A scholar from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Dr. Salem Abdel Galil, has upset many Christians last week when he proclaimed on his television show that the “Virgin Mary” and the prophet Mohamed would marry in paradise, RT reported on Saturday.
In the typically anachronistic style of the Quran, where characters from different historic eras meet one another (who can forget the encounter between the Pharaoh and Haman, the latter mentioned as part of the court of Pharaoh during Moses’ visit), Abdel Galil told his viewers that “the Prophet himself pointed to the high position of Maryam (Mary). […] She was chosen among the wives of both worlds. Four women were chosen with Maryam. And Maryam is the first among them! And she will be the favorite wife of our prophet Mohammed in paradise, and she will be the first to enter heaven together with the greatest prophets. And not just with the prophets, but with the greatest prophets!”
According to the Egyptian scholar, while Mary will be Mohamed’s “senior wife,” the rest of his polygamous family will consist of “Asiya, the wife of the pharaoh; and Khadija bint Khuwaylid [the first wife of the Prophet].” Also on hand will be “Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet. Peace and prayers to her and our prophet.”
The innovative teaching sparked the ire of the Coptic Church, and a priest named Abdel Massih, a professor of Christian apologetics at the Coptic seminary college, who told the newspaper Elaphinsisted that “according to the doctrine of Christianity and the Bible, we reject this opinion altogether because [it offends] the Virgin Mary.”
He explained that after giving birth as a virgin, Mary “will remain a virgin to no end.” Also, according to the Christian faith, folks who make it up to Paradise “do not marry nor are given in marriage, but they become angels of God in heaven, for they are the children of the resurrection.”
According to RT, Nader Soubhi, representing the Christian Youth Movement for Orthodox Copts, demanded an apology for what he saw as an insult: “We Christians don’t recognize any aspect of the Virgin Mary except her sanctity, her purity and her virginity. The Virgin Mary will never lose any of these.”
