Mothers Day: Amazing Moms From The Bible And Other Religious Traditions (PHOTOS)

Our religious traditions are filled with tales of extraordinary mothers. These mothers were prophetesses and goddesses; and gave birth to gods, prophets and religious leaders.

The mothers from our religious traditions were theologians, artists, warriors and business leaders. Many of them were revolutionaries and feminists in their own time. They were models of compassion, love, grace, self-sacrifice, purity, protectiveness and ferocity.

The heroic deeds and exemplary lives of these mothers have inspired generations of mothers by offering examples of piety and motherhood. In honor of Mother’s Day, HuffPost Religion has compiled a list of mothers from different religious traditions that inspire us. They are revered by Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Taoists.

We want to hear from you. Who are the inspiring mothers from your religious traditions? Email us at [e-mail] with a two-sentence description and we might feature her in our slideshow.

Thank you to all our readers for sharing inspirational mothers from your religious tradition with us.

Comments

[Yeshu Abraham]

12:24 PM on 06/13/2012

I is mythological, fantasy , imagination and-there is no circumstantial, documentaryh or archaeological evidence.t is mere fantasy.

[mustbelove]

09:43 AM on 06/05/2012

In Islam, mothers are cherished.

A man asked the Prophet who was most worthy of his companionship.
The Prophet saw replied: Your mother.
The man said, Then who?
The Prophet said:Your mother.
The man asked, Then who?
The Prophet said: -Your mother.
The man asked, Then who?
The Prophet said: Then your father.
(Bukhari, Muslim)

The Prophet was even accused of being effeminate because he was very maternal with children. During salat, it was common to see his grandsons climbing playfully on his back when he performed prostrations.

I know Allah is ultimately beyond description & gender, but I am comforted by a statue of Isis & Osiris/Jesus & Mary peace be upon them. It reminds me that God is the Great Mother.

Yes, beyond gender, but a beautiful hadith says:

The Prophet said: Your Heaven lies under the feet of your mother. (Ahmad, Nasai)

Perhaps mothers are a reflection of the Great Mother's Love for creation.

Sami Yusuf's Mother: http://youtu.be/EGY_fJhLiY8

Peace

[purushottama]

01:38 AM on 05/24/2012

The Divine Principle or Supreme Absolute Truth is Personal. It is the original cause of all causes. Yet the science of absolute contains self-variegatedness. The revealing potency of the Absolute is its serving potency. As potency it is non-different from the absolute truth or the Potent, yet it is the serving moeity. When the infinitesimal expansions of the absolute truth (or the tiny sparks of spirits or the individual souls) look in the direction different from the serving potency, the same potency in its lower form deludes them. So Durga is the Shadow of the original serving potency of the Lord. As such she is also a servant of Lord, and she is only the shadow of the Original serving potency.


Please do not confuse Vedanta with other non-bonafide sources of religion. Vedanta is strictly monotheistic and is revealed by Lord Himself through Veda Vyasa, the literary incarnation of God himself. There are no separate gods and godesses. Separation comes from analytic thought. Unity comes from synthetic thought. But harmony is the ultimate reality. And it is the dialectical harmony or the higher level interplay of concepts.


Durga also gets her power from Shri Krishna, the Original and Supreme Personality of Godhead and as such her job is to punish those who are averse to serve the Lord. And this suffering is experienced by the deluded souls in the form of repeated birth and deaths in the material conception of life.

[mustbelove]

09:48 AM on 06/05/2012

I have started saying a beautiful prayer by Ramakrishna lately:

O Mother, I throw myself on Thy mercy;
I take shel­ter at Thy Hal­lowed Feet.
I do not want bod­ily com­forts;
I do not crave name and fame;
I do not seek the eight occult pow­ers.
Be gra­cious and grant that I may have pure love for Thee,
A love unsmit­ten by desire, untainted by any self­ish ends—
A love craved by the devo­tee for the sake of love alone.
And grant me the favour, O Mother,
That I may not be deluded by Thy world-bewitching maya,
That I may never be attached to the world,
To ‘lust and gold’, con­jured up by Thy inscrutable maya!
O Mother, there is no one but Thee whom I may call my own.
Mother, I do not know how to wor­ship;
I am with­out aus­ter­ity;
I have nei­ther devo­tion nor knowl­edge.
Be gra­cious, Mother, and out of Thy infi­nite mercy,
Grant me love for Thy Lotus Feet.

From the Gospel of Ramakrishna

There are many mysterious things that happen when contemplating on this prayer along with the hadith, "Paradise lies at your mother's feet."

God is beyond gender, meaning not confined to it, but I believe S/He (they exist together in Unity with thousands, possibly infinite, qualities and expressions).

Namaste and Salaam

[Parade Keegan]

11:23 AM on 05/21/2012

Myth and fantasy IMO.

[mustbelove]

09:51 AM on 06/05/2012

Do you mean mothers are myths and fantasies? I love to contemplate and imagine how it would be if we put together the energy of the love mothers have shown their children (human, animal, insect, etc). What would it create?

Maybe Someone much like God.

Blessed be.

[Parade Keegan]

11:50 AM on 06/05/2012

No dear, I'm talking about "the bible".

[Bill Duckworth]

09:40 AM on 05/19/2012

I thought a SPIRIT had no SEX and especiall sexual relationships

What are you saying. THERE IS NO SPIRIT.

You got any proof a women's SOUL is less than a man's soul

Buddha, Krishna and Christ taught we were all the same SOUL or SPIRIT how can women have anything less than a man. We are one spirit and sex and sexual relationhips are a very low level Cosmic Vibration?

[revko]

10:40 PM on 05/14/2012

I'd say Mother Earth but I believe she was banned from the Bible... too pagan.

[WESmith]

09:15 AM on 05/15/2012

The Bible talks about Mother Earth and Evolution. You just have to look without prejudice.

[Bill Duckworth]

09:48 AM on 05/19/2012

Brother Son and Sister Moon is a story of Saint Francis of Athesis

Heavenly Father and Devine Mother are but manestation of the ONE GOD/Univrsal Spirit.

Never thought the soul was not the One Spirit and had no sex or sexual relationships.

THAT was a physical material thing and not SPIRIT. But LIKE you say you have to look, like in the NEW TESTAMENT, but understand meant mankind and not sex

[Robertrex1]

11:03 AM on 05/21/2012

Please tell me what book, chapter, and verse that descuses evolution. I could use this to have as a tool.

[anthonyNtx]

01:58 AM on 05/22/2012

Yes.. But the article states 'And other Religious Traditions'

[ManuOB1]

08:10 AM on 05/14/2012

Mythical and historical are not mutually exclusive.

[WESmith]

10:33 AM on 05/15/2012

Take US History Books for example.

[mheister]

03:51 AM on 05/14/2012

Fatimah, Khadijah, and Tahirih are well-documented historical figures outside of the Sacred Texts that tell their stories.

[Tenjikuronin]

11:26 AM on 05/14/2012

Same goes with quite a few others.

[Peter droman]

01:56 AM on 05/14/2012

to me- imho the greatest mom the human family ever know was Nary of Nazareth- The Messiahs Own Mom

at the young age of 12 or so she demonstrated a greater faith them most life long religious folks do by Her free willed consent / willingness to carry , give birth to , and raise YEHWEHS SON when women of that era often were stoned to death for being pregnant with a marriage contract.

She faithfully bravely bright into this world The Lamb of GOD that would one day take away human sin and join all human cultures by love into ONE HUMAN FAMILY under Our Father's YEHWEHS Love.

if not for My Our Saviors Brothers Mom- My/ Our Savior Brother would not have been able to redeem us/ free us/ led us into New life beyond our born human status and into the new Life like the angles live life.

i love Mary of Nazareth very very much.

yours truly

peter the romin american
>p

[Francis Figueredo]

11:22 AM on 05/14/2012

Ya, may your faith redeem U

[Peter droman]

11:39 AM on 05/14/2012

ya right back at ya-

faith redeems no one-

all human kinds redemption was worked out on our behalf 2012 years ago upon a foul roman cross atop a rubbish heep OUTSIDE the gates of the once holy city of jerusalum as the then pagan overlords and the collaborating religious jewish leadership looked on.

from the last sadder on the task that we human beings we given was and still is to

" LOVE EACH OTHER AS OUR SAVIOR BROTHER LOVES US"

anything/ everything OTHER then that that task leads to nothing-

as THAT TASK ALONE makes us into new beings and leads us into life after life.

yours truly

>p.

[Bill Duckworth]

09:51 AM on 05/19/2012

I love the ONE GOD, the same spirit that dwells within, in both men and women

Being GOD how could I not love women and man equally.

Do unto others because they ARE YOU, both SEXES, all sexual relationship or no sexual relationships

[Peter droman]

10:46 AM on 05/19/2012

i agree.

yours truly
peter the romin american
>p

[just a voice here]

11:37 PM on 05/13/2012

They were all example of good mothers. Not one of them was gay.

[AntithiChrist]

12:27 AM on 05/14/2012

Every one of them is mythical.

[fireart]

12:51 AM on 05/14/2012

A little ignorance goes a long way and you have a lot of it.

[Veritas is Pro Life]

04:20 PM on 05/14/2012

You honestly don't believe Mary, mother of Jesus, did not even exist? Amazing. Veritas.

[Bill Duckworth]

09:54 AM on 05/19/2012

The first Chakra of seven is SEX (man and women and sexual relationship (need for physical gratification)

Good by Viagra and "harder, stronger, longer" WE ARE SPIRIT.

Spend you money on something else or eat grass it is free and renewable. Just not very chewable or tasteful. But what is taste to a Spirit

[robyxf]

10:07 PM on 05/13/2012

can a man raising a child be a mother., or a woman raising a child be the father, lets see what kinf of off the wall lstuff you can come up with.

[fireart]

12:53 AM on 05/14/2012

Can a lib. raise a idiot? apparently

[VinZenTexaN]

07:04 PM on 05/14/2012

Religions: They can't all be right. They can all be wrong.

The Christian Right is neither.

Conservati­ves are not necessaril­y stupid, but most stupid people are conservati­ves.

[Bill Duckworth]

09:57 AM on 05/19/2012

IS GOD/Son of GOD/Holy Ghost a man or a women.

I thought he was Spirit and had no SEX or sexual relationship except in the gross physical material world

Not off the wall..

[aforbes808]

09:50 PM on 05/13/2012

Our Supreme Mother ~ Earth

[fireart]

12:54 AM on 05/14/2012

Ive seen her kind of mothering. That is where planned parent came from.

[LintLass]

06:27 PM on 05/14/2012

I'm not even going to ask you to try explaining your logic *there.* :)

[Bill Duckworth]

10:02 AM on 05/19/2012

Yes,Physical Material EARTH and Nature can be symbolically stated as MOTHER or DEVINE MOTHER

And the sperm of Energy and Light beyond the earht and physical material the FATHER.

But in reality is not everything Energy and Light or GOD with. no sex (women or man) or sexual relationship (having sex), etc. the things of the physical material world

[Ernie Evil]

09:02 PM on 05/13/2012

It's amusing to see the the "Virgin" Mary looks Italian and not middle-eastern. I guess it makes worshiping palatable.

[fireart]

12:55 AM on 05/14/2012

Not all religions eat their mother.

[syntax facit saltum]

03:33 AM on 05/14/2012

Because that is the only piece of art ever made of the Virgin Mary.

[WSAY]

08:56 PM on 05/13/2012

Amazing, subservient, moms from religion...

[mheister]

03:59 AM on 05/14/2012

Tahirih subservient? Did you read the description?

She disobeyed her husband and her father to champion the Babi (precursor to Baha'i) Faith, was defiant to the end. She became schooled at a time when women were kept illiterate. She became a famous poet. She went unveiled in public, in a place and at a time when that was simply not done, as proof of the Bab's teaching of the equality of women and men. Not only did she tell off her killers, but she donned a white dress for the occasion of her martyrdom, as she was going to meet her Beloved.

Tahirih was subservient only to the will of her Lord. In all other ways of any import, she was a firebrand.

[WSAY]

09:03 AM on 05/14/2012

In the bible, women are subservient to men.

[Bill Duckworth]

10:10 AM on 05/19/2012

All things only change physical material form ( THERE IS NO DEATH,ONLY CHANGE -py), but are made of Energy and Light that cannot be created or destroyed

[Craig Gosling]

07:57 PM on 05/13/2012

Mothers deserve all the credit, love, and praise, but they don't have to be considered as a supernatural goddess. There are good mothers and bad mothers, but no supernatural mothers.

[CabinAgue]

09:18 PM on 05/13/2012

Exactly!   I'm a mom; it's my biggest responsibility, and my most rewarding.  NO gods involved!

[robyxf]

10:03 PM on 05/13/2012

I don't think they were asking for a supernatural mother, just wanted to hear from every day mothers, thats all.