Immaculate Conception

In Christianity, the doctrine of Immaculate Conception deals with the sanctity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (peace be upon her) and the fact that she was born free and pure of all taint, born without original sin.  The Immaculate Conception itself has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, instead it is linked specifically to Mary.  When the angel approaches Mary, he salutes her with, “Hail, full of grace.”  Because of this statement, and the fact that Mary was “full of grace” at the time of the angel’s approach, before the birth of Jesus, Christian doctrine has established in the past several hundred years that indeed Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born in a pure state.  Otherwise, how would she become full of grace, since in Christianity every descendant of Adam is born with original sin?

I was really interested to find that this concept of the complete purity of not only Jesus but also of Mary, i.e. Immaculate Conception, is found in Islam as well.  In Martin Lings’ Muhammad, there is a hadith where the Prophet is quoted as saying, “Satan toucheth every son of Adam the day his mother beareth him, save only Mary and her son.”  Note that the hadith includes both Jesus, son of Mary, who is generally known to be of utmost purity of soul and spirit, and is given the title RuhAllah, the Spirit of God, and also Mary herself, hinting that she was also safeguarded from the any sort of corruption and was, throughout her life, inherently pure.

It’s nice to see some more common ground between Islam and Christianity and hopefully this can open the way to a greater understanding and respect of both traditions.