Sūrat Maryam (Part 1)

Part 1 of observations on the structure, organization, and coherence of Sūrat Maryam

Sūrat Maryam (Mary) is a medium-length sūrah revealed during the Makkan period. As the name suggests, the sūrah focuses on Maryam (Mary), the mother of ʿĪsā (Jesus). It relates the stories of her caretaker, Zakariyyā (Zechariah), his son, Yaḥyā (John), Maryam, ʿĪsā, and references many other messengers. It ends with a heavy censuring against attributing a son to Allah ﷻ.

Because of the length and complexity of Sūrat Maryam, we will begin with a macroscopic view of the contents and then slowly work our way down to the microscopic level. Overall, the sūrah appears to be organized in a ring composition as shown below:

Note the omission of the first āyah. We will come back to it towards the conclusion. As for the overall structure, we will return to the connection between each of these sections once we have analyzed them in detail below.

Section [A] - Divine Intervention at Birth

The beginning section of Sūrat Maryam focuses on the stories of Zakariyyā and Maryam. When observed more closely, it appears that the sūrah can be split into four smaller parts, each focusing on a different narrative. The first half of Section [A] contains two rings. The first ring is about Zakariyyā and the second ring is about Yaḥyā. The ring corresponding to Zakariyyā looks as so:

CONNECTIONS

[A1/A1’] - Allah’s mentioning (dhikr) of His servant, Zakariyyā, is paired with the mentioning and praising of Allah ﷻ (sabbiḥū) by His servants.

[A2/A2’] - Zakariyyā begins the sūrah calling to Allah ﷻ quietly so that no one else would hear, and ends the section being only able to speak to Allah ﷻ with no one else capable of hearing him, even if he desired.

[A3/A3’] - At first Zakariyyā explains that his old age and barren (ʿāqirā) wife’s condition mean that they cannot have children through their own means, and then he repeats these traits, old and barren (ʿāqirā), after being shocked with the good news of a son.

[A4/A4’] - Zakariyyā prays for an heir that will inherit from him and is then given the good news of one. Interestingly, Zakariyyā is told that his son will have a unique name, i.e., one that is inherited from no one before him.

[A5] - This section can be argued to center on the trait of being pleasing to Allah ﷻ (raḍiyyā). As we will see in the forthcoming sections, the motif of having a good family runs throughout this sūrah, which will continue to highlight the importance of praying for righteous children who are pleasing to Allah ﷻ.

The ring for Yaḥyā appears to be structured as follows:

CONNECTIONS

[A6/A6’] - The ring begins by informing us of Yaḥyā when he was still a child; i.e., the beginning of life. The corresponding āyah grants us the remaining details of his life span as it tells us how he will die and be resurrected. His entire life was thus summarized in these paired āyāt.

[A7/A7’] - Both parts give two praiseworthy attributes of Yaḥyā.

[A8] - The fifth description of Yaḥyā, which sits in the middle of the entire ring, is Yaḥyā’s quality of being conscious of Allah ﷻ (taqiyyā). Connecting back to the ring that focused on Zakariyyā, it may be that the hallmark of a child that is pleasing to Allah ﷻ (raḍiyyā) is one who is always conscious of Allah ﷻ (taqiyyā).

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To be continued next week.

And Allah ﷻ knows best.