Message #20757

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Walaikum Salam, sis.  The precise details are known to Allah alone.  By reading V.3:44 and literally explaining from it, seems that apparently when Virgin Maryam was a toddler, her father had passed away.  Or he might have passed away before her birth.  Thus, arose the need to decide who would be her male guardian.  Male patriarchs in families had a very important status in those days.  Therfore everyone of the family and extended family got together to make a decision to appoint a guardian, and there were apparently disagreements and arguments between them described in the Quran as "threw their pens" implying an angry and tumultuous situation.  This is what I gather by my independent reading.  I repeat, the exact details are known to Allah Almighty alone. 

On the expression "threw their pens" some translators have said that it refers to drawing lots (picking a guardian through the lottery method), and they have translated it as "cast lots with arrows" or "cast lots by throwing their arrows .."  The original Arabic uses the word "aqlamahum" ("their pens" not arrows).  I don't know how some of those translators derived the opinion of the lottery pick.  I would like to interpret it directly from the Quran as you too prefer and to keep my interpretation as far as I have mentioned.  Rest is known to Allah Almighty only.


Related post:
- Virgin Maryam (mother of Essa, sister of Aaron) and Miriam (sister of Moses)