences
0:05:53 between them
0:05:54 and the new testament and the christian
0:05:56 apocrypha
0:05:58 now the author of this book does go into
0:06:00 some detail of the
0:06:01 alleged sources that the quran uses
0:06:05 about the life of mary and her son
0:06:08 and uh in subsequent videos we'll look
0:06:10 at that in more detail
0:06:12 but i'm not going to anticipate that at
0:06:14 the moment
0:06:15 so he carries on let's begin with the
0:06:17 chapter mary
0:06:18 which begins which presents a storyline
0:06:21 that largely resembles the beginning
0:06:23 of the gospel of luke the plot begins
0:06:27 with
0:06:28 an account of your lord's grace towards
0:06:30 his servant
0:06:32 zechariah we meet him
0:06:35 whose name is zechariah in arabic
0:06:37 without
0:06:38 any introduction without any explanation
0:06:42 but we are still drawn into his story
0:06:44 when we learn about the secret prayer he
0:06:46 gave to god
0:06:48 quote from macron when he called to his
0:06:50 lord secretly
0:06:52 saying lord my bones have weakened and
0:06:55 my hair is
0:06:56 ashen gray but never lord have i
0:06:59 ever prayed to you in vain
0:07:02 i fear what my kinsmen will do when i am
0:07:05 gone
0:07:06 for my wife is barron so grant me a
0:07:09 successor
0:07:11 a gift from you to be my heir
0:07:14 and the heir of the family jacob
0:07:17 lord make me well pleased with you
0:07:22 in return to zechariah's surprise
0:07:25 god answers his prayers and heralds him
0:07:29 a blessed son the crown
0:07:32 says oh zechariah surely
0:07:35 we give you good news of a boy whose
0:07:38 name shall be yahya
0:07:40 that's y-a-h-y-a we have not made him
0:07:44 we have not made before anyone his equal
0:07:48 he said oh my lord when shall i have a
0:07:52 son
0:07:52 and my wife is barren and i myself have
0:07:56 reached indeed the extreme
0:07:58 degree of old age he said
0:08:02 so shall it be your lord says
0:08:05 it is easy for me and indeed i
0:08:08 created you before when you were nothing
0:08:12 end quote the son promised to zechariah
0:08:16 is john the baptist of course
0:08:18 who is named in the quran as yahya the
0:08:21 word
0:08:22 seems to be a derivative of the syriac
0:08:24 name
0:08:25 johanna johanna since zechariah
0:08:29 is still surprised by the news of this
0:08:31 baby boy
0:08:32 he asked god my lord give me
0:08:35 a sign god says your sign shall be
0:08:40 not to speak to people for three nights
0:08:42 despite the fact
0:08:44 that you are perfectly able to
0:08:47 notably the gospel of luke also notes
0:08:50 this detail reporting that zechariah was
0:08:53 told
0:08:54 thou shalt be silent and not able to
0:08:57 speak
0:08:58 but it's the quran which specifies the
0:09:01 period
0:09:01 as for three days
0:09:05 angels also call on zachariah telling
0:09:08 him that his baby boy
0:09:09 will be no ordinary son but will precede
0:09:13 someone even more extraordinary quote
0:09:17 god gives you news of john confirming
0:09:20 a word from god he will be noble
0:09:24 and chaste a prophet one of the
0:09:27 righteous
0:09:28 unquote the noteworthy term here
0:09:31 word from god is used for none other
0:09:35 than jesus
0:09:37 for john the quran also notes the
0:09:40 following
0:09:40 quote we said john hold on to the
0:09:44 scripture
0:09:45 firmly while he was still a boy we
0:09:48 granted him wisdom
0:09:50 tenderness from us and purity
0:09:53 he was devout kind to parents not
0:09:56 domineering or rebellious peace was
0:10:00 on him the day he was born the day he
0:10:03 died and it will be on him
0:10:05 the day he has raised to life again
0:10:09 end quote the scripture here
0:10:12 the emphasis here that john the baptist
0:10:15 held on to the scripture firmly fits
0:10:18 the doctrinal line of both jewish
0:10:21 christianity
0:10:22 and islam that there is a chain of
0:10:25 prophets whose primary mission
0:10:27 is to uphold the revealed word of god
0:10:32 meanwhile the quranic emphasis on john
0:10:35 being
0:10:35 chaste seems to resonate with the note
0:10:38 in the gospel of
0:10:39 luke that john drank no wine
0:10:42 nor strong drink
0:10:46 that is all that we learn from the quran
0:10:48 about john the baptist
0:10:50 actually he is not called the baptist as
0:10:52 the concept of baptism
0:10:54 never occurs in the quran
0:10:57 neither do we learn from the quran about
0:10:59 john's encounter with jesus
0:11:01 or his execution by herod
0:11:04 as is the case with most old testament
0:11:07 figures
0:11:08 such as elijah and job the quran
0:11:11 briefly touches on the story of john the
0:11:13 baptist
0:11:14 and highlights only its own key
0:11:17 theological
0:11:18 message there has been a chain of
0:11:21 prophets
0:11:22 from time immemorial who all proclaimed
0:11:26 the same monotheistic message
0:11:30 now i'm going to end the video here the
0:11:33 next one
0:11:34 will be discussing mary's pre-gospel
0:11:38 so this is now looking at the christian
0:11:41 apocrypha
0:11:42 in some detail the proto-evangelium as
0:11:45 it's known
0:11:45 and that and what light that throws on
0:11:48 the quran
0:11:49 new testament and islam so i hope
0:11:52 i find this particularly interesting um
0:11:55 because it throws so much light on the
0:11:56 three different religions and how
0:11:58 the different scriptures and sources and
0:12:00 texts relate to each other
0:12:02 and uh much polemical um work has been
0:12:06 done against islam because of these
0:12:07 issues
0:12:08 so this book is helpful i think in in
0:12:11 perhaps looking at more
0:12:12 in a more balanced and more sober way
0:12:14 anyway
0:12:15 till next time