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The Light Shines in the Darkness...




Islam Index

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According to the Islamic theology, the Koran was written by Allah in heaven and has no human authors. Indeed, the Koran claims that the revelations given in it (that were not revealed in the previous Scriptures) are new (Sura 2:151). According to the non-Muslims that lived in Mecca, however, the Koran was filled with a bunch of old myths, fairy tails, and legends that the people who lived and traveled in the area commonly told. Unless stated otherwise, all Koran quotes are from Pickthall’s translation:



“And they say: Fables of the men of old which he hath had written down so that they are dictated to him morn and evening.”

-Sura 25:5



The Koran’s response to this is to deny it completely and call it a lie:



“…so that they have produced a slander and a lie.”

-Sura 25:4



The Koran affirms that everything in the Koran is a revelation from God and not a fairy tale from a human author.

On the contrary, it can be shown that the un-believers in Mecca were right. The stories told in the Koran are nothing more than Jewish, Christian, Arabic, and Persian apocryphal fables, legends, fairy-tales and other fictional narratives that were told in the area of Mecca in the 7th century. They are not a *revelation* from God.





Mecca During the Time of Muhammad



As a child, Muhammad was a normal Arab who liked to talk with people of various nationalities traveling in caravans. Mecca was a city where traders from all over the Middle East would come to trade along the trade routes. They would bring their stories from their respective cultures and tell them to the locals.

Also, after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the Jews scattered across the world. One of the places that some of them scattered to was southern Arabia with a large community in Medina. They likewise brought some of their apocryphal fables out of the Midrash and Mishna with them and told these stories to the Arabs.

Lastly, after their views of Christ were considered heretical by an ecumenical council, the Emperor banished Nestorian Christians outside the borders of the Empire. The Nestorians, because they originated in the east, moved in the direction of the closest border, eastward, and many ended up in Arabia. They set up monasteries there and along the caravan routes that Muhammad would travel on. Two important men in Muhammad’s life, Waraqa ibn Nofal, who was considered Muhammad’s uncle, and Buhaira, a monk who taught Muhammad some things about the Bible, were both Nestorians. The Nestorians likewise brought their apocryphal stories to Arabia and told them to those who passed along the trade routes.

In the end, it all makes sense. Muhammad learned all of these creative stories from those he came in contact with. When he proclaimed to all that he was a prophet, he retold these imaginative and poetic narratives under the pretense of revelation. This is one of the reasons that the Koran seems so poetic and elegant at times.



The Fables and Legends



Arabic Legends



The Jinn



In multiple places, the Koran speaks of a created race of beings called Jinn (Suras 18:50, 72:1, etc.). However, in the west, we commonly call them genies. [Yes, the same genies from Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, I Dream of Genie, etc.] These jinn, spirit beings who lived in caves, the ground, trees, and other natural places, were a popular superstition in Arabia before Islam, and scholars have noted this animistic influence on Islam for quite some time now:

www.answering-islam.org/Books/Zwemer/Animism/chap7.htm



Arab Poetry



In Muhammad’s day, many Arab poets resided in Mecca, and one poet’s daughter accused Muhammad of taking one of her father’s poems and putting it in the Koran as if it were Divine revelation (Sura 54:1, 29, 31, 46):



“Imraul Qais’s daughter once heard this Surat recited aloud. She immediately recognized her father’s poem and demanded to know how her father’s verses had become part of a divine revelation, supposedly preserved on stone tablets in heaven!”

- Dr. Anis A. Shorrosh, Islam Unveiled (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1988), p.193.



The She-Camel Story



The story told in the Koran about the prophet and the rock that ‘gave birth’ to a she-camel was a well known narrative in the Middle East at the time of Muhammad (Sura 7:73-79).



The Story of the 12 Springs



The story in Sura 2:60 about Moses striking a rock with his staff and 12 springs of water for each of the twelve tribes coming forth was a Jewish and Arab legend that was around well before Islam.



Jewish Legends



Abraham and Nimrod



The narrative about Abraham mocking the people for their idols and being saved by God from Nimrod’s fire in Sura 21:51-71 is clearly from the Midrash Rabbah. Here is Sura 21:58-69:



“Then he reduced them to fragments, all save the chief of them, that haply they might have recourse to it. They said: Who hath done this to our gods? Surely it must be some evil-doer. They said: We heard a youth make mention of them, who is called Abraham. They said: Then bring him (hither) before the people’s eyes that they may testify. They said: Is it thou who hast done this to our gods, O Abraham? He said: But this, their chief hath done it. So question them, if they can speak. Then gathered they apart and said: Lo! Ye yourselves are the wrong-doers. And they were utterly confounded, and they said: Well thou knowest that these speak not. He said: Worship ye then instead of Allah that which cannot profit you at all, not harm you? Fie on you and all that ye worship instead of Allah! Have ye then no sense? They cried: Burn him and stand by your gods, if ye will be doing. We said: O fire, be coolness and peace for Abraham…”

-Sura 21:58-69



Now, compare that to the narrative from the Midrash Rabbah:



“Abraham getting up took his staff in his hand, and having broken the idols with it…placed the staff in the hand of the largest (idol). His father coming up said: who has done this?

Abraham said…the largest one took the staff and broke them all to pieces. His father said, why do you tell such a foolish tale? Do these (idols) know anything? Nimrod said: If you argue with me about things which I am unable to worship other than fire, into it I will cast you. So let the god you worship deliver you therefrom. So Abraham went down into the flames and remained there safe and unhurt.”

-Midrash Rabbah



Cain, Abel, and the Raven



The story in Sura 5:27-32 about a raven covering up Abel’s body after Cain killed him most certainly came from a tradition preserved by Pirke Rabbi Eleazar and the Jewish Mishnah. The following is from the Koran:



“But (the other’s) mind imposed on him the killing of his brother, so he slew him and became one of the losers. Then Allah sent a raven scratching up the ground, to show him how to hide his brother’s naked corpse. He said: Woe unto me! Am I not able to be as this raven and so hide my brother’s naked corpse? And he became repentant. For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”

-Sura 5:30-32



The following is from Pirke Rabbi Eleazar (notice the parallels between this and Sura 5:30-31):



“Adam and Eve, sitting by the corpse (of Abel) wept not knowing what to do, for they had as yet no knowledge of burial. A Raven coming up, took the dead body of its fellow (mate), and having scratched up the earth, buried it thus before their eyes. Adam said, “Let us follow the example of the Raven,” and so taking up Abel’s body buried it at once.”

-Pirke Rabbi Eleazar



The following is from the Jewish Mishnah (notice the parallels between this and Sura 5:32):



“We find in the case of Cain who murdered his brother, the voice of thy brother’s blood cries (Genesis 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 (a human being) it shall be reckoned (counted) that he has slain the whole race; but to him who preserves the life of a single individual, it is counted that he has preserved the whole race.”

-Jewish Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5



The Hovering Mount Sinai



The tale about God lifting up Mount Sinai over the Israelites as a threat if they did not follow the Law comes from the second century A.D. Jewish fable, Abodah Sarah. Here is Sura 7:171:



“And when We shook the Mount above them as it were a covering, and they supposed that it was going to fall upon them (and We said): Hold Fast that which We have given you, and remember that which is therein, that ye may ward off (evil).”

-Sura 7:171



Now, here is part of Abodah Sarah:



“I raised (by shaking it from its roots) the Mountain (Sinai) to be a covering over you as it were, a lid.”

-from Abodah Sarah



The Living Golden Calf



The narrative in which the golden calf-idol that the rebellious Israelites forge actually moos (Sura 20:85-88) is from a Jewish legend that was recorded by Pirke Rabbi Eleazar. Sura 20:85-88:



“He said: Lo! We have tried thy folk in thine absence, and As-Samiri hath misled them. Then Moses went back unto his folk, angry and sad. He said: O my people! Hath not your Lord promised you a fair promise? Did the time appointed appear too long for you, or did ye wish that wrath from your Lord should come upon you, that ye broke tryst with me? They said: We broke not tryst with thee of our own will, but we were laden with burdens of ornaments of the folk, then cast them (in the fire), for thus As-Samiri proposed. Then he produced for them a calf, of saffron hue, which gave forth a lowing sound. And they cried: This is your god and the god of Moses, but he hath forgotten.”

-Sura 20:85-88



Now, compare this to Pirke Rabbi Eleazar:



“And this calf came out lowing, and the Israelites saw it. Rabbi Yehudah says that Sammael was hidden in its interior, and was lowing in order that he might deceive Israel.”

-from Pirke Rabbi Eleazar, Part 45



Saving Pharaoh Out of the Sea



The story of Sura 10:90-92 where Pharaoh is saved by God from the enclosing Red Sea that Moses and the Israelites journeyed through is from Pirke Rabbi Eleazar and Midrash Yalkut. Here is Sura 10:90-92:



“And we brought the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh with his hosts pursued them in rebellion and transgression, till, when the (fate of) drowning overtook him, he exclaimed: I believe that there is no God save Him in Whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of those who surrender (unto Him). What! Now! When hitherto thou hast rebelled and been of the wrong-doers? But this day We save thee in thy body that thou mayst be a portent for those after thee. Lo! Most of mankind are heedless of Our portents.”

-Surah 10:90-92



Compare that to Pirke Rabbi Eleazar and Midrash Yalkut:



“Perceive the great power of repentance! Pharaoh, king of Egypt, uttered very wicked words-‘Who is the god whose voice I shall obey? (Exod. 5:2). Yet as he repented, saying, ‘Who is like unto thee among the gods?’ (Exod. 15:2). God saved him from death; for it saith; ‘Almost had I stretched out my hands and destroyed; but God let him live, that he might declare his power and strength.’”

-Pirke Rabbi Eleazar, Part 43; Midrash Yalkut, Part 238



[It must be noted that Muslims attempt to use the above Surah to prove the Divine inspiration of the Koran. It is believed that the body of the Pharaoh of the Exodus was found in the late nineteenth century, and Muslims argue that Muhammad could not have known that the Pharaoh survived except through Divine revelation. However, as I have shown above, the Jews beat Muhammad to it by several centuries. If this is any indication of inspiration (which its not), then the credit must go the Talmudic compilers and not to the Koran. Yet again, we have proof of Muhammad receiving his “revelations” from human sources.]



Solomon and the Hoopoe Bird



The story about Solomon, the Hoopoe Bird, and the Queen of Sheba in Sura 27:17-44 undoubtedly comes from the Jewish II Targum of Esther. Because the passages are so long, I will not cite them here, but instead, I will list the literary parallels that prove that this Koranic story comes straight out of the II Targum of Esther:



1. Both start out with Solomon gathering together armies of jinn (i.e. genies) and men.
2. Both have Solomon searching for a bird and saying that he will kill it for disobeying his orders.
3. Both have the bird appearing and talking to Solomon about the Queen of Sheba.
4. Both have the Queen of Sheba worshipping some part of nature (i.e. idolatry).
5. Both have Solomon sending a letter to the Queen of Sheba, and the Queen of Sheba asks for the advice of her nobles.
6. Both have the Queen of Sheba entering into a palace made of glass, and thinking it to be water, she lifts up her dress a bit.
7. Both have Solomon crying out to her that it is not water but glass when he sees the hair on her legs.