8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 1/28
Imrans Fatherhood: Part I
Mary as ³the daughter of Imran´ in Surah 3:35 and 66:12
Masud Masihiyyen
In the Islamic scripture Jesus¶ mother Mary (³Mariam´ in Arabic) is identified as Aaron¶ssister once (Surah 19:28) and Imran¶s daughter twice (Surah 66:12 and Surah 3:35). When
combined, these teachings astonishingly designate Jesus¶ mother Mary in exactly the sameway as the Old Testament prophetess Mary (Miriam in Hebrew), who is said to be Aaron¶s
sister in one verse (Exodus 15:20) and Amram¶s daughter in a few verses (Numbers 26:59, 1Chronicles 6:3). Unsurprisingly, Muslim scholars do their best to separate these two Mariams
in order to stave off the polemics targeting the historical accuracy of the Qur'an.
In the process of isolating the Mary of the Old Testament from Jesus¶ mother Mary, Muslim
scholars mostly tend to interpret the word ³sister´ in the phrase ³sister of Aaron´ in Surah
19:28 metaphorically and talk of it in terms of racial or spiritual affiliation.1 However, both of
these arguments fail to answer the simple question why the sense of the word ³sister´ must be
taken metaphorically instead of literally. The particular context of the verses below does not
make the literal sense of the word ³sister´ implausible or impossible:
Then she brought him to her own folk, carrying him. They said: O Mary! Thou hast comewith an amazing thing. O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a wicked man nor was thy
mother a harlot. (Surah 19:27-28 Pickthall)
Evidently, in Surah 19:28 Mary is designated as Aaron¶s sister right before the reference to
her BIOLOGICAL parents. This demonstrates that Mary¶s folk made a connection between
her relation to Aaron and her relation to her parents. Metaphorical parents? No! Biological
parents! The same goes for her sisterhood. Ignoring the context of this verse, Muslim scholars
struggle to construe Mary¶s sisterhood symbolically and invent absurd theories that either go
against logic through Mary¶s designation as the sister of her forefather (!) or disregard the
fact that of all the female figures of the Qur'an specifically and only Mary is identified as
Aaron¶s sister. Thus, it remains a mystery why particularly Mary is associated particularly
with Aaron if the word ³sister´ expresses a spiritual or any kind of metaphorical resemblance
between two people. At this point, a final attempt is made to affiliate Mary crucially with
Aaron on the basis of Mary¶s dedication to the service of the Temple, but this affiliation isnot supported by the Qur'an, which by no means talks of the Levites nor draws a link between
Aaron and the Jewish Temple.
Although Islamic scholars and commentators insist on interpreting the word ³sister´ as being
metaphorical in Surah 19:28 with no good reason other than saving the Qur'an from the
critique of a major historical blunder, they in general agree that it is impossible to construe
Mary¶s identification as the daughter of Imran in Surah 66:12 metaphorically, for the
narrative of Mary¶s nativity and infancy in Surah 3:35 presents Mary¶s mother as Imran¶s
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 2/28
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 3/28
Remember when a women of Imran said, µMy Lord, I have vowed to Thee what is in mywomb to be dedicated to Thy service. So do Thou accept it of me; Verily Thou alone art All-
Hearing, All-Knowing.¶ (Sher Ali)
The question that should be posed at this point of the discussion is whether this alternative
translation is linguistically possible, having been allowed by the rules of Arabic language.
The answer to this question is NO although the Arabic word ³imraat´ generically means³woman´ and has to be translated as ³a woman´ in some cases, depending on grammatical
construction in which the word is found. The reference to the queen of Sheba in the 27th
Surah of the Qur'an (verse 23) exemplifies the use of the word ³imraat´ with the sense of ³a
woman´. In all the Qur'an translations below the Arabic word ³imraat´ in the original text is
unanimously translated as ³a woman´ into English:
Lo! I found a woman ruling over them, and she hath been given (abundance) of all things,
and hers is a mighty throne. (Pickthall)
"I found (there) a woman ruling over them and provided with every requisite; and she has a
magnificent throne. (Yusuf Ali)
"I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given all things that could be possessed
by any ruler of the earth, and she has a great throne. (Hilali-Khan)
Surely I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given abundance and she has a
mighty throne. (Shakir)
`I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given every necessary thing and she
has a mighty throne. (Sher Ali)
"I found a woman ruling them, who is blessed with everything, and possesses a tremendous
palace. (Khalifa)
I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given of everything, and she possesses a
mighty throne. (Arberry)
Verily, I found a woman ruling over them, and she was given all things, and she had a
mighty throne. (Palmer)
I found a woman reigning over them, gifted with everything, and she hath a splendid throne.(Rodwell)
I found a woman to reign over them, who is provided with every thing [requisite for a
prince], and hath a magnificent throne. (Sale)
Innee wajadtu imraatan tamlikuhum waootiyat min kulli shay-in walaha AAarshun
AAatheemun (Arabic transliteration)
Now that we know ³imraat´ in Arabic sometimes means ³a woman´, our next question must
be which Arabic word corresponds to the word ³wife´ in English. While searching the
Qur'an, we see that in many places where a man¶s wife is in view, the word ³zawja´ is used.For instance, the accounts of genesis in the Qur'an define Eve as Adam¶s ³zawja´, which is
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 4/28
the same word that recurs in the Islamic scripture whenever a reference is made toMuhammad¶s wives. To compare:
We said: "O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden.... (Surah 2:35 Yusuf Ali)Waqulna
ya adamu oskun anta wazawjuka aljannata...
Then We said: "O Adam! Verily, this is an enemy to thee and thy wife... (Surah 20:117 Yusuf Ali) Faqulna ya adamu inna hatha AAaduwwun laka walizawjika...
Behold! thou didst say to one who had received the grace of God and thy favour: "Retainthou (In wedlock) thy wife, and fear God." (Surah 33:37 Yusuf Ali) Wa-ith taqoolu lillathee
anAAama Allahu AAalayhi waanAAamta AAalayhi amsik AAalayka zawjaka waittaqiAllaha...
O Prophet! why do you forbid (yourself) that which Allah has made lawful for you; you seek
to please your wives; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (Surah 66:1 Shakir) Ya ayyuhaalnnabiyyu lima tuharrimu ma ahalla Allahu laka tabtaghee mardata azwajika...
Still, our further search reveals that the Qur'an does not only use the word ³zawja´ to mean
³wife´.2
Quite surprisingly, while referring to many unnamed female figures in relation to
their husbands, the Qur'an always uses the word IMRAAT instead of zawja:
The Egyptian ruler¶s (el-Aziz) wife: imraatu alAAazeezi (Surah 12:30 and 12:51)Pharaoh¶s wife: imraatu firAAawna (Surah 28:9 and 66:11)
Noah¶s wife: imraata noohin (Surah 66:10)Lot¶s wife: imraata lootin (Surah 66:10)
The most interesting thing is that the scholars who oddly translate the phrase "imraatu
AAimrana" in Surah 3:35 as ³a woman of Imran´ do not follow the same course while
translating the five verses listed above. Instead of saying ³a woman of El-Aziz´, ³a woman of Pharaoh´, ³a woman of Noah´, they confess and concede that the word "imraat" corresponds
to the English word "wife" when used in possessive form before a proper male noun:
Surah 12:30 and 12:51 imraatu alAAazeezi :
The wife of the (great) 'Aziz and the 'Aziz's wife (Yusuf Ali)The chief's wife (Shakir)
The wife of Aziz (Sher Ali)
Surah 28:9 and 66:11: imraatu firAAawna
The wife of Pharaoh (Yusuf Ali)Firon¶s wife and the wife of Firon (Shakir)
Pharaoh¶s wife and the wife of Pharaoh (Sher Ali)
Surah 66:10 imraata noohin
the wife of Noah (Yusuf Ali)
the wife of Nuh (Shakir)the wife of Noah (Sher Ali)
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 5/28
Surah 66:10: imraata lootin
the wife of Lut (Yusuf Ali)the wife of Lut (Shakir)
the wife of Lot (Sher Ali)
Although exactly the same structure is used in Surah 3:35 (imraatu AAimrana), we wonder why some translators (Yusuf Ali, Shakir, and Sher Ali) show aversion to the use of the
English word "wife" when Mary¶s biological mother is in view. Our analysis shows that the
translations of these particular scholars lack consistency and cause doubts since their weird
insistence on replacing the word "wife" with "a woman" only in Surah 3:35 points at their
will to tamper with the Qur'an for the sake of avoiding a theological problem.
These translators do not also know that trying to obscure or conceal the true meaning of aQur'an verse through inaccurate and misleading translation will be to no avail because even
the alleged occurrence of the phrase ³a woman of´ in Surah 3:35 would not suffice to indicateMary¶s mother¶s being a descendant of Imran. If the word "imraat" in that particular verse
meant "a woman", it would be followed by the Arabic preposition "min", which signifies
being part of a group/family/nation/race. More, the proper noun (Imran) would be followed by a word indicating race or nation. For example, the Qur'an talks of an unnamed man who
was a believer despite his being an Egyptian. To express the man¶s being a member of
Pharaoh¶s nation/people, the verse below locates the structure MIN ALI before the word
Pharaoh:
A Believer, a man from among the people of Pharaoh, who had concealed his faith, said....
(Surah 40:28 Yusuf Ali) Waqala rajulun mu/minun min ali firAAawna yaktumu
eemanahu....
If the Qur¶an had actually pertained to Mary¶s mother as a woman descending from Imran¶s
family, it would have used the same structure above and identified Mary¶s mother as a
woman (imraat) MIN ALI IMRAANA. However, the current form of the sentence in Surah
3:35 lacks both the preposition denoting source (MIN in Arabic) and the word³family/lineage´ (ALI in Arabic).3 This is rather natural because the Qur¶an talks of Mary¶s
mother as Imran¶s woman, in the sense that she was Imran¶s wife.
It should also be noted that Surah 3 first refers to Imran¶s progeny (v. 33) and then relates
Mary¶s birth from Imran¶s wife (v. 35), but this specific order does not suffice to validate the
odd translation through which Imran¶s wife is turned into a woman of his lineage. Imran¶s
identification as the father of a lineage/family in verse 33 does not mean that the woman who
gave birth to Mary was a descendant of the same lineage. Although unusual, it is not
unreasonable to talk of a man¶s progeny in the first place and then explain how that progeny
came into existence. Above all, the Quranic reference to Imran¶s lineage in the same contextas Mary¶s birth in Surah 3 is the outcome of Muhammad¶s faulty plagiarism from apocryphalChristian literature, which will be discussed in our second article on Imran¶s fatherhood with
regard to his presentation as an ancestor like and along with Abraham.
Finally, the second instance in the Qur¶an where Mary is identified as Imran¶s daughter is inSurah 66:12:
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 6/28
And Mary the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her body) of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His
Revelations, and was one of the devout (servants). (Yusuf Ali)
The theme and context of this chapter function as a key to the accurate interpretation of
Imran¶s fatherhood in the final verse. This is also related to the question how one can know
with certainty that Muhammad regarded Imran as Mary¶s biological father rather than anancestor even if the verse referring to Mary¶s mother as Imran¶s wife in Surah 3 were missing
from the Qur'an. Strikingly, an objective and careful reader of Surah 66 would conclude that
Mary had been born of Imran¶s wife even if the Qur'an did not talk of Mary¶s mother in
another instance. This conclusion is derived from the answer given to the question why Mary
was identified as Imran¶s daughter in Surah 66.
Although Muhammad did not talk about genealogies and ancestors in this short chapter, he
felt the necessity to refer to Mary in association with Imran. Before examining the theme and
context of Surah 66, we must remember that Muhammad did not refer to Imran in Surah 21
although he used a rather similar structure to the one in Surah 66:
And (remember) her who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our Spirit, andWe made her and her son a Sign for all peoples. (Surah 21:91 Yusuf Ali)
And Mary the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her
body) of Our spirit « (Surah 66:12 Yusuf Ali)
If we compare these two verses, we can first see that in both instances Mary is mentioned
along with a male: her son in Surah 21 and her father in Surah 66. It was rather natural for
Muhammad to talk of Mary¶s chastity and her son¶s miraculous conception in the same
context as two related incidents since he endorsed the doctrine of Jesus¶ birth from a virgin
mother although he removed its Christian theological content. While devising Surah 66 at a
later period, Muhammad replaced Jesus with Imran though. The reason for this replacement
is understandable if we check the type of relation between the male and female figures
occurring in chapter 66. The introductory verse gives the first signal that this Surah willcontain divine commandments and judgments that will solve a big problem Muhammad had
with some of his wives.
O Prophet! Why bannest thou that which Allah hath made lawful for thee, seeking to please
thy wives? And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (Surah 66:1 Pickthall)
Thus, the central male character of Surah 66 is Muhammad whilst the central female
characters are two of his wives, who incurred his wrath and hostility.
When the Prophet confided a fact unto one of his wives and when she afterward divulged itand Allah apprised him thereof, he made known (to her) part thereof and passed over part.
And when he told it her she said: Who hath told thee? He said: The Knower, the Aware hath
told me. (Surah 66:3 Pickthall)
Muhammad¶s fury is instantly ascribed to Allah, who starts a heavy bombardment on those
two women by threatening to turn them into divorcees. Allah supposedly says that those two
women are dependent on Muhammad whereas Muhammad is not dependent on them since
Allah¶s omnipotence would provide new and better maids or widows for him:
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 7/28
If ye twain turn unto Allah repentant, (ye have cause to do so) for your hearts desired (the ban); and if ye aid one another against him (Muhammad) then lo! Allah, even He, is his
Protecting Friend, and Gabriel and the righteous among the believers; and furthermore theangels are his helpers. It may happen that his Lord, if he divorce you, will give him in your
stead wives better than you, submissive (to Allah), believing, pious, penitent, devout,
inclined to fasting, widows and maids. (Surah 66:4-5 Pickthall)
We later discover in the same Surah that Muhammad needed some historical examples to
prove his case and intimidate his wives. In verse 10 he refers to two prophets and presents
their wives as examples for the tragic end of disbelievers:
God sets forth, for an example to the Unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lut :
they were (respectively) under two of our righteous servants, but they were false to their
(husbands), and they profited nothing before God on their account, but were told: "Enter ye
the Fire along with (others) that enter!" (Surah 66:10 Yusuf Ali)
The thematic link between this verse and Muhammad¶s problem with some of his wives
introduced in verse 1-5 is obvious and illustrates Muhammad¶s wish to draw parallelism
between two of his wives and the disobedient wives of the two former prophets. No matter what kind of theological implications this parallelism alludes to, it identifies the unnamed
female characters in verse 10 as ³wives´, affiliating them with male figures (Noah and Lot)
on the basis of a marital union.
Two more men (Pharaoh and Imran) and two more women (Pharaoh¶s wife and Mary) are
referred to in the two final verses of Surah 66. Pharaoh¶s wife is introduced as the first
example of obedient and believing (married) women:
And God sets forth, as an example to those who believe the wife of Pharaoh: Behold she
said: "O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to Thee, a mansion in the Garden, and save me
from Pharaoh and his doings, and save me from those that do wrong" (Surah 66:11 Yusuf
Ali)
Like Pharaoh¶s wife, Mary displays a sharp contrast with Noah and Lot¶s wife in terms of
faith and obedience. The interesting point is that of all the female characters referred to in
Surah 66, only Mary is designated as a man¶s daughter rather than as wife. This, of course, is
a result of Muhammad¶s wish to stress Mary¶s virginity and include her into the category of
the faithful virgins that his Allah would give him in case he divorced his naughty wives.4
Mary¶s relation to her father, unlike the other female figures who are related to their husbands
in Surah 66, indicates that Muhammad regarded Imran as Mary¶s immediate father rather
than her forefather. A married woman would naturally be affiliated with her husband instead
of her father since marital union would form a new family for her, the head of which would
be the husband. Unmarried women (virgins), on the other hand, would be linked to their biological fathers. Mary belonged to the latter group and was naturally mentioned along withher father.
SUMMARY
Even though the Arabic word IMRAAT primarily means WOMAN in English, its particular
use in possessive form with a male name corresponds to the English word WIFE. Since
Mary¶s mother is identified as Imran¶s IMRAAT in Surah 3:35, it is impossible for Muslim
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 8/28
scholars to deny the fact that the Qur'an regarded Jesus¶ mother Mary literally as Imran¶sdaughter. The analysis of the context of Surah 66 makes it clearer that Muhammad never
thought of a metaphorical or symbolic relation when he presented Mary as Imran¶s daughter.Muslim commentators who think otherwise and try to support their interpretation with the
help of their odd translation distort the Qur'an and disregard what their scripture actually
teaches so that they can defend it against the charge of a major historical error.
Further reading
y Sura 3:33 and Mary, the daughter of Imran
Continue with Imran's Fatherhood: Part II.
APPENDIXZawja versus imraat
An Islamic article discussing the different words employed in the Qur¶an with similar and
related meanings provides further evidence that the word IMRAAT in Arabic does not onlymean a woman, but also wife:
In the Qur¶an we find, amongst others, two usages of the word ³wife´ in Arabic ± zawjah and
imraa. Although they seem completely synonymous at face value, there is one subtle
difference that shows the extreme importance of word choice in the Qur¶an.
The aim of the author is to show that these two words in Arabic are not synonymous eventhough they both mean ³wife´. The distinction is based on the notion of mutual compatibility.
If both the spouses are perfectly compatible in regard to their characteristics in the sense thatthey are exact matches, the word ³zawja´ is used. If one of the spouses fails to fulfill this
criterion, the word ³zawja´ is replaced with ³imraat´. To our surprise, the article does notexplain why the Qur¶an has the word ³imraat´ instead of ³zawja´ in Surah 3:35 although
nothing implicit or explicit is stated about Imran¶s or his wife¶s failing the criterion of compatibility.
Further, this linguistic analysis disregards the occurrence of another Arabic word for wife in
the Islamic scripture. In a few verses the original language of the Qur¶an employs the word
³sahibat´, which is translated as spouse/consort/wife:
Wonderful Originator of the heavens and the earth! How could He have a son when He hasno consort, and He (Himself) created everything, and He is the Knower of all things. (Surah
6:101 Shakir) (BadeeAAu alssamawati waal-ardi anna yakoonu lahu waladun walam takunlahu sahibatun wakhalaqa kulla shay-in wahuwa bikulli shay-in AAaleemun)
And exalted is the Majesty of our Lord: He has taken neither a wife nor a son. (Surah 72:3
Yusuf Ali) Waannahu taAAala jaddu rabbina ma ittakhatha sahibatan wala waladan
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 9/28
And his spouse and his son² (Surah 80:36 Shakir) Wasahibatihi wabaneehi
Meaning of the word Zawja
It is noteworthy that the word ZAWJA, like the word IMRAAT, does not always correspondto the English word ³wife´. This is because ZAWJA primarily means ³pair´ and signifies a
wife only when it is used in association with a man and in a possessive form. For instance, itis impossible and unreasonable to interpret the Arabic word ZAWJA in the following verses
as WIFE since these verses refer to two sexes or genders instead of particularly female
spouses or mates:
Glory be to Him Who created pairs of all things, of what the earth grows, and of their kindand of what they do not know. (Surah 36:36 Shakir) Subhana allathee khalaqa al- azwaja
kullaha mimma tunbitu al-ardu wamin anfusihim wamimma la yaAAlamoona
In both of them are two pairs of every fruit. (Surah 55:52 Shakir) Feehima min kullifakihatin zawjani.
Until when Our command came and water came forth from the valley, We said: Carry in it
two of all things, a pair, and your own family-- except those against whom the word has
already gone forth, and those who believe. And there believed not with him but a few. (Surah
11:40 Shakir) Hatta itha jaa amruna wafara alttannooru qulna ihmil feeha min kullin
zawjayni ithnayni waahlaka illa man sabaqa AAalayhi alqawlu waman amana wama amana
maAAahu illa qaleelun
The use of the word ³imraat´ with a possessive pronoun:
As we have seen in the main section of our article, the word IMRAAT means wife instead of
woman when used in possessive form before a proper male noun. The same rule is valid also
for the cases where a proper noun is replaced with a pronoun in possessive form. For example, when the Qur'an refers to Abraham¶s wife Sara ± although it never names her ±, it
uses the word IMRAAT:
Then his wife came up in great grief, and she struck her face and said: An old barren woman!
(Surah 51:29 Shakir) Faaqbalati imraatuhu fee sarratin fasakkat wajhaha waqalat
AAajoozun AAaqeemun.
And his wife was standing (by), so she laughed, then We gave her the good news of Ishaqand after Ishaq of (a son¶s son) Yaqoub. (Surah 11:71 Shakir) Waimraatuhu qa-imatun
fadahikat fabashsharnaha bi-ishaqa wamin wara-i ishaqa yaAAqooba.
Islamic tradition depicting Mary as Muhammad¶s virgin wife in paradise:
After I had written this paper, it was pointed out to me, that Muhammad apparently took the11th and 12th verse of Surah 66 not only as hypothetical examples and illustrations (after all,
being long dead, these women could not replace his wives on earth in case he were to divorce
them), but he fell in love with the idea of equating Pharaoh¶s wife with the widows and Jesus¶mother with the virgins promised in Surah 66:5 and then claimed that Allah would actually
marry him to these two exceptional women in the next life, in Paradise. This shocking claim
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 10/28
is discussed in detail in Sam Shamoun¶s article Mary the Mother of Jesus: A Houri in
Paradise?
Footnotes1
Ibn Kathir follows this strategy in his authoritative commentary on Surah 19 (*).2
More information on the sense of the words ³imraat´ and ³zawja´ can be found in the
appendix.3 In the Qur'an another word used to express affiliation with a forefather is THURRIYYAT,
which is translated into English as progeny/generation/descendant/seed (Surah 6:84, 6:87,
7:172). Surah 3:35 has neither the word ALI nor the word THURRIYYAT.4
The specific hadith which states that Muhammad would get the wife of Pharaoh and Jesus'
mother Mary as his wives in Paradise confirms the veracity of this interpretation. See the
appendix.
Imran's Fatherhood: Part II
Evolution in the Qur¶an: The Patriarchs
Masud Masihiyyen
INTRODUCTION
In our first article on the theme of Imran¶s fatherhood in the Qur¶an, we examined the verses
affiliating Jesus¶ mother Mary with Imran as his biological daughter (Surah 3:35 and 66:12).
While analyzing the first verse, we demonstrated how some English translators of the Qur¶anmade vain efforts to interpret Mary¶s relation to Imran metaphorically and suggested
inaccurate and misleading translations to support their arguments. With the help of the
context of Surah 66 we also showed that Mary¶s identification as Imran¶s daughter in verse
12 was meant to be literal rather than metaphorical. In addition to these two verses, Imran¶s
name occurs in the entire Qur¶an for the third and last time in Surah 3:33, where he is
introduced as an important patriarch along with Adam, Noah, and Abraham. In this second
article we shall focus on Imran¶s presentation in the Qur¶an as the father of a progeny and tryto explain how his being the father of a progeny is associated with his being the husband of
Mary¶s biological mother. The mystery of Imran¶s two-folded fatherhood cannot be analyzedand understood independent of the concept of evolution in the Qur¶an though.
Despite having a simple creed that is equal to insipid theology, Islam cannot be asserted tolack the notion of mystery. Although Muhammad never intended to make his statements
puzzling or mysterious, he most of the time achieved to leave his followers in suspense who
were later saved from the pit of suspense and bewilderment with the help of br ooding
commentators. The scrutiny of some vague and difficult verses of the Qur'an strikingly
proves that Muhammad kept faithful neither to the Biblical accounts he copied nor to his own
statements that he had devised earlier through plagiarism. In some cases Muhammad turnsout to be a writer that first confirmed a doctrine he heard from the People of the Book, but
later modified it in accordance with the new material he drew from some other sources.
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 11/28
Muhammad¶s reliance on this method was to such a degree that he made the notion of abrogation an official dogma of his religion and scripture. Unlike the cases of abrogation, the
evolution of certain teachings and narratives in Muhammad¶s mental world was hidden andthus difficult to detect, but they still illustrate his ignorance and hesitance in addition to his
efforts to combine and reconcile differing materials.
What actually caused the evolution of certain Islamic doctrines was mostly Muhammad¶sfamiliarity with the basic tenets of Judaism and Christianity, which he endorsed in a rush to
win the favor of the Jews and Christians and build up his new religion on the same ground as
that of the former monotheistic faiths. The elements that played a significant role in the
evolution of some of those teachings were not limited to the innovations Muhammad made in
the days following his migration to Medina so that he could forcefully attach himself to the
lineage of the former prophets. Since his sources were mostly apocryphal writings, he felt
obliged to adapt his previous teachings to what those examples of apocryphal literature
suggested. These adaptations for the sake of reconciliation resulted in awkward formulations
that made little sense due to odd replacements and modifications.
A brilliant example of that sort of a modification and Muhammad¶s evolving teachings is
found in Surah 3, which is named Âl-i `Imran (The Family of Imran). As we stated in our firstarticle on Imran¶s fatherhood, the Qur¶an contends in Surah 3:35 that Jesus¶ mother Mary
was born of Imran¶s wife. In verse 33 of the same chapter Mary¶s father Imran is claimed to be the father of a family in the same way as Abraham:
God did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of 'Imrn above
all people. (Surah 3:33 Yusuf Ali)
The formula in this particular verse naturally begins with Adam; the first man created by God
and made the father of the human race, and continues with Noah, who is remarkable in
human history as the person that became the father of mankind after the flood. The third
person is Abraham, who is the father of Isaac, and through him, of Jacob, the father of Israel.Things seem normal until the verse names the fourth and last person: Imran. This name is the
Arabic version of the Hebrew name Amram, who was the father of Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam (Mary in English) according to the Biblical accounts. In the Bible, and thus in
Judaism and Christianity, Imran is a figure whose name appears exclusively in genealogiesand who is known only because of his famous children. Apart from his age and the name of
his wife no details are given.1
This is why the occurrence of his name along with father Abraham in a verse reckoning the major patriarchs sounds quite weird.
The Qur¶an baffles us all the more when it equates this patriarch Imran in verse 33 with
Mary¶s father and Jesus¶ grandfather in verse 35! From this mysterious identification we
understand that while referring to the selection/preference of certain patriarchs and their
progenies, Muhammad jumped from Abraham to Jesus¶ supposed grandfather Imran,skipping and disregarding many generations although most of the prophets descended fromAbraham¶s son Jacob, whose name we would expect to see between Ibrahim and Imran. The
awkward transition in Surah 3:33 from Abraham to Virgin Mary¶s father supposedly namedImran is the basic problem posed by this verse, for Imran in Judaism and Christianity, unlike
in Islam, is nothing more than the father of Moses and his siblings and is not considered asignificant patriarch similar to Abraham. Our analysis of the names of patriarchs and their
particular order in Surah 3:35 will illustrate why Muhammad needed an evolution in one of
his basic teachings about the patriarchs and how he accomplished the modification. The
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 12/28
answer to this question will also solve the mysterious reference to Imran in Surah 3:33 and35.
Evolution from Joachim to Imran and the problem posed by it
One of the prominent historical mistakes of the Islamic scripture is certainly related to the
name it ascribes to Mary's father. Although Christian Churches tend to name Mary's father ³Joachim´ in accordance with traditional teachings mostly drawn from non-canonical
literature, Mohammad argued that Mary's father had the name Imran. The reason for the
modification of the name Joachim to Imran in Islam was dependent on Muhammad's weird
and faulty conclusion that Jesus' mother Mary was the same person as the woman named
Mary in the Old Testament, who was said to be the daughter of Amram and sister of Aaron.
At first it seems uncanny and contradictory that Muhammad modified the name Joachim toImran although he used the apocryphal Gospels of Infancy as his primary source while trying
to provide historical information on Jesus and His mother. This is an issue that cannot bedismissed with the help of the supposition that Muhammad was a careless or blind borrower.
It is true that he did not necessarily keep faithful to the original version of the narratives he
copied, but the particular alteration applied to Mary's father's name in the Qur'an is sounusual that it points at a deliberate act of replacement. The denial of the Christian tradition
that ascribed the name Joachim to the virgin's father would give birth to a gross mistake in
Muhammad's scripture when combined with the chain of a few hasty conclusions he drew
from the similarities between Mary's story in the apocryphal Gospels and the 20th verse of
Exodus 15.2
The first question that needs to be answered is why Muhammad reacted and objected to the
name Joachim, which occurred without any exception as Mary's father's name in all of the
non-canonical texts of Christ's birth and infancy. Muhammad¶s desire to avoid the name
Joachim was relevant to the teachings given in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, which he
consulted while forming the first Islamic narrative about Christianity: Surah 19 of the Qur'an.It is not difficult to identify the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew as the source and framework of
the story about Mary in the 19th Surah since only in that chapter is it related that Marymiraculously ate fresh fruit of a palm tree (date) and drank from the rivulet created for her
(vv. 23-26), and this miraculous incident appears only in Pseudo-Matthew's narrative (chapter 20), missing from all the other non-canonical accounts of Jesus' infancy.
The priority given by Muhammad or his mentor to the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew for
plagiarism from Christian sources tells us what a hapless person Muhammad was. He washapless because the particular infancy Gospel that he chose did not make a single reference to
John the Baptist. This omission bothered Muhammad a lot as he had heard from Christians
about Zechariah and his son John, whose miraculous birth was recounted in association with
Jesus. The solution he wrought to this problem necessitated the replacement of the nameJoachim with Zechariah in accordance with the substitution of Zechariah's son for Joachim'sdaughter (Mary). Consequently, in the 19th chapter of the Qur¶an:
Joachim¶s daughter Mary¶s miraculous birth (Pseudo-Matthew)
was changed to
Zechariah¶s son John¶s miraculous birth (Surah 19)
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 13/28
Muhammad¶s faulty conclusion was that Joachim could not have been the name of Mary¶sfather since that male name was a fabrication by Pseudo-Matthew, who avoided the names
Zechariah and John. It is baffling that Muhammad became so sure of his fallaciousconclusion that he ascribed the major components of Joachim¶s story to Zechariah and
produced new contradictions with the Biblical accounts about Zechariah¶s lineage. The fact
that Pseudo-Matthew identified Mary¶s father Joachim as a man descending from the tribe of
Judah and that Joachim¶s story had a few thematic parallelisms with the story of Joseph(Jacob¶s son) in the Old Testament prompted Muhammad to designate Zechariah and his son
John in Surah 19 as descendants of the house of Jacob (v. 6) instead of Aaron (Luke 1:5).
This dependence of the Quranic story of the birth of John (Yahya in Islam) on the story of the
miraculous birth of Mary in Pseudo-Matthew is argued at length in my article Surah
Mariam: The Curse of the Apocrypha (see there the narrative about Zechariah and
Appendix I and II).
Interestingly, we see that Muhammad narrated and confirmed the story of Mary¶s nativity in
Surah 3, which he devised in the post-migration period although he had completely ignored
the same account while writing the 19th Surah. What drove Muhammad to change his mindand thus evolve his teachings in Surah 3, which belonged to a later period than Surah 19?
This curious inconsistency finds an explanation when we remember that Muhammad drewheavily from another apocryphal Gospel of infancy for his teachings in the 3rd chapter: The
Gospel of James. The account of Mary¶s nativity in this famous non-canonical Gospel wasendorsed and incorporated into the 3rd chapter of the Qur'an quite smoothly since
Muhammad considered it a reliable story thanks to a reference in it to John¶s father Zechariahas the priest organizing the divinely guided selection of Mary¶s guardian (chapter 8). Further,
unlike the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, the Gospel of James was in line with the things stated
in Luke¶s canonical Gospel with regard to the relation between Zechariah¶s wife and Mary
(compare the 12th chapter of the Gospel of James with Luke 1:39-45). These significant
points may well have convinced Muhammad that there would be nothing wrong with
including the account of Mary¶s nativity into the list of the things to be plagiarized from the
Gospel of James.
Nonetheless, Muhammad noticed that his previous nightmare concerning the name of Mary¶s
father in Pseudo-Matthew repeated itself in the Gospel of James, for the appearance of
Zechariah¶s name in this particular text had by no means changed the name of Mary¶s father.
In other words, James surprisingly agreed with Pseudo-Matthew that Mary¶s father¶s name
was Joachim. This agreement was not appealing to Muhammad though. Coupling his
ignorance with arrogance, he contended that Mary¶s father was not called Joachim, most
likely interpreting the presence of the name Joachim in all Gospels of infancy as the impact
of Pseudo-Matthew¶s allegedly misleading information. As a result, in the Islamic version of
the account of Mary¶s nativity, he had to change the original name Joachim into Imran, the
alternate name he came up with through his misunderstandings.
Muhammad¶s misunderstandings and hasty conclusions regarding the name of Mary¶s father
dated back to the days when he devised Surah 19 and had to refer in that chapter to the
identity of Mary¶s parents while copying from the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew the account of
Mary¶s interrogation by her folk with the charges of an illegitimate affair (chapter 12). As we
said before, Muhammad¶s giving priority to the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and his relevant
objection to the name Joachim in that text marked the beginning of his misfortune. Having
ignored the order of the narrative in that non-canonical Gospel, Muhammad decided to start
the story about Mary with the angelic visit and annunciation, which impelled him to consider
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 14/28
the account of Mary¶s accusation as the only and perfect occasion of a reference to her family. To compare:
Then was assembled a multitude of people which could not be numbered, and Mary was
brought to the temple. And the priests, and her relatives, and her parents wept, and said to
Mary: Confess to the priests your sin, you that wast like a dove in the temple of God, and
received food from the hands of an angel. (Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew chapter 12 )
Then she brought him to her own folk, carrying him. They said: O Mary! Thou hast come
with an amazing thing. O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a wicked man nor was thy
mother a harlot. (Surah 19:27-28).
The particular section that narrated Mary¶s accusation by her people and referred to her
family in Pseudo-Matthew described Mary as a revered female figure that had thecharacteristics of a prophetess. Thanks to his vague remembrance of an Old Testament verse
describing Aaron¶s Sister Mary as a prophetess (Exodus 15:20), Muhammad thought that theHebrew woman named Mary was no one else than Jesus¶ mother. This is why he identified
Mary as the sister of Aaron in Surah 19 and then as the daughter of Imran (Aaron¶s father had
the name Imran) in two verses of the Medina period (Surah 66:12 and 3:35). Thus, thereplacement of the name Joachim with Imran in Surah 3 was a confirmation and continuation
of Muhammad¶s teaching in Surah 19 that Jesus¶ mother Mary was the sister of Aaron.
Now that we know how and why Muhammad changed the original name of Mary¶s father
(Joachim) into Imran, we can get back to the analysis of Imran¶s mysterious insertion into a
verse talking about forefathers and their selected progenies. With the help of our comparative
study, it does not take us a long time to find out that the number and order of the figures in
Surah 3:33 is actually a modified form of another verse belonging to the earlier period of the
Qur'an. Thus, Muhammad¶s teaching about certain ancestors is proven to have undergone
evolution before taking its final form in the third chapter.
To our surprise, we find the original version of Surah 3:33 in the 19th Surah of the Qur'an,
which is remarkable because both Surah 19 and 3 contain narratives about Mary and Jesusthat are obviously plagiarized from the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and that of James,
respectively. The awkward verse having Imran¶s name next to father Abraham is located just before the account of Mary¶s nativity in Surah 3 whereas its original version appears at the
end of the narratives beginning with Zechariah and Mary¶s story and having the recurrentformula ³Mention in the book....´ in Surah 19. The traditional and widely accepted
chronological order of the Qur¶an chapters makes it clear that Muhammad first devised thefollowing verse in the Meccan period:
These are they unto whom Allah showed favour from among the prophets, of the seed of
Adam and of those whom We carried (in the ship) with Noah, and of the seed of Abrahamand Israel, and from among those whom We guided and chose. (Surah 19:58 Pickthall)
and placed it after modification at the introduction to the story of Mary¶s nativity, which hecopied from the Gospel of James:
Lo! Allah preferred Adam and Noah and the Family of Abraham and the Family of 'Imran
above (all His) creatures. (Surah 3:33 Pickthall)
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 15/28
These two verses are amazingly similar because
1. They both refer to the notion of selection with regard to certain ancestors and their progenies
2. They both give four names in total.
Apart from the slight differences stemming from different word choice, the only major discrepancy between Surah 19:58 and Surah 3:33 is the name of the fourth ancestor
mentioned after Abraham. Muhammad turns out to have replaced Israel (Jacob) with Imran
(Mary¶s father Joachim) while devising Surah 3. Needless to say, the teaching given in Surah
19:58 about forefathers and their generations is more plausible and biblically accurate,
reflecting Muhammad¶s faithfulness to the things he heard from Jews and Christians until he
came across the apocryphal Gospel of James and altered Israel to Imran thanks to his
misinterpretation.
Before solving the mystery of Israel¶s (Surah 19:58) evolution to Imran (Surah 3:33), it iscrucial to highlight Muhammad¶s endorsement of the Judaic and Christian doctrines
regarding the patriarchs, Israel¶s relation to them, and Israel¶s being the elected people of
God. The sequence presented in the 58th verse of Surah 19 is perfectly compatible with biblical teachings as it begins with Adam, the father of the human race, and ends in Jacob
(later named Israel), father of the nation called Israel. Even this chronological order reflects
the influence and guidance of the Bible in the production of this verse since Muhammad
mostly disregarded the significance of chronology and thus deviated from the Bible while
recounting the stories of the prophets.
Further, the order of the four people confirmed by Muhammad (Adam-Noah-Abraham-Israel)
reiterated the Biblical teaching that God first created mankind, but then raised up a nation for
Himself. Thus, the act of creation narrowed down and turned into the act of election.
Although all of the four figures were patriarchs (ancestors), two of them (Adam and Noah)
were considered universal patriarchs because they had become the fathers of the human race.Abraham and Jacob, on the other hand, became fathers of the tribes descending from them.
The peculiar formulation in Surah 3:33 illustrates the distinction of the fatherhood of Adamand Noah from that of the other pair.
Judaism and Christianity did not deny Adam and Noah as universal patriarchs, but laid stress
on Jacob¶s (and the 12 tribes descending from him) selection in accordance with the promisemade in Isaac, one of Abraham¶s two sons. In other words, the Bible taught a transition from
universal patriarchs to tribal ones, mentioning first the fathers of the human race and then thefathers of the nation of Israel. This teaching is brilliantly displayed in Jesus¶ two genealogies
recorded by Matthew and Luke (chapter 1 in the former and chapter 3 in the latter). Since
Evangelist Matthew essentially addressed the Hebrews and underlined the link between
God¶s promises made to Abraham and Jesus¶ miraculous birth, he did not need to include thefigures preceding Abraham into Jesus¶ genealogy. Evangelist Luke, on the other hand,addressed the Gentiles and underlined the universality of Jesus¶ mission along with His
human nature. Therefore, he deemed it necessary to bind Jesus to Adam, the first man andforefather of mankind. We are surprised to see that in Surah 19:58 and partly in Surah 3:33
Muhammad adhered to the same teaching and referred both to the universal and tribalforefathers of the Holy Bible.
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 16/28
From Adam to Noah
The fact that Muhammad highlighted Adam and Noah as two patriarchs was a naturaloutcome of his belief that human race descended from these two men at different times:
Adam before the flood whilst Noah after the flood. This was, of course, a basic biblical
doctrine stipulating faith in a global flood at Noah¶s time. Thus, Muhammad embraced this
tenet and considered Noah as the second father of the human race after Adam, which sufficesto rebut the speculative argument of some modern Islamic scholars that Noah had been sent
to his folk and the flood was therefore local.3 In contrast to the efforts of some Muslim
commentators who try to confine the flood to a specific region on earth, Muhammad made it
clear by formulating the verses below that the human race was regenerated through Noah¶s
offspring after the flood:4
And Noah verily prayed unto Us, and gracious was the Hearer of his prayer. And We saved
him and his household from the great distress, and made his seed the survivors. (Surah
37:75-77 Pickthall)
Muhammad even drew an implicit parallelism between Adam and Noah by recounting the
beginning of Adam¶s life on earth after his banishment from Heaven and the beginning of lifeon earth after the flood in similar terms:
He said: Go down (from hence), one of you a foe unto the other. There will be for you on
earth a habitation and provision for a while . He said: There shall ye live, and there shall ye
die, and thence shall ye be brought forth. (Surah 7:23-25 Pickthall)
It was said (unto him): O Noah! Go thou down (from the mountain) with peace from Us and
blessings upon thee and some nations (that will spring) from those with thee . (There will
be other) nations unto whom We shall give enjoyment a long while and then a painful doom
from Us will overtake them. (Surah 11:48 Pickthall)
Likewise, as seen in the following verses, Muhammad associated the generations descending
from Noah with the flood and the people carried in the ark:
These are they unto whom Allah showed favour from among the prophets, of the seed of
Adam and of those whom We carried (in the ship) with Noah.... (Surah 19:58 Pickthall)
We gave unto Moses the Scripture, and We appointed it a guidance for the children of
Israel, saying: Choose no guardian beside Me. (They were) the seed of those whom We
carried (in the ship) along with Noah. Lo! he was a grateful slave. (Surah 17:2-3 Pickthall)
Abraham and Israel (Jacob)
Jacob¶s presentation with the name Israel in Surah 19:58 as the last link of the chain of
ancestors once more labels Muhammad a man who acknowledged what he heard from the
Jews and Christians about the prophetic lineage and the related election of Israel. For the
people who know the traditional Islamic arguments about Abraham¶s chosen son it is
shocking indeed to see Mohammad testify to the basic Biblical doctrine that God promised to
make His covenant with Isaac instead of Abraham¶s first-born son Ishmael (Genesis 17:19,
21:12).5
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 17/28
Quite interestingly, the impact of the Judaic and Christian doctrines concerning Abraham¶s progeny and Israel¶s election was so strong on Muhammad that in five of the six chapters
belonging to the Meccan period he skipped Ishmael and designated Jacob as the second songiven to Abraham. For instance:
When he had turned away From them and from those Whom they worshipped besides God,
We bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and each one Of them We made a prophet. (Surah19:49 Yusuf Ali)
And his wife was standing (There), and she laughed: But We gave her glad tidings of Isaac,
and after him, of Jacob. (Surah 11:71 Yusuf Ali)
And We gave (Abraham) Isaac and Jacob, and ordained Among his progeny prophethood
And Revelation, and We granted him his reward In this life; and he was in the Hereafter (of the company) of the Righteous. (Surah 29:27 Yusuf Ali)
We gave him Isaac and Jacob: all (three) We guided « (Surah 6:84 Yusuf Ali)
And we gave him Isaac and Jacob as a farther gift, and we made all of them righteous.
(Surah 21:72 Rodwell)
Still, it must be made clear that in the period prior to his migration Muhammad reckoned
Ishmael as one of the former prophets and made short and simple references to his missionalthough he did not affiliate him with Abraham as his son except for in Surah 14. One of such
few references can be seen in Surah 19, where Ishmael is taught to be a messenger observingIslamic rituals:
And make mention in the Scripture of Ishmael. Lo! he was a keeper of his promise, and he
was a messenger (of Allah), a prophet. He enjoined upon his people worship and
almsgiving, and was acceptable in the sight of his Lord. (Surah 19:54-55 Pickthall)
In Surah 19 God had supposedly asked Muhammad to make mention of Abraham (verse 41)
and introduced the narrative that contained the story of Abraham¶s objection to his father and
folk¶s idolatry, his withdrawal from his people, and his fathering Isaac and Jacob. Not only
did this narrative lack Ishmael¶s name, but was also dissociated from the particular reference
to Ishmael in the same chapter through the interpolation of a reference to Moses and Aaron in
verses 51-53. Below are the names of the people who are mentioned in Surah 19 until the
58th verse, which talks of four patriarchs:
Zechariah (v. 2-15)Mary (v. 16-38)
Abraham (v. 41-50)Moses and Aaron (v. 51-53)
Ishmael (v. 54-55)
Idris (v. 56-57)
Islamic comments making Idris in verse 56 the equivalent of Biblical Enoch6
surprisingly
strengthens the possibility that Muhammad intended a latent connection between four of the
six names listed above and the four names given in Surah 19:58. In that case, the account
about Abraham would correspond to the seed of Abraham whilst the account about Moses
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 18/28
and Aaron to the seed of Israel. As for the remaining two patriarchs, Ishmael would be linkedto Noah¶s progeny whilst Idris (who is considered the same person as Enoch) to Adam. This
sort of a parallelism gives us the clue that Muhammad bafflingly tended to present Ishmael asa messenger descending from Noah rather than as Abraham¶s son while devising Surah 19.
The amazing matching of the persons who are referred to in Surah 19:41-57 with the four
patriarchs named in verse 58 does not necessarily leave Zechariah and Mary out of this parallelism, for the references to Abraham, Moses and Aaron, Ishmael, and Idris along the
formula ³Mention in the book «.´ seem to be attached to the primary narratives about
Zechariah and Mary in verses 2-38, which are obviously plagiarized from the non-canonical
Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew through significant modifications. In other words, Muhammad
first related Zechariah and Mary¶s story and then added the other accounts up to verse 58,
using the first two narratives as the framework for others. Surprisingly, Zechariah¶s story is
directly related to the seed of Israel mentioned in verse 58 since Zechariah associates himself
and his son with the seed of Israel when he utters the phrase ³house of Jacob´ in his prayer in
verse 6. Although the narrative about Jesus¶ mother Mary does not make any explicit
associations between her and patriarch Jacob, Moses and Aaron¶s matching with the seed of Israel indirectly links Mary to the same progeny because she is called the ³sister of Aaron´ in
verse 28.
The question why Muhammad did not adapt the erroneous and innovated teachings heinvented about Ishmael and Mecca to the names and order of the patriarchs in Surah 3:33 gets
us one step closer to the solution of the mysterious inclusion of Mary¶s father into the samelist. Ironically, Muhammad does not affiliate Ishmael with Abraham when he gives the names
of the figures and families chosen by God in Surah 3:33 even though he follows a differentcourse and contradicts the Bible when he awkwardly places Ishmael¶s name between
Abraham and Isaac in the Medina verses that point at the chain of divine revelation. For
instance:
Say (O Muhammad): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that whichwas revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes , and that
which was vouchsafed unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make nodistinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered. (Surah 3:84)
People who naturally wonder why Muhammad skipped Ishmael and jumped to Mary¶s father
(another Israelite) from Abraham and thus endorsed the Biblical teaching that, of Abraham¶stwo sons, the line descending from Isaac was preferred should refresh their memories with
regard to Muhammad¶s plagiarism from non-canonical Christian writings. As we said before,
Muhammad abused the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew while devising certain verses of Surah 19
and did the same thing with the Gospel of James while relating the story of Mary and Jesus¶
nativity in Surah 3.
Despite its being an apocryphal text, the Gospel of James (like the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew) confirmed the basic Biblical doctrine concerning Isaac¶s election and the
fulfillment of the divine promises in his seed. More to the point, canonical and non-canonicalGospels of Infancy were about Jesus, an Israelite, and naturally stressed the election of the
seed of Israel for the fulfillment of divine promises through the descent of the predictedMessiah from David¶s lineage. (David also descended from Israel, Isaac¶s son, not from
Ishmael). In short, the Gospels of Infancy were unaware of Muhammad¶s new allegations
about Ishmael that deviated from the teachings of the Bible. While copying from the Gospel
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 19/28
of James, Muhammad could not insert Ishmael into Abraham¶s lineage either because of hisshort memory or because he did not have courage to apply such a drastic change to the
original form of the story. Consequently, he altered only the name of Mary¶s father fromJoachim to Imran, keeping faithful to the other elements of the apocryphal Gospel of Infancy
he borrowed from while creating Surah 3.
Mystery solved: Patriarch Israel¶s replacement with Patriarch Imran
The narrative of Mary and Jesus¶ nativity in Surah 3:35-47 was borrowed by Muhammad
from the non-canonical Gospel of James (aka the Protoevangelium of James) and adapted to
Islamic creed with the help of a few textual alterations. The comparison of the account in the
Qur¶an with its original version does not only verify the charges of plagiarism, but also
displays the superiority of the original source to its copy in terms of integrity and clarity:
(Remember) when the wife of 'Imran said: My Lord! I have vowed unto Thee that which is in
my belly as a consecrated (offering). Accept it from me. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer,the Knower! And when she was delivered she said: My Lord! Lo! I am delivered of a female
- Allah knew best of what she was delivered - the male is not as the female; and lo! I have
named her Mary, and lo! I crave Thy protection for her and for her offspring from Satan theoutcast. (Surah 3:35-36 Pickthall)
And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your
prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all
the world. And Anna said: As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I
will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all
the days of its life. And, behold, two angels came, saying to her: Behold, Joachim your
husband is coming with his flocks. For an angel of the Lord went down to him, saying:
Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold your
wife Anna shall conceive. And Joachim went down and called his shepherds, saying: Bring
me hither ten she-lambs without spot or blemish, and they shall be for the Lord my God; and bring me twelve tender calves, and they shall be for the priests and the elders; and a hundred
goats for all the people. And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna stood by thegate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran and hung upon his neck, saying: Now I know that
the Lord God has blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer a widow, and Ithe childless shall conceive. And Joachim rested the first day in his house. And on the
following day he brought his offerings, saying in himself: If the Lord God has been renderedgracious to me, the plate on the priest's forehead will make it manifest to me. And Joachim
brought his offerings, and observed attentively the priest's plate when he went up to the altar
of the Lord, and he saw no sin in himself. And Joachim said: Now I know that the Lord has
been gracious unto me, and has remitted all my sins. And he went down from the temple of
the Lord justified, and departed to his own house. And her months were fulfilled, and in the
ninth month Anna brought forth. And she said to the midwife: What have I broughtforth? And she said: A girl. And said Anna: My soul has been magnified this day. And
she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the
breast to the child, and called her name Mary. (Gospel of James chapters 4-5)
Evidently, Muhammad shortened the original and detailed account by selecting a few versesfrom it and skipping many others. This, of course, made the narrative in Surah 3 vague and
even incomplete. In order to overcome this difficulty and help Muslims get a clearer picture
of the story, Islamic scholars raced to plagiarize further from the same source, testifying to
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 20/28
the fact that most of the stories about Christianity in their scripture had been created thanks totheir prophet who borrowed from apocryphal writings. For example, Ibn Kathir added the
following part while commenting on the Qur¶an verses relating Mary¶s mother¶s pregnancy:
The wife of `Imran mentioned here is the mother of Maryam, and her name is Hannah bint
Faqudh. Muhammad bin Ishaq mentioned that Hannah could not have children and that
one day, she saw a bird feeding its chick. She wished she could have children andsupplicated to Allah to grant her offspring. Allah accepted her supplication, and when her
husband slept with her, she became pregnant. She vowed to make her child concentrate on
worship and serving Bayt Al-Maqdis (the Masjid in Jerusalem), when she became aware that
she was pregnant. She said, (O my Lord! I have vowed to You what is in my womb to be
dedicated for Your services, so accept this from me. Verily, You are the All-Hearer, the All-
Knowing.) meaning, You hear my supplication and You know my intention. She did not
know then what she would give birth to, a male or a female. (Source)
This clarifying commentary was definitely taken from the Gospel of James:
And his wife Anna mourned in two mournings, and lamented in two lamentations, saying: I
shall bewail my widowhood; I shall bewail my childlessness. « And Anna was grievedexceedingly, and put off her garments of mourning, and cleaned her head, and put on her
wedding garments, and about the ninth hour went down to the garden to walk. And she saw a
laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: O God of our fathers, bless me
and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac. And gazing
towards the heaven, she saw a sparrow's nest in the laurel, and made a lamentation inherself, saying: Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me? Because I have
become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they
have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened?
I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven areproductive before You, O Lord. (Gospel of James chapters 2-3)
More interestingly, Muhammad seems to have deliberately focused on Mary¶s mother and
ignored all the references to her father (Joachim) while copying the account of her nativityfrom the Gospel of James. Accordingly, the borrowed story in Surah 3 begins with the
supplication and vow uttered by Mary¶s mother in verse 35. In contrast, the Gospel of Jamesfirst talks about Mary¶s father (Joachim) before proceeding to the narrative about his wife and
her supplications:
In the records of the twelve tribes of Israel was Joachim, a man rich exceedingly; and he brought his offerings double, saying: There shall be of my superabundance to all the people,
and there shall be the offering for my forgiveness to the Lord for a propitiation for me. For
the great day of the Lord was at hand, and the sons of Israel were bringing their offerings.
And there stood over against him Rubim, saying: It is not meet for you first to bring yourofferings, because you have not made seed in Israel. And Joachim was exceedinglygrieved, and went away to the registers of the twelve tribes of the people, saying: I shall see
the registers of the twelve tribes of Israel, as to whether I alone have not made seed in
Israel. And he searched, and found that all the righteous had raised up seed in Israel. And he
called to mind the patriarch Abraham, that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he
retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 21/28
in himself: I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink. (Gospel of James chapter 1)
If we focus on the bolded statements in the narrative above, we can figure out the source of
the mysterious sequence of the patriarchs in Surah 3:33. Muhammad was aware of this
section on the theme of fatherhood in the Gospel of James, and incorporated it into Surah 3 in
the shortest form possible and not without his mistaken conclusions. First, in the originalaccount Mary¶s father was depicted as a man having no seed in Israel in contrast to all other
righteous people and thus emphatically singled out from the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob)
because of his childlessness. Second, he was said to liken himself to patriarch Abraham with
regard to the notion of miraculous fatherhood in expectation for a child despite his
barrenness. These motifs sufficed to convince Muhammad that Mary¶s father signified a
unique case in the seed/family of patriarch Israel in terms of fatherhood and that he was made
similar to patriarch Abraham. Consequently, he replaced Israel with Mary¶s father (whose
name he had changed into Imran) while transferring the names of the four forefathers from
Surah 19:58 to Surah 3:33 and inserted him right after Abraham as the fourth patriarch. To
put it another way, Muhammad thought that Mary¶s father¶s highlighted affiliation with thetwelve tribes of Israel would allow him to take Israel¶s place in the sequence of the
patriarchs. The analogy drawn in the Gospel of James between Abraham and Mary¶s father further encouraged Muhammad to place Imran¶s name right after Abraham¶s and designate
him as the father of a race (patriarch).
The discovery of the ties between the Gospel of James and Surah 3:33 also clarifies the vaguelink between the references to Imran¶s fatherhood in verse 33 and to his wife¶s motherhood in
verse 35. Thus, it becomes easy to see that in Muhammad¶s scripture Surah 3:33-34 weremeant to be the equivalent of the teachings about Mary¶s father and his relation to the
patriarchs in the first chapter of the same Gospel. After all, Surah 3:34 functions to strengthen
the significance of lineage and common patriarchs:
They were descendants one of another. Allah is Hearer, Knower. (Pickthall)
The emphasis laid in this verse on Allah¶s hearing and knowing is most likely derived fromthe last sentence in the first chapter of the Gospel of James, where Mary¶s father asks God to
look upon him and hear his prayers.
Evolution in Surah 3:33 after Mohammad¶s death
The lack of a reference to Ishmael or to Muhammad in Surah 3:33 causes much trouble for
Islamic scholars as Christian apologists and critics of the Qur¶an use this particular verse to
prove Jesus¶ superiority to Muhammad. For example, in his article entitled Jesus Superior
Still According to the Qur¶an! Sam Shamoun rebuts the objections of the Islamic scholars
who strive to add Muhammad into the list of the chosen and preferred families by expandingthe definition of the phrase ³family of Abraham´ to include Ishmael. As stated in Shamoun¶sarticle, the linguistic structure of the verse will not allow Muhammad¶s addition into
Abraham¶s family with the help of his unsubstantiated affiliation with Ishmael,7
for Mary¶sfather is linked in Surah 3 to Abraham through his son Isaac, proving that the ³final´ family
chosen by God was by no means related to Ishmael and his lineage.
As we discussed above, Muhammad could never have pointed at Ishmael¶s line whilereferring to Abraham¶s family in Surah 3:33 since he copied the names and order of the two
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 22/28
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 23/28
In this process, two things made the evolution of some tenets crucial: Muhammad¶s inabilityto understand the original statements of the Bible and his struggle to reconcile the things he
derived from the Bible with the new material he derived from some non-canonical writings.These evolutions did not only expose Muhammad¶s ignorance and confusion, but also created
some Qur¶an verses that were harmonious neither with the Bible nor with the apocryphal
texts. Finally, evolving ideas gave birth to some variations even within the Qur¶an and turned
into mysterious references that can be understood only if the Qur¶an is compared first withthe Bible and then with the non-canonical literature Muhammad heard and abused while
forging his scripture.
APPENDIX
The comparison of all the Qur¶an verses referring to Abraham¶s sons reveals the difficulties
Muhammad went through while talking of Abraham¶s descendants.8 His vague knowledge on
the issue was at first limited to the number of the sons that Abraham had fathered prior to his
wife¶s death. Muhammad repeated without getting into details about Abraham¶s wife what
the Bible said: Abraham had two sons. However, he could not give accurate and consistent
information on the names of these sons. As evident in five of the six Meccan chapters, his
observations gave him the wrong idea that of Abraham¶s two sons, Isaac was the firstborn
whilst Jacob the second. As a result of Ishmael¶s uncanny replacement with Isaac, most of the
chapters of the Meccan period did not relate Ishmael to Abraham although the Jews and
Christians did not deny or alter the biblical doctrine that Abraham had fathered Ishmael before Isaac.
In all the following verses of the Meccan period Muhammad mentioned Ishmael, but never
affiliated him with Abraham or with Abraham¶s other son Isaac:
And Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot. Each one (of them) did We prefer above (Our)creatures. (Surah 6:86 Pickthall)
And make mention in the Scripture of Ishmael. Lo! he was a keeper of his promise, and he
was a messenger (of Allah), a prophet. (Surah 19:54 Pickthall)
And (mention) Ishmael, and Idris, and Dhu'l-Kifl. All were of the steadfast. (Surah 21:85
Pickthall)
And make mention of Ishmael and Elisha and Dhu'l-Kifl. All are of the chosen. (Surah 38:48
Pickthall)
More to the point, in all of the four Meccan chapters that mention Ishmael (Surah 6, 19, 21,and 38) a reference is made to Abraham as a father, but these verses contain the names Isaac
and Jacob, and Ishmael is by no means connected to them. In Surah 6:84, Surah 19:49, Surah
21:72, and Surah 38:45 Abraham¶s name always appears along with Isaac and Jacob and
forms a triplet. Ishmael, on the other hand, is always kept out of this triplet and awkwardly
inserted into the group of some other prophetic figures.
Evidently, having a vague and faltering knowledge of Ishmael¶s relation to Abraham,
Muhammad kept repeating Isaac and Jacob¶s name along with Abraham and did not mention
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 24/28
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 25/28
than two, he applied the modification only to the names, maintaining the number of Abraham¶s sons before and after Surah 14. This modification introduced the new pair of
Ishmael and Isaac into the Qur¶an, which was accurate and compatible with the biblicalteaching designating Ishmael as the first of Abraham¶s two sons.
However, this correction in the names of Abraham¶s two sons would not last long as
Muhammad would abruptly switch back to the old pair of Isaac and Jacob and forget aboutIshmael¶s relation to Abraham in two more Meccan chapters following Surah 14. Strikingly,
in Surah 21 and 29 Muhammad bafflingly dissociated Ishmael from Abraham again and
formed verses that ignored the names "Ishmael and Isaac" given in Surah 14:
And we bestowed on him Isaac, and Jacob, as an additional gift. And we made all (of them)
righteous persons. (Surah 21:72 Sale)
And We bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and we established the prophethood and the
Scripture among his seed ... (Surah 29:27 Pickthall)
Obviously, Muhammad returned to his mistaken formulation because while writing Surah 21
and 29, he simply and carelessly copied the information he gave about Abraham¶s sons in allthe chapters preceding Surah 14. As there would be no reference to Mecca in these new
chapters coming after Surah 14, there would also be no need to desginate Ishmael in them as
Abraham¶s first son. Thus, in Muhammad¶s flawed reasoning the names of Abraham¶s two
sons were not stable. The addition of the invented connection between Abraham and Mecca
into a chapter would inevitably change the name of the first son into Ishmael. The lack of this
connection would bring Jacob¶s name back at the expense of Ishmael¶s. As Surah 21 and 29
did not repeat the false and non-biblical teaching that Abraham went to Mecca with Ishmael,
Abraham mistakenly appeared as the father of both Isaac and Jacob.
It is not difficult to guess what compelled Muhammad to identify Jacob as Abraham¶s second
son in the Meccan chapters preceding and following Surah 14. First, he was aware of the
biblical doctrine that God Almighty had blessed and chosen the nation of Israel (Jacob¶s
offspring), and wrote a few verses to display his agreement with this teaching:
O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you and how I preferred
you to (all) creatures. (Surah 2:47 Pickthall)
And certainly We gave the Book and the wisdom and the prophecy to the children of Israel,
and We gave them of the goodly things, and We made them excel the nations. (Surah 45:16
Pickthall)
In addition, Muhammad became familiar with the biblical sequence of the three ancestors
³Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob´ and incorporated this triplet into his scripture:
And remember Our servants Ibrahim and Ishaq and Yaqoub, men of power and insight.
(Surah 38:45 Shakir)
And thus will your Lord choose you and teach you the interpretation of sayings and make His
favor complete to you and to the children of Yaqoub, as He made it complete before to your
fathers, Ibrahim and Ishaq; surely your Lord is Knowing, Wise. (Surah 12:6 Shakir)
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 26/28
And I follow the religion of my fathers, Ibrahim and Ishaq and Yaqoub ; it beseems us notthat we should associate aught with Allah; this is by Allah¶s grace upon us and on mankind,
but most people do not give thanks. (Surah 12:38 Shakir)
At this point, Muhammad misunderstood the cause of this particular sequence of the three
patriarchs and jumped into the conclusion that this triplet consisted of Abraham and his two
sons. The natural outcome of this fallacious reasoning was the indirect denial of the tie between Abraham and Ishmael, which again contradicted the biblical account that designated
Ishmael as Abraham¶s son through his concubine named Hagar. Ishmael¶s separation from
Abraham before his death and Isaac and Jacob¶s burial in the same place as Abraham in the
biblical accounts (Genesis 49:29-32) were probably some of the other factors prompting
Muhammad to dissociate Ishmael from Abraham in all the Meccan chapters, except for in
Surah 14.
Unsurprisingly, Muhammad did not give Ishmael¶s name when he related the story of
Abraham¶s sacrifice (Surah 37:102-107) even though most Muslim scholars tend to identify
the child whom God asked Abraham to offer as Ishmael rather than Isaac.9 Traditional
Islamic commentaries on this issue are far from accuracy, for Muhammad would have placed
Ishmael in the verse below between Abraham and Isaac if he had agreed with the Islamicscholars in regard to the identity of the child mentioned in verses 102-103:
And We blessed him and Isaac. And of their seed are some who do good, and some who
plainly wrong themselves. (Surah 37:113 Pickthall)
The interesting point is that Surah 37 lacks a reference to Jacob. This does not raise a
problem though since this Surah is one of the few Meccan chapters of the Qur¶an where Isaac
is singled out as Abraham¶s only son born through a miracle, which is a biblical teaching too.
For instance, in Surah 51 the biblical account of Abraham¶s visitation by the angels is partly
followed; therefore, no reference is made to Jacob:
Then he conceived a fear of them. They said: Fear not! and gave him tidings of (the birth of)
a wise son. (Surah 51:28 Pickthall)
However, this account occurs with slight variations in Surah 11, but this time Jacob¶s name is
added even into the angelic annunciation delivered to Abraham¶s wife. To compare and
contrast:
And his wife, standing by laughed when We gave her good tidings (of the birth) of Isaac,
and, after Isaac, of Jacob. (Surah 11:71 Pickthall)
This verse clearly reflects Muhammad¶s faulty presumption that Jacob was Abraham¶s
second son.
After his migration to Medina, Muhammad attempted to reconcile all his inconsistent
teachings concerning the identity of Abraham¶s first and second son. The solution he found to
this problem produced another gross mistake though. The reason for this misfortune was
Muhammad¶s decision to combine all the names of Abraham¶s progeny in a single sentence,
disregarding the biblical teaching that did not add Ishmael¶s name into Abraham¶s selected
progeny that would inherit the divine blessings.
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 27/28
8/6/2019 Imran's Fatherhood - By Masud Masihiyyen
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/imrans-fatherhood-by-masud-masihiyyen 28/28
3Further on this issue can be read in Sam Shamoun¶s article Does the Quran teach a local
flood? 4
However, this verse overtly contradicts Surah 11:36, 40, which stunningly teach that some people from Noah¶s folk believed his message and were saved with him. This article
highlights the contradictory teachings in the Qur¶an regarding Noah¶s flood.5
How Mohammad made a gross mistake with regard to Abraham¶s sons in both Mecca and
Medina periods is explained at length in the appendix.6
Read this commentary.7 See the article Ishmael is not the father of Muhammad .8
It is obvious that there are incoherent, perhaps even contradictory statements about the sons
of Abraham in the Qur¶an. There was some kind of confusion in the mind of Muhammad
about this matter, and a change of knowledge and thus an adaptation of how the Qur¶an
teaches on this issue.9
However, there are several early Muslim commentators who were convinced it was Isaac.
For a detailed discussion, see the article Abraham and the Child of Sacrifice - Isaac or
Ishmael?
© Answering Islam, 1999 - 2011. All rights reserved.