The Excellence of Mary (a.s.)

The Qur’an presents Mary and her son (a.s.) as a universal and eternal sign and miracle: “and We made her and her son a sign for all the nations”(113) “and We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign”.(114) From these verses, along with the verse under discussion, two points about Mary’s (a.s.) excellence can be derived:

1. The selection of Mary (a.s.) was not only in relation to the women of her own time, but this distinction applies to all women of the past and future: “and has chosen you above the world’s women.”
2. Her excellence and virtue stem from the fact that God granted her a child without a spouse. Certainly, this characteristic belongs exclusively to Mary (a.s.); however, this does not mean that no woman can be more knowledgeable, more God-fearing, more virtuous, more devout, or more intelligent than her, just as the Qur’an speaks in several instances about the excellence of the Children of Israel and their being granted unprecedented blessings: “O Children of Israel! Remember My blessing which I bestowed upon you, and that I gave you an advantage over all the nations”(115) “Certainly We chose them knowingly above all the nations”(116) “We carried the Children of Israel across the sea… and gave you an advantage over all the nations”(117) “When Moses said to his people, ’O my people, remember God’s blessing upon you when He appointed prophets among you, and made you kings, and gave you what none of the nations were given’”(118)

However, this neither means that the Children of Israel were superior to others in knowledge and practice, nor that each individual Jew was superior to others. Rather, the excellence of selecting prophets (a.s.) from among the Children of Israel, which was due to their dire need for the guidance of messengers, actually indicates a kind of deficiency in them, for they not only failed to benefit from the prophets but proceeded to kill them: “and kill the prophets unjustly”(119)

They also slandered Mary and greatly wronged Jesus (a.s.). Therefore, regarding these same Children of Israel who, due to their ignorance, did not accept the prophets (a.s.), He says: “You are indeed an ignorant lot”.(120) The points mentioned above clarify why the infallible Imams (a.s.) considered Mary (a.s.) to be superior to the women of her own time, and Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (a.s.) to be superior to the women of all times and places.(121)

This also leaves no room for Fakhr al-Rāzī’s statement that Mary (a.s.) was the leader of women of all times, when he says that considering her superior only to the women of her own time contradicts the apparent meaning of the verse.(122)