Nassir H. Sabah
The number 19 has mystical significance. It consists of the first (nonzero) and the last numerals of the decimal system and is considered to be a reference to The First and The Last, these being two of The Most Exalted Names of God in the Quran. This is similar to the Biblical passage: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13), where alpha and omega are the first and last letters, respectively, of the classical Greek alphabet. In Arabic gematria, where each letter is assigned a numerical value, the numerological value of the divine name, The One, is 19.
The Quran has 114 chapters, a multiple of 19. The opening verse of the Quran (In the name of Allah, the Most-Compassionate, the Ever-Merciful) consists of 19 Arabic letters. The number 19 is believed to be the first number revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (Quran 74:30).
The Virgin Mary is highly venerated in the Quran as the only woman mentioned by name and as having been purified and chosen over all women (Quran 3:42). Chapter 19 of the Quran bears her name. The events from the conception of Jesus (Issa in the Quran) till his birth are narrated in 19 verses of this chapter (Quran 19:16-34). The chapter has 1083 words, not counting the disjointed letters at the beginning of the chapter and following well-defined rules of counting Arabic words and letters. This number is: 1083 = 19×19×3. The first 19 could be a reference to the chapter number, the second 19 a reference to the number of verses about Jesus, and the number 3 is the number of times Mary (Mariam in the Quran) is mentioned in these 19 verses and in the whole of Chapter 19. Interestingly, there is a fourth reference to Mary in verse 28, but she is not referred to by name, but as “sister of Aaron” (19:28), so as not to disturb the numerical relation (19×19×3). Moreover, The number of letters in the 3 verses in which the name Mary is mentioned is 114 = 6×19, where 114 is also the number of chapters of the Quran.
The name Issa occurs only once in Chapter 19 (Quran 19:34) and is its 19th occurrence in the Quran. The number of words from the first word in Chapter 19 until the name Issa is reached is 361 = 19×19, and the number of words beginning with the name Issa and till the end of the chapter is 722 = 2×19×19. All coincidences?
