The only woman named in the Quran, with a surah of her own — chosen, purified, and counted above the women of the world.
Maryam bint Imran is the only woman the Quran names directly, and one of two figures — with her son — to have a surah titled after her. Her story begins before her birth: a mother's vow to dedicate her child to the temple, accepted when the child proved to be a girl. She grows up in Zakariyya's care, provided for with food no one brought, and is chosen and purified by her Lord. Then comes the annunciation that would define her in history — a son, by a word, though no man had touched her — followed by withdrawal, labor alone under a palm trunk, and the return to her people with an infant who speaks in her defense. The Quran honors her as chosen above the women of the world and as a believer in Allah's words and His books.
The value of these lives in the Quran is not ornament. Each narrative is framed as instruction — patience tested and kept, trust justified late, forgiveness extended from strength. Read the passages above in their full surahs through the links; a biography in the Quran is meant to change the reader, not only to inform them.
The figures of the Quran prayed in nearly every scene above. Niyat's dua library collects source-cited supplications — including the prayer of Musa for an eased task and the dua of Yunus from the darknesses — with Arabic, transliteration, and translation.
Read the Quran, learn the prophets, and keep the duas of the figures — all sourced, all in one app.
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