Brief Commentary on Sura 19

By: Calvin Ohsey

Introduction
Sura 19 which named after the mother of Jesus, Mary or in Arabic Maryam is an
interesting sura to be studied on. According to the Muslim scholars, it is believed that the sura
been revealed before Hijrah at Mecca to the prophet Muhammad.

How is the Sura organized?

The sura started with the acclamation of God who is merciful and gracious as can be seen
in other sura as a pattern of starting off the reading. Then, it brought us to the story of Zachariah.
Zachariah is the prophet that has been mentioned in the Bible in the Gospel of Saint Luke to be
the father of John the Baptist. Zachariah received divine message from an angel of having a son
in his old age and narrated the testimony of John from God.

After that, relating to the story in the Scripture was Mary, the mother of Jesus. The
account started with the message of an angel followed by the birth of Jesus and Mary brought his
child to her people where Jesus speaks to defend himself. Apart from there were few verses
spoke about warning and judgement on follower of Jesus.

The sura continues to reveal the message of Abraham who seems to be giving advice and
rebuke his father for worshipping the devil and not God. There was a dialogue between Abraham
and his father. His father rejected his advice and continues to worship other gods and even
threaten to stone Abraham as he asked Abraham to leave him.

The sura reaffirmed the stories of Noah and his ark, the stories of Moses and his brother
Aaron as prophets. Ishmael was also said to be a prophet as been told in the sura. The sura also
continued to mention Enoch, another prophet that God has raised him to a high position.
There were few verses that described promises to the believers and warning to the
unbelievers. Provided the information of heaven and hell to those who God already ordained
based on his life on earth. There is a dialogue between a man and God, about the issue of
reincarnation.
 The other verses continue to provide warning from God to mankind on his revelation. In
those verses, God repeatedly said that he was unflavoured with worship of the other God and his
rejected to their worship. There was a verse that indicates that God does not need to have son to
be merciful. The last few verses showed that God revealed message to people of Arab and warn
them to be watchful as not to repeat the same mistakes that God has revealed to the previous
generations together with their prophet.

What are the major themes of the Sura?

The major theme revealed in this sura mainly on focused on how God raised up prophets
upon many generations of mankind in order for them to worship the One and only God which is
the theology of Tawheed. The other theme includes the concern on Jesus, Gods mercy, Gods
rewards and also Gods punishment.
God on his revelation to Zechariah provided an interesting message of Gods mercy. It
seems that God through his mercy granted upon the request of Zachariah to have a son as his
heir. In the Bible, Zachariah is a priest in the Temple. Despite a variance in the stories, the
similarities showed that God is a miracle worker to the one that he choose to favoured upon.
Relating to Gods mercy and concern on Jesus, the idea of God having a son is a
humiliation to the theology of Tawheed. God in his revelation to the prophet rejected the effort of
those trying to distort that idea of Gods mercy. To the Muslim, the idea of having Christ died on
the cross to save mankind from sins in Christianity demeaning Gods ability to provide mercy to
forgave sinners.
Again and again, we can see that God as mentioned in the sura was really concerned that
mankind should always be theologically correct regarding the worship of one true God as
reinstated by Abraham to his Father and Jesus to his follower. By having this theologically
correct, they will be rewarded heaven while to those who still rejecting his message of
worshipping the one God will be punished in hell.

What strategies does the Quran use to express its message?

The strategy that has been used in the Quran to express its message was apologetic and
polemic to the unbelievers. Having Mohammed as the seal of the Prophet required him to be
more effective in conveying the continuity of Gods revelation since the day of creation was not
an easy.
By linking to the Jewish and Christians traditions, his message of Islam is nothing new
but to remind the people to worship the same God as all the other prophets mentioned in the
Quran. It is apologetic in term to defend that revelation has also been revealed to the Arab in
which the lineage of Ishmael been linked to the Mohammed. It is also polemic in nature so to
correct the errors of the Jews and Christians having the Scripture corrupted and the theology of
God incorrect.
Apart from that, fear also had been an effective tool to incite the importance of Gods
message. By describing the detailed of reward and punishment from the stories of the prophets
and afterlife, it would be useful to motivate the believer to remained faithful to religious
observance as to serve the purpose of life on earth is to merit Gods favour.

Conclusion
This sura stirred a lot of controversial issue regarding the dogma of Christian belief on
Jesus. While affirming the line of Israelites prophets, there can be also addition upon the stories
which has not been covered in the Bible. In conclusion, sura 19 is rich in its content and message
to the people of the Book such as Jews and Christians.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Name: Calvin Ohsey Ak Ah Sen
Email: vin5253@gmail.com