1982-September-10

A.M. Journal

Muhammad Speaks

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

QUESTION: What is the meaning of the "immaculate conception" of the virgin Mary and Jesus Christ?
—Riverdale, Md.

IMAM: This is a very touchy question because of the kind of thinking we had in our community prior to my becoming the Imam. But I will simply say this — whatever the Quran says, a Muslim has to accept.

As for deeper insight into the meaning or into the concerns that the immaculate conception brings to the mind of some scholars in Christianity or Judaism or Al-Islam, I think we should leave that for a scholarly kind of discussion and just say that whatever Allah says in the Quran regarding the birth of Jesus is to be accepted.

What Allah says in the Quran is that no mortal man touched the blessed Mary, and that Jesus1 birth was a creation — that Allah created him. We understand by this that the kind of passionate involvement that is associated with the Holy Spirit or with God in the minds of some people who hear about the immaculate conception are not at all involved in the Islamic idea of Jesus and his mother.

Lastly, I would like to remind the reader that the Quran gives special concern to the role of Jesus, the Prophet (peace be on him), and his blessed mother. Mary, as signs. Allah says in the Quran that the Prophet Jesus was a sign and also his mother was a sign. Christianity also speaks of them as a sign in this sense: it speaks of his mother and Jesus as the mystery of Christ — even the cross as a mystery.

We wouldn't care to do a scholarly examination of these mysteries. I think it's enough for the believer to accept what Allah has revealed in the Quran and know that there is a higher or deeper understanding.

Maybe Allah will bless the reader with that understanding.