As was noted in the article regarding “What the Qur’an says about Jesus” (Tidings, October, 2009), Muhammad claimed Jesus prophesied of “a Messenger to come after me whose name shall be Ahmad [Muhammad]” (61:6). Elsewhere, the Qur’an provides a long list of Bible characters (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, John Baptist, Jesus among them) claiming they were all sent by the same angels who sent Muhammad to preach Allah to the people (6:84-86). The angel (claimed to be Gabriel) then purportedly said to Muhammad, “These were the men to whom we gave the Book, and Authority, and Prophet-hood…those were the (prophets) who received Allah’s guidance: copy the guidance they received.” Then in reference to the Qur’an, the angel is claimed to say, “this is a book [being revealed to Muhammad] which we have sent down, bringing blessings, and confirming (the revelations) which came before it: that you may warn the Mother of Cities [Mecca] and all around her” (6:87-92). Muhammad thus claims to be a prophet in the line of the biblical prophets and is under instruction to repeat and reaffirm their message of warning.
Accordingly, the Qur’an has a lot to say about Bible characters. Interestingly it has nothing to say about most of the kings and prophets and does not directly quote scripture. Muhammad’s style is to tell in his own words the Bible stories. The recounting follows a pattern: most highlights are accurate, some of the details are incorrect with part of one narrative being mixed up with another; most stories contain additions some of which can be traced to non-biblical accounts, others seem to be filling out a good story with one’s own imagination. In some cases, the point of the Biblical account is altered to be more applicable to lessons Muhammad wants to get across.
The Qur’an’s biblical narratives do not read like they come from someone who has a Bible in front of him. They seem to be exhortational accounts drawing on what a person has heard from various Christian and Jewish story tellers. They are what one would expect to hear from a creative mind telling Bible-based tales to support his own religious opinions.
We’ll review some of these to illustrate the different types of narratives found in the book:
Cain and Abel
Following are highlights of the Qur’an’s account of Cain and Abel:
“Recite to them the truth of the story of the two sons of Adam. Behold! they each presented a sacrifice (to Allah): it was accepted from one but not from the other…the (selfish) soul of the other led him to the murder of his brother: he murdered him, and became (himself ) one of the lost ones. Then Allah sent a raven, who scratched the ground, to show him how to hide the shame of his brother. ‘Woe is me!’ said he[Cain]; ‘was I not even able to be as this raven, and to hide the shame of my brother?’ Then he became full of regrets. On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person…it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people” (5:27-32).
There are three odd features to this account. First the raven aspect, second the link to an Israelite punishment for murder, and third the idea of one murder equaling the murder of a whole people.
Where did these ideas come from? Consider the following from ancient Jewish writings.
First about the raven:
“Adam and his help mate were sitting weeping and lamenting over him [Abel], and they did not know what to do with Abel, for they were not acquainted with burial. A raven, one of whose companions had died, came. He took him and dug in the earth and buried him before his eyes. Adam said, ‘I shall do as this raven.’ Immediately, he took Abel’s corpse and dug in the earth and buried it.”1
Regarding murder the Mishnah2 reads:
“In capital cases he [the murderer] is held responsible for his [the victim’s] blood and the blood of his [potential] descendants until the end of time, for thus we find in the case of Cain, who killed his brother, that it is written: the bloods of thy brother cry unto me: not the blood of thy brother, but the bloods of thy brother, is said — i.e., his blood and the blood of his [potential] descendants…whosoever destroys a single soul of Israel, scripture imputes [guilt] to him as though he had destroyed a complete world; and whosoever preserves a single soul of Israel, scripture ascribes [merit] to him as though he had preserved a complete world.”
Given this information, it is apparent Muhammad was influenced by input from the Bible and from various Jewish sources. Clearly he did not have the source documents before him and was mixing up various versions of early Genesis that he had heard in his travels. There is obviously considerable embarrassment in Islamic circles regarding such parallels, as Muslims claim the Qur’an is directly from Allah and is without human influence. The dating of the Jewish tale of the raven is actually debated in great detail between Muslim scholars and Christians. Muslims claim it was copied by the Jews from the Qur’an with Jews and Christians claiming the opposite. In reviewing the debate, it seems to us fairly conclusive the Jewish folk tales came well before the Qur’an. There is no debate about the influence of the Mishnah as Muslims, Jews and Christians agree it was completed hundreds of years before Muhammad. There seems little doubt, therefore, that Muhammad was influenced in his Cain and Abel narrative by Biblical and non-Biblical sources.
Lot
The Qur’an gives more space and attributes more prestige to Lot than does the Bible. He is referred to in 15 suras of the Qur’an compared to only five books in the Bible. In scripture he is once called “righteous” while in the Qur’an he is not only righteous but one of the great prophets in the class of Noah, Moses, David, Elijah and Jesus (6:84-86). Evidently to enhance Lot’s standing, the Qur’an says nothing about his drunkenness and the incestuous conception of Moab and Ammon by his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38).
A plausible reason for all the references to Lot is that the narrative provides an ideal opportunity for Muhammad to condemn homosexuality. Such a condemnation occurs in eight of his allusions to Lot.
In the course of the many references, the facts regarding the angels’ visit to Lot and subsequent events gradually come out with reasonable accuracy. One of course wonders why they are not all put together in one place following the scriptural account. A discrepancy between two of the accounts may suggest an answer.
In 15:61-77 Lot immediately recognizes the messengers as angels: At length when the messengers arrived…[Lot] said “You appear to be uncommon folk.” They said: “Yes, we have come to you to accomplish that of which they doubt…” However, in 11:77-82, the narrative more accurately follows the biblical account with Lot not knowing the identity of the visitors until he has tried to protect them from the men of Sodom: “When Our Messengers came to Lot, he was grieved on their account and felt himself powerless (to protect) them…And his people came rushing toward him, as they had been long in the habit of practicing abominations…(The Messengers) said: ‘O Lot, We are Messengers from your Lord…’ ”
Why the discrepancy? Probably in his travels, Muhammad heard the story of Lot repeated several times and gradually became more accurate in its retelling.
Saul and David
The Qur’an’s account of King Saul, first king of Israel, is brief but mixes together narratives regarding Gideon and Saul along with some creative additions:
“When Talut (Saul) set forth with the armies, he said: ‘Allah will test you at the stream: If any drinks of its water, he does not go with my army: only those who do not taste of it go with me: a mere sip out of the hand is excused.’ But they all drank of it, except a few. When they crossed the river, — he and the faithful ones with him, — they said: ‘This day we cannot cope with Goliath and his forces.’ But those who were convinced that they must meet Allah, said: ‘How oft, by Allah’s will, has a small force vanquished a big one? Allah is with those who steadfastly persevere’… By Allah’s will, they routed them; and David slew Goliath” (2:249-251).
The drinking from the stream comes from the much earlier incident of God narrowing down Gideon’s force to fight the Midianites (Jdgs 7:3-7). Muhammad has mixed that story into Saul’s confrontation with the Philistines (1Sam 17).
David likewise is only briefly referred to, although he is regarded as a prophet and writer of the Psalms, as given him by Allah. The only incident recited in some detail is a variation on Nathan’s appearance to David regarding David’s sin concerning Uriah and Bathsheba.
“Has the story of the disputants reached you? Behold they climbed over the wall of the private chamber; when they entered the presence of David, and he was terrified of them, they said: ‘Fear not: we are two disputants, one of whom has wronged the other…This man is my brother: he had nine and ninety ewes, and I have (but) one: yet he says, “Commit her to my care,” ’…(David) said: ‘He has undoubtedly wronged you in demanding your (single) ewe…truly many are the partners (in business) who wrong each other…’ And David gathered that We had tried him: he asked forgiveness of his Lord, fell down, bowing (in prostration), and turned (to Allah in repentance). So we forgave him this (lapse)” (38:21-26).
Muhammad has substituted his own story in place of the biblical account of the prophet Nathan’s confrontation with David (2 Sam 12:1-14). Furthermore there’s an obvious problem even without knowing the Bible. What’s David repenting of? As nothing is said about David’s great sin, the reader has no idea what this is all about.
To us, it seems apparent Muhammad had not read scripture. It seems more likely he heard oral narratives from various story tellers and then proceeded to get them mixed up in his own mind. The more we have read the Qur’an the more we agree with Thomas Carlyle as cited in our article of September, 2009: the Qur’an was “as toilsome reading as I ever undertook; a wearisome, confused jumble, crude, incondite.”
New Testament Incidents
Other than what has already been covered in regard to the Lord Jesus (October, 2009), little is said in the Qur’an about New Testament personalities.
The appearance of the angel to Zacharias (father of John the Baptist) is recounted with additional remarks about the son he would produce and a sign of three days of being unable to speak. Nothing is said about the apostles or early ecclesias although the New Testament is alluded to as part of Allah’s message to mankind.
Muslim response
The above examples are typical of several accounts in the Qur’an. Muslim scholars are, of course, aware of the difficulties we have indicated. Their summary explanation is, as we would expect, that the Qur’an is correct and the Bible is faulty due to inaccurate copying and deliberate alteration. Rejection of the Bible is supported by citing a number of supposed problems with the Biblical text.
Standard works defending the accuracy of the Bible (such as “Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible,” J.W. Haley, Baker, Grand Rapids, MI; “God’s Truth,” A. Hayward, Marshall, Morgan & Scott, London, UK) are useful in such a discussion as well as a Christadelphian book on the Qur’an available from Bro. Tim Galbraith in India (“The Bible and Islam,” Print land Publishers, tim@galbraithmail.com). Further the evidence that the Bible preceded the Qur’an by many centuries is readily available. Again standard works regarding the origin of scripture are useful (“The Canon of Scripture”, F.F. Bruce, InterVarsity Press, IL, “The Text of the Old Testament,” E. Wurthwein, Erdmans, Grand Rapids, MI).
In our own consideration, reading the scriptural account alongside the account in the Qur’an was the best indication that the Bible is right and the Qur’an is faulty. This article has noted what we feel are some of the better examples in this regard.
- Jewish legend related by Pirqey Rabbi Eliezer, chapter XXI, quoted by Abdiyah Akbar AdulHaqq, Sharing Your Faith with a Muslim, from a website titled Parallelism Between the Qur’an and Judeo-Christian Scriptures, by Julian Charteris.
- Mishnah as published in the Soncino Talmud, vol. Nezikin (3), pg. 233-234. The Mishnah is the first part of the Talmud, containing traditional oral interpretations of scriptural ordinances (halakoth), compiled by the rabbis about 200 A.D. Web. Dict., 1983. (We were put on the trail of this information by Mateen Elass in his “Understanding the Qur’an.”)
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One