In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
The story of Maryam, daughter of ‘Imran,
peace be upon her.
"Do not grieve, O Maryam."
Indeed, the care of Allah for Maryam
did not stop at the selection of the place of birth,
but rather surrounded her from every side.
When Maryam said,
"Oh, I wish I had died before this
and was in oblivion, forgotten,"
Allah caused the one beneath her to speak.
He called out to her from below her,
"Do not grieve."
“Then (one) cried unto her from below her, saying: Grieve not! Thy Lord hath placed a rivulet beneath thee,” (19:24)
Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"The more sound of the two opinions in our view
is the view of those who say
that the one who called out to her was her son, ‘Isa."
This is because the pronoun referring to him
is closer than the reference to Jibril,
and referring it to the one who is closer
is more appropriate than referring it to the one who is further away.
Al-Shinqiti, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"The most apparent of the two opinions in my view
is that the one who called out to her was her son, ‘Isa."
There are two pieces of evidence for this.
The first:
The pronoun refers to the nearest mentioned,
unless there is evidence to divert it from that,
which one must then follow.
The nearest mentioned in the verse
is ‘Isa, not Jibril,
because Allah said,
"So she conceived him,"
meaning ‘Isa,
"and she withdrew with him,"
meaning with ‘Isa.
Then He said after that,
"He called out to her."
Thus, what is apparent and immediately understood from the context
is that it is ‘Isa.
The second piece of evidence:
When she brought him to her people, carrying him,
and they said to her what they said,
she pointed to ‘Isa so they would speak to him,
as the Almighty said regarding her:
"So she pointed to him."
“Then she pointed to him. They said: How can we talk to one who is in the cradle, a young boy?” (19:29)
Her pointing to him so they would speak to him
is evidence that she knew before that
he would speak
as a miracle breaking the norm,
due to his calling out to her when she gave birth.
Other scholars have held
that the one who called out to her was Jibril, peace be upon him.
Regardless of which of the two opinions is correct,
the lesson from the event is our intended goal from the story.
The one who called out to her from below her forbade her from grief.
Grief
is an expression of what occurs due to the happening of something disliked
or the loss of something beloved in the past.
Maryam’s grief was of the first type,
which was her fear of what would be said about her
when she met her people
while carrying her newborn.
But,
why did He forbid her from grief?
And does she possess the ability not to grieve?
The psychological state that Maryam, peace be upon her, was going through
was not an easy matter.
Yet, He forbade her from grief,
which means that a woman can overcome the sorrows that afflict her
because of the pains she experiences in life.
For if she did not have the ability to overcome the stage of grief,
He would not have commanded her to do so,
even though grief is a natural thing that occurs in the soul,
but it can be treated.
Muhammad Rashid Rida, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"If it is said:
'Grief is a natural pain that occurs to a person when they lose what they love,
and it is not a voluntary matter,
so how did Allah the Almighty forbid it?'
We say:
The prohibition of grief
is intended to forbid its consequences, which many people do by choice,
thus fueling that pain,
renewing it, and delaying the period of solace.
It is a command for the opposite: to undertake actions that occupy the soul
and divert it from remembering and thinking about what caused the grief,
seeking reward and contentment from Allah the Almighty."
These actions can be physical and psychological,
or psychological only,
or physical only.
For yielding to grief
may lead to other matters that involve transgressing the limits of Allah the Almighty,
such as refraining from righteous deeds,
and the mind becoming occupied with negative expectations that dominate the heart
and increase the grief.
This leads to a cessation of thinking about the way out of the pain the grieving woman is living.
Therefore, the Shari'ah did not come to praise grief;
rather, it came to forbid it,
in consideration of the human nature in its susceptibility to its pains and sorrows.
Thus, it was permitted for a woman to mourn for a deceased relative for only three days,
so that she may return afterward to her normal life
and practice what is required of her by the Shari'ah,
and empty the heart of the grief that paralyzes righteous action.
Many of the sorrows that afflict a woman
can be overcome by looking at the bright aspects around her,
from what Allah has gifted her.
The Almighty said:
“Then (one) cried unto her from below her, saying: Grieve not! Thy Lord hath placed a rivulet beneath thee,” (19:24)
“Then (one) cried unto her from below her, saying: Grieve not! Thy Lord hath placed a rivulet beneath thee,” (19:24)
Indeed, the one who called out to her from below her and forbade her from grief
drew her attention to the blessings of Allah upon her,
so He said to her:
“Then (one) cried unto her from below her, saying: Grieve not! Thy Lord hath placed a rivulet beneath thee,” (19:24)
Tahir Ibn ‘Ashur, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"Meaning, your state is a state worthy of joy rather than grief,
because of the divine honor it contains."
And among this divine honor for Maryam
is this stream that flows before her.
Al-Shinqiti, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
"The most apparent of the two opinions in my view
is that the 'sariy' (stream) in the verse is the small river."
The evidence for this is two things:
One of them is the context from the Qur'an.
For His saying, the Almighty:
"So eat and drink,"
is evidence that this food and drink
is what was previously mentioned as a favor in His saying:
“Then (one) cried unto her from below her, saying: Grieve not! Thy Lord hath placed a rivulet beneath thee,” (19:24)
And His saying, "And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates."
Likewise, His saying, the Almighty:
“And We made the son of Mary and his mother a portent, and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of flocks and watersprings.” (23:50)
Because the 'ma'in' (spring) is flowing water,
and it is apparent that it is the channel expressed as the 'sariy'
in this verse.
And Allah the Almighty knows best.
In this gesture,
there is an allusion to every woman afflicted with grief
to look toward the blessings of Allah that surround her,
within the very calamity that has saddened her.
For many of us do not look at the whiteness
within the blackness that befalls them.
The indication, initially, of the presence of water
around Maryam, peace be upon her,
nay, before her,
is an indication of the importance of water for her,
and that this importance is not limited to drinking from it.
For people's need for water
is much greater than their need for food,
especially in a situation like that of Maryam, peace be upon her.
She is in a state of postpartum recovery from childbirth,
needing to clean herself with water constantly.
She also needs to clean her newborn with water,
just as she needs it for her own drinking and quenching her thirst,
and cooling herself and her newborn from the heat of the sun,
and other human needs for water.
And this is not the only blessing pointed out
by the one who called out to her from below her,
but He began with the most important of them,
then followed it with other blessings.
We will continue in a coming meeting, if Allah wills.
And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.