It’s fundamental for a Christian to believe in and love Mary. After all, she is the mother of Jesus, peace be upon them both. It may come as a surprise that, in Islam, one has to believe in and love her as well. You cannot be a Muslim otherwise.

If you open the Qur’an, you can easily see the status she has in Islam. You will notice that one of the Surahs or chapters is named after Mary (or Maryam in Arabic). She is mentioned more than 30 times in the Qur’an and is the only woman mentioned by name in it.

She was praised for her truthfulness and exemplary obedience to God:

And [the example of] Mary, the daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity, so We blew into [her garment] through Our angel [i.e., Gabriel], and she believed in the words of her Lord and His scriptures and was of the devoutly obedient.

[Qur’an 66:12]

She had miracles given to her to the point Prophet Zakariya, peace be upon him, was motivated to pray to God for a son, despite reaching old age. She was also exalted for her chastity and given the miraculous conception and birth to Jesus, despite not having any relationships with a man. To encapsulate all her traits, Mary was given the greatest honor you can ask for from the Lord of the worlds:

And when the angels said, ‘O Mary, Allah has chosen you and purified you.

[Qur’an 3:42]

She did not achieve greatness just for being the mother of one of the greatest Prophets to ever live; she achieved it on her own. However, in contrast to Christianity, Islam does not ascribe divinity to anyone or anything other than God Himself. Maryam is human. Jesus is human as well. Thus, no questions or confusion that get brought up with the trinity. Ex: If Jesus is God, how did a mortal give birth to something divine? Did Jesus have to rely on a mortal? Is Mary divine to begin with? If so, what is her true relationship with Jesus? Or the Father?

In the Qur’an God says,

“The Messenger firmly believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and so do the believers. They all believe in Allah, His angels, His books, and His messengers [and proclaim], “We make no distinction between any one of His Messengers.”

[Qur’an 2:285]

In Islam, for one to be a Muslim, he HAS to believe in all the Prophets. That includes Prophets Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the last one, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon them all. To be a true Muslim, you MUST accept that they were chosen by God to guide their people and are great role models.

A Muslim cannot be selective. One cannot say, “I like Prophet Muhammad, but I don’t like Prophets Moses and Jesus.” To dislike them is to say God chose a bad person. To deny them is to deny what God said in the Qur’an.

Thus, the question arises – why do Christians and Jews believe in so many prophets, but deny one or two of them? What in their creeds have allowed them to be selective? If a person has all the proofs of prophethood, isn’t denying him denying God’s message? After all, when Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) proclaimed the message to the Christians and Jews of his time, several accepted, including the most knowledgeable Jewish scholar of Madinah, Abdullah ibn Salam رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ. To this day, many who have studied their religions and were humble in finding the truth regard of what that might be, have accepted Islam.