Mary’s Wish
Shaykh Mahmoud Al-Gharab (may Allah be pleased with him) shared a story from a time when he was with Shaykh Ismail Sadiq Al-Adawi (may Allah have mercy on him) at Al-Azhar University. During the gathering, Shaykh Ismail suddenly seemed alarmed, his face turned pale, and he asked the group: “What do you think Mary (peace be upon her) meant when she said, ‘Oh, I wish I had died before this and been forgotten completely!’”
No one responded, so Shaykh Ismail went on to explain: “Most scholars have suggested that she said this out of fear that people would accuse her of wrongdoing since she had a child without being married. But this interpretation misses the mark. Some have even argued that her words support the idea of wishing for death during tough times, but that’s not correct either. The Qur’an itself provides reasons why these interpretations don’t hold up:
• Mary was someone of deep faith and devotion, focused on God rather than on what people might say about her.
• She had already been told by angels that she would have this child, so it wasn’t a shock to her.
• She knew that the baby she was carrying was a prophet.So, it wouldn’t make sense for her to wish for death when she was carrying a messenger of God, because if she died, so would he, along with the message he was meant to deliver.
A better understanding of her words, ‘Oh, I wish I had died before this and been forgotten completely,’ is that during childbirth, she realized what her son’s future would hold. She saw that some people would misunderstand and end up worshipping him instead of God. Out of her deep commitment to preserving the belief in God’s oneness, she expressed that wish.”