101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 4: Islamic History – Reason 53
One of the challenges set by the Quran goes as follows:
Surah An-Nisa (4:82), “Do they not then reflect on the Quran? If it had been from anyone other than Allah, they would have found in it much discrepancy.”
Yet, this specific reason has seen many Christians and non-Muslims challenge the authenticity of the Quran.
According to the Bible, Mary, Mother of Jesus, has the following lineage:
- Daughter of Joachim
- 1st century CE
- Has no brothers
- Found in the New Testament (Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).
In the Torah, there is a less significant figure called Miriam, whose lineage is:
- Daughter of Amram
- Sister of Aaron and Moses
- 13th century BCE
- Found in the Old Testament (Books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).
Note that these are two very distinct characters who lived some 1300 years apart. One lived in the era of Moses, and one in the Era of Essa (Jesus). Each existed in a different set of books, one in the Bible and one in the Torah. The only thing that links them together is that they sound the same.
Then comes the Quran. According to the Quran, who is Mary the mother of Essa (Jesus)? First, her name is Mariyam (sounds very similar to Miriam). This is a local dialect because many Arab Christians call her Mariyam. But then the Quran declares Mariyam, the mother of Jesus, to be the daughter of Imram (Quran 3: 33-49, and in verses 3:35 and 66:12) and the sister of Aaron (Quran 19:27-28). Now, she is starting to sound more like Miriam of the Torah and less like Mary of the Bible.
The Quran does not stop there, as it dedicates a whole chapter (Surah 3) of the Quran to Imran the father of Mary.
What do Christian historians and critics of Islam suggest has happened? They argue that the Quran confuses those two historical figures, some 1300 years apart (2000 years before the Prophet’s time), just because they sound the same. They speculate that the Prophet got it wrong. Therefore, it points to a discrepancy that seriously challenges the claim that the Quran is authentic and from an all-knowing god. Moreover, they argue that all three verses that say Mary’s father is Imran are Madina verses. The Prophet’s mentor, Waraqah Ibn Nufal, passed many years earlier in Mecca. That may be what happened: the Prophet made that mistake, and there was no one with knowledge to fix it.
Islamic apologists’ response: In Arabic, Joachim is translated as Imran. Furthermore, when the Quran says Mary, the sister of Aaron (born 1300 years earlier), it means they are related to each other in Islam. Therefore, Aaron is her brother in Islam and not her actual brother in life. This comes from the Hadith:
Sahih Muslim 2135:
Mughira b. Shu’ba reported:
When I came to Najran, they (the Christians of Najran) asked me: You read” O sister of Harun” (i. e. Hadrat Maryam) in the Qur’an, whereas Moses was born much before Jesus. When I came back to Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) I asked him about that, whereupon he said: The (people of the old age) used to give names (to their persons) after the names of Apostles and pious persons who had gone before them.
https://sunnah.com/muslim:2135
>> Our response: Joachim does not sound like Imran, and it’s not even close! The name Jakeem (or Hakeem) would be closer phonetically to Joachim than Imran. What is clear to anyone reading this: Amram and Imran are phonetically much closer. The suggestion that Mary is the brother of Aaron in Islam is a flimsy excuse. Moses, being the brother of Aaron, is a much more significant figure who suffered in his role as leader, communicating with God, delivering his people from Egypt, and receiving a special message – in his case the Ten Commandments. Moses would have surely been a better ‘brother in Islam’ to Mary. But here is where it gets interesting, the Prophet did not say Mary is Aaron’s sister in Islam. Closer examination of the response shows that it does not address the point at all. The Prophet’s response is: “The (people of the old age) used to give names (to their persons) after the names of Apostles and pious persons who had gone before them.”
What this statement says: In earlier times, it was common for people to name their children after revered individuals, such as apostles, prophets, or other righteous figures from history or religious tradition. Well, we already know that. Many people in the Islamic world call their children Mohammad for this specific reason. This does not address the naming of Mary as Aaron’s sister. And if you remove the brackets (added by the translator) you could almost read someone unable to come up with an excuse on the spot: “The used to give names after the names of Apostles and pious persons who had gone before them.”
Evidently, this was not a good excuse, as the Christians of Najran are not reported to have converted or said anything impressive after that. If I were to speculate, I would say they left that evening back on their camels, thinking, “This guy has no clue!”