Borrowing from the Jews

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In the Qur’anic scheme, Muhammad is the last and greatest of a long succession of prophets that includes those in the Biblical line and others. After Satan deceived Adam and Eve into turning away from the truth (in a story imported straight from Genesis, with important modifications and embellishments), Allah sent prophets to call people back to true worship.

Several Qur’anic passages list as prophets figures from both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures: “And we bestowed upon him Isaac and Jacob, each of them we guided, and Noah we guided previously, and of his descendants, David and Solomon and Job and Joseph and Moses and Aaron. In this way we reward the good. And Zachariah and John and Jesus and Elias. Each one was among the righteous. And Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot. Each one we preferred over the worlds.” (6:84-86)

Allah adds Muhammad to this illustrious group: “Indeed, we inspire you as we inspired Noah and the prophets after him, as we inspired Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and as we gave the Psalms to David.” (4:163)

One might expect, if Muhammad is trying to present himself as a prophet in the Biblical line, that he would repeat at least some Biblical material. But some of the Qur’an’s stories and details about Biblical characters actually come from sources other than the Bible itself—notably, the Talmud.

The Talmudic writings, compiled in the second century CE, circulated among Arabia’s Jews in Muhammad’s day, and some of their divergences from or additions to Biblical accounts made it into the Qur’an. In the Qur’anic version of “the tale of the two sons of Adam” (Qur’an 5:27), Cain and Abel, Allah sends Cain a raven to show him what to do with his brother’s body: “Then Allah sent a raven scratching the ground, to show him how to hide his brother’s naked corpse. He said, Woe to me, am I not able to be like this raven and so hide my brother’s naked corpse? And he became repentant.” (5:31)

The raven does not appear in the Genesis story of Cain and Abel, but it does appear in several Jewish rabbinical documents, including the Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer, a recreation of Biblical history from creation to the wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness. Islamic apologists point out that the Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer in its present form dates from the eighth or ninth century, as do several of the other writings in which the raven story appears—so it is possible that the rabbis were borrowing from Muhammad.

However, the next verse of the Qur’an — which is one of the most celebrated and oft-quoted verses in the entire book, at least in Western countries today — makes clearer the direction of the borrowing. Qur’an 5:32 says:

For that reason, we decreed for the children of Israel that whoever kills a human being for anything other than manslaughter or corruption on the earth, it will be as if he had killed all man- kind, and whoever saves the life of one person, it will be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came to them of old with clear proofs, but afterwards, indeed, many of them committed excesses on earth.

There is no stated reason why this injunction against murder follows the story of Cain and Abel, when Cain’s murder of Abel did not endanger a whole people. Nor is the connection clear from the context. But it is clear in the Talmud:

We find it said in the case of Cain who murdered his brother, “The voice of thy brother’s bloods crieth” (Gen. 4:10). It is not said here blood in the singular, but bloods in the plural, that is, his own blood and the blood of his seed. Man was created single in order to show that to him who kills a single individual it shall be reckoned that he has slain the whole race, but to him who preserves the life of a single individual it is counted that he hath preserved the whole race. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)

Here the connection between the killing of Abel and that of the whole human race comes from the interpretation of the plural word “bloods” in Genesis 4:10. Shorn of its link to a Bible verse, this connection as it appears in the Qur’an suggests to numerous readers across the centuries that the Qur’an’s author or compiler was depending on the Jewish source.

Likewise, in the Qur’an, the patriarch Abraham smashes some of the idols worshipped by his father and his people. Enraged, the people throw him into a fire, but Allah cools the flames and saves Abraham: “They called out, Burn him and stand by your gods, if you are going to act. We said, O fire, be coolness and peace for Abraham.” (21:68-69) An account of Abraham being thrown into a fire appears in the Talmud — Midrash Genesis Rabbah, which was compiled in the sixth century CE.

In light of all this (and there is much more), Islam’s deep hostility to Jews and Judaism becomes clear: Islam intended to supplant and replace Judaism, claiming to be its true and authentic manifestation. When actual Jews resisted this, they became Islam’s worst enemies (cf. Qur’an 5:82).