Origins of the Quran

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, PIWNTED AT THEs. P. C. K. P R E S ~ , VEPERY, MADRAs

1907

THEIORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN

AN ENQUIRY INTO THE SOURCES OF ISLAM

BY THEREV. W. GOLDSACK

..,(,__ 9 _!>t . .. _j.;c,_&t"-"'... tY ..; J . . J . . ~ ""ir ; J-I

.. - -"Verily i t is a glorious Qur'an written on a

preserved table,"

THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETYLONDON, MADRAS AND COLOMBO

1907


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P R E F A C ] ~

THIS _little book lays no claim to originality. I t isprincipally based upon the larger works of Geiger,Tisdall, Zwemer, Muir, Sell and Imadu'd-Din, and aimsat presenting in a brief, and therefore inexpensive,form for Indian readers some of the resu lts of theexhaus tive studies of those scholars. I f it helps anyenquiring Muslims to understand more clearly theqrigin of th e Faith taught by Mul;tammad, it will haveaccomplished the purpose for which it was written.The t ransli teration adopted is that recommended bythe Royal Asiatic Society, namely,th for for lol;t " 'L " l ;kh " t " I'.dh " J gh " I'.

"


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OONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGEIntroduction Vl l

1. Heathen beliefs and practices incorporatedinto the Qur 'an 1

II . Jewish beliefs and practices incorporatedinto the Qur'an 12

III. Christian beliefs and practices incorporatedinto the Qur'an 24

IV. Portions of the Qur'an called forth bythe circumstances of the time 35

INTRODUC'l'lON

THE word "Qur'an" is derived from th e Arabic verb.--1j to read. I t means "the reading," or rather " thatwhich is to be read." I t is taken from Suratu'l- 'Alaq(xcv. 1) 1 which is said to have been the first Surarevealed to Mu];tammad. This word, firs t used to designate a portion only of t he Qur 'an , was subsequently,and is now, used to describe the whole collect iou ofthe " reve lat ions " made to Mu];tammad. The Tradi-tions relate many wonderful stories regarding thedescent of inspiration upon Mu];tammad, of which'Ayesha, the favourite wife of the Prophet" has preserved the following: "The first revelations which theProphet received were in true dreams, and he never,dreamt bu t it came like the dawn of day.. After thisthe Prophet became fond of retirement, and used toseclude himself in a cave in Mount f.lira and worshipthere day and night .... till one day the angel cameto him and said, 'Read, ' bu t the Prophet said, ' I amnot a reader.' 'Then,' said Mu];tammad, 'he tookhold of me and squeezed me as much as I could bear,and he then let me go and again he said, 'Read,'

1 ~ ~ i;\


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Vlll INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION ix

and I said, 'I am not a reader. ' Then he took holdof me a second time and squeezed me as much as Icould bear, and then let me go and said, 'Read,' andI said, ' I am no t a reader.' Then he took hold of mea third t ime aud squeezed me as much as I conld bearand said :-

of_ _ $10-,", __ " _ "e.- _ ._ .._ .. " $10-"~ ! ~ 1,jl.;: "':- " , L _ j ~ 1.f" , jl" ....J.III:.J-t} I ! " " ~ Ii1

, , - , , ~ , , ~ ~ ."" ... ..$- ~ ~ ~ " ' ~ - .. ~ 1 r lA ... l " ' ; ~ I r-le ~ l i i l ~ re ... ~ 1 I " i ; , , ~ I

, Reci te ! i n the name of thy Lord wbo created;Created man from th e clots of blood ;-Recite thou!for thy Lord is most Beneficent, who hath t augh t theuse of the pen ; - l Ia th taught man that which heknoweth not .' Then the Prophet repeated the wordshimself, and with his heart t rembling returned toKhadlja and said, 'Wrap me up! Wrap me up!'and they wrapped him up in a garment until his fearwas dispelled.'"Such Tradit ions as the one re lated above, togetberwith the oft-repeated statements of the Qnr'an itself,form the basis of the Mul;1ammadan belief that theQur'an is th e uncreated word of God which was communicated to Mul;1ammad in a miraculous manner,chiefly by the mediation of the angel Gabriel. TheQur'an, it is said, was extant in the highest heavenfrom all e tern ity , written on th e L a u l ; 1 u ' I - M a l ; 1 f u ~ , orthe "preserved table," near the throne of God, andthen sent down to the lowest heaven in tbe month ofRamaqan, whence it was revealed to Mul;1ammad

. 1 Suratu'l.'Alaq (xcvi. 1--5.) '


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x INTRODUCTION INTHODUCTION Xlmadan scholar says, "I can by no means rest contentwith the superstitious notion that Scripture, and allScriptures in gene.al, even the Holy Qur'an, must notbe subjected to critical examina tion. Would anyoneimagine for a moment tha t the most exalted of blessingsbestowed upon man, namely, the faculty of reason, isgiven to us to remain idle? Can we conscientiouslyand .faithfully profess to be Christians or Mu];tammadanswitbout being able to give a reason for our belief, orwi thout exercising our inte llec t to the utmost of oUrability in the thoughtful lind reverent consideration andexanlination of the precious volume which is given usas a guide of our faith? ... : On the contrary I wouldearnestly desire that those sacred writings be examinedwith fairness, and discussed with respectful but notimpertinent freedom."May the Muslim reader of this book, rememberingthe solemn and eternal nature of the issues involved,seek, in the sp ir it of Sir Syed A];tmad's statement, toinvestigate with candid freedom the book upon which hisfaith is based. For ourselves we believe, and will try toprove that the Qur'an is nothing more than a heterogene-ous collection of doctrines and stories already current inArabia in the time of Mn];tammad, which were adoptedlind altered by him, and afterwards given out fromtime to time as a direct revelation from God. Tothese stories were added a nnmber of practical precepts,both positive and negative, which were called for th bythe exigences of the time. In accordance with thisplan we purpose to discuss in order (1) those portionsof the Qur'an which Mu];tammad adopted from theheathen religions of his day; (2) those portions which

have a Jewish origin, both Biblical and Talmudic;(3) those port ions which Mu];tammad learned from hisChristian contemporaries; and finally (4) those portionsof the Qur'an which were called forth by the specialcircumstances of the mOlllent, and which were suitedto support and sanction the varied actions of th eProphet.


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ORIGINS O F T H E QUR'.A.NI IU f

CHAPTER IHEATHEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES INCORPORATED INTO

THE QUR'ANISLAM may be said to be tbe most eclectic Faith existentin the world. Oertainly it s author, MuI.1ammad, made wideuse of the varied materials which lay within his reach.

It is general ly supposed that Mul;1ammad first broughtto his fellow-countrymen th e great truth of the unity ofGod. He himself seems to claim that it was revealed tohim by direct revelation. Thus in Suratu 'I-Au 'am (vi. 106)we read:

_. . c;; _I _ _ __" _ _ _ ,,_ Co

:I' ~ . I l ~ 4.:J..J) c.J:' . . : . . J . : p ~ ..rJI Lc ~ > "Follow thou, (0, Mul;1ammad) that which hath been revealedto thee by th y Lord. There is no God bu t He." Bu t apartfrom the fact that there were communities of both Jews andChristians in Arabia. at the t ime of Mul;1ammad from whomhe could learn th e doctrine of t he un it y of God, the slightest acquaintance with Arabian history reveals the fact thatthe Supreme God was known aud worshipped by the Arabslong. before the time of Mul;1ammad. In pre-Islamic literature


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"Ilah" was used for any god, but " A l ~ I l a h , " contractedto "Allah," was the name of the Snpreme. The paganpoets Nahiga and Lahid both repeatedly USe the word"Allah" in the sense of the Supreme Deity, and the wordis also used in that sense in the famous MU'allaqat;. whilstIbn Hisbam tells ns that the Quraish, wheu performmg theceremony of I ~ 1 i l , used the following words, "V\'e are present in Thy service O God; Thou hast no partner exceptthe par tner of Thy dread; Thou ownest him and whatsoeverhe Qwneth." I t should, moreover, be remembered that forcenturies before JYlul;1ammad the Ka'ba was known as"BaitAllab," the house of God; whilst the very name ofMnhammad's father 'Abdn'llah shows the wide nse of theword "Allah." 1 Sir Syed Al;1mad in his work on the p r ~ .Islamic Arabs freely acknowledges the existence of theIstICsects amonO'st the Arabs before the time of MuJ;lammad.He says : ' ~ T h e r e were two classes of thei sti c Arabs i thet imes of ignorance. The members of the second worshIppedth tr e God and acknowledged th e judgment and the resur-e u , . l' t f threct ion of the body at the las t day, the lmmorta 1 y o . esoul and its punishment and reward accord.jng to th e actIOnsdone in the body. But they believed iu neither prophets. n ~

I t " Agal'n be says' "There were four theIstIceve a lOll. t sects in existence in Arabia before Islam which ackn.Qw-ledged a revelat ion, and which were prevalent at varIOUSt imes namely, the Sabians, the 1;[anifs, the Jews and theC h r i s ~ i a n s . " 2 The reader is now in a posi tion to see thatthe conception of a Supreme Being known as Allah, Waswell known to the contemporaries of Mnl;t.arnmad" an.awithout doubt to Mul;1ammad himself also, who adopted Itas the foundation of his system, and gave it out as a truthrevealed from heaven. LiUle wonder t ha t th e Arabs should

1See also Zwemer's " Moslem Doctrine of God."IlS)'ed A ~ m a d , " MaroaJ.1l aI-Arab gap} a.l-IsltIDl," pp. 222, 223.

retort that he was simply rehearsing H Tales of the Ancients," 1or that when Mul;1ammad bade them believe in his revela.tions they should say, " He hath forged it himself.'"The period immediately preceding the time of Mnl;1ammadwitnessed the rise of a theis tic sect known as the !;Ianifs, a

band of earnest reformers who rejected in toto the idolatryof their fellows, aud s tood for the worship of the one trneGod aloue. The principal of these seekers after truth wereWaraqa ibn Naufal, 'Ubaid Ullah, I bn Jash, 'Uthman ibnaHlnwairith andZaid ibn 'Amr. A Traditi on records that" Zaid adopted this term I;:lanif at the ins tauce of a Christianand of a Jew who both exhorted him to become a I;:lanif.Zaid having at the time renounceq idolatry, and being unableto receive either Judaism or Christianity said, 'What is aI;:lanif?' They both told him it was the religion of Abrahamwho worshipped uothing hnt God. Upon this Zaid ex .claimed, '0 God, I bear witness that I follow the religionof Abraham:" Ib n Hisham, one of the earliest aud mostreliable of all the biographers of Mul;1ammad has left in hisbook " l ? i r a t u ' r ~ R a s u l " a an interesting account of the ~ a n i f si n t he conrse of which he tells us that : _~ S J , 1 b',I, 4 ; ~ 1 1 . j r",L.!; J ;i 1:)1 .u;, t..\;

_,...A1SII J ~ I I : ) ~ L,.h ..;- l ~ l l : ) ~"Waraqa ibn Naufa! eu te red t he Christia n faith, andtook up the s tudy of the Scriptures of the Christians until,

at last, he became wel l versed in the learning of the peopleof th e hook." The Traditiouist Muslim further tells UBthat t hi s War aqa was the cons in of Khadij a the wife ofMUl;1ammad, and that he translated the Injil into Arabic.From these interesting facts one or two conclusions may1 Suratu'I.Furqan (xxv. 6.) 2 Suratu't.Tur (Iii. 33.)3 Part 1, pp. '16, 77; quoted in Tisdall's "Religion of the Crescent,"p.144.

2 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN HEATHEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 3


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4 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN HEATHEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

S u r a t u ' n ~ N a h l {xvi. 124).Sura.tu'n.Nisll.' (iv. 124}.

easil y be d rawn, The first is that Mnl;1ammad mnst oftenhave had intercourse with Waraqa, and the second is thatthe great truth of the unity of God could eas ily have beenlearnt in intercourse with these 1;Ianifs.1 One thing may betaken for cer ta in , namely, that Mul;Lammad was largely indebted to them for his theistic ideas; so much so thatwhen he began to p rea ch , he adop ted the very term as thekeynote of his discourses, and again and again assertedthat he was simply sent to preach the rel igion of Abraham,whom he represented, as a" J;Ianif. ~ " r o m a wealth of references we quote two passages,2 Olle from Sura.tu'1-An1am(vi, 162), where the P rophet says : -_ 1( . _' " '" _


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6 ORIG INS OF THE QUR'AN HEATHEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 7in the, pure Arabic of the Q u r ~ i s h as a part of the r e v e ~lations commnnicated to him by tbe angel Gabriel. Ib nHisham, the biographer of MuI.1ammad, mentions one, Salmanby name, who afterwards became famous as a Companionof the Prophet. In Arabia, MU\lammad had many opportunities of learning -the tales and legends of the Persians"for Persian influence had long been felt in tbat land. Indeedfor some time previous to the time of M u l ; t a m m ~ d a succes..sian of Persian governors bad r ul ed over Hira, 'Iraq andXamen. The Muslim historian Abu'IFida mentions eight:I:'ersian princes who bad thus ruled over Xamen. Theinfluence whioh was exe rc ised upon the Arabs by theirmore cul tu red conquerors could not have been small; onthe ,contrary, there i s ample evidence in Arabian history to8how that lhe legends and poetry of the Persians werewell known amougst the Arabs. A striking example of thisis found in the work of Ib n Hisham. This writer tells usthat in the early days of Islam not only were Persianstories current in Madina, but the Quraish .were in the habitof comparing tbe ir t al es with those of the Qur'an. Hethen tells us that one day Naz.ir ibn Hari ll i stood upbefore tbe Quraish and recited to them certain stories of theP,ersian kings; and t hen continued,r-Jol_1 ~ ~ . J . ~ l ~ ...,f< l11.. J . ~


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8 9ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN"Praise be to Him who transported His servant by nightfrom the sacred temple to the farther temple, the circuitof which we have blessed, that We migbt show him of Oursigns."

There is another reference in the 62nd verse of the 'sameSura to this same event, where we read:-'" .. ~ c '" _ ~ _ ( , 1 I I __ c.., l __ l ; ._p ~ I f ' l . ~ iU! ~ ~ ~ . ; I 43) I U L.,

"We have not appointed the vis iou which We showedthee, except as a test for men." Tbis latter statementnotwithstanding, Mul;mmmadan commentators and T r a d i t i o n ~ists delight to paint in detail a literal bodily journey bynight upon the back of a fabulous steed, not merely totbe further temple (the temple of J erusalem), but toheaven itself, where the ' Prophet ascended from story tostory, until he reached the very presenoe of God andlearned many of tbe secrets of heaven.

This story MUbammad must have learned from the Persians, for in the "Arta Viraf Namak U which was writtensome four hundred years before 'his time, we find a similarstory-agreeing in many of it s details-in which the hero,a young magian priest of s aintly life, ascended to heavenunder the guidall oe of an angel, and after passing into thevery presence of God and beholding the felicities of heaven,returned to t he e art h t o tell Zoroastrians what he had seen.1The Qur'anic stories of the Houris of Paradise are likewiseborrowed from the Persians. Every, r eade r of the Qur'anis famil iar with the pictures of the sensual paradise foundhere, and of the Houris with large black eyes who reclineupon luxurious couches waiting the embraces of the faithful.Out of a large number of passages we quote one from Suratu'rRabman (IV: 4 6 ~ 7 6 . )lChapter vii. 1--4, Il;uo,ted in Tisdall 's" Sources of t he Qm'an ,"

p. 227 et seq.

HEATHEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICESBut for him who dreadeth t he tribunal of his Lord,

the re a re two gardens, pl ant ed wit h shady trees. In each.of them are two fountains flowing. In each of them are .of-every fruit two kinds. They shall repose on couches, thelinings whereof [l,re of thick silk interwoven with gold;" rid the f ru it of the two gardens are near at hand. Therein:are (maidens) refraining their eyes, whom nei ther man nordemon hath approached before. They are like rubies andpearl s. Shal l the reward of good works be any other thangood? And besides these there are two other gardens of:a dark green. In each of them are two fountains pouringforth pl eu ty of water. In each of them are fruits and' P a l m ~ t r e e s and pomegranates. There in are agreeable andbeautiful maidens, Houris kept in pavilions, whom neitherman nor demon hath approached before. They shall recline-oD green cushions and beautiful carpets."

These tales of t he Houris, many wri ters have shown, are-derived from ancient Persian legends about beautiful feml1lespirits who inhabit Paradise and captivate the hearts of men.These I Pairakas, ' as they are called, must often have been-described to Mul;1ammad in song and story; and the veryword I hur, ' by which he described them in the Qur'ao, andwhich is i tsel f of Persian origin, and derived from the Pahlavi":hur' meaning 'light,' sufficiently indicates the source ofth e whole story.lT4e same might be said of the fables of the Qur'an conc.erning the ' Jinn' or evil spirits, for the Per sian origin of-the terrn---,-it being derived from the Avestic 'Jaina ' -makesit clear that this conception also was derived f rom' thePersians, whose books contain similar stories.Many other resemblances might be pointed out between

1Fora discussion on th e derivation of this word, see TiBdall's" Religion


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the Zoroastrian Mythology and the stories of the Qur'an;b u enough has been written to show that one of the sourcesof tbe lat te r was uudoubtedly the stories which Mu!;lammadlearned from time to time from the Persians with whom hecame into contact. The very word for Paradise II flrdaus, ,.used so frequently in the Qur'an, i s i tself of Persian origin,as are not a few other words which have been used byMul;1ammad to 'describe conceptions which be borrowed fromthe Persians. The Muslim bistoriau Abu'l Fida gives ussome interesting particulars of a sect, mentioned more thanonce in the Qur'tin, known as the Sabians. 1 Amongst other-things, be tells us, they observed'prayer seven times a day.Now the times for five of these prayers correspond exactlywith the five Muslim prayers; and as it is clear fromMu!;lammad's refereuces to the Sabians that he had closeintercourse with them, it is probable that it was from themthe Prophet obtained the practice which now prevailsthroughout the Mul;1ammad.n world.

The facts related above are so well kuown, that Mu!;lam-madan scholars are fain to admit the influence of c o n t e m ~poraueous thougbt in the formatiou of the Qur'an. ThusSyed 'Amir 'All acknowledges tbat, " There is no doubt thatin tbe Suras of the intermediate period, before the mind ofthe t eacher had attained the full development of rel igionsconsciousness, and when it was necessary to formulate inlanguage intelligible to the common folk of the desert, therealistic descriptions of heaven and hell, borrowed from thefloating fancies of Zoroastrianism, Sabianism and the TalmudicJew, attract the attention as a side picture, and then comesthe real essence-the adoration of God i n humility a nd love.The hooris are creatures of Zoroastrian origin, so is paradise,

1110 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN HEATHEN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES(in Persian' firdaus '), whilst heil, i n t he severity of it s punishment, is Talmudic."1But if the facts be as described above, how, we ask, canthe Qur'/iu be accepted as the word of God, given in it sentirety to Mu!;lammad by the angel Gabriel? I t is pro:ed,ou the contrary, that the Prophet adopted i d e ~ s and doctrlUesfrom the 1;ranifs, Sabil};ns, Zoroastrians and others. Thepresumption is that th e res t of tbe Qur'an is borrowed .also.This we now proceed to show.

1" Hist. Ante_Islamica" (ed. Fleisher), p. 148, quoted in Tisdall's" Re-l igion of the Crescent," p. 143. 1" Spirit of IslAm" (ed. Calcutta, 1902), pp. 235-6.\


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JEWISH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 13

CHAPTER IIJEWISH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES INCORPORATED INTO

THE QUR'AN.WHILST a study of the Qur'au makes it ahundantly clear, t ~ a t MU\1ammad horrowed from the idolatrous Arabs ofhIS t l ~ e , . and also incorporated in'to his system not a little, o C b r l s ~ ~ a n truth, yet an investigation into the SOurces oft e Qur an reveals the fact that Islam is in th .little m th T 1 ,e mam,'th' are . an a mudie JUdaism, plus the assertion ofe apostleshIp of MU\1ammad. We purpose in tbis cha te rto prove the truth of this assertion. pI t need scarcely be said that Muhammad h d Itun't f . t . a amp e .oppor-I y 0: In ercourse with Jews, from whom he could learn

the .storIes current amongst them relating to the earl~ a t n t h a r c h s sn d others.' Any comparison of the stories as givenY1n e Qur" 't h th'h' to . .an WI . e Talmudic perversions of scripture. IS rIes WIll m ~ k e It clear that the Jews of Mecca andMadma communIcated their legends to Muhammad hthen recast them and gave t hem out t th .' , w 0, " 0 e Ignorant Arabsas revelatIOns from heaven I t sh ld bth t th TId . ou e remembereda e a mu Was completed a century previons to the-era of M U J ; 1 a m ~ ~ d , and cannot fail to have extensively influ

. e l l c ~ d the rehglOus creed of all the Jews of the ArabianPenmsula. In one passage of the Qur 'an MU\1ammad speaks1 See Geiger's "Judaism and I 18. " ."Was hat Muh dA s m, p. 27. (Enghsh translat ion of1833). . aroma usdem Judemthume aUfgenommen," ed. Bonn.,

of -a eeitain Jew as a witness to his miss ion; in many placeshis disputes and arguments with them are mentioned, andi t ' is clear that at one time, at least, his relations with themwere those of friendship and intimacy. Hence it can easilybe understood how easy it was for Mu\1ammad to take theJewish fabies, to wbich he so frequontly listened,. and thento work them up in a form such as would commend itselfto Arabian ears. There is no doubt that Mul;lammad:was inthe habit of questioning the Jews concerning their religion,and the great Traditionist Muslim has preserved for us' aTradition to that effect as foilows :-,-J ~ " " .j;,_:' " " ... ~ 4 \ l ~ LJj u - l ) ~ ",,!I Jl.',r,;.. ". ""I ") ". I , ~ . r " ' ; . ) . , ~ l , '4.1 ',.c.:iS; y lAS< t i ~ ~ L "Ibn 'Abbas records that, when the Prophet asked any

quest ion of the people of the Book, they suppressed thematter, and in place of it told him something else, and wentaway let ting him think that they had told him what he asked."Mote significant still i s the fact that Mul;lammad excusedhimself for thus obtaining his materials for bis stories, bypretending that he had received a revelation commanding'him to do so. Thus i n Suratu Yunas (x. 94) we read:-- "'- ~ ' - .>_,,- - "'.... -,,-d ""'" ...,....:i.?1 , , " , , ~ j ! . " " ! . ~ 1 ~ . . . ;

" (0 MU\1ammad) ask t hose who are reading the bookbelore thee." The Muslim historian Tabari further tells usthat, "Khadija (the first wife of the Prophet) read the former scriptures and knew the stories of the prophets." Now,MU\1ammad lived with Khadija for Some fil teen years heforehe began to announce his m i s s i o n ~ and when it is rememberedthat during that period he must al so have had close. and


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14 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN JEWISH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 15frequent intercourse with Waraga, the cousin of his wifewho was in turn both l;Ianif and Christian, and was t h translator of the Christian scriptures into Arabic the readeris. at no difficnlty to understand whence the Prophet obtainedhis knowledge of the Jewish Rabbinical fables.We now propose to give examples of the way in whichM U 1 ; l a ~ m a d adopted the stories of Jewish history which werecurrent amongst his contemporaries; but before doing soit . w i ~ l be necessa.ry to clear the ground somewhat by r e m m d ~ n g .the reader of the s ta te of Jewish thought in AraBiaat this time. The Jews, especially in the neighbourhood ofMadma, were .both powerful and numerous; but the studyof the Old Testament scriptures had l argely given p lace tothat of .the Talmud. The latter was a chaotic arrangementof RabbInICal speculations, comments, and traditions connectedwith the Hebrew Bible. This encyclop",dia of laws andtraditions records the thoughts of a thousand years of thenational life of the Jewish people, and in it the oral traditionsof the race have been carefully preserved. Yet it is "aliterary wilderness," without order or arrangement oftengrossly unhistorical, and abounding in puerile fancies andabsurd stories. This made up the menta l pabulum of theJews of Mul;1ammad's time, and it was the apocryphal storie.sof the Talmud which delighted the ears of Jewish audiencesand f ~ r n i s h e d the basis of instruction in Jewish schools:Thus It was the stories of the Talmud, rather than of theBible, which Mul;1ammad would learn in his intercourse withthe Jews; and we will now proceed to show that the storiesof the Patriarchs and others detailed in the Qur'an agr'h hWit t e, often unhistorical , legends of the Hagadah rather,han with the Bihle,

In Suratu'l-Ma'ida (v, 30-35) there is a curions story connocted with Oain and Abel. I t is t he re (verse 34) rel at edthat, after Oain had killed his brother,

J ! I ~ ~ .. _ .. _ .. (,J!V .. _ ( , ~ ~ _ . . . .__4,=--1 ' ~ ....}l!. uJ.S "?,;.o ~ ) I..) " : " ' ~ I . l l ~ . c < \ \ I l ~ ;- - ~ - - ~ "God sent a raven which scratched the earth to shew him(Oain) how he should hide his brother's body." Everystudent of t he Taun, t knows that t hi s s to ry is not to befound in the revelation given to Moses ; but we are not leftin doubt as to where Mu1;lammad learned the legend; forin a Rabbinical work known as the Targum of Jonathan,Pirke Rabbi Elieze r, Ohapter XXI, we read, "Adam andhis companion sat weeping and mourning for him (Abel),and did not know what to do with him, as burial was u n known to them. Then came a raven, whose companion wasead, took its body, scratched in the ear th , and hid it beforetheir eyes. Then said Adam, 'I shall do as this raven hasdone,' and at once he took Abel's corpse, dug in the earthand hid it."l From a comparison of these two passages itis c lea r that Muhammad had hea rd from the Jews thefable of Ihe bur ial 'of Abel as related in the Rabbinical books,and thinking it derived from the scriptures, repeated it, with, slight alterations, as if revealed to him from heaven.

The Qur'an abounds with slories of the Patriarch Abraham.These in many instances flagrantly coulradict the Biblicalnarrative; but a comparison of them with the Rabbinicallegends of th e Jews , leaves no room for doubt that Mu1;lam-mad learnt them from the latter during his close intercoursewith them. Thns in several places of the Qur'an the storyis told of Abraham's being cast into a fiery furnace byorder of a king (whom the commentators name Nimrod)because of the Patriarch's refusal to worship idols. It issaid in Sill:atu'l-Anbiya' (xxi. 69, 71) that when Abrahamwas cast into the fire, God said:-.. _ 0 ; ; ; ,( , __ "" __ ,,,_ ..

' l 4 . ~ , ... ~ j . } J; l...\w , 1.l;! oj,S )\,; 4.1 Tisd,all, "The Sources of the Qur'an," p. 63.


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]6 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN JEWISH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 17l( 0 fire, be thou cold, and a preservation unto Abraham,. . . and we sa-v edhim. " Now it ia a curious fact-that

this legend, which has no bfl.sis in sc ri pture, is found in it sentirety in a Jewish book called the Midrash Rabba.' Fromth e Taura t we learn that the Patriarch Abraham before hisentrance into the land of Canaan resided in the city namedUr in the la nd of Chaldea; bu t God brought, him out ofthat city and took him to the land of promise . Thus inGenes is XV. 7, we read, " I am the Lord that broughtthee out of Dr of the Chaldees." Tbis city was evidentlyunknown to the ig norant Jewish au thor of the Midrashmentioned above ; for in hi s comment on the verse quotedhe took the word II Ur," which a lso means fire, in its bareliteral sense, and supposed tbat God had delivered Abrabamout of a fire. So, to explain the verse " I am the Lordthat brougbt thee out of Ur of the Chaldees," a s to ry wasinvented of Abraham's being cast into fire by Nimrod,whence he was miraculously saved by God. The wholes to ry i s given at length in the Midrash Rabba referred toabove, and was well known to the Arabian Jews of MUl;1am-mad's time. I t is there written, "Now thi s happened atthe time wben Nimrod cast Abraham into th e oven of fire,because he would not worship the idols, that leave waswithheld from the fire to hurt him."

The reader is now in a position to understand th e sourceof the story as it appears in the Qur'an, the author of whichwas evidently as ignorant of the real meaning of t he wordIj Dr " a s the Jewish commentator referred to above. I fany further proof were needed to ,show the utterly unhistorical nature of the whole narrative) it may be found inthe fact that Nimrod was not a contemporary of Abrahamat all, hu t preceded him by many years.

1Quoted in Geiger 's" Judai sm and I sIamt" p . 96.

Another Qur'anic story which has an undoubted Jewishorigin is that found in Suratu Tli Hli (xx. 90) in connectionwith the calf which was worshipped by the Israelites duringMoses' absence on MOQut Sinai. We a re the re told thatthe people brought their ornaments of gold and silver andcast them i nto t he fire, af te r which

!> .. _.. _ '" [, c. .._ _ _ C. : l ! ~ :;l .. . _: l ! _ '. ~ ;If'> .J 1",_,\," a","- V .. :,; ""r'l..JI ..,siill dJ_"'.s.;U in like manner Samiri also cas t them in and he broughtout to them a corporeal, lowing calf." It is well knownthat the Ta.urlit contains no mention of the golden cal fhaving lowed; bu t Rabbinica l fables are not wan ting inwhich the story as reproduced by Mul;1ammad is clearlytraced. Thus in the Pirke Rabbi Eleazar we read, "Thecalf having cried aloud, came forth, and the chi ldren ofIs rael saw it." Rabbi Yahuda fur ther preserves a fableto the effect that a man named Sammael secreted' himselfinside the image. and made a cry like a calf in order tolead tbe Israelites astray.' Such is t he st ory which wascurrent amongst t he Jews of Arabia in the time of Mul;1am-mad. Let it be compared with the narrative of the Qur'lin,and the reader will easily see that Mul;1ammad, thinkingthe story which he heard upon the lips of his Jewish contemporaries to be a part of the scripture record, adoptedit, and later gave it out to the ignorant Arabs as thoughrevealed from heaven.Unfortunately Mul;1ammad failed to rightly understand theallusion to the man Sammael , and, confounding his namewith the name of the Samaritans, whom he probably kuewto be enemies of the ,Jews, makes the Samaritan ( ' f } ~ l . : J l )to bave a part in the matter. Since, however, the Samaritans

1 See Geiger, "Juda.ism, ,lnd Islam," pp. 130-2.2


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18 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN JEWISH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 19did not come into existence as a people until some centuries-


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20 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN JEWISH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 21The story quoted above is only equalled for absurdity by

that of tbe fallen angels which i s found in Suratu'I-J;-lijr(xv. 16-18) where it is gravely stated that the devilsendea.vour to hear what is going on in heaven, and are thendriven a.way by meteors which are cast at them by theangels. Thus we read:-

. " ' _ -, _ _ ( , l!_ _ c.;; ; . . ." ,,__ '" _ , \' .,. 'I" I vI l''I ; ) ~ y f 4 . ~ ) ~ c...o.u.o.J J;.l.- (,:1"" iii ~ "if ~ "We have placed signs of the zodiac in the heaven, and

have adorned them for the spectators; and We guard tbemf rom every s toned Sa tan except such as steal a hearing;and him doth a visible flame consume;" and again,' inSuratu'l-Mulk (lxvii. 5) we read:- I'" '" _ ,(, _

" " ~ ~ ~ l ~ ' ~ J \!.u . J"We have placed them (the st ars ) there to be darted at

the Satans." So much for Mul;Lammad's explanation ofshooting s ta rs ! H is ideas of the devils attempting to 'steala hearing' in the courts of heaven, however, are not original, but are simply echoes of a Jewish fable preserved inthe Hag igah, where it is said that the demons "listen from'behind a curtain" in order to obta n a knowledge of futureevents. Further comment upon these mythical tales isneedless. No intelligent Muslim, we are convinced, canaccept them as of divine origin; and their very presencein the Qur 'an bears eloquent testimony tQ the human originof the book.

Much more might be written to show hm\" much Mul;1ammadwas indebted to the J ews for the ideas which he a ft erwardsembodied in the Qur'an; but the l imits of tbis l it tle bookcompel us to be content with one or two more examples .

... .. " _' " _ _ .1 _ ~ " ' __ '" ..... "" '"1,!6 ",,::, \ ! i . \ ; ~ ~ J ",,1.! , " ~ 'i:Y;, l ~ ) ; 1 ~ L o . . . . I 1 " ' -,,-- ,,---L\1,,?" . , ) . ~ ! ,

As both the Jews and Sabians observed a month's fast in theyear, it is not easy to determine which of these sects furnishedMul;Iammad with the similar injunction now found in theQur'a.n; but in connection with this fast there is a rulellujoined in the Qur 'an which is undoubtedly of Jewish ,origin.In Suratu'l-Baqarah (ii. 183), we r ead-

Pc ..... _ -"_"""'. .. . - " PI;>.... -" -" _ p O;__ p -"_c.. ...._ -" -" _..;,1 I " " ~ I 10.1,...;,11 1"=-1 ",,:!-fj.!. , j> l,b":' IJ lYSJ

_ .... ol]! Oi-" I;> _I;> .... p pl;>p/,;....


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22 ORIGINS OF THE QUE'AN JEWISH BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 23It s height was seven hnndred years jonrney and it s breadththree bnndred years journey." Then after describing thecreation of a pen the author proceeul:i, "accordingly, thepen wrote down God's knowledge in God's most high creationof everything that He wished unto the resurrection day;the extent t ha t t he leaf of a tree moveth or descendeth oraSMndeth, and it wrote every such thing by the power ofGod most High."

This notion of a table upon which the words of God arepreserved is an obviol1s varady of the inspired narrative ofthe Taurat where we read that God said to Moses, II Howthee two tables of s tone like unto the first, and come upunto Me into the mount, and make thee. an ark of wood.And I will write on the tables the words,aat were on thefi rst tables which thou brakest, and though shalt put them inthe ark." 1 I t is specially significant that the very Hebrewword "hiach" 2 used for these tables in the Taurat is thatadopted by MUhammad in describing his imagina ry table.He had, doubtless, often heard from the Jews the s tory ofthe tables of stone which were preserved in the ark; and,n o wishing for his Qur'an a less d i s t i n g u i ~ h e d origin,adopted and elabora ted the idea of a book written andpreserved in heaven itself. The Prophet, however, o v e r ~reached him.self; and in an unguarded moment made Godto say, II We have, since the Law was ,given, written in thePsa lms tha t my servants, the r ighteous, shall inherit theearth;" 3 so that, for all time, the faith of Muslims is stag-gered by the spectacle of a Qur'an which claims to havebeen written in the beginning of creation, quoting from abook not then two thousand years old. Most intelligentpeople will regard this as a proof that the Qur' an waswritten after the Psalms.

1 Deuteronomy x. 1, 2. Hebrew n ~ Arabic eY.:3 Sllratu'l-Anbiya' (xxi. 105).

I f fur ther proof were needed to show that the Qur'an islargely based upon Talmudic Judaism, it may surely be foundin the large number of words of Hebrew origin which arefound therein: The following words amongst others , are allO ( , ~ _ 0_( , _ 0(,_of Hebrew origin, Titbut ..:.:..:)!l); Taurat ~ ~ , ; ; 'Adn I : J ~ ;

;;


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CHAPTER IIICHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES INOORPORATED INTO

THE QUR'ANWE ~ a v e already pointed ont that Mul;1ammad was mnchless .Illdebted to Chri st iani ty for his ideas than to eitherJudaIsm or the pre-Islamic idolatry of Arabia. Yet theQur'an reveals not a few traces of the influence of Christianthought and practice. Thus J esns Christ is invariablyspcken of with the deepes t reverence as a Prophet sent fromGod, to whcm Was ent rusted the Gospel cr Injil asM U l ; L a ~ m ~ d d ~ s c r i b e d the Evangel. The r n ~ n y r e f e r e ~ c e s ,to Chrlsllans III the QUI" an make it clear t ha t t bey musthave been numerous in Arabia at that time; and Muhammadseems to have en ter ta ined no lit tle friendship for them, asmay be seen by the following advice given to his followers : _

~ ; ; , \;1 1;1(; ~ J i 1 T I;':' j.sJ.1 ~ ~ , - ' : ' ';;-;i : i . . , ~ i - "- "- - r- 'J .., !:,.,II Thou shalt sure ly find those to be near es t in affection' tothem (Le., true believers) who say, I We are Christians.' 1M u ~ a r n ~ a d certainly bad reason to regard the followers ofC ~ r l s t WIth grateful affection, for it was ill the ChristianKIugdom of Abyssiuia that his persecu ted followers fouuda safe a ~ y l u m when the oppression of the Meccans hadbecome mtolerable.

1 Suratu'l-l\Iu'ida (Y. 85).

CHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 211Mul;tammad had many opportunities of learning of Chris..-tianity, both during his journeys into Syria and also in

Arabia itself. We have already pointed out that Waraqa,the cousin of his wife Kbadija, was at onB t ime a Ohr is tianand was well versed in the Christian scr ip tures; later Oll,not a few Chr is tians became Mu1;lammad's followers, andfrom Mary, his Ooptic wife, also he could easily learn theScripture and especially the apocryphal stories then currentamongst the Eastern Ohristians. Thus i t would be easy forMul;1ammad to take these stories and give them out in hisown eloquent Arabic a s though reveal ed from heaven. MuJ;1ammad's contemporaries bad no doubt that he did so, andfrequently charged him with ob ta ining the help of certaiuwell-known persons. Thus, for example, in Stiratu'n-Nal;1l(KVi. 103, 105) we read :-;:;.." .. ~ __ ~ ... _ ~ _ ' " _" _":15_ ... ~ ... ~ I . . , l . ~ ~ r ' : ' O l " ' ; ~ ..,51,.1. .. , J.'i>.t.


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26 ORIGINS O ~ THE QUR'AN CHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 27of ?oing to them and listening to what they were reading."Imam l;Iusam comments thus, " It is related that therewas a slave belonging to 'Amir ibnu'I-Hadrami namedJabara (and according to some a second s l a v ~ ~ a m e ~ Yasara.)who nsed to read the Law and the Gospel, and Muhammad used, when be passed, to stand and listen,"It is worthy of note here that in reply to the charge

that he was helped in composing the Qur'an by these~ e r s o n s , Mu1;Iammad does not specifically deny the imputaMtIon. All he can reply iR that the person or persousreferred to are foreigners, and could not therefore composeso e l e g ~ n t l y ill Arabic. But we, are not concerned to provetbey dId. What we do assert is that Mubammad learntthe main outlines of the Biblical and A p ~ c r y p b a l storiesfrom Je,,:"s and Christians with whom he was frequentlybrou.ght mta contact, and then, by his own poetic genius,fashIoned them into the forms they now take in the Qur'an.We certa inly have shown that he had amp le opportunit ie sfor so doing.We had occasion to point out in the las t cbapter that it

was Talmudic perversions of holy Scripture, ratber than thesacred records themselves which were current amongst theJews of Arabia in the t ime of Mu!)ammad. The reader willfail to r ight ly apprehend the nature of the influence whichChristianity exercised upon MUl;1ammad, unless the characterof that Ohris ti anity be properly understoOd. Arabia hasbeen called "The Mother of heresies." Certain it is thatfrom the earliest times that land had offered a refuge forthe many heretical sects of Ohristiana who had been expelledfrom the Roman Empire on account of their dangerousheresies. The Christianity of Arabia in the time of Muhammad was buried under.a senseless mass of superstition" anddegradation. Saint worship and Mariolatry had taken theplace of true religion, and a mass of fanciful apocryphal

literature had nsurped the place of the Bible. I t has beenwell said that had Mnhammad been brought int o contactwith a purer form of Ohristianity, there wonld probably havebeen one false religion the less in theworld, and one Christianreformer the more. As it was, the blasphemous extravagancesof the Mariamites, OOllyridians and other heretical Ohristiansects repelled the Arabian reformer, and led him to denouncethe teach ing of these people as nothing less tban polytheism.I t was Muhammad's misfortune that he identified this massof superstitIon with true Christianity, and thus became thefounder of a fai th which led back to tbe legal bondage of Judaism. Any comparison of the Apocryphal stories which werecurrent amongst these wanderers from the pure teaching ofthe Bible with the s tor ies of the Qur'an will, at the sametime, make it evident that Mul;1ammad accepted many oftheir fables as a portion of the Gospel record, and thus,believing them to be true, incorporated them into the Qur'an.We give below one or two examples which wiB make thisclear.In Suratu'I-Xahf (xviii. 8-12, 25) there is a curious story

of seven youths who went to sleep in a cave and awoke againonly after a period of three hundred and nine years. We.there read, "Dost thou consider that the inmates of thecave, and of al-Rakim, were one of our wondrous .signs. Whenthe young men took refuge in a cave, they said, '0 Lord Igrant us mercy from before thee, and order for us our affairaright: Then We struck their ears with deafness in the cavefor many a year; then We awaked them that We mightknow which of the two par ti es could best reckon the spaceof their abiding." II And they remained in their cave threehundred years and nine years over."This mythical' story, which is absolntely devoid of foundation,_ was current in Arabia long before" the t ime of Mul;1am.mad. It is found in the writings of a Syrian, named Jacob


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28 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN CHRISTIA:t,f BELIEFS AND PBACTICES 29of Sarug,! who died in 521 A.D., and which purports to teUthe story of seven yonng men of Ephesus who fled fromthe persecution of tbe Roman Emperor Decius. They tookrefuge, it is said, in a cave where they fell asleep, and onlyawoke some one hundred and n i n e t y ~ s i x years l at er to findChristiauity everywhere triumphant. MUhammad must oftenhave heard the legend from the Chr is tians of Arahia andSyria, and imagining it to be true, pretended that he hadreceived it as a Divine revelat ion.

A ~ o . t h e r ~ t ~ r y of the Qnr'an which has a distinctlyChrIStIan oflgm is that relat ing to the childhood of theVirgin Mary. Nothing is more striking to the tboughtfulreader than the s ilence of the genuine Gospels concerningthe pe rson of the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ butin a community where tbe pure teachings of the Gospelwere hIdden under a load of superstit ious beliefs and whereM a r i ~ l ~ t r y had taken the place of true w o r s b i ~ , it is no tsurprIsmg to find a number of legendary stories in whichwith extravagant detail, the events of the Virgin's life ar;related . . ~ b e s e Apocryphal s tories were current amongstthe ChristIans. of Arabia! and were almost cer ta inly wellknown to Mul;1ammad. The latter, however, was too ignorantof the contents of the genuine Gospels 10 delect theirspu:iousness, and consequently found no difficulty in introdUCIng them into his 'revelations' as a part of the messagesent down to 'confirm' the previous Scriptures.From Suratu A I ~ i - ' I m r a n : ! we learn that, in her childhood,

Mary was brought to the temple of Jerusalem which washenceforth ber home until tbe birth of Christ. Duringher resIdence there, the Qur'an tells us, it was sjgnified bylot who was to be her guardian. Thus we read :_1 The account is found in a homily in the" Acta Sanctorum." SeeTisdall, " The Sources of The Qur'an," p.147.SI Suratu Al:i-'lmran (iii. 39).

__ c._ ...... c, _ c. ... c. ... __ c,J! _ ... c.... C, c, c ,_ _;c, . . . __r:r J . ~ s , . 1"".1 I " I - < ~ ; J 0 f i ~ , .i! I'f..ll


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30 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN CHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES 31that palm-tree, and took her down off her beast. When Marysat down she looked up to the top of th e palm-tree, and seeingi t fnll of f ruit said to Joseph, ' I desire if i t be possible, totake of the frnit of this palm-tree.' . . . . " Then theohild Jesus, who with a joyful couutenance lay in his mother,the Virgin Mary's bosom, said to the palm-tree, '0 , tree,lower thy branches and refresh my mother with thy fruit.'Instantly the palm-tree at this word bowed its head to th esole of Mary's feet; and they all plucked the fruit whichit bore, and were refreshed and the palm-treeinatRrntly stood erect, and streams of very clear, cool, and'Very sweet water began to come forth from amid its roots."Every reader of the Qur'a.n knows that it contains severatreferences to the Lord Jesus Ohrist, and mentions certainstories connected with His birth, some of which are not tobe found in the genuine Gospels. These stories, like thatof the palm-tree, can also bfl traced to Apocryphal sources,and show conclusively whence Mul;tammad drew the m a t e ~rials which he afterwards recast and embodied in the Qur'an ..Oue of these legends has reference to certain miracles said'to have been performed by Christ in His infancy. Oneallusion to them may be fonnd in Suratu'l-M:\'ida (v. 109110) where we read :-

"And she conceived him; and retired with him to a distantiplace; and the pains of childbir th came npon her near thetrunk of a palm-tree. She said, wonld to God I had diedbefore this, and had been a thing forgotten, forgotten qni16.And he who was beneath her called to her; ' gr ieve notthou, thy J;.ord hath provided a r ivule t under thee; nnd dothou shake the body of the palm-tree, and it shall let faJIr ipe dates npon thee ready gathered, and eat and drink andcalm thy mind.'''

The Gospels, on the contrary , tell us that Christ wasborn in the town of Bethlehem in or Dear an inn. In thiscase, again, the source of the story repeated by Mul;tammadcan be clearly traced; for the Apocryphal Christian bookscontain similar legends and relate many fanciful storiesconnected with the birth of J e sns. These were popularlyrepeated amongst the Christians of Arabia, and must oftenhave reached the ears ofMul;1ammad, who doubtless imaginedthem to be part of the genuine Gospel record. In the Apocryphal work entitled the "History of the Nativity of Maryand the Infancy of the Saviour" 1 the whole s to ry of thepalm-tree in its main features may be clearly traced. Thefew variations in the details may be sufficiently accounted forby the fact that these s tories were probably repeated fromhearsay; but any careful comparison of the storY as foundin these spurious Gospels with that repeated by MUl;1ammadin the Qur'an will make it clear that the lat ter is simplytaken from the former, and then represented as a directrevelation from God.' That the reader may see how closethe resemblances are we give below a quotation from theApocryphal work mentioned above. After recording the flightof Joseph and Mary with the child Jesus the narrativeproceeds, "and Joseph hastened and brought her (Mary) to

1 See Tisdall, "The Sources of the Qur'an," p. 162.

- ( , ( , -' (,..."y ~ " ; ;='"..i\

__ (, __ (,..." _ \ . w. . ." __ (,r " ' ! ; ~ ",'1 .... - " ' ~ .D1Jl i ..il


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82

1 Published in "Texts and Studies ," vol. ii, No.2, g,nd quoted inTisdal l' s" The Sources of the Qur'a,n," p. 200.3

33

01_ (,.... _ _ .. ,,_c,..,...;",1 I ~ : , j ! . " , j j I

CHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

... " .." . . , . . - ' _, J!_ ..... " " __t : J , , , , ~ 1 \ r' ~ , \ ; .tiI)y


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34 ORIGINS OF TH E QUR'ANwas written in the second or third century of the Christianera. A mythical story is there related of the PatriarchAbraham's ascension to heaven, where he beheld, amongstother marvels, the great throne of judgment. And, the s toryproceeds, . II On it sat a marvellous man . . . . and b ~ f o r ehim stood a table like unto crystal , all of gold and fine Imen.And on the table lay a book; it s thickness was s ix cub it sand its breadth ten cubits. And on the r ight and left ofi t the re stood two angels holding paper and pen and ink.And in front of the table was seated a bright beamingangel holding a balance in his hand . . . . and the marvel-lous man who was seated on the throne was himself judging and proving the souls, but the two angels who wereon the right and on the lef t were registering. The one onthe right was registering the righteous acts, but the oneon the left the sins. And the one in f ront of the table, theone who held the b a l a ~ c e J w a 8 weighing the souls."

We migh t go on to show tbat many other of the doctrinesof the Qur 'an such as the denial of the death of Christ, theresolving the Christian Trinity into a tritheism consisting o{the Father, the Son and the Virgin Mary were der ived byMuhammad from the Gnostic and other heretical sects ofChristians who flourished in Arabia in his time. Enough,however, has been written to show that much of the Qur'ancaD be traced to Apocryphal Christian sources; whilst theChristian reader will also perceive how false is the claimthat the former "confirms" the preceding scriptures-theTalml t and Inj!!.

CHAPTER IYPORTlC)N'SOF THE QUR'AN CALLED PORTH 'BY THE

CIRCUMSTANCEH OP THE TIMEWE are convinced that a careful and unprejudiced study ofthe Qur'an will prove beyond doubt that l arge por tion s ofh were de liber at ely framed by Mu\mmmad t o su it his ownends. This is a grave charge, and we now proceed to'Substantiate it. I t should ever be remembered that "a,comparison of the historical facts in the life of Mul;>ammadwith ,the various portions of the Qur'an connected with themis necessary, if that life is to be intelligently understood.Another and equally important result of such comparison-is that it shows the gradual way in which the Qur'an came,into ,existence, and how admirably the revelations fitted:in to the local circumstances, and gave what was claimedto be divine authority and support to the varied actions,of'"the Prophet. In this way alone could his change of policybe justified and he himsel f be p rotec ted from the charge of,time-serving and inconsistency." 1 Such a study alone willenable the reader to understt1nd such questions as a changeof the Qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca, the substitution ofan ord er t o "Kill tbe i dolate rs whereve r ye find them '"40r the pacific policy of" No compulsion in religion," 3 as

1 Sell, "Historical Development of the Qur'an," p. 1.2 Sliratu'l-Baqarah (ii. 188). 3 Ibid (ii. 25?).


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well as the many contradictory injunctions relating to thedomest ic affair s of the Prophet. That Mul;>ammad did aua certain occasion succumb to the temptat ion to forge fli.revelatiou upon the Qurai sh is amply testified by n t t m e ~ o . u sMuhammadan writers, including such well-known autborltl.esas ib n Hisham. Tabari, Yahya and JailiJu'd-Din. The cIrcumstances of the Prophet's fall are as follows: One day,

told he entered the holy sanctuary of Mecca. andwe are , . dbegau to recite the Suratu'u-Najm (liii). The long-contlUtteopposition of the Quraish had disheartened the p r o ~ h e t . a,,:dhe l ouged for some means of g a i n i n ~ the good-wIll of hIS

sers The temptation to compromIse was great , and theoppo . . d h' tprospect of reconciliation with those who malIgne 1m 00alluring to. be withstood. The prophet fell. for w h ~ u hecamB to the words, "Do ye see al-Lat and al-IUzza andManat the thi rd (idol) besides" (vv. 19-20) he added. to thed r ht of his bearers the words, "These are the exaltedeIg .. b h d f "females, and verily their interceSSIOn 18 to e ope o r . ~Th Qura ish were de lighted and joiued the Prophet lU'wo:ShiP, sayingll Now we know that it is the Lord aloneth t 'veth life and t ake th it away. that createth aud supa gl . . f 't ht th These our goddesses make llltercesslOU or us WIpa r e . ' fH' and as than hast conceded unto t hem a pOSI IOn wea r ~ m ~ o n t e n t to follow thee." But Mul;J.ammad soon repentedof his rash compromise, and withdrew the words of .commendat ion whioh he had used regarding the Arab. Idols.substituting in their stead th e words now fonnd 1D theQur'an :- (, ( ,DL"b ~ _ -' _ -:;; "b - ' - ' _ ~ ~ : " , ; ' f . . ~ L ~ . . . > ! ~ l o ~ ~ ~ ~ ) : , : , , ~ ~ I / ~ ~ I _ o .

t='jl l\ , ~ j U b ~ ~ ...t_ l" What! . shall ye have male progeny and God female?This were. indeed an unfair parti tion. These Bire mere :tlames 1 On the differen,t renderings of '.,il, see Sell's U Historical Deve_lopment of the Qur'an" (ed. 1905), pp. 36-7.

and your fathers named them such ." (vv . 21-3). Then. tocover his fault , he produced yet another revelation in whichGod is made to comfort him by the reflection that he wasin good company. for former prophets had been tempted inprecisely the same manner .by the devil, wbo was the authorof the whole mistake . Thus in Suratu'1-J;Iajj (xxii. 51)we read:-. - ( , ~ ~ . _ - _;I i -- _. -'. (, _ (, _ (, .Co _ 1;;11 _.....11 ../i'''; l . . i ~ 11 ' t f ~ ' ~ , - " ' ) ,


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38 "ORIGIN'S OF THE QUR'AN 39" ' dl" , " ' Lil...) L..} ~ ~ . < , : : . , , ~ . u I , ~ , . l . ~ " ' ; ~ y . 1 1

~ ~ , j " , , ~ l ~ 1';1 ~ ~ Jf";"The Prophet (ou 'whom he blessing and peace) was read-ing. Suratu 'n-Najrn in Mecca, and 'when he arrived at ' thewords 'D o ye B e e a r ~ L a . t and a l - I U z z ~ and Mamtt the third(idol) besides,' Satan cast upon his lips th e words 'theseare the exalted females and verily their intercession is tobe hoped lor,' a nd the idolators said, 'he hath spoken wellof our goddesses .' Aud he worshipped and they worshipped;and then was sent down this verse, I We have not sent anapostle or prophet before thee into whose reading Satan didnot cast (some error).' "1It is to the credi t of the Apostle tha t he so scon repented

of the fall :t;elated above, and ever afterwarus consistentlyopposed idolatry in every form; but the experienoe gaineddid him little good, and we soou fiud him again changinghis utterances to suit bis own ends. Thus when the Prophetfled to Madina, a persecuted and helpless man, he soon recognized the necessity of conciliating, and if possible winningto his side, the numerous and powerful communities'.'ofJews who lived, there, : ~ o r ~ h i s ' P U J : P 9 S ~ he 'made J e l ' u s a l ~ , I l lhis Qibla, and for some considerable time continued topray in tbe directiou 01 the Jewish city; but when at lastaU efforts to win t h e J e w s t o ~ i s s ide failed, and his 'Ownposition had become strengthene

1 J : 1).>;;"I t is related by Ibn 'Abbas and MUbammad ibn Ka'ba l - Q a r ~ i and other commentators besides that when Mul;1ammad;' saw that his people (the Qnraisb) retired from himand opposed him, and rejected that (Qnr'an) which hehad brought them from God, he wisbed in his heart that~ o m e such word would come to him from God by whichfriendship might be establisbed between him and his people,and an inducement held out to them to bel ieve. And itcame to pass that oue day he was in the temple of th".Qura ish when God sent down Suratu'n-Najm. And th "]?rophet recited it, and when he arrived at the words' Do yese" alLat and al-'Uzza and Manat the third (idol) besides,'Satau placed upon hi s lips what he had longed for in hisheart: 'These are the exalted females,' and verily theirintercession is to be hoped lor.' When the Quraisb heardt hi s t hey rejoiced."

Another lorm 01 tbe story is given in th e Mawahibu'l-Luduniyyah, as follows:-..,.)1, " , - , ~ I l ~ : i f \ t.,.!.; ~ I : i s ' ' ' ! ~ , J ... ~ In''YJ.ll J'::'i)ill dl.; ,,;W ~ 1 c ) 1 . b , , < ~ 1 ..(,.;;l\ . . , s ; > ~ \ ~ : l 1 l , ; j 1 , l l ~ "J:U p';"' ! L i : i ~ \ ;sJ l c)'Sr.:....11 J\Ji,; ~ ~ } I I " i i - o \ ~ ~ c)\"

1 ",'f'J' ...., . . ;p. 169. ",'f'J' j ' p. 136. 1 Su.ratu'l-J;Iajj (xxii. 51). I Suratu'l.Baqarah (ii. 138-9).


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40 ORIGINS OF TH E QUR'AN PORTIONS OF THE QUR'AN 41

1 "Tafsiru'1.Mada'i4i'1-Qur'an," p. 22.'Quoted by Geiger, "Judaism and Islam," p. 26. A similar Tradition,recorded by Ibn 'Abbas, is given in the Misbklitu'l-Ma."lubih in the.cha.pter on fasting. . .'

~ J f>- J ~ < l - ! . ' ~ IS - ~ y jW u ..; ~ . IS < : ~ J l l > ~1Quoted by Geiger, II Judaism and Isl6..m," p. 14. See also Tafsiru'l

Jalll.la.in in loco.

_ _ ' _


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42 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN pORTIONS OF THE QUR'AN 43-which is still observed on tbe tenth of Ramaqan as a voluntaryand meritorious fast, affords clear proof qf the way Mul;1ammad borrowed- from o ther sys tems when he wished to doso, ftud refutes the claim that he received his rAligious injunctions by direct revelation.Another story which illustrates the very human originof t he Qu' ran is the one told by mauy MUhammadan commentators with regard 'to Mul;1ammad's marriage with Zainabthe divorced wife of h is adopted son Zaid. Zaid was knownas the "Son of MUhammad," and had taken to wife abeautiful woman named Zainab. One daYr we arfl told,.the Prophet happened to visit the house of Zaid and foundZainab in a dress which il l coucealed he r beauty. The Prophet was smitten- by the sight, and- exclaimed in admirationIf Praise be to God who turneth the hearts of men." 1 Zaina.boverheard the words, and forthwith acquainted her husbandwi th tbe fact. The latter theu divorced his wife, and offeredher to MUhammad; but the Prophet hesitated to consummatea marr iage with the divorced wife of hi s adopt ed SOD, andso, anxious to avoid the scandal which he knew would follow,solved the diff iculty .and just if ied his immediate marriagewith Zai:J;lab by a 4' revelat,ion" commanding him to takeher to wife. This extraordinary piece of '4 revelation" is>to be found in Suratu'l-Ahzab (xxxiii. 37-8) and runs asfollows :-

- - ,( , "' _ '" __ _( , " . (,_ ;;i __

l ... ""/'d.;--l,jI , : : _ A " ; J ~ ~ .ill l, ~ I l < (r; r ~ 4 ! . ' ~, '" .. - -' " - ,,-' - .. ~ . . . _!:I ~ ! : I .. _ .. ....r ' = ' ! ~ 1 r= ~ U ";J; "" rb }y.i: . i l l ~" 0 Propbet! why holdest thou tbat to be prohibi ted

Charam) which God hath made lawful to thee, from a de sireto please thy wives, since God is Leni ent , Merciful? Godhath allowed you release from your oaths ." We abstainfrom further comment (,:>0 this passage, and content ourselves'With asking the i nt ell igent Muslim to earnestly considerwhether it is ' possible that these words of the Qur 'an were,ages before , the creat ion, wri tten upon the preserved table inheaven. In this connection, there is a Tradition preserved


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1 M i s h k 9 . t u ' l . l \ f a ~ a b i l ; 1 , Babu'I-Ish8.rati'n.Nasa.'i.1iI S u r a t u ' l - A ~ z a b (xxxiii. 51).

by Muslim,l which offers a suggestive comment upon 'Mul;1arn ..mad's domestic legislation. I t is recorded tha t : -J,....,) ~ d "n .}lIJ J-r. )liJ


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46 ORIGINS OF THE QTJR'AN PORTIONS OF THE QUR'AN 47~ " -_ .. " - - , , ~ -'-.- ,,---r iJ; \...J..; . ; . ~ . , ; ~ ~ I L _ . , ; ~ . , ; \ . . . . ; ~ 1 LlJiJ..>. .!.il) 1.::-7

__ ... ~ c . _ ... _:I!_G-J!~ . . , ; * : ; ' I ~ I I .,;._...1.ill I ..;.)}:,l; .ull Jl ; f- I \.ill.>. ,'J;.:.,;I~ ..:..lJ.j.S; ',t:,'iSI ~ U ~ 1 " , JL:i.; " , W ~ I , j . ' > ' J0",,'" er'L..s JI ""...)1 . 1 : ; . 1 ' , i o . l \ ~ .,;',S ."il Jl;) .illl

1 J\' lAS -.:;....1; .1ii1 l!oils .,;\S ."il) ~ I ", ...)1H IAbdu'lhl.b bin Sa'ud bin Abi Saril;l was an amanuensis of

,the Prophet, And, when the words descended' We createdman of fine clay;' 2 and when the words were finished." Then bronght We forth bim by another creation; 'a 'Abdu'll8.hexclaimed 'Blessed therefore be God the most excellent ofMakers. He has created man in a -wonderful manner.'Upon this (Mril;1ammad) said, 'Write those (words) down,for so i t has descended.' But Abdu'Uah doubted and said,' I f Mu1;lammad speak truth, then on me also bas inspirationdescended as npon him; and if Mul;1ammad speak falsely,then verily I bnt spake as he did.'''

I t is clesr from this .tory as given by Baicjawi that Mul;1ammad was so pleased with the beauty of tbe expression usedby his disciple that he immediately decided to give it aplace in his Qur\iu, where it still stands and, in order todo 80 , claimed that the very identical words had" descended ,.upon him also. 'Abdu'Uah Was naturaUy delighted with thecompliment paid to his words, and henceforth boastedthat on him also inspiration had descended. This, however,called forth the indignation of the Prophet, who proceededto pour out the viais of his wrath upon 'Ahdu' lh \h in thefollowing words-wbich good Muslims are also expected tobelieve were " revealed " .:-

1 T a f s f r u ' l ~ B a i ~ a . w f (ed. Oa.iro), p. 184. 2 S u r a . t u ~ l - M u m i n u n (xxiii. 12).. 3 Ibid, verse 14.

c . . ~ '"' _ _ JI _; :l!l.. _ ....... _ _ _c,.... I1J .. _C:l!l c,;_(,I) J 31Jli 31 \ ! :


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48 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN POR'nONS OF THE QUR'AN 49" The Prophet of God (on whom be blessing and peace}

said, 'Verily God p laced t he truth upon the tongue audheart of 'Umar.' ' ' So noticeable was Mu1:J.ammad's repetitionof 'Umar 's . words that Jalalu'd-din tells us the companionsof the p rophet sa id : - .

YO-' J l. Lo ,"':' I.,?lr. .,; ~ ~ I I J ) I"Has not the Qur'an been revealed according to thesayings of 'Umar." Mujahid records another tradition tothe same effect. He says: -

. , ; ~ ; ; J \ ' I Jj; . . " . . ~ I I ..,sJ'. )''''-' .,;lSII The Qur'an descended according to the opinion of 'Umar."

From these traditions it i s per fect ly c lear that IVmar wasthe real author of certain portions of the Qur'an. Musliml iterature, in fact , furnishes us with not a few examples ofsuch passages. l For example, in the Qur'till we read ;-

2 ~ J } \ s J j j;; ;III ~ l J ~ l S " , < , J1,;;;,1 ~ ; ~ \ . s ~ . . :-- - - - --"Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel . . . or Michael, verily

God is an enemy to the unbelievers." These words wereoriginally spoken by ' 'Omar to some Jews, and so pleased witht hem was Muhammad that he for thwith repeated them asa part of the Qur'an. The whole story is told by Bai-at the beginningthis book that it is the prociluct of MU\lammad's ownius. The Tradition of Bukhari ref err ed to above runs- ii s : -

..::-ii;l, ytb6- ",!I }"'" Jl, 1f"",.i11'1:J'" ' J ~ = , " , } . ' ; ' ~ 1 1 "(;'}6-!I . , ? k ~ r""Jr.\ r U i . ~ " ' ti.>,i,'\ ,! ,UI Jr'J '-'. ..::-1 ..::."ll; I.,?; -,I)",I . tI l J , - ~ ) l ~


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50 ORIGINS OF THE QUR'AN PORTIONS OF THE QUR'AN 51~ . d}; " , f . " ' ~ ",i;r '" \,; fl "WI , )"1 \ " , y ~ J> .l-I, .:.).1\-;


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Christ. There is thus left neither room nor necessity fora. subsequent revelation; Christ is u the first and the las t" 1and "ne ither is there any other name under heaveD, thatis given among meu, wherein we must be saved." 2Let the Mul;lammadan reader earnestly consider thesefacts, and he will come to see bow im possible it is that the

Qur'an can be a revelation from God. In that book he iscommauded to believe t he Gospe l; yet a belief in theGospel must necessarily lead to the rejection of the Qur',;,n,for the l atte r denies many of the leading trnths of theformer. In short II Mul;1ammadans are in the awkward.predicament of being obl iged by their religion to believe inwhat explodes their religion. They are commanded to believein two contradictions. They are commanded to accept Jesusas a Prophet and, at the same time, to accept Mul;1ammad.They are enjoined to receive the Old Testament Scripturesas a revelation, although nothing is more obvious in thoseScriptures than that the history of Judaism develops intoand finds its completion and end in Ohristianity; snd theyare enjoined to believe in the New Testament Scriptures,aUhough these writings so dis tinctly claim to be tb e finalrevelation, that it is impossible to find room for the claimsof MuJ.>ammad as the ultimate revealer of God's will." 3 Letthe reader search those 'I former Scriptures" of whichMuJ.>ammad spoke se highly, and he will find in them theway to eternal life.

1 Injil, Revelation (i.17). Injil, Acts (iv. 12).3Dods, "Mu1;lamma.d, Buddha and Christ, pp. 15, 16.

Origins of the Quran

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