Mary in the Qur'an : friend of God, virgin, mother

A sensitive consideration of Mary, mother of Jesus, in the Qur’an. An entire chapter (surah) is dedicated to her, and she is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur’an—indeed, her name appears more frequently than that of either Muhammad or Jesus. From the earliest times to the present day, Mary, the mother of Jesus, continues to be held in high regard by Christians and Muslims alike, yet she has also been the cause of much tension between these two religions. In this groundbreaking study, Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch painstakingly reconstruct the picture of Mary that is presented in the Qur’an and show how veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church intersects and interacts with the testimony of the Qur’an. This sensitive and scholarly treatise offers a significant contribution to contemporary interfaith dialogue. Contents 6 Note on Transcription 10 Introduction 12 I. Mary in the Christian Tradition 16 1. Mary in the Bible 18 a) Mary in the Corpus Paulinum and the Gospel of Mark 18 b) Mary in the Gospel of Matthew 22 c) Mary in the Gospel of Luke 26 d) Mary in the Gospel of John 37 e) Summary 45 2. Mary in Patristics 48 a) The Protevangelium of James 48 b) Mary as the New Eve 53 c) Mary as the archetype of the Church 56 d) Mary’s purity and lack of sin 58 e) Virginity and labour pains 60 3. Dogmatic Precepts of Mariology 64 a) Perpetual virginity 64 b) Mary as the new human being freed from original sin 80 c) Other dogmatic precepts 85 4. Mary in the Political Theology of Late Antiquity 93 a) The political situation during the emergence of the Qurʾan 93 b) The religious propaganda of Heraclius 101 c) Mary as military commander 20 d) Jewish apocalyptic counter-images 111 II. Mary in the Qur'an 116 1. The Surah Maryam 118 a) Zechariah and John the Baptist (1–15) 118 b) Mary’s withdrawal and the proclamation of Jesus’s birth (16–21) 132 c) Pregnancy and birth (22–26) 143 d) Mary’s conflicts and Jesus as the bringer of peace 153 e) Mary as the mother of Jesus and as a prophet? 160 f) Summary 169 2. The Surah Āl ʿImrān 170 a) On the genealogy of Mary 172 b) Mary’s birth and childhood – the connection with Zechariah 176 c) The first Annunciation scene 187 d) The second Annunciation scene 197 e) Other verses from the Medinan period prior to the confrontation with Byzantium 203 f) Summary 210 3. The Surah al-Māʾida 213 a) Criticism of the political Mariology of Byzantium 213 b) Criticism of the imperial downplaying of Mary’s humanity 216 c) On the significance of Mary’s eating 221 d) Limits and opportunities of the presentation of Mary in the Surah al-Māʾida 229 III. Mary in the Context of Islamic Systematic Theology 232 1. The Qurʾanic Mary as an Impulse for Prophetology 234 a) The portrayal of Mary as an impulse for Islamic prophetology 235 b) On the meaning of vulnerability in the relationship with God 237 c) Was Mary a prophet? 240 2. The Qurʾanic Mary as a Stimulus to a Traditional Understanding of God’s Actions 250 a) Distinctions in the perception of miracles in classical scholastic theology 250 b) On the crisis of the classical perception of the concept of miracles in the modern period and its consequences for the distinctions drawn by classical theology 254 c) A reappraisal of our understanding of miracles through the Qurʾanic Mary 258 d) Mary and Muhammad 262 3. Mary as a Figure of Emancipation 265 a) The story of Mary in the Qurʾan as a stimulus for greater gender equality 265 b) Mary as a boundary breaker 268 c) Mary as a stumbling-block and an incitement to subversion 272 4. Mary as an Aesthetic Role Model 276 a) An invitation to visibly reserve something for God alone 277 b) An invitation to a culture of disruption and renunciation 279 5. In Dialogue with Christianity 284 a) Obstacles to dialogue 284 b) Between appropriation and syncretism 286 c) A warning against projecting 290 IV. Implications for Comparative Theology 294 1. Christian Perspectives 296 a) Intensification: freedom through devotion 296 b) Recovery: Mary as a prophet and as a protagonist of anti-imperial theology 297 c) Reinterpretation: Mary as a transgressor of boundaries 298 d) Appropriation: from a Christian mascot to a typological figure binding together religions 300 e) Rectification: rehabilitation of a Mariology based on prerogatives 302 f) Reaffirmation: Mary’s lowliness as a pointer to God’s kenosis 306 2. Islamic Perspectives 309 a) Intensification: on the beauty and the political significance of Mary 309 b) Recovery: Muhammad’s special connection with Mary 310 c) Reinterpretation: on the dialectical interconnectedness of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ before God – clarity in the process 312 d) Appropriation: Mary and God’s unqualified gift of grace 316 e) Rectification: Mary as a warning to exercise care in passing theological judgement on others 317 f) Reaffirmation: radicalism and the Golden Mean 319 Bibliography 324 Index 342 An entire chapter (surah) of the Qur?an bears her name. She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur?an indeed; her name appears more frequently than that of either Muhammad or Jesus. From the earliest times to the present day, Mary has continued to be held in high regard by Christians and Muslims alike. And yet Mary has also been the cause of much rancour and tension between these two world religions. In this groundbreaking study, Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch painstakingly reconstruct the picture of Mary that is presented in the Qur?an and show how veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church intersects and interacts with the testimony of the Qur?an. Their sensitive and scholarly treatise is an important contribution to constructive interfaith dialogue in the 21st century.0Muna Tatari read Islamic Studies and Theology at the universities of Hamburg and Amman. She is currently Professor of Islamic Systematic Theology at the University of Paderborn.0Klaus von Stosch is currently Professor of Catholic Theology and Didactics and Chair of the Centre for Comparative Theology and Cultural Studies at the University of Paderborn.

A sensitive consideration of Mary, mother of Jesus, in the Qur'an. An entire chapter (surah) is dedicated to her, and she is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an—indeed, her name appears more frequently than that of either Muhammad or Jesus. From the earliest times to the present day, Mary, the mother of Jesus, continues to be held in high regard by Christians and Muslims alike, yet she has also been the cause of much tension between these two religions.In this groundbreaking study, Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch painstakingly reconstruct the picture of Mary that is presented in the Qur'an and show how veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church intersects and interacts with the testimony of the Qur'an. This sensitive and scholarly treatise offers a significant contribution to contemporary interfaith dialogue.