ISLAM AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
It appears that women are
becoming aware of their dignity and the power that they are endowed with. The
truth is that they have always been conscious of their strength but they
conceal their powers, to protect men. Only when it is necessary to correct
men’s excessive abuse do women come out and take over. Women of this jet and
electronic age are no longer content with the status men have attempted to put
them since the old stone age through the middle ages until recent times. The
women of this generation are reacting seriously against being used by men
simply as sex objects and reproductive machines. In the past, some women have
shown their worth and the powerful content of their being. The memory of Moremi
of Ile-Ife is still fresh in Yoruba kingdom. In Benin City, a College is named
after Imaguero. Queen Amina is immortalized in Zaria and many parts of Northern
Nigeria. In Calabar, Mary Slessor will never be forgotten by twins who not for
her intervention would never have seen the light of day. The Airport in Calabar
is named after Margaret Ekpo in memory of her effort to liberate the people
during the Aba riot.
Who wants to underrate the power
of women? The bible testifies to great women of substance like Judith and Queen
Esther. The Muslims cannot forget the care and protection Khadija gave to
Muhammad. The Qur’an testifies that the Blessed Virgin Mary did not need a man
to give birth to Jesus Christ. The Qur’an beautifully captures the dialogue
between Mary and angel Gabriel: “I am the messenger of your Lord, he replied,
and have come to give you a holy son. How shall I bear a child, Mary answered,
when I am a virgin, untouched by man? Such is the will of your Lord, he
replied. That is no difficult thing for Him. He shall be a sign to mankind,
says the Lord” (Qur’an 19: 20).
In 2012, I was in Cairo, Egypt. I
saw a woman on hijab and completely veiled with a “niqab”. Her husband who was
sitting beside her in the Airport wore trousers and a sleeveless shirt. This
woman was eating with strenuous effort because she had to raise the “niqab”
each time she was putting food in her mouth. I just thought to myself that the
husband too should have covered his entire body to preserve himself for the
wife only and not exposed his body to other women.
On Friday September 27, 2012, 509
women were deported from Saudi Arabia to land at the Airport in Kano. It was
interesting that a man came with them because his wife was among the women.
That made the number 510 that landed in Kano Airport at 9.00pm. That seems to
contradict the argument of a male guardian or partner (muharram) to perform the
hajj. Some of the women declared to the press: “We saw hell in Medina”. NTA and AIT reported that these women
were detained for three days without food and water. 300 women had access to
only 4 toilets. The women wondered why
their fellow Muslims should do this to them! Who knows if this experience would
lead these women to begin to think like Nigerians? Perhaps these women may
begin to think of how to be Muslims without embracing the Arab culture.
The respect Islam accord to women is clearly shown in the prominent place the Qur’an gives to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Arabic word for Mary is (مريم Maryam) She is mentioned more in the Qur’an than in the Bible. A whole chapter (Surat Maryam) is dedicated to her. Mary is adorned in the Qur’an with the titles Qānitah: A woman of prayer and contemplation. Siddiqah: A woman of faith, truth and “saintly” (Quran 5:75). Sājidah: The chosen woman whom Allah has made pure and exalted above all women (Qur’an 3:43). Rāki’ah: She who bows down to God in worship “with those men, who bow down.” Tāhirah: A woman of absolute purity (Quran 3: 42). Mustafia: She who was chosen: “O Mary! God has chosen you and purified you and again he has chosen you above all women of all nations of the world” (Quran 3:42). Sa’imah: A woman who fasts. In Hadith, Mary is called Batul and Adhraa meaning Ascetic and Virgin. The 19th Chapter of the Qur’an is named after Mary (Surat Maryam) out of the 114 suras thus becoming one out of the eight people that have the suras named after them.
Mary’s role in Islamic culture is very prominent. Verses from the Qur’an about Mary are inscribed on the mihrab of some mosques. I saw one in Hagia Sophia when I visited Istanbul, Turkey. When I visited the chapel dedicated to Mary in Ephesus, I was amazed at the number of people from all over the world who visit the Chapel of Mary in Ephesus. The Blessed Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have also visited the chapel. Mary is mentioned in the Qur’an as a model of all righteous women. No man can be born if the mother decides otherwise. A man can only claim the paternity of a baby only on the evidence of the mother. The strength of the man is more in the muscles. Some women are even more intelligent than some men. Some men know this hence they are afraid to train the women. Some tribes and religions in the past had attempted to keep the women at the level of ignorance in order to use them as perpetual slaves and to satisfy their sexual urge.
We may recall that the initial
context of the revelations of Allah to Prophet Muhammad was the oppression of
women and the poor in Mecca. Irshad Manji a Muslim woman reacted to the
oppression and domination of Arab in her book “the trouble with Islam today”.
Dr Khaleel Mohammed, Iman and Professor, San Diego State University in the
foreword to the book said: “I really should hate this woman. But then I look
into my heart and engage my mind, and I come to a discomfiting conclusion:
Irshad is telling the truth. And my God commands me to uphold the truth- which
means that I have to side with her”.[1]
The argument of Irshad is that the pure message of Islam should be separated
from the Culture and tradition of Saudi Arabia. She cited the experience of
Taslima, a Muslim, feminist writer and doctor exiled from Bangladesh who gave
her a concrete example of what she experienced well before the Saudis got rich.
Taslima Nasrin recounts: “I was told that Allah knows everything... So Allah
should know Bengali, shouldn’t He? She asked her mother, How come I have to
pray in Arabic? When I want to talk to Allah, why do I have to use somebody
else’s language? [2]
The time has come to redefine our
identity in the context of Nigeria culture and values. A German News paper “Die
Welt” revealed on September 28, 2012 that the Iranian women have started to
resist the veil and the hijab. Turkey is making efforts to practice Islam
without necessarily becoming Arabs. What we need now is education. The first
message to the Prophet Muhammad was, “READ” (iqra). So we must liberate our
minds through education. May the prayers
of the Blessed Virgin Mary heal our Land of all evil! May the face of God shine
upon us and grant true peace to Nigeria and the whole world.
Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and
Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja; and Consultor of the
Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (C.R.R.M), Vatican City
(comonokhua@hotmail.com).
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