The Legend of Sitti Maryam
Souls of the powerful can persist even after death and help those that are living. There is one such case of that in Fort Pilar, in Zamboanga where the soul of Sitti Maryam was claimed to have stopped a terrible storm.
Sitti Maryam is the Tausug name for Mama Mary. Sitti is a Tuasug title given to the daughters or sons of a royal datu while Maryam is the Arabic name of Mary found in the Qur’an.
This legend is told by Muhammad Absari Salahuddin, more popularly known as Mullung, a Tausug storyteller. In this depiction, some details are of Mullung’s own creation.
Long ago, Sitti Maryam was born the daughter of Nabi Imdan. When she grew older she requested her parents to teach her how to pray.
She studied all that she could and her father had examined her on all points of prayer and found her exceptional. She prayed five times a day and each time she was conscientious. This she did for sixty six years, all on her own.
God had watched the prayers of Sitti Maryam and told the angel Jibrail that she should be rewarded. He told the angel to give Sitti Maryam a jar full of water as her reward and to put it on the fontanel of her head.
The angel did as he was asked and put the water on her head without her noticing. The angel bade Sitti Maryam goodbye and left her to her prayers.
In the months following, Sitti Maryman found herself pregnant. Her father thinking that she had relations with a man ordered her to be cast out into the wilderness.
God would not abandon Sitti Maryam, she prayed for shelter and a big house appeared. She prayed for water and a big fountain sprang up.
On the tenth month of her pregnancy she delivered a child, after three days and three nights seventy seven female angels came down from heaven. God had sent them to help care for the child.
As time passed, her father ordered Sitti Maryam to return with her son, Nabi Isa. She prayed and asked God to take back all that was given to her, she had chosen to obey her father’s wish.
So Sitti Maryam lived with her father, protecting her child until he had grown into a young man.
When the time came for Sitti Maryam to face her judgment from God, she was brought to Zamboanga City. There people from the islands fulfill the promise they made when they needed help.
And that is the end of the story of Sitti Maryam.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Adapted from Sitti Maryam. Lady Mary. Narrated by Mullung.in Voices from Sulu A Collection of Tausug Oral Traditions. Rixhon. 2010.
Sitti Maryam Illustration by Alfonso Dolina
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