This began with a simple question: Who was the mother of Maryam (as)? But what began as a straightforward search through my books quickly turned into a journey through the timeline of prophets, then tangled in Arabic semantics, and even reflecting on the Qurʼān’s precision to truths that modern science is only just beginning to grasp.
This video centers on unpacking two key words: imra’atu ‘Imrān—the woman of ‘Imrān—and how this linguistic thread contextualizes her famous du’a: “My Lord! I dedicate what is in my womb entirely to Your service, so accept it from me. You alone are truly the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”1
Identifying Hinnah, the mother of Maryam (as), isn’t just about filling in a historical gap. It’s about witnessing the very beginning of Allah (SWT) manifesting His power to create life in miraculous, unimaginable ways.
Qur’ān, 3:35.
0:14 Attributed to Mitch Albom.
2:06 Abu-’l-Aʿlā al-Maudūdī, Towards Understanding the Qur’ān (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1999), 1:247; Muḥammad Asʿad, The Message of the Qur’ān: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration = al-Qur’ān al-Karīm, 5th ed. (Bitton, Bristol: Book Foundation, 2003); Yahiya Emerick, The Holy Qur’an in Today’s English (2000).
2:42 Maudūdī, Towards Understanding the Qur’ān, 1:247; Asʿad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Emerick, The Holy Qur’an in Today’s English; Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ed., The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary, 1st ed. (New York, NY: HarperOne, an imprint of Collins Publishers, 2015); Abu al-Barakat al-Nasafi, Madarik at-Tanzil; Ibn Kathir, Qasas al-Anbiya; Ibn Asakir, Tarikh al-Dimashq.
3:04 Nasr, The Study Quran; The Gospel of James (Protoevangelium of James).
4:26 Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2019), 9: "The link between language and culture is inextricable: language has always been, and continues to be, used to reflect and reinforce power structures and social norms."
5:15 Fawakih Institute, Fawakih Quranic Arabic Level Four | Semester I, 3rd ed. (Fawakih Institute, 2021), 71.
7:42 M. A. Abdel Haleem, ed., The Qur’an: English Translation and Parallel Arabic Text, rev. ed. (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010); Arthur John Arberry, ed., The Koran Interpreted: A Translation, A Touchstone Book (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996); Laleh Bakhtiar, The Sublime Quran: English Translation, rev. ed., 15th ed. (Chicago: Sublimequran.org, 2012); Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’an With a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation, 6th ed. (2018); Sayyid Quṭb, In the Shade of the Qurʼān =: Fī Ẓilāl al-Qurʼān, trans. Adil Salahi and A. A. Shamis (Leicester, U.K.: The Islamic Foundation, 2003); Asʿad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Maudūdī, Towards Understanding the Qur’ān; Nasr, The Study Quran.
10:00 Asʿad, The Message of the Qur’ān, 85; Emerick, The Holy Qur’an in Today’s English, 89; Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an: Arabic Text, English Translation & Commentary with Revised English Translation, Commentary and Index, 15; Maudūdī, Towards Understanding the Qur’ān, 1:247–48; Despite a minority of translations and commentaries that refer to Hinnah (as) as “a woman of ‘Imran,” the main opinion that she (as) was the wife of a man named ‘Imran may hold more weight, especially considered Qur’an 66:12, where Allah SWT refers to Maryam (as) as “daughter of ‘Imran.”
10:41 Greer Kirshenbaum, The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby’s Brain and Transform Their Mental Health through the Art of Nurtured Parenting, First edition (New York: Balance, 2023); Connie J. Mulligan et al., “Epigenetic Signatures of Intergenerational Exposure to Violence in Three Generations of Syrian Refugees,” Scientific Reports 15, no. 1 (February 27, 2025): 5945, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-89818-z.
12:25 Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash
12:43 Video by Alena Darmel: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-close-up-view-of-scripture-in-quran-8165553/
13:15 Video by SHVETS production: https://www.pexels.com/video/low-angle-shot-of-the-trees-in-a-forest-8928706/
13:22 Sunan Ibn Majah
14:36 Qur’ān, 19:28
14:58 Exodus 15:20-21
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