 When the mother of Virgin Mary, may Allah be pleased with them both, found out that she was pregnant, we can only imagine how excited she was to share the news with her husband. Because the scholars of Qur'anic commentary mention that Maryam's mother had been sitting and looking at a little bird and that bird was feeding her baby and she made Dua'a to Allah to be blessed with the baby herself. She had been struggling with infertility. And so we can only imagine her joy when she tells her husband, Niran, that they're expecting their first child. And there's a very famous Dua'a that many of us know that Allah swt quotes the mother of Maryam when she says, She's making this Dua'a the, Oh Allah, I dedicate who is in my womb to you. So accept it from me. Indeed, you are the all hearing the all knowing. How many of you have heard this Dua'a before? A number of us have heard it in this beautiful way. But she made this Dua'a out of intense grief. She was making this Dua'a out of extreme pain because her husband, Niran, passed away. And now she went from the excitement and joy of her first child with her husband to being a widow and a single mother. And subhanAllah, it's incredible to note that the Quran has so many women who are single mothers. She is making this Dua'a and she is saying that she dedicates this baby Muharrara. And Muharrara, as Al-Razi, who is a Quranic commentator mentions, it means to betul muqtis, what we now know is Masjid al-Aqsa. But subhanAllah, she made this Dua'a without placing a condition on the fact that it could be a boy or it could be a girl. She said she dedicates this baby and then the Quran goes to her actually having the baby. So she has her baby, expecting it to be a boy because she's already dedicated this baby to betul muqtis. And in betul muqtis, only men served, only boys served, there had never been a woman who had served in betul muqtis before. So when she has her baby, subhanAllah, listen to this aya. She said, Inni over and over and over. Inni, inni, inni, inni, why? Because as two of the Quranic commentators, Ibn Ashur and Al-Razi mentioned, she is shocked, she is flustered and she disliked the fact that she suddenly had a girl. And it's not because she's not, of course, honored that she had a baby girl. It wasn't the issue of a gender. It was because she had, in fact, in one of the commentators, Tafsir mentioned that she, before she was even pregnant, wanted a child so badly that she promised if she had a baby, she would give that baby to betul muqtis. So now she doesn't know how she's going to fulfill her promise because she had promised this baby to Allah's pan-u-ta'ala's servitude. And so she says, walaisa dakiru kal-untha. Why does she say the boy is not like the girl? Why did she say boy first? Because a boy was the one she was expecting. That's what she wanted. And Ibn Abbas actually has a different recitation for this part of the verse. The next part, that Allah's pan-u-ta'ala knows better of what you birthed, of who you birthed, why? Because the boy that you thought you wanted is not as, is not as good as the girl that Allah gifted you. You don't know the level of the gift of who Allah's pan-u-ta'ala has given you. So now Maryam alayhi s-salam, it's a mother. She says, wa inni semmey tuha Maryam. Why? She catches her emotions. She realizes her initial reaction. And so to show her contentment in Allah's decree, she names her baby Maryam, the servant of Allah. Maryam is a servant of Allah. And what else does she say? She makes dua for her, that she seeks Allah's protection from Satan for her baby and her progeny. Why is she making dua for this baby? Of course, out of the love she has for her baby as a mother, but also because she wants to show Allah's pan-u-ta'ala that despite the way that she initially felt, she's content with whatever Allah decrees. She trusts whatever Allah's pan-u-ta'ala has planned for her life. And so now we see that Maryam alayhi s-salam becomes the very first woman to enter Betul-Nuqtis. She is raised and mentored in this space by her uncle, Zakaria, Prophet Zakaria, peace be upon them. So she is in this space, the very first woman to enter and subhan Allah, that we can only imagine in that moment how hard it must have been for her mother to lose her husband, to already have promised the dedication of her baby and yet how finite the life span of any of his is, but how infinite the impact of that sacrifice was because you and I can go into Masjid al-Aqsa today as woman. Why can we go in as woman? Because Maryam paved the way for us to enter that space by Allah's pan-u-ta'ala's will. So she is in this space being raised by this Prophet and she is a da'iya. She is a caller to God and we see her powerful conviction in calling to Allah when Zakaria alayhi s-salam comes in and he notices that she has fruit out of season. And he asked her, where did you get this fruit? And she says, This is from Allah and Allah's pan-u-ta'ala gives whoever he wants without measure and Prophet Zakaria alayhi s-salam is an elderly man who has an elderly wife. They've been trying to have a baby for a very long time. This is a time in their life when they're not, they haven't had a baby in their older. It's not the time of having children. He sees the fruit and he thinks, If Allah's pan-u-ta'ala can gift fruit out of season, then perhaps when they are out of season, Allah can gift them. And that's why the very next verse, immediately he makes dua for Allah's pan-u-ta'ala to bless them with a baby because he's so worried about the da'wah, what is going to happen to his people? If there isn't someone who's going to be a messenger to the people and when angel Jibreel alayhi s-salam comes to give the glad tidings of his son, this isn't the only reason why angel Jibreel alayhi s-salam is there. So Mary alayhi s-salam gives da'wah to Zakaria alayhi s-salam by reminding him of Allah's pan-u-ta'ala's power. And now, she enters her mehrab, different scholars of tips you to mention that she had gone away from her mehrab. She goes into her prayer space, this very respected important space for her. She is the only woman who lives here. There are no other men. And in her private area, there is a man, a very beautiful man. Why would a man be in her private prayer area? Look at her reflexive action. It's not to scream. It's not to run to her uncle and ask her uncle to come and see what's going on. It's her immediate reaction. What is it? All of the worship that she has been doing, the praying, the fasting, the making the da'wah translates into action. What is that action? To call everyone who she has an impact on back to Allah. So what is her immediate response when she sees this very beautiful man in her chambers? She says to him, She reminds him of Ar-Rahman. She seeks refuge with Ar-Rahman if he is one of the people who is God conscious. Why would she say this? Why didn't she say, Why are you here or stop or I'm going to get someone? Why does she use Ar-Rahman? Because Ar-Rahman is the most compassionate. He is the most merciful. He is the one who will accept the repentance of anyone who turns to him. She is reminding him that if he goes back to Allah, no matter what his intention was for being in a very private room with her, that Allah will accept his repentance. Don't do whatever you're thinking. Allah is the most merciful. Go back to him before you do it. And Ibn Khifir mentions that he, Jibril was so impacted by the power of her words that he immediately just flipped into the form of an angel. And then he says to her, I'm just a messenger. I am here to give you the glad tidings of a son, a pure son. I want you to focus on her reaction after this, because Allah swt said, Jibril use the word ahabah. This is what Allah swt has recorded. If any one of us met angel Jibril, saying there's a gift from Allah, perhaps our reaction might be like Allah has chosen me. Or maybe something like Allah knows who I am. Or subhan Allah, I am the one making it about me. I am certainly way male up. Protect me for myself. But listen to what Maryam alayhi salam's responses, because she is so invested in Dawa that she is terrified of how people are going to react to the fact that she is pregnant. No man has touched me. How is she going to have a baby when no man has touched her? Jibril alayhi salam comforts and reminds her of this ability of Allah swt. He says be and it is. What is the very next verse? Allah doesn't tell us about the nine months of her pregnancy. After she is given the glad tidings of a pregnancy of this gift, after she has had time to emotionally process it on her own, after she has had day after day of being pregnant and preparing for the fact that she is going to be a mother. Is she giving birth in the desert on her own as a young woman thinking subhan Allah the moment has come? Or now my people will see that I am truly a righteous person. She is so worried. And I really want us to recognize that in her story, we see the humanity of what it means to be someone close to Allah, but not know how to process Allah's plan emotionally. Because when we look at the mother of Moses, that was set up as high so beautifully and powerfully discussed, parakalofiha, what we see is that she could have been given a girl and then she wouldn't have had any of these issues. The mother of Meriam could have had a boy and then she wouldn't have had any problems. And with regards to this concern she had, Allah chose who is going to be given to whom out of his wisdom, if the mother of Moses didn't have Mousa alayhi salam, we wouldn't have had the Banu Israel freed and until today, history wouldn't have been impacted the way it was impacted. And the same thing with the mother of Meriam and the same thing with Meriam alayhi salam, despite the fact that they were gifts from Allah, they struggled as we saw with the mother of Mousa. Her heart was very Allah. It just became completely empty. And if it wasn't for Allah giving strength to her heart, she would have, it would have lost it. So when you as a believer are struggling with something you're going through emotionally, whatever it is, whatever you're going through, every one of us has our own tests and trials. Remember, it's not because you're not reading enough Qur'an. It's not because you're not praying hard enough. It's not because you're not making du'a with enough sincerity. Of course we need to pray harder. Of course we need to read Qur'an more. Of course we need to make du'a with more sincerity. We only increase in these actions when we're going through a trial and especially when we're not. But the point is even if you're still sad and it's been five years since you've lost your loved one, that doesn't mean that you don't believe in Allah's plan. You continue to worship him while recognizing that he has a plan. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that this life is short and that the hereafter with him is the ultimate place. So when she's having this baby, she is calling out. And only Allah knows everything that she said as she's giving birth. Maybe she said lots of things. But what he chose to record for all of us to know until the end of time was, she said, If only I had died before this and was something that had never been mentioned and unknown. She wished she had never been known. She wished she could have died. And again, this is a very real human emotion. Did Allah's next statement say astaghfirullah? Of course we shouldn't make these statements. But when we are in the midst of something very difficult and we feel that way, even the most righteous had human emotion and that connects us to them and that allows us to take them as our example. So what does Allah's plan order her to do? To shake the date palm tree. Now many of us have heard that the reason Allah has ordered her to shake the date palm tree was because even when you make dua you need to take action, right? Even when we make dua, we need to take action, do our part. This is 100% true. But she's literally giving birth. So she's already taking a huge action. So yes, definitely doing our part is part of it. But also why? Modern day researchers talk about those who are going through suicidal thoughts or depressive thoughts in a cycle, who have extreme anxiety, who are just going through them in a cycle, that the way you as a listener can help them break the cycle and focus on something else so that it is not so intense for them so they can recalibrate and think about life in a slightly different way is by quite literally changing their perspective of thoughts and being able to help them focus on a quick action to do. Do you want to think of your water bottle? Where did you get that from? It seems completely out of the blue, but it's very intentional so that you can help support them through their process. So Allah's plan order orders her to shake the date palm tree. So she's shaking the date palm tree and the thoughts are no longer mentioned in the Quran. What does Allah SWT then go to? Take some time to rest. Eat, drink, take some time to rest. Because once she's in a space of resting, once she comes back and she feels that she has gathered herself, she's had a moment to come to this grounding with Allah SWT. What? She is then tasked as her role as a caller to God to take that baby to her people. Allah SWT could have had an angel Gabriel, alayhi s-salam, angel Gabriel take baby Isa, baby Jesus, to the people. Allah SWT could have asked Zakaria alayhi s-salam, could have ordered Zakaria alayhi s-salam, to take the baby to the people. This young woman just gave birth. We know what people are going to say about her. She knows what people are going to say about her. She is so worried about the image of piety. She is literally, she is literally the symbol for piety. How are people going to think about worship, about God, about religion? If someone of her status came with a baby, she's worried about how people are going to react, not only because of her reputation as an individual, but because of all she represents. And yet Allah SWT had her go out. And this is such an important message for every single one of us. We all have a role to play in da'wah. That role could be within our families. It could be within our relatives. It could be within our neighbors. It could be our message, our society. But no matter what you are going through in your life, look at the example Allah gave for every single woman and man until the end of time. She just gave birth, take a moment to be prepared and go out and call the people to Allah. You have a role to do this. It is your space to go out. You are important for this role. So she goes out to her people and as she goes out to her people and they see her with a baby, what is their reaction? SubhanAllah, shock. You? The fact that she comes from a righteous family, the fact that she's been raised in this space of righteousness with a baby and this is when Allah SWT has her baby speak, affirming that he is a messenger of Allah. We know from her story that she did not just leave her worship to her worship as in ritual acts of worship. Her worship was in her action as well. And this is so important because the Prophet SAW tells us that your deeds are by your intention. And Allah SWT tells us that my Salah, my sacrifice, my life, my death is all for Allah SWT. So whether that means taking care of my children or whether that means taking care of myself, anything I do can be worshiped with the intention and her life embodies that. In the Quran, Allah SWT says that he has raised her above SubhanAllah above all women. And the Prophet SAW tells us in a hadith that many men have reached perfection. But amongst the women, those who have reached perfection, he's talking about are Athea and Maryam. And Ibn Hazam, who is with the Lahiri, the Lahiri founder, I know many who are not familiar with all the different scholars' names, I totally understand. It was a long process for me to learn them and I certainly don't know all of them. But we are very familiar with the Malikis, the Hambalis, the Shafi'is, the Hanafis. He's from the Lahiri method. So Ibn Hazam, he uses this hadith as proof for his position on why there were women who were prophets. Ibn Hajar explains that this hadith meant that there were many men who reached completeness in religion, kemer. But only a few women. What does that mean? Ibn Hajar explains that there were many women who were martyred. There were many women who were truthful. There were many women who dedicated their lives in worship. So it's not possible that the Prophet SAW is negating the fact that all of these women existed. So what the Prophet SAW is actually saying here is that there were many men who were prophets. And from the women who were prophets, these two women were the most elevated of them. Because even in prophethood, many men, there were many men, but some of them were in a higher status than other men. And so the Prophet SAW is making this distinction. Imam Al-Qurtabi also believes that Maryam A.S. holds the opinion that she's a prophetess. This is a minority opinion by a minority of scholars who are quite literally a handful of the majority. The majority opinion, which is summarized beautifully by Imam An-Nawawi, mentions that these were righteous women. These were pious women. They were examples for all of us, but they were not prophets. This is a very long discussion and I would love to share more with you, inshallah, maybe at another time. The point is that the Prophet Muhammad SAW shared with us the level of Maryam A.S. Just being so high as an example for all of us. So even if we don't consider her to be a prophet, she is an example for all of humankind. SubhanAllah, when we look at the discussion on our roles as women, we can take the example of Maryam A.S. who anytime we see an image of her, she always has her hair covered. And we know that that's not her actual picture. We know that's not what she actually looks like. But whenever someone asks me why I wear hijab, especially because I'm named after her, thank you so much, mommy, I love less you. It's very easy for me to respond with I'm named after Virgin Mary. And anytime you see a picture of Virgin Mary, if I don't believe that that's her actual picture, she has her hair covered. She's dressed modestly. And she's mentioned in the Qur'an as the highest status woman in the world who's ever been created. And she is mentioned in her dynamism and her power and submission to God's will. And in wearing hijab, I'm fulfilling the Qur'anic guidance to worship my Lord in this way and to follow the footsteps of my four mother, Virgin Mary, that she gives us the example of what it looks like to claim modesty and claim my identity in my relationship with God, but to use that space to call myself and others back to Him. And anytime you doubt what your role is in this space, remember what Allah SWT told us, He says, that He has chosen you. And Imam At-Tabri mentions that He has chosen you, every single one of you who is part of this ummah for a quality that He sees inside of you even when you don't see that quality inside of yourself. If you're a part of this ummah in the same ummah of Maryam, as a woman who Allah created as a woman to honor you, it's because He has a plan for your life. The question is, are we going to use the gifts that He's given us even when they look like tests to go back to Him and to be a means of calling others to Him and to know that our destination lies with Him?