How Many Angels Spoke with Lady Mariam?

Brief description of the dubiety

In a few verses of the Holy Quran such as in Surah Ale Imran, verse 45; and Surah Mariam, verses 17-19, it talks about the conversation that the angels had with Lady Mariam regarding the birth of Prophet Isa. The subject content of these verses appear to contradict one another - because according to one verse, a few angels spoke to Lady Mariam, but based on the other verses, one angel spoke with Lady Mariam; and since this cannot be possible if one assumes that this event took place only once, either one angel spoke with her or many angels spoke to her, so both of these claims appear to be in contradiction with one another regarding this event.

Detailed description of the dubiety

Contradictory Verses

Verse in which multiple angels spoke with Lady Mariam

In verse 45 of Surah Ale Imran, it says: “When the angels said, ‘O  Mariam, Allah gives you the good news of a Word from Him whose name is Messiah, Isa son of Mariam, distinguished in this world and the hereafter and one of those brought near [to Allah].”

According to this verse, multiple angels spoke to Lady Mariam and gave her glad tidings regarding the birth of Prophet Isa.

Verses in which only one angel spoke to Lady Mariam

In verses 17-19 of Surah Mariam, it says: “Thus did she seclude herself from them,   whereupon We sent to her Our Spirit and he became incarnate for her as a well-proportioned human. She said, ‘I seek the protection of the All-Beneficent from you, should you be God conscious!’ He said, ‘I am only a messenger of your Lord that I may give you a pure son.’”

With due attention to these verses, only one angel spoke with Lady Mariam and the promise of having a child was given to her.

Summary

In the verse of Surah Ale Imran, it says that a few angels spoke with Lady Mariam in regards to the birth of Prophet Isa; but  according to the verses in Surah Mariam, only one angel spoke to her in regards to this subject. These verses appear to be in contradiction with one another.

A summarized response

The assumption that would prove a contradiction is if the encounter with Lady Mariam took place only once, but this notion is not correct, therefore the set of verses are not in contradiction to one another. First of all, the ‘Spirit’ is not from the angels; and secondly, even if the ‘Spirit’ was to be considered from the angels, then the same action has not been attributed to both of them, because in the place where many angels spoke to Lady Mariam, their job was to give glad tidings regarding the birth of Prophet Isa, and when only one angel spoke to Lady Mariam, his job was to bestow the child to her. Therefore, in reality two actions took place - one was the glad tidings regarding the child, and the other was the actual bestowal of a child with the permission of Allah. Thus, one action has not been attributed to two different groups of angels - and as a result the two verses do not contradict one another.

A detailed response

Premises

Conditions for two reports being contradictory

First condition

The unity of the subject is a condition of contradiction

In order for two reports to be in contradiction with one another, their subject must be the same; in other words, both must give news about the exact same subject. For example, the sentence: ‘Ahmad came to our house yesterday’ is not in contradiction with the sentence: ‘Ali did not come to our house yesterday’ - because even though one statement proves ‘someone coming’ and the one other negates it, the subject of the first sentence is ‘Ahmad,’ whereas the subject of the other one is ‘Ali.’ Therefore, because the subjects are not the same, the two statements are not in contradiction to one another.

Second condition

The unity of the predicate is a condition of contradiction

One of the conditions for two things to be contradicting reports is that the predicate, i.e. that which is attributed to the subject, is the exact same. For example, if we said that: ‘Ali is the number one student in school,’ and ‘Ali is not number one in the swimming competition,’ then even though the first sentence proves that Ali is number one and the other sentence negates it, however, the predicates are different. One sentence attributes the ‘best grade in school’ to Ali, while the other sentence negates Ali having the ‘best rank in the swimming competition.’ Therefore, contradiction cannot be claimed here because the issues being discussed are different.

‘Spirit’ is different from the angels

‘Spirit’ in its Quranic usage is a being different from the angels. Later on, the meaning of ‘Spirit’ will be studied, and based on this Quranic text it has been mentioned as a separate entity. ‘Spirit’ in its lexical form is something that is a source of life of the body, the same way that has been mentioned in the book Al-Ayn. However, in technical terminology, especially in the verses of the Quran, it means ‘inspiration’ or ‘the Quran.’ However, there are other verses that exist in which the meaning ‘inspiration’ cannot be taken from them. For example, in verse 2 of Surah al-Nahl, Allah says: “He sends down the angels with the Spirit of His command to whomever He wishes of His servants: ‘Warn [the people] that there is no god except Me; so be wary of Me.’”

Another example is in verse 38 of Surah al-Naba: “On the day when the Spirit and the angels will stand in an array: none shall speak except someone who is permitted by the All-Beneficent and says what is rightful.”  As well, in verse 4 of Surah al-Qadr we read: “In it the angels and the Spirit descend by the leave of their Lord, with every command.”  Just as from the meaning of these verses it is understood that the ‘Spirit’ does not only not mean ‘inspiration,’ but on the contrary, it is a being that is different from the angels, and for this reason it has been mentioned separately alongside the angels.

Imam Ali also bears witness that these verses prove that there is a difference between the ‘Spirit,’ the angels and Jibrael: “He is not Jibrael,  Jibrael is one of the angels, and the ‘Spirit’ is different from Jibrael...” Allah said to His Messenger :‏ “Allah’s edict is coming!  So do not seek to hasten it.  Immaculate is  He  and exalted  above  [having] any partners  that  they ascribe  [to  Him].  He  sends down  the  angels with  the  spirit of  His  command to whomever  He  wishes of  His  servants: ‘Warn  [the  people] that  there  is no  god  except Me;  so  be wary  of Me.’   He created  the  heavens and  the  earth with  consummate  wisdom. He is above having any partners that they ascribe [to Him].” Therefore, these verses prove that the ‘Spirit’ is different from the angels.” <ref name=":1">Al-Gharat, Volume 1, Page 107</ref> <ref name=":2">Al-Mizan fi Tafseer al-Quran, Volume 13, Page 195</ref>

Unity of the encounters with Lady Mariam is not definite

Before we analyze the apparent contradiction, it is necessary to mention that in order to make this contradiction clear - something has been assumed. The thing which has been presumed in order to bring about a contradiction is that Lady Mariam did not have more than one encounter, but if this assumption is not definite then there is no possibility of a contradiction arising - because it is clear that with multiple encounters, the entities that came would have been different and thus this would not result in a contradiction.

In the first encounter with the multiple angels, they only gave glad tidings regarding the birth of Prophet Isa to Lady Mariam. However, in the second encounter, the ‘Spirit’ - which was Allah’s messenger who took the form of a human being to go and meet her - was ordered by Allah to bestow a child to her, and in reality brought into fruition the glad tidings of the angels during the first encounter. Therefore, there was not only  one encounter which took place, and it is most likely that these two verses are narrating reports of two different encounters. It will be proved later on however, that even if the unity of the encounters is accepted, there is still no contradiction present between the verses.

Non-contradiction of the two verses due to the subjects being different

With due attention to the second premise, the subjects of the verses being discussed are not the same. In one of the verses, the subject is the angels and a piece of information regarding the angels has been given. It has been stated that the angels met with Lady Mariam. In the second verse, the subject is not the angels, but rather the ‘Spirit’ which is a being different from the angels, and news regarding his encounter with Lady Mariam has been stated. Now that the difference in the subjects of the two verses has been made clear, with due attention to the first premise, there is no form of contradiction between the verses. A contradiction would have occurred if the subject of both of the verses was the angels - then the question could have been raised that did one angel meet with Lady Mariam or was it multiple angels? However, now that the ‘Spirit’ has been distinguished from the angels, there is no room for contradiction because it is possible that the angels met her, and the ‘Spirit’ also met her. It could even be that the angels and the ‘Spirit’ encountered Lady Mariam at the same time during one encounter and spoke with her. Therefore, there is no contradiction between the verses.

Non-contradiction even with the assumption that the ‘Spirit’ is an angel

Even if we were to accept that the ‘Spirit’ is an angel, and we perceived him to be an angel, there is still no contradiction. This is because the predicates and news in both of the verses are not the same, and with due attention to the first premise, a contradiction cannot be proved. An explanation of this is that in verse 45 of Surah Ale Imran, the subject matter of the words of the angels to Lady Mariam is the glad tidings of the birth of Prophet Isa. Meanwhile, in verse 19 of Surah Mariam, the ‘Spirit’ revealed the bestowal of a child unto Lady Mariam. Words regarding glad tidings and revelation of bestowal are in regards to two different things. So these two verses are not a single revelation that one would ask who the speaker was - the angels or the ‘Spirit?’ Two different revelations from two different speakers have been mentioned.

The only time that a possibility of contradiction could be proved is if the words that were revealed in the two verses were one and the same. In this case, based on the assumption that they were both one angel, then it would have introduced the speaker as the angels in one verse, and in another verse introduced the speaker as the ‘Spirit’ - and then a contradiction would have been proven. However, the words spoken in the two verses differ from one another, and as a result these two verses are not reconcilable with one another. This is because it is possible that both the angels and the ‘Spirit’ met simultaneously with Lady Mariam and both of them spoke to her during the encounter, relaying different information to her.

In conclusion, we can deduct from the above clarification that no contradiction exists between the verses that we have examined in relation to Lady Mariam and the meeting with the angels and the Spirit.

Common example

A medic becomes injured in the midst of his rescue mission and is taken to the hospital. The appointment time of the rescue team to go to the hospital is at the same time as the head of the hospital. While talking to him, all of them give him glad tidings about him being promoted in the near future. News agencies report this meeting. One news agency mentions the meeting with the head of the hospital and reports the glad tidings of the head of the hospital. Another news agency mentions the meeting of the rescue team and report their glad tidings in regards to his promotion in the near future.

In this example, the head of the hospital is not considered to be one of the people on the rescue team - the same way that the ‘Spirit’ is not considered to be one of the angels. Just like these two pieces of information are not contradictory and are reconcilable with one another, the mentioned verses of the Quran are also not contradictory.