"O sister of
Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!"
(Surah 19:28)
Commentary :
Some Christian writers in their ignorance of Arabic language have accused
the Quran of an historical anachronism inasmuch as it has spoken of Mary as “sister
of Aaron”. Instead of regretting their own ignorance they seek to find fault
with the Quran. The question of Mary having been called sister of Aaron in the
Quran was put before the Holy Prophet himself and he asked the questioner if he
did not know that the Israelites used to name their children after their
Prophets and saints (Bayan vol. 6 p. 16. Jarir vol. 16, p.52). Mary has been
here called the sister of Aaron and not the sister of Moses though both were
brothers. For whereas Moses was the founder of the Jewish law, Aaron was the
head of the Jewish priestly class (Enc. Bib. & Enc. Brit. Under “Aaron”) And Mary also belonged to the priestly order. Tabari has related and
incident from the life of the Holy Prophet which gives an insight into the
meanings of the Arabic words.s (ab) (amm) (ukht) etc. when safiyyah, the Holy
Prophet’s wife. And incidentally a Jewess by descent. Once complained to the
Holy prophet that some of his other wives had called her a Jewess in contempt, the
Prophet told her to return the taunt by saying that Aaron was her father. Moses
her uncle and Muhammed her husband. Now, the Holy Prophet certainly knew that
Aaron was not Safiyyah’s father nor Moses her uncle. This tradition shows that the
application of these Arabic words is by no means confined to the above-mentioned
blood relations. Mary might have been called sister of Aaron by the way or reproach
or taunt inasmuch as another Mary, the real sister of Aaron and Moses’s
step-sister or his sister in law, had charged him (Moses) with having
unlawfully married a woman (Numbers 12:1). A reference to this accusation is
also to be found in the Quran in 33:69 (correction from original tafsir verse
number). Thus the elders of the Jews, by
calling Jesus’s mother “sister of Aaron,” meant that as Mary the sister of
Aaron had, by accusing Moses of unlawfully marrying a woman, committed a
heinous crime, so did she. Like her namesake, commit a heinous act of giving
birth to an illegitimate child. (end of
commentary )
Narrated Anas:
said: "It reached Safiyyah that Hafsah said: 'The daughter
of a Jew' so she wept. Then the Prophet (ﷺ) entered upon her while
she was crying, so he said: 'What makes you cry?' She said: 'Hafsah said to me
that I am the daughter of a Jew.' So the Prophet (ﷺ) said: 'And you are the daughter of a Prophet, and your uncle
is a Prophet, and you are married to a Prophet, so what is she boasting to you
about?' Then he said: 'Fear Allah, O Hafsah.'" (Jami` at-Tirmidhi Vol. 1, Book
46, Hadith 3894)
Narrated
Safiyyah bint Huyai:
"The
Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) entered upon me and some words had
reached me from Hafsah and 'Aishah. So I mentioned it to him. So he said: 'Why
did you not say: "And how are you better than me, while my husband is
Muhammad and my father is Harun, and my uncle is Musa?" That which had
reached her, was that they had said: "We are more honored to the Messenger
of Allah (Peace be upon him) than her," and that they said: "We are
the wives of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and his cousins." (Trimidhi
3892)
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From
the first Hadith we read Prophet Muhammed Pbuh called his wife Safiyyah (May
Allah be pleased with her) the daughter, niece and wife of Prophets. Though the
second Hadith is daif we can see the correlation between the two. The first
Hadith says Safiyyah (May Allah be pleased with her) was the daughter of a
Prophet and niece of a Prophet and also married to a Prophet. Th second Hadith
tells us who those Prophets were i.e. their names are given. Here we can see that calling Safiyyah (May
Allah be pleased with her) the daughter of a Prophet who lived long before her
does not literally mean she was his actual daughter, rather she was a
descendent from the line of the Prophets making her a daughter through
linage.
This
is enough to prove calling an individual son, daughter or sister of a Prophet
does not mean they were the real, biological child of that Prophet. This use of
language was very common during ancient days by Arabs and Jews, and even now in
some parts of the worlds such "epithet" is used whilst referring to
someone.
