Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Becoming ‘Maryam’, Bearing ‘Isa’


Our body is like Mary.
Each of us has a Jesus inside.
If a pain and yearning shows up inside us,
the Jesus of our soul is born.
If there is no pain, no yearning,
the Jesus of our soul will return to its origin from
the same secret passageway he came from…
If there is no pain, no yearning,
we will remain deprived
not benefiting from that Jesus of the soul.

-Hadhrat Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (ra) in Mathnawi---Translated by Omid Safi, in Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition (Yale, 2018).

A true believer becomes like ‘Maryam’ and is infused with the Holy Spirit

In Surah Al Tahrim, we read: 

“And Allah next compares the believers to Maryam, the daughter of Imran, she took care to guard her chastity, so we breathed into him (the believer who is exemplified here) Our inspiration while she declared her faith in the revelations of her Lord and His scriptures and she became of the devoted ones to prayers and obedient to Him”- (Surah Al Tahrim, HQ, 66: 13)

In this Qur’anic verse, Maryam is set as an example for righteous servants of Allah. Like Maryam, true believers- though they are not Prophets of Allah- can also be bestowed with Divine revelations. Such a servant is like Maryam and then Allah will infuse His Ruh in him and he will become the like of Jesus, a servant of God and recipient of His Revelations. According to Hazrat Khalifatul Massih Awwal Allama Hakkim Nuruddin (ra), “the verse clearly informs us that in the Ummah of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), there will be people- both men and women- like Maryam, who will guard their chastity, be devoted to prayers, declare faith in the Scripture and because of being an obedient servant of Allah will receive the blessings of Divine Revelations. This promise has been given in the very first chapter of al-Fatihah in the words, “Show us the path of those whom you bestowed your Mercy”.

The Promised Messiah Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) of Qadian made some very interesting points in his profound expositions on the spiritual meaning of becoming ‘Maryam’. In many of the Divine revelations he recieved, the Promised Messiah (as) was addressed by Allah (swt) with the names of several prophets of the past: Adam, Noah, Ibrahim, Dawood, Yusuf, Musa, Isa, etc. In some Divine revelations, he was called ‘Maryam’, and at times, he was addressed ‘Ibn Maryam’. Sometimes, the specific situations in the spiritual life of the Divine servant was alluded to, and explained in relations to, specific instances from the past lives of the Prophets and the righteous, including episodes from the blessed life of Maryam in the Qur'an. 

The title of Maryam

For instance, the Promised Messiah (as) explains a Divine Revelation he recieved in 1883 in the following words: O Adam, O Maryam, O Ahmad! Dwell you and your companion in the Jannat—that is, into attaining the means of true salvation. I have breathed into you the spirit of righteousness from Myself.’

In this revelation the naming of the spiritual Adam has been explained. That is to say, as Adam (as) was created without the intervention of means, in the same way the spirit is breathed into a spiritual Adam without the intervention of any visible means. This breathing of the spirit in its true reality is confined to the Prophets(as) and this bounty is bestowed upon particular individuals from among the Muslims on account of their complete submission to the Holy Prophet (sa) and by way of inheritance from him. [Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, part 4, pp. 496–497, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 1, pp. 590–591]

In explaining these revelations, the Promised Messiah (as) further says:

Maryam’ here does nor refer to Maryam, the Mother of Jesus, nor does Adam refer to the Adam, the progenitor, nor does Ahmad refer to the Hadhrat Khatamul-Anbiya’ [Seal of the Prophets], may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Similarly, in these revelations the names Musa [Moses], ‘Isa [Jesus], and Dawud [David] have been mentioned, but these names do not refer to those Prophets. Rather, my humble self is indicated in all these instances.

Since Maryam here does not connote a feminine but a masculine, the use of the masculine gender is appropriate; hence, the phrase YA MARYAM USKUN’ should be used… The word zauj refers to the companions and the close associates, not the zauj [in the sense of spouse]. In the lexicon, the word is applied in both situations. The word jannat is sometimes used in my revelations about the Paradise in the hereafter, and sometimes it refers to the joy, victory, tranquillity and solace in this world. [Maktubat-e-Ahmadiyyah, vol. 1, pp. 82–83, Letter dated February 21, 1884 to Mir ‘Abbas ‘Ali Shah]

'Maryam' and the Spirit of 'Isa'

Allah (swt) breathes of His Spirit into every human being when we are/were still in the womb of our mothers (32:7-9). It is the strong believers- men and women- who strive  to preserve the original essence of the Divinely-gifted purity of spiritual disposition all their life, refraining from all that is unlawful or reprehensible, and especially from illicit sexual intercourse. Indeed, the Qur'an vouchsafes for the outstanding chastity of Hadhrat Maryam and rejects the calumny that the birth of Isa was the result of "an illicit union" (4:157). Allah (swt) says in the Qur'an: "And (We showed Our favours to) the woman (-Maryam) who preserved her chastity, so We revealed to her some of Our words and We made her and her son (-Isa/Jesus) a symbol (of Our mercy, grace and eminence) for all people."(21:91). 

No wonder, Maryam and her son became a grand metaphor of spiritual blessings promised for all those who strive in the correct and straight Path of God in every age. In one of the Divine revelations vouchsafed to the Promised Messiah (as), we read: "O 'Isa! I shall grant you full reward or cause you to die and I shall raise you towards Me-that is, will elevate your status or will call to Myself from the world (and shall clear you from the calumnies of the disbelievers) and shall place those who follow you above those who reject you until the Day of Judgement-that is, your co-believers and companions will be granted ascendancy over others in authority, arguments and blessings." [Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah, part 1, pp. 556–557 sub-footnote, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 1, pp. 664–665 sub-footnote]. 

The Prophecy on Ibn Maryam

In ‘Haqiqatul Wahi’, the Promised Messiah (as) further clarified the subject of how a true believer graduates from a ‘Maryam’-like-state of spiritual purity and absolute devotion to that of the likes of ‘Isa/Jesus’- a recipient of Divine communion and revelations- through the breathing of the Divine Spirit, or the infusing of the ‘Roohul Quddus’ through the Infinite Power, Mercy and Blessings of Allah (swt), especially against the backdrop of specific prophecies concerning the appearance of Massih-Ibn-Maryam among the Muslims of the Later Days. The Promised Messiah (as) writes:

...in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, God Almighty named me ‘Maryam’ before calling me by the name of ‘Isa and for quite some time this was my name in God’s estimation. Later, God addressed me and said: ‘O Maryam! I have breathed into you the spirit of truth.’ Figuratively speaking, this ‘Maryam’ became ‘pregnant’ with the spirit of truth. And then God named me ‘Isa at the end of Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya. In other words, when that spirit of truth which had been breathed into Maryam became manifest, it was given the name of ‘Isa. Thus, I was called Ibn-e-Maryam [the son of Mary] in the Word of God. This is the very meaning of the revelation:

'All praise belongs to Allah, who has made you Masih Ibn-e-Maryam'. 

Allah the Almighty compares certain persons from among the Ummah to Maryam in the Holy Quran and then adds that the Maryam became pregnant with ‘Isa. It is evident that no one, except me, in the Ummah claimed that God had named him ‘Maryam’ and then breathed into this ‘Maryam’ the spirit of ‘Isa. Since the Word of God cannot be false, it was but necessary that it should apply to someone from among the Ummah. See for yourself after deep reflection and search the world, you will not find anyone except me in the whole world to whom this verse of the Holy Quran applies. Hence this prophecy in Surah at-Tahrim [66:13] applies specifically to me and the verse in question reads:


(Translation): The second example of the individuals of this Ummah is that of Maryam the daughter of ‘Imran who preserved her chastity and into her womb We breathed the spirit by Our authority; that is, the spirit of ‘Isa. It is evident in the context of this verse that the Maryam of this Ummah can be compared to the first Maryam only if the spirit of ‘Isa is breathed into him as God Himself has mentioned the breathing of the spirit in this verse. It is but necessary for the Word of God to be fulfilled. Thus, in the entire Ummah, it is only me whom God first addressed as ‘Maryam’ in Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya and later He said only about me that We breathed into this ‘Maryam’ the spirit by Our authority, and then, after breathing in the spirit, only I was named ‘Isa. As such, I am the one to whom this verse applies. And except for me no one in the 1,300 years has ever claimed that first God named him ‘Maryam’ and then breathed into Maryam the spirit by His authority transforming him into ‘Isa. Fear God and reflect upon it...’

He who questions how I became Ibn-e-Maryam
Is oblivious to the hidden secrets of the Divine.
The Almighty God, the Lord of His servants,
Himself named me Maryam in Barahin.
For long I remained in a Maryam-like state,
Without following the contemporary divines.
Like a virgin was I raised—
Unaware and unaccompanied—on the path of truth.

Later, God Almighty, the Lord of Grandeur
Breathed into Maryam the spirit of ‘Isa [Jesus].
With His breath new life was created:
The Messiah of the age was delivered by her.
This is the reason that I was named ‘son of Maryam’,
For it was as Maryam that I took my first footsteps.
Thereafter, God infused me with the spirit of ‘Isa,
And I was elevated beyond the status of Maryam.

All this is the Word of God, the Lord of all the worlds,
Inscribed in Barahin for those who do not know.
Divine wisdom is full of mysteries;
Its subtleties cannot be fathomed but by a few.
There is no enlightenment without the grace of God;
Nothing can be set straight without His grace.’

---Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Haqiqatul Wahi, pp. 424-427.