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== Magic, Miracles, and the Supernatural in the Quran ==
== The Historical Jesus ==
Write about pre-scientific worldview and miracles in antiquity here


== Magic ==
=== Other Traditions ===
=== Creatures ===
==== The existence and attributes of Jinn ====
{{Main|Jinn}}The Quran, Hadith and Sira all support the existence of supernatural, generally invisible creatures known as Jinn (جن‎ ''ǧinn'', singular جني ''ǧinnī'' ; variant spelling ''djinn'') living among us. In the [[Qur'an]], satan/devil(s) are also jinn ({{Quran|18|50}}), which like humans are sent prophets and have (''at least some, see [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Predestination]]'') free-will and will be judged accordingly alongside mankind ({{Quran|6|130}}). They can interact with us ({{Quran|6|128}}) and even possess humans ({{Quran|2|275}}) (which the main article elaborates on), and cause people to forget things ({{Quran|18|63}}). As well as create buildings/structures ({{Quran|34|12-13}}). There is no evidence that these exist.{{Quote|{{quran|72|1}}|Say, [O Muhammad], "It has been revealed to me that a group of the jinn listened and said, 'Indeed, we have heard an amazing Qur'an.}}El-Zein (2009) notes the Qur’an mentions only three terms related to the species of jinn: the generic “jinn,” marid, and ‘ifrit. However, Arabic and Islamic literature provides extended descriptions of them as sub-types of jinn (and others not specifically mentioned in the Qur'an).<ref>El-Zein, Amira. Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (p. 139). Syracuse University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>{{Quote|El-Zein, Amira. <i>Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (p. 142).</i> Syracuse University Press. Kindle Edition.|THE ‘IFRIT The term ‘ifrit is mentioned only once in the Qur’an, when the prophet king Solomon asked for the throne of the Queen of Sheba to be brought to him. One ‘ifrit from among the jinn consented to fulfill his request: “An ‘ifrit of the jinn said, ‘I will bring it to thee, before thou risest from thy place; I have strength for it and I am trusty” (Qur’an 27:39). The term ‘ifrit often presents a problem for the scholars trying to classify the jinn. Many commentators on the verse cited above maintain the word ‘ifrit is an adjective referring to a specific powerful jinni rather than a separate and distinct type among the jinn. Later the word came to describe any powerful and cunning man; in which case, it could refer to dark powers within the human psyche.<sup>17</sup><br> THE MARID In the Qur’an, the marid is an unruly force always striving to predict the future by means of astrological hearsay. The term marid is mentioned only once in the Qur’an in the following verse “We have adorned the lower heaven with the adornment of the stars and to preserve against every [rebel satan (shaytan marid)]; they listen not to the High Council, for they are pelted from every side” (Qur’an 37:7–8). This kind of jinn is mostly found in popular medieval literature, in particular in the stories of The Nights dealing with Solomon. Finally, as with the term ‘ifrit, the term marid could also be applied to humans. Used as an adjective, it denotes a rebellious man.<sup>18</sup>}}
==== Iblis/Satan/The Devil ====
{{Main|Iblis (Satan)}}The Qur'an contains the well-known supernatural character of Satan (with a capital "S"), or "The Devil", (al-shayṭān); also called Iblīs, who tempts unbelievers into disobedience against god, furthering them in their sin, and generally causing evil on Earth.<ref name=":023">''shayṭān | devil al-shayṭān | the devil, Satan'' Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 451). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Similar to later traditions on the book of Genesis (originally the serpent who tempts Eve to eat the fruit in the garden of Eden is not identified with Satan, only in the approximately 4 centuries preceding to the Common Era, known as the intertestamental period does this appear),<ref>Wray, T. J.; Mobley, Gregory. ''The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots (pp. 68-70, Chapters 5 & 6).'' St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</ref> he originally lives in paradise. After refusing to obey God’s command to prostrate (sajada) himself to the newly created Adam, Iblīs is expelled from God’s retinue and subsequently retaliates against his nemesis Adam by persuading him and Eve to eat from the forbidden tree (e.g., Q 2:34–39, 7:11–25, and 20:115–124.<ref>''shayṭān | devil al-shayṭān | the devil, Satan'' Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 453). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>  {{Quran|2|34-39}}, {{Quran|7|11-25}} and {{Quran|20|115-124}}.


There are however some differences with Christian-Judeo beliefs, such as him being an evil jinn rather than a 'fallen' angel. Along with him the term for satans/devils (al-shayāṭīn), “the devils”, which usually refer to evil jinn in the Qur'an.<ref name=":023" /> While this is a specific devil who takes on a more defined role in the Qur'an.
==== Intro ====
Alongside the main consensus from Biblical Scholars/Historians that Jesus was an eschatological preacher in the early first century AD who believed the Earth would end during his time (and therefore couldn't be the Muslim Jesus), there are many other of the most considered authentic teachings of Jesus that clash with Islam considering the message of Messenger Uniformitarianism (cite Durie - reuse 51 citation),<ref>Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. 135-142)  (pp. 281-294 Kindle Edition)''. 5.3 Messenger Uniformitarianism. Lexington Books. 2018.</ref> where all messengers from God/Allah are outside of minor variations said to essentially preach the same thing.  


This Iblīs is in line with late-antique beliefs, with the devil is in some sense to be envisaged as the chief of the evil demons.<ref name=":123">Ibid. Kindle Edition. pp. 459</ref> Sinai (2023) notes for example one verse mentions Iblīs’s “offspring” (dhurriyyah, Q 18:50),{{Quran|18|50}} raising the possibility that the descendants in question are to be identified with wicked demons, and Q 26:95 {{Quran|26|95}} speaks of the “hosts (junūd) of Iblīs” being cast into hell, especially since these hosts are mentioned in addition to “those who have gone astray” (al-ghāwūn) {{Quran|26|94}}Q29:94, who would seem to refer to human sinners, the “hosts of Iblīs” are probably to be understood as the latter’s demonic minions.<ref name=":123" />
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|285}}|The Apostle and the faithful have faith in what has been sent down to him from his Lord. Each [of them] has faith in Allah, His angels, His scriptures and His apostles. [They declare,] ‘We make no distinction between any of His apostles.’ And they say, ‘We hear and obey. Our Lord, forgive us, and toward You is the return.’}}
==== The existence and attributes of angels ====
Similarly to Judeo-Christian literature, the Quran, Hadith and Sira affirms the existence of angels, traditionally said to be made from light as mentioned in Islamic tradition (such as {{Muslim|42|7134}}),<ref>[https://islamqa.info/en/answers/843/angels-in-islam#of-what-are-the-angels-created Angels in Islam.] Of what are the Angels created? Islam Q&A. 2000</ref> while other have asserted they are made from fire like jinn based on (see: {{Quran|38|73-76}} and {{Quran|7|11-12}}),<ref>El-Zein, Amira. ''Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (Kindle Edition. pp. 44-46 ).'' Syracuse University Press.</ref> before humans ({{Quran|2|30}}).


They are also God's messengers like humans ({{Quran|22|75}}), with generally a humanoid shape,<ref>''malak | angel; angels.'' Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 632). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. ''Despite their wings and their potential invisibility, the default appearance of angels on earth is humanoid: “had we made him”—namely, the Qur’anic Messenger—“an angel, we would have made him a man (rajul),” i.e., endowed him with the appearance of an ordinary human, Q 6:9 affirms. Perhaps one is to understand that angels can exist in two different states of aggregation, as it were: a celestial one involving wings and invisibility to the human eye, and a state of manifestation to humans, in which they appear by and large like humans themselves (see also Burge 2012, 57). It is worth highlighting that Q 6:9, by virtue of employing the word rajul, additionally implies that angels are male. This corresponds to Biblical assumptions (e.g., Matt 16:5) and helps make sense of the Qur’anic polemic against belief in female angels (Q 17:40, 37:149–153, 43:16–19, 53:27–28; see also DTEK 102). A particular aspect of the angels’ humanoid appearance—namely, their possession of hands—is corroborated by Q 6:93, according to which the angels “stretch out their hands” for the wrongdoers when these latter are in the throes of death (DTEK 121). Moreover, it must be on account of the angels’ anthropomorphic appearance that Abraham initially mistook the divinely sent “messengers” (rusul) dispatched to him for ordinary humans, only realising their supernatural—i.e., angelic—status when his guests declined the food offered to them (Q 11:69–70 and 51:26–28; see below and Sinai 2020a, 282–283).26 The generally humanoid shape of Qur’anic angels also emerges from the fact that the female friends of Joseph’s Egyptian mistress so admire him that they exclaim, “This is no human but a noble angel!” (Q 12:31).''</ref> and have at least either two, three or four (pairs of) wings.{{Quote|{{Quran|35|1}}|All praise belongs to Allah, originator of the heavens and the earth, maker of the angels [His] messengers, possessing wings, two, three or four [of them]... He adds to the creation whatever He wishes. Indeed Allah has power over all things.}}They are said to hold God’s throne (in the heavens) {{Quran|69|17}} and some stand around it ({{Quran|40|7}}). Eight angels will carry the throne of God on Judgement Day({{Quran|69|17}}). Two write down everyone's deeds for judgment day {{Quran|50|17-21}}, hovering above people and write down their deeds {{Quran|82|10-12}}. They also ask forgiveness for the faithful on Earth ({{Quran|42|5}}), help fight with believers against non-believers ({{Quran|8|12}}) chastise unbelievers ({{Quran|8|50}}). As well as blow the trumpets on judgement day<ref>[https://islamqa.info/en/answers/49009/what-is-meant-by-the-blowing-of-the-trumpet What is meant by the blowing of the Trumpet?] Islam Q&A. 2003.</ref> in e.g. {{Quran|6|73}} {{Quran|18|99}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|17|77}}|“This was the sunnah [customary way] of Our messengers whom We sent before you, and you will find no change in Our sunnah”}}cf: cf. {{Quran|6|112}}, {{Quran|35|43}}, {{Quran|22|78}}. We are explicitly told that messengers bring the same message from Allah: “Nothing is said to you but what has already been said to


They praise and worship God constantly,<ref>Decharneux, Julien. ''Creation and Contemplation: The Cosmology of the Qur'ān and Its Late Antique Background (Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East Book 47) (p. 311).'' De Gruyter. Kindle Edition.</ref> e.g. {{Quran|13|13}}, {{Quran|7|206}}, {{Quran|21|19}}, {{Quran|40|7}}, {{Quran|41|38}}, {{Quran|42|5}}, {{Quran|69|17}} and carry out his divine will - and unlike biblical angels, do not seem to be able to disobey god.<ref>Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 633). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. ''...“do as they are commanded” (Q 16:50, 66:6: yafʿalūna mā yuʾmarūn; see also 21:27: wa-hum bi-amrihi yaʿmalūn),30 “do not disobey God” (Q 66:6: lā yaʿṣūna llāha), and “do not deem themselves above serving him” (Q 7:206, 21:19: lā yastakbirūna ʿan ʿibādatihi; see also 16:49: wa-hum lā yastakbirūn)...''</ref>
messengers before you” {{Quran|41|43}}. Durie (2018) notes ''The idea of the “same message” is further reinforced when the Qurʾan repeatedly states that the Messenger was only sent to confirm what was sent down by previous messengers (Q2:91, 97; Q3:3, 50; Q5:48; Q12:111; Q16:43–44; Q35:31), just as previous messengers had done for messengers that preceded them, for example, ʿĪsa¯ “confirmed” the Tawra¯ h of Mūsa¯(Q5:46), and the Qurʾan confirms the book(s) sent by previous prophets (Q4:47), just as the Messenger has been doing in his turn.''<ref>Durie, Mark. The Qur'an and it's Biblical Reflexes. pp.140</ref>{{Quote|Durie, Mark. The Qur'an and it's Biblical Reflexes. pp.140|• It is also explicitly asserted that messengers bring the same message
from Alla¯h: “Nothing is said to you but what has already been said to
messengers before you” (Q41:43; Q22:78) and “we make no distinction
between any of them” (Q2:136). They also preached the same dīn “commandment” or “religion” (Q42:13; cf. Q3:84; Q4:150), which is referred
to as the “religion of Ibra¯hīm” (Q2:130; Q4:125; Q16:121–23). The
validating function of this idea becomes clear when it is applied against
a group of Jews who reject the concept of the “same message” because
it would mean validating the Messenger. These Jews hold to their own
faith, saying “we believe in what has been sent down on us,” but they
reject the Messenger, or “anything after that” (Q2:91). The ruling against
these Jews is that because they reject the Messenger, they are disbelievers,
rejecting “what All a¯ h has sent down” (Q2:91).<sup>31</sup> The idea of the “same message” is further reinforced when the Qurʾan repeatedly states that the Messenger was only sent to confirm what was sent down by previous
messengers (Q2:91, 97; Q3:3, 50; Q5:48; Q12:111; Q16:43–44; Q35:31),  
just as previous messengers had done for messengers that preceded them,
for example, ʿĪsa¯ “confirmed” the Tawra¯ h of Mūsa¯(Q5:46), and the Qurʾan
confirms the book(s) sent by previous prophets (Q4:47), just as the Messenger has been doing in his turn.}}
While the large differences between the New Testament / Gospels / Christian Jesus and the [[Isa al-Masih (Jesus Christ)|Muslim Jesus]] are clear to anyone who has read both the Qur'an and NT, (which takes from apocrypha considered inauthentic by NT scholars,<ref>Sanders, E.. ''The Historical Figure of Jesus (pp. 78-79)''. Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.


{{Quran|72|8-9}} describes the firmament as being guarded by watchful protectors [ḥaras], who are undoubtedly angels.<ref>Decharneux, Julien. Creation and Contemplation: ''The Cosmology of the Qur'ān and Its Late Antique Background (Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East Book 47) (Kindle Edition. pp. 313).'' De Gruyter.</ref> They play an active role in the cosmos by thwarting spying jinn/devils who attempt to eavesdrop on divine decrees from the 'exalted assembly' (''see: [[Shooting Stars in the Quran]]'').  These intruders are repelled by stars or meteors ({{Quran|15|16-18}}, {{Quran|37|6-10}}, {{Quran|67|5}}, {{Quran|72|8-9}}.
..(Gnosticism was a world view that held everything material to be evil; the god who created the world was a bad god, and the creation was wicked. Gnostics who were also Christians held that the good God had sent Jesus to redeem people’s souls, not their bodies, and that Jesus was not a real human being. The Christians who objected to these views finally declared them heretical.) ''I share the general scholarly view that very, very little in the apocryphal gospels could conceivably go back to the time of Jesus. They are legendary and mythological. Of all the apocryphal material, only some of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas are worth consideration.'' This does not mean that we can make a clean division: the historical four gospels versus the legendary apocryphal gospels. There are legendary traits in the four gospels in the New Testament, and there is also a certain amount of newly created material (as we saw just above)..</ref> and [[Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature|later Christian thought/writings]] ) are too large to list here, and have lead to many Muslims arguing for biblical corruption based on theological grounds [textual grounds too - though don't affect authentic traditions] in general, a disputed idea (cite - Reynolds article. See also: [[Corruption of Previous Scriptures]] & [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Corruption of Previous Scriptures]]) a summary of some of the most likely authentic traditions from Biblical historians (using historical-critical methods not Christian or Muslim theologians - more likely to be true and not taken from bias or proving or disproving Islam but historical context, widespread across sources, early - cite Allison explanation - Why - different to time and context, unlikely to be fabricated later by Christians, across all early sources etc.) are shown here as an example of the clashes. [Point: not arguing against Christian Jesus - but secular historians one]


There is no evidence that these exist.
==== Examples ====
===== '''Cherubs''' =====
{{Quote|Dale C. Allison Jr.. <i>The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (Kindle Locations 822-836).</i> Kindle Edition.|2=Given that we typically remember the outlines of an event or the general purport of a conversation rather than the particulars and that we extract patterns and meaning from our memories, it makes little sense to open the quest for Jesus by evaluating individual items with our criteria, in the hope that some bits preserve pristine memory. We should rather be looking for repeating patterns and contemplating the big picture. true. We should trust first, if we are to trust at all, what is most likely to be trustworthy. Although we may, after reading Thucydides, be confident that there was a Peloponnesian War, we may well wonder about many of the details of his account.
The Qur'an mentions  'al-muqarrabūn' [Those close to god]. The traditional view of 'al-muqarrabūn' [Those close to god] is often a rank of angels.<ref>[https://theoceanofthequran.org/83-21/ The Ocean of the Qur'an: Q 83:21]</ref> Some academics have suggested these are [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherub cherubs], which have existed in some classical Islamic cosmologies, such as the famous philosopher Ibn Sīnā's (often known as Avicenna in the West).<ref>Stephen Burge. ''"Angels (malāʾika)." [https://www.saet.ac.uk/Islam/Angels#section4.3 4.3 Angels in classical emanationist cosmologies]'' In St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al. University of St Andrews. Article published August 29, 2024. <nowiki>https://www.saet.ac.uk/Islam/Angels</nowiki>. Journal TSAQAFAH ''[https://philarchive.org/archive/ARIDEA Divine Emanation As Cosmic Origin: Ibn Sînâ and His Critics] pp 334.'' Syamsuddin Arif* Institut Studi Islam Darussalam (ISID)</ref>{{Quote|Decharneux, Julien. Creation and Contemplation: The Cosmology of the Qur'ān and Its Late Antique Background (Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East Book 47) (pp. 306-307). De Gruyter. Kindle Edition.|As for the cherubs, they are designated by the name al-muqarrabūn in a few passages:<br> <i>By no means! Surely the book of the pious is indeed in ‘Illiyīn. And what will make you know what ‘Illiyīn is? A written book. The ones brought near bear witness to it [yashhadu-hu l-muqarrabūna]. (Q 83:18 – 21)</i> <br>Despite the rather cryptic character of these verses, we see here the motif already studied of angels “witnessing” celestial phenomena. In another passage, Jesus and the angels are also called al-muqarrabūn (“the ones brought near”; Q 4:172). This designation is very odd, especially ascribed to Jesus. The word muqarrabūn sounds like a deformation of the Hebrew or Syriac word for “cherubs”, kerūbīm/krūbē. The name kerūbīm in the Bible is an Assyrian loanword and designates “those who pray” but the root KRB is not used otherwise in the Bible. The cherubs are specifically said to support God’s throne in the Bible (1 Sam 4:4; 2 Sam 6:2; 1 Ch 13:6; 2 K 19:15; Is 37:16; Ps 80:2, 90:1).713 In light of this function, the Qur’ān seems to distort the original Semitic root KRB into QRB so as to give a new meaning to these angels’ name. The cherubs are now muqarrabūn, “the ones close to God”.}}
==== Houri's (Heavenly Virgins) ====
{{Main|Houri (Heavenly Virgin)}}There are allegedly Heavenly maidens to service righteous men in heaven. No equivalent exists for women.{{Quote|{{Quran|56|22}}|And [for them are] fair women with large, [beautiful] eyes,}}{{Quote|{{Quran|78|33}}|and maidens with swelling breasts, like of age,}}
==== Giants ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|5|22-24}}|They said, "O Musa! Indeed, in it (are) people (of) tyrannical strength and indeed, we never will enter it until they leave from it, and if they leave [from] it then certainly we (will) enter (it)." Then out spake two of those who feared (their Lord, men) unto whom Allah had been gracious: Enter in upon them by the gate, for if ye enter by it, lo! ye will be victorious. So put your trust (in Allah) if ye are indeed believers. They said: O, Moses! We will never enter (the land) while they are in it. So go thou and thy Lord and fight! We will sit here.”}}According to many prominent tafsirs these powerful people were giants.<ref>E.g. Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/5.22 ''Verse 5:22''] and [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/5.22 others].</ref> There is no evidence that these existed.
==== Gog and Magog (Yājūj and Mājūj) ====
''Main article: [[Historical Errors in the Quran#Massive wall of iron|Historical Errors in the Quran - Massive wall of iron]]''


The Qur'an relates a story where a servant of Allah ([[:en:Dhul-Qarnayn_and_the_Alexander_Romance|Dhul-Qarnayn]]) traps "Gog and Maggog" behind an iron wall where they will remain until judgement day (essentially making them creatures that live a beyond human lifespan, if not immortal), where they will then swarm the Earth. Most scholars say they are humans, for example Ibn Kathir says they are also descents of Noah through his son Yafith (Japheth), who was the father of the Turks; Turk referring to the group of them who were left behind the barrier which was built by Dhul-Qarnayn.<ref>Ibn Kathir (d 1373.) [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/21.95 ''Commentary on Verse 21:96 (95-97)'']</ref> Though others such as al-Idrisi (d. 1165) say they are monsters, with some 120 cubits high and the same length wide among other non-human descriptions.<ref>van Donzel, Emeri; Schmidt, Andrea. ''Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Christian and Islamic Sources: Sallam's Quest for Alexander's Wall''. Leiden: Brill. ''pp. 91-92''. [[International Standard Book Number|ISBN]] [[Special:BookSources/9789004174160|9789004174160]], 2010. The full book and their analysis of the journey taken by Sallam can be read on the ''[https://archive.org/details/gogandmagoginearlyeasternchristianandislamicsources/page/n109/mode/2up Internet Archive linked here.] (page 110 of 229 the PDF)''</ref> However regardless if they are monsters or humans they are still mythical as clearly they would have been found if trapped behind a giant wall until judgement day given we have explored the Earth as a whole.{{Quote|{{Quran|18|94}}|They said, "O Dhul-Qarnayn, indeed Gog and Magog are [great] corrupters in the land. So may we assign for you an expenditure that you might make between us and them a barrier?"}}{{Quote|{{Quran|21|96}}|Until when [the dam of] Gog and Magog has been opened and they, from every elevation, descend}}
The larger the generalization and the more data upon which it is based, the greater our confidence; the more specific the detail and the fewer the data supporting it, the more room we have for doubt. With regard to the sources for Jesus, the traditional criteria of authenticity privilege the parts over the whole. It seems more prudent to privilege generalizations drawn from the whole than to concentrate upon one individual item after another. As a demonstration of how this works in practice, consider the following traditions:
==== Buraq, the winged horse ====
{{Main|Buraq}}While it took one week to travel from Mecca to Jerusalem (the location of the alleged 'farthest Mosque') by camel, Islamic scripture states that a magical winged horse, called the Buraq, transported Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem in a matter of minutes. Creatures like the Buraq were common characters in near-East myths.<ref>E.g. Adnan Qureshi, Christmas in North Korea, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2020, pp. 141-142: ''Chollima joins the other mythical flying horses such as the horses of Eos, Helios, Apollo, Sol Invictus, and Pegasus (in Greek mythology), al-Buraq (a winged horse in Islamic tradition), Haizum (a heavenly winged horse, ridden by Gabriel according to Islamic tradition), Ponkhiraj (a flying horse from Bangladesh), and the wind horse (in Mongolian, ancient Turkish, and Tibetan traditions).''


& khosravi, M., taheri, A. (2018). 'A Comparative Study on the Image of “Buraq” in the Islamic Art with some Motifs of the Luristan Bronze', ''Journal of Archaeological Studies'', 10(2), pp. 67-81. doi: 10.22059/jarcs.2018.226529.142389</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|17|1}}|
• Jesus prohibited divorce: 1 Cor. 7:10; Mark 10:2-9; Luke 16:18.<b> [Qur'an divorce rules - https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Khula] </b>
Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things). }}
===The existence of magic and sorcerers===
''Main article: [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Witchcraft and the Occult]]''


No evidence has ever proven that magic is real. However, {{Quran|113|4}} ("evil of those who blow on knots") is reported in commentaries as referring to those who practice magic.<ref name=":022223">[https://quranx.com/tafsirs/113.4 Tafsirs for Quran 113:4]</ref> Knots were commonly associated with magic in antiquity.<ref name=":122223">Day, C. L. (1950). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1520741 Knots and Knot Lore. Western Folklore], 9(3), 229–256</ref> The next verse, {{Quran|113|5}} ("evil of the envious when he envies), is said to refer to a superstitious belief known as 'The Evil Eye', a physical and mental supernatural condition that affects those who envy. For further explanation see the [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Witchcraft and the Occult|main article]].{{Quote|{{Quran|113|1-5}}|1. Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn<BR />
• Jesus sent forth missionaries without staff, food, or money: Matt. 10:9-10; Mark 6:8-9; Luke 10:4.
2. From the evil of what He has created<BR />
3. And from the evil of the utterly dark night when it comes<BR />
<b>4. And from the evil of those who blow on knots<BR />
5. And from the evil of the envious when he envies</b>}}At least once, humans are taught magic by satans (believed to be jinn) and angels ([[w:Harut and Marut|Harut and Marut]] are named in this verse):{{Quote|{{Quran|2|102}}|and they follow what the Satans recited over Solomon's kingdom. Solomon disbelieved not, but the Satans disbelieved, <b>teaching the people sorcery,</b> and that which was sent down upon Babylon's two angels, Harut and Marut; they taught not any man, without they said, 'We are but a temptation; do not disbelieve.' From them they learned how they might divide a man and his wife, yet they did not hurt any man thereby, save by the leave of God, and they learned what hurt them, and did not profit them, knowing well that whoso buys it shall have no share in the world to come; evil then was that they sold themselves for, if they had but known.}}
=== The Holy Spirit (Rūḥ al-qudus) ===
{{Main|Jibreel (Gabriel) and al-Ruh al-Qudus (the Holy Spirit) in the Qur'an}}The holy spirit in the Qur'an is presented sometimes as an angel or quasi-angelic intermediary or agent of God.<ref>''rūḥ | spirit rūḥ al-qudus | the holy spirit'' Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 355). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Other times as a vivifying or fortifying principle emanating from God.<ref>Ibid. pp. 357</ref> Other times it is more complex to classify.<ref>Ibid. pp. 360</ref>
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|87}}|And We did certainly give Moses the Torah and followed up after him with messengers. And We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proofs and supported him with the Pure Spirit. But is it [not] that every time a messenger came to you, [O Children of Israel], with what your souls did not desire, you were arrogant? And a party [of messengers] you denied and another party you killed.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|66|12}}|And [the example of] Mary, the daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity, so We blew into [her garment] through Our angel [i.e., Gabriel], and she believed in the words of her Lord and His scriptures and was of the devoutly obedient.}}


=== Sacred geography ===
• Jesus instructed missionaries to get their living by the gospel: 1 Cor. 9:14; Matt. 10:10; Luke 10:7.
Sacred (''ḥaram'')<ref>[https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/06_H/076_Hrm.html ''ḥā rā mīm'' (ح ر م)] Lane's Lexicon - Quranic Research ''ḥaram'' [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_0553.pdf Lane's Lexicon Book 1 page 553] & [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_0554.pdf 554]</ref> geography is in Qur'anic theology, currently in Mecca, the Ka'ba. The sacred house referred to as the sacred mosque/place of worship (''al-masjidi al-ḥarāmi'') E.g. {{Quran|17|1}} or the sacred house ''al-bayta al-haram'' {{Quran|5|2}}{{Quote|{{Quran|5|97}}|Allah has made the Ka‘bah, the Sacred House, standing for the people and [has sanctified] the sacred months and the sacrificial animals and the garlands [by which they are identified]. That is so you may know that Allah knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth and that Allah is Knowing of all things.}}Similarly Jerusalem temple referred to as the '''furthest mosque''' '''(''al-masjidi al-aqṣā'')''', which although not directly called in the Qur'an it is implied at least was sacred, and later tradition was undecided on the matter.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. (2003). From the Sacred Mosque to the Remote Temple: Sūrat al-Isrā' between Text and Commentary. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137279.003.0025. </ref> '''(does Sean Anthony cover this in his paper?)'''{{Quote|{{Quran|17|1}}|Immaculate is He who carried His servant on a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose environs We have blessed, that We might show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.}}Israel is described as the holy land (''al-arḍa al-muqadasata'') by Moses.<ref>[https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/21_q/037_qds.html ''qāf dāl sīn'' (ق د س)] Lane's Lexicon - Quran research


''muqadasata -'' [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_2497.pdf Lane's Lexicon Book 1 page 2497]</ref>
• Jesus commanded loving and doing good to enemies: Matt. 5:38-48; Luke 6:27-36. <b>[Qur'an do not be merciful to unbelievers https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Non-Muslims & https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Kafir_(Infidel)#Guidelines_on_how_to_deal_with_disbelievers Quran 48:29 ]</b>
{{Quote|{{Quran|5|21}}|O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has ordained for you, and do not turn your backs, or you will become losers.’}}
And a sacred valley (see also: {{Quran|79|16}}).


{{Quote|{{Quran|20|12}}|Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals. Indeed, you are in the sacred valley of Tuwa.}}
• Jesus forbade judging others: Matt. 7:1-2; Luke 6:37-38.


There is no evidence they are more sacred or special than anywhere else on Earth, therefore this is another superstition.
• Jesus asked a prospective follower not to bury his father: Matt. 8:21-22; 22; Luke 959-60.


=== Sacred months ===
• Jesus spoke of hating one's father and mother: Matt. 10:37; Luke 14:26; Gospel of Thomas 55, 101. [<b>respect parents - too tenuous</b>]
''Main article: [[Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam#The%20Four%20Sacred%20Months|Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam - The Four Sacred Months]]''


The Quran contains a mention of four sacred (''ḥurum)''<ref>[https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/06_H/076_Hrm.html ''ḥā rā mīm'' (ح ر م)] Lane's Lexicon - Quranic Research
• Jesus enjoined disciples to take up a cross: Matt. 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27.


''ḥurumun'' [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_0555.pdf Lane's Lexicon Book 1 page 555]</ref> months. These are the lunar-based months Dhul Qadha, Dhul Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab, from Arabic pagan beliefs (see [[Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam#The Four Sacred Months|main article]]). Again there is no evidence they are more sacred or different to any other months.{{Quote|{{Quran|9|36-37}}|Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve [lunar] months in the register of Allah since the day He created the heavens and the earth; of these, four months are sacred. That is the correct religion, so do not wrong yourselves during them. And fight against the disbelievers collectively as they fight against you collectively. And know that Allah is with the righteous [who fear Him]. Indeed, the postponing [sacred months] is an increase in disbelief by which those who have disbelieved are led [further] astray. They make it lawful one year and unlawful another year to correspond to the number made unlawful by Allah and [thus] make lawful what Allah has made unlawful.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|9|5}}|And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.}}And similarly Ramaḍān is the month of fasting.
• Jesus enjoined unlimited forgiveness: Matt. 18:21-22; Luke 17:3-4. <b>[forgiveness against shirk - Qur'an says no Q4:48 and 4:116. ]</b>
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|187}}|Permitted to you, upon the night of the Fast, is to go in to your wives; -- they are a vestment for you, and you are a vestment for them. God knows that you have been betraying yourselves, and has turned to you and pardoned you. So now lie with them, and seek what God has prescribed for you. And eat and drink, until the white thread shows clearly to you from the black thread at the dawn; then complete the Fast unto the night, and do not lie with them while you cleave to the mosques. Those are God's bounds; keep well within them. So God makes clear His signs to men; haply they will be godfearing.}}


==Miracles and myths==
• Jesus exhorted hearers to lose their lives in order to save them: Matt. 10:39; Mark 8:35; Luke 17:33.
While miracles by definition are supposed to defy the laws of nature and scientific explanation, the examples of myths and legends briefly listed in this section illustrate the pre-scientific worldview with which the Quran was composed.
=== Prophet Miracles ===
=== Noah (Nūḥ) ===
==== Lived to be 950+ years old ====
Noah is said to be be at least 950 years old, with many traditional Islamic commentators taking this to mean he was preaching for this long until the flood came, and was therefore older in total (many exegetes for example say he was granted prophethood at age 40),<ref>See commentaries from [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/29.14 ''Islamic scholars on Q29:14'']</ref> and we are not told how long he lives after these events, but this could easily push him to be over a 1,000 years old in total ( does this affect genetics?). No human can live this long. Interestingly none of his companions mention this, seem to think this is strange or a reason to believe his prophethood in the Qur'anic story.{{Quote|{{Quran|29|14}}|Certainly We sent Noah to his people, and he remained with them for a thousand-less-fifty years. Then the flood overtook them while they were wrongdoers.}}
=== Adam (ʾĀdam) ===
Adam is not said to have performed any miracles directly (or through Allah), though was magically created from clay rather than evolving.


Is living in paradise a miracle. Say did not perform any specific miracles but lived there among the angels (and at least one jinn who turned into 'the devil') "Allah placed Adam in a paradisical Garden. After Adam sinned by eating from the forbidden tree (Tree of Immortality) after God forbade him from doing so, paradise was declined to him and he was sent down to live on Earth."
• Jesus called people away from their livelihoods: Mark 1:16-20; 2:14. <b>[?]</b>


''The phrase “the sons of Adam” (banii Adam) in the sense of “humankind” is attested seven times.  ‘The quranic commentators derive the name “Adam” from adim al-ard (‘Abd al-Razzaq, Tafsir, i, 433 ti, 20; Ibn Sa‘d, Tabaqat, i, 26; Tabari, Tafsir, 1, 214-5) or from adamat alard (Tabart, Tafsir, i, 208), because he was created from “the surface of the earth.”'' <ref>McAuliffe, J. D. (Eds.). (01 Jan. 2001). "Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān". In Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Retrieved Mar 8, 2025, from <nowiki>https://brill.com/view/serial/ENQU</nowiki>
• Jesus figuratively demanded violent removal of hand, foot, and eye: Mark 9:42-48.


Page 22. Read for free on [https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran-6-volumes-jane-dammen-mc-auliffe/page/n59/mode/2up?q=adam internet archive, page (60/3956) of the PDF]</ref>
• Jesus asked a wealthy man to relinquish his money: Mark 10:17-27. <b>[bring in wealth inequality section of Islam darajat - here]</b>
=== Abraham (Ibrahim) ===
==== Magically cooling fire ====
Abraham is thrown into a fire that magically cools for him and burns only his chains.<ref>Tafsir al-Jalalayn on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/21.69 verse 21:69]</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|21|69}}|We said, ‘O fire! Be cool and safe for Abraham!’}}
==== Cut up birds and bring them back to life ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|260}}|And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord! Show me how You revive the dead,’ He said, ‘Do you not believe?’ He said, ‘Yes indeed, but in order that my heart may be at rest.’ He said, ‘Catch four of the birds. Then cut them into pieces, and place a part of them on every mountain, then call them; they will come to you hastening. And know that Allah is all-mighty and all-wise.’}}
==== '''Shown the universe''' ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|6|75}}|And thus did We show Abraham the realm of the heavens and the earth that he would be among the certain [in faith].}}
==== Gives Abraham and his old wife a child ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|11|69-73}}|“There came Our messengers to Abraham with glad tidings. They said, ‘Peace!’ He answered, ‘Peace!’ and hastened to entertain them with a roasted calf. But when he saw their hands went not towards the (meal), he felt some mistrust of them, and conceived a fear of them. They said: ‘Fear not: we have been sent against the people of Lut.’ And his wife was standing (there), and she laughed, but We gave her glad tidings of Isaac, and after him, of Jacob. She said, ‘Alas for me! shall I bear a child, seeing I am an old woman, and my husband here is an old man? That would indeed be a wonderful thing!’ They said, ‘Dost thou wonder at Allah’s decree? The grace of Allah and His blessings on you, O, ye people of the house! For He is indeed worthy of all praise, full of all glory!’”}}
=== Ishmael (ʾIsmāʿīl) ===
=== Abel (Hābīl) and Cane (Qābīl) ===
A raven sent from God shows Abel where to bury his brother Cain.{{Quote|{{Quran|5|31}}|Then Allah sent a crow, exploring in the ground, to show him how to bury the corpse of his brother. He said, ‘Woe to me! Am I unable to be [even] like this crow and bury my brother’s corpse?’ Thus he became regretful.}}
==== Jonah (Yunus) ====
==== Living inside a big fish ====
The Quran presents a version of the Biblical tale in which Jonah is swallowed by a whale ('the big Fish') and then lives in the whale for some time while praying. Scientific research, however, suggests that a person could not persist long inside a whale's digestive tract and, if not crushed by the whale or by water pressure, would almost immediately suffocate.{{Quote|{{Quran|37|142}}|Then the big Fish did swallow him, and he had done acts worthy of blame. Had it not been that he (repented and) glorified Allah, He would certainly have remained inside the Fish till the Day of Resurrection. But We cast him forth, on the naked shore in a state of sickness}}
=== Joseph (Yūsuf) ===
==== Dream interpreting ====
Birds are seen in a dream which Joseph interprets in reality.{{Quote|{{Quran|12|36-41}}|There entered the prison two youths along with him. One of them said, ‘I dreamt that I am pressing grapes.’ The other said, ‘I dreamt that I am carrying bread on my head from which the birds are eating.’ ‘Inform us of its interpretation,’ [they said], ‘for indeed we see you to be a virtuous man.’ He said, ‘Before the meals you are served come to you I will inform you of its interpretation. That is among things my Lord has taught me. Indeed, I renounce the creed of the people who have no faith in Allah and who [also] disbelieve in the Hereafter... ...O my prison mates! As for one of you, he will serve wine to his master, and as for the other, he will be crucified and vultures will eat from his head. The matter about which you inquire has been decided.’}}


==== A shirt regains his sons sight ====
• Jesus forbade taking oaths: Matt. 5:33-37. <b>[https://www.iium.edu.my/deed/lawbase/risalah_maliki/book31.html#:~:text=Anyone%20who%20swears%20an%20oath,Oneness%2C%20timelessness%20and%20existence.%5D]</b>
Here, Jacob (Ya'qūb) (Joseph's son e.g. {{Quran|12|80}}) is blind and when Joseph has him brought to Egypt for their reunion, he tells his brothers to place the shirt on Jacob's face, by which he regains his sight.<ref>A Place Between Two Places: The Quranic Barzakh. George Archer. 2020. Gorgias Press LLC</ref>
{{Quote|{{Quran|12|93-96}}|Take this shirt of mine, and cast it upon my father’s face; he will regain his sight, and bring me all your folks.’ As the caravan set off, their father said, ‘I sense the scent of Joseph, if you will not consider me a dotard.’ They said, ‘By God, you persist in your inveterate error.’ When the bearer of good news arrived, he cast it on his face, and he regained his sight. He said, ‘Did I not tell you, ‘‘I know from Allah what you do not know?’’ ’}}


=== Job (Ayūb) ===
• Jesus commanded money to be lent without interest: Matt. 5:42; Gospel of Thomas 95.
No miracles?
=== Moses (Mūsā) ===
==== Sea split in half ====
The Quran present a version of the Biblical story where Moses splits the sea and crosses it with the Israelites. There is no historical or other evidence that such an event occurred.{{Quote|{{Quran|2|50}}|
And remember '''We divided the sea for you''' and saved you and drowned Pharaoh's people within your very sight. }}
==== Stick turned serpent ====
The Quran states that Moses' staff transformed into a serpent.{{Quote|{{Quran|7|107}}|
Then (Moses) threw his rod, and behold! it was a serpent, plain (for all to see)! }}
==== Plagues of Egypt ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|7|133}}|So We sent against them a flood and locusts, lice, frogs and blood, as distinct signs. But they acted arrogantly, and they were a guilty lot.}}
==== Mountain lifted up and dropped in front of him (from Allah) ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|7|143}}|When Moses arrived at Our tryst and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show [Yourself] to me, that I may look at You!’ He said, ‘You shall not see Me. But look at the mountain: if it abides in its place, then you will see Me.’ So when his Lord disclosed Himself to the mountain, He levelled it, and Moses fell down swooning. When he recovered, he said, ‘Immaculate are You! I turn to You in penitence, and I am the first of the faithful.’}}{{Quote|{{Quran|2|63}}|And when We took a pledge from you, and raised the Mount above you, [declaring], ‘Hold on with power to what We have given you and remember that which is in it so that you may be Godwary.’}}
==== Moses's magic white hand ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|27|12}}|‘Insert your hand into your shirt. It will emerge white and bright, without any fault—among nine signs meant for Pharaoh and his people. Indeed they are a transgressing lot.’}}
==== 12 Springs from a rock ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|12|60}}|And when Moses prayed for water for his people, We said, ‘Strike the rock with your staff.’ Thereat twelve fountains gushed forth from it; every tribe came to know its drinking-place. ‘Eat and drink of Allah’s provision, and do not act wickedly on the earth, causing corruption.’}}
==== Dead fish (for food) comes back to life at the junction of the two seas ====
{{Main|A Barrier Between Two Seas and the Cosmic Ocean}}Moses's dead fish comes back to life at the junction of the two seas, showing a huge parallel with late antique Christian? literature{{Quote|{{Quran|18|61-63}}|So when they reached the confluence between them, they forgot their fish, which found its way into the sea, sneaking away. Then when they had passed beyond he said to his boy, "Bring us our morning meal. Certainly we have suffered in our journey this, fatigue." He said, 'What thinkest thou? When we took refuge in the rock, then I forgot the fish-and it was Satan himself that made me forget it so that I should not remember it -- and so it took its way into the sea in a manner marvellous.'}}
==== Mooing statue ====
The Qur'an describes a statue of a calf that was capable of mooing.{{Quote|{{Quran|20|88}}|So he brought forth for them a calf, a (mere) body, which had a mooing sound, so they said: This is your god and the god of Musa, but he forgot.}}
==== Testimony of a dead man by slapping a cow ====
The Quran states that Allah instructed a group of people to strike a murdered man with a piece of a heifer (young female cow that has not yet borne a calf) in order to temporarily resurrect him and discover the identity of the murderer.{{Quote|{{Quran|2|73}}|
And We said: Smite him with some of it. Thus Allah bringeth the dead to life and showeth you His portents so that ye may understand. }}
==== Korah (Qārūn) swallowed ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|28|76-82}}|Korah indeed belonged to the people of Moses, but he bullied them. We had given him so much treasures that their chests indeed proved heavy for a band of stalwarts. When his people said to him, ‘Do not boast! Indeed Allah does not like the boasters. Seek the abode of the Hereafter by means of what Allah has given you, while not forgetting your share of this world. Be good [to others] just as Allah has been good to you, and do not try to cause corruption in the land. Indeed Allah does not like the agents of corruption.’... ...So We caused the earth to swallow him and his house, and he had no party that might protect him from Allah, nor could he rescue himself. By dawn those who longed to be in his place the day before were saying, ‘Don’t you see that Allah expands the provision for whomever He wishes of His servants, and tightens it? Had Allah not shown us favour, He might have made the earth swallow us too. Don’t you see that the faithless do not prosper?’}}
=== David (Dāwūd) ===
==== Understanding birds ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|27|16}}|Solomon inherited from David, and he said, ‘O people! We have been taught the speech of the birds, and we have been given out of everything. Indeed this is a manifest advantage.’}}
==== Mountains and birds sing psalms ====
The Qur'an states that hills and birds would sing the psalms with David.{{Quote|{{Quran|34|10}}|
And assuredly We gave David grace from Us, (saying): O ye hills and birds, echo his psalms of praise! And We made the iron supple unto him}}
==== Allah making iron soft for David ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|34|10}}|Certainly We gave David our grace: ‘O mountains and birds, chime in with him!’ And We made iron soft for him.}}
=== Solomon ('''Sulaymān)''' ===
==== Solomon's Army of jinn and birds (controlling them) ====
A story in the Qur'an, drawing on Jewish folklore, states that Solomon commanded a massive army comprised of 'Jinns and men and birds'. Solomon is described as speaking with a Hoopoe bird and thereafter desiring to execute the bird when it is tardy to his assembly. The Hoopoe bird, it is then revealed, was only delayed because it had been spying on a beautiful female ruler, Queen Sheba, who Solomon subsequently insists is misguided and must be conquered. At this point, Solomon assigns a Jinn from his assembly the task of stealing Queen Sheba's magnificent throne. There is, however, no scientific evidence that Jinn exist, that birds can be commanded as soldiers, or that birds can engage in elaborate conversations with humans.{{Quote|{{Quran|27|16-17}}|
And Solomon was David's heir. He said: "O ye people! We have been taught the speech of birds, and on us has been bestowed (a little) of all things: this is indeed Grace manifest (from Allah.)And before Solomon were marshalled his hosts― of Jinns and men and birds, and they were all kept in order and ranks.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|27|20-23}}|
And he took a muster of the Birds; and he said: "Why is it I see not the Hoopoe? Or is he among the absentees? I will certainly punish him with a severe Penalty, or execute him, unless he bring me a clear reason (for absence). But the Hoopoe tarried not far: he (came up and) said: "I have compassed (territory) which thou hast not compassed, and I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true. I found (there) a woman ruling over them and provided with every requisite; and she has a magnificent throne.}}
==== Fountain of bronze ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|34|12}}|And We caused a fount of (molten) brass to flow for him, and there were jinns that worked in front of him, by the Leave of his Lord, and whosoever of them turned aside from Our Command, We shall cause him to taste of the torment of the blazing Fire.}}
==== Solomon speaks to an ant ====
Solomon (q.v.) understands the speech of an ant advising caution to his fellows (Q 27:18.){{Quote|{{Quran|27|18}}|When they came to the Valley of Ants, an ant said, ‘O ants! Enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his hosts should trample on you while they are unaware.’}}
==== Solomons dead body doesn't decompose properly ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|34|14}}|When We decreed death for him, nothing apprised them of his death except a worm which gnawed away at his staff. And when he fell down, [the humans] realized that had the jinn known the Unseen, they would not have remained in a humiliating torment.}}
==== Manipulating the wind ====
The Quran says that Solomon had the power to control the wind and traditional sources elaborate that Solomon could use this wind to fly upon a gigantic wooden carpet to wherever he pleased.{{Quote|{{Quran|38|36}}|
Then We subjected the wind to his power, to flow gently to his order, Whithersoever he willed  }}{{Quote|Tafsir Ibn-Kathir on 21:81 | A flying carpet made from wood, on top of which he could carry everything in his kingdom including chairs, to wherever Solomon wants to go, whilst flocks of birds would fly over to give shade }}
=== Zechariah (Zakariyā) ===
==== Cures his wife barreness ====
This produces John the Baptist (Yaḥyā) in the Qur'an.{{Quote|{{Quran|21|89-90}}|“And (remember) Zakariya, when he cried to his Lord: ‘O, my Lord! leave me not childless, and Thou art the best of inheritors.’ So We responded to him, and We granted him Yahya, We cured his wife’s (barrenness) for him. These (three) were ever quick in emulation in good works; they used to call on Us with love and reverence, and humble themselves before Us.”}}
=== Jesus (ʿĪsā) ===
{{Main|Isa al-Masih (Jesus Christ)}}
==== Born from Mary (Mariam) who was a virgin ====
Like the bible, and other pagan mythologies,<ref>[https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/11161 Virgin Birth: It’s Pagan, Guys.] Get Over It. PhD Richard Carrier.  2016.</ref> Jesus is also born from a virgin. Provided by the holy spirit (al-Ruh al-Qudus), usually taken as a reference the angel Gabriel here. Given he is not the son of God, it is unclear what the purpose of this is.{{Quote|{{Quran|19|17-21}}|Thus did she seclude herself from them, whereupon We sent to her Our Spirit and he became incarnate for her as a well-proportioned human. She said, ‘I seek the protection of the All-beneficent from you, should you be Godwary!’ He said, ‘I am only a messenger of your Lord that I may give you a pure son.’
She said, ‘How shall I have a child seeing that no human being has ever touched me, nor have I been unchaste?’ He said, ‘So shall it be. Your Lord says, ‘‘It is simple for Me.’’ And so that We may make him a sign for mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is a matter [already] decided.’}}{{Quote|{{Quran|66|12}}|And the example of Maryam the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity – We therefore breathed into her a Spirit from Ourselves – and she testified for the Words of her Lord and His Books, and was among the obedient.}}
==== Jesus talking from his Cradle ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|3|45-46}}|(And remember) when the angels said: O Mary! Lo! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a word from him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, illustrious in the world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near (unto Allah). He will speak unto mankind in his cradle and in his manhood, and he is of the righteous.}}
==== Supernatural food ====
The Qur'an states that Jesus received a feast sent down from heaven.{{Quote|{{Quran-range|5|114|115}}|
Jesus, son of Mary, said: O Allah, Lord of us! '''Send down for us a table spread with food from heaven, that it may be a feast for us''', for the first of us and for the last of us, and a sign from Thee. Give us sustenance, for Thou art the Best of Sustainers. Allah said: Lo! I send it down for you. And whoso disbelieveth of you afterward, him surely will I punish with a punishment wherewith I have not punished any of (My) creatures.}}
==== Magically curing the Blind and Lepersy affected ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|3|49}}|and [he will be] an apostle to the Children of Israel, [and he will declare,] “I have certainly brought you a sign from your Lord: I will create for you the form of a bird out of clay, then I will breathe into it, and it will become a bird by Allah’s leave. I heal the blind and the leper and I revive the dead by Allah’s leave. I will tell you what you have eaten and what you have stored in your houses. There is indeed a sign in that for you, should you be faithful.}}
==== Raising the dead ====
See above {{Quran|3|49}}
==== Clay birds becoming alive ====
See above {{Quran|3|49}}
=== Luqman (Luq'mān) ===
==== Given special wisdom ====
Luq'mān - believed to be a common pre-Islamic sage, though his identity is far from certain.<ref>''Encyclopedia of the Qur'an. pp. 242-243.'' A.H.M. Zahniser. 2021.


Pages (1458-1460/3956) of [https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran-6-volumes-jane-dammen-mc-auliffe/page/n1457/mode/2up?q=luqman free book on Intranet Archive]</ref> (2 lukmans in there) Based of Ahiqar (get citation)
• Jesus called some to a life without marriage: Matt. 19:11-12.<b> [Qur'an criticism of monasticism]</b>


Two Arabian characters also  brought into salvation history with God giving him special widsom (''l-ḥik'mata) ḥā kāf mīm (ح ك م)'' root - https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/06_H/152_Hkm.html) https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_0617.pdf & https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_0618.pdf
• Jesus asked a prospective follower not to say farewell to his parents: Luke 9:61-62. <b>[respect parents?]</b>


{{Quote|{{Quran|31|12-13}}|And We had certainly given Luqman wisdom [and said], "Be grateful to Allah." And whoever is grateful is grateful for [the benefit of] himself. And whoever denies [His favor] - then indeed, Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy. And [mention, O Muhammad], when Luqman said to his son while he was instructing him, "O my son, do not associate [anything] with Allah. Indeed, association [with him] is great injustice."}}
• Jesus asked his disciples to renounce all of their possessions: Luke 14:33"}}
=== Saleh (Ṣāliḥ) ===
<nowiki>--------------------------------------------------</nowiki>
==== The She-Camel of Saleh (Ṣāliḥ) ====
A camel appears to the people of Thamud from a rock after the unbelieving people ask for a sign Salih is a prophet.<ref>See commentaries [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/7.73 on verse 7:73]</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|7|73}}|And to [the people of] Thamud [We sent] Salih, their brother. He said, ‘O my people, worship Allah! You have no other god besides Him. There has certainly come to you a manifest proof from your Lord. This she-camel of Allah is a sign for you. Let her alone to graze [freely] in Allah’s land, and do not cause her any harm, for then you shall be seized by a painful punishment.}}
=== Allah Miracles - Misc. ===
==== Speaking body parts ====
The Quran states that human organs will, on the Day of Judgement, testify against their own persons.{{Quote|{{Quran|24|24}}|
On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet will bear witness against them as to their actions. }}
==== Army of magic birds attacking Abraha's army ====
''Main article: [[Historical Errors in the Quran#Surah%20of%20the%20elephant|Historical Errors in the Quran - Surah of the elephant]]''


Talk of interpretation of words issue or not? Link to explanation of event such as tafsir.{{Quote|{{Quran|105|1-5}}|Have you not regarded how your Lord dealt with the army of the elephants?<br> Did He not make their stratagems go awry,<br> and send against them flocks of birds <br> hurling against them stones of baked clay <br> Then He made them like straw eaten up.}}
[ highlight those being spoken about in italics or bold]
==== Jews transformed into pigs and apes as a punishment ====
The Qur'an records a miraculous event where Sabbath breakers are transformed into apes.{{Quote|{{Quran|2|65}}|
And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected." }}{{Quote|{{Quran|7|166}}|When they defied [the command pertaining to] what they were forbidden from, We said to them, ‘Be you spurned apes.’}}{{Quote|{{Quran|5|60}}|Say, ‘Shall I inform you concerning something worse than that as a requital from Allah? Those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He is wrathful, and turned some of whom into apes and swine, and worshippers of fake deities! Such are in a worse situation and more astray from the right way.’}}
==== Vivifying Rainfall and Resurrection ====
Rainfall is literally seen as bringing dead back to life [ref Some Cosmological Notions from Late Antiquity in Q 18:60–65: The Quran in Light of Its Cultural Context. Tommaso Tesei. Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 135, No. 1 (January-March 2015), pp. 19-32.. '''PP23 & 28'''  Published By: American Oriental Society]


''The author of the Qur'an claims several times that rainfall brings trees of a dead land to life, so in the same way, people will be brought back to life. This is a non-sequitur fallacy. One is a natural process; the other is not possible, hence it cannot be deduced from the first.''{{Quote|{{Quran|35|9}}|It is Allah Who sends forth the Winds, so that they raise up the Clouds, and We drive them to a land that is dead, and revive the earth therewith after its death: even so (will be) the Resurrection!}}{{Quote|{{Quran|43|11}}|That sends down (from time to time) rain from the sky in due measure;- and We raise to life therewith a land that is dead; even so will ye be raised (from the dead);}}{{Quote|{{Quran|41|39}}|And among His Signs in this: thou seest the earth barren and desolate; but when We send down rain to it, it is stirred to life and yields increase. Truly, He Who gives life to the (dead) earth can surely give life to (men) who are dead. For He has power over all things.}}
Dale/Allison (2009) notes that Jesus' banning divorce was an important teaching that <s>stood out</s> to early Christians, [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2016%3A18&version=NIV Luke 16:18], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%207%3A10-16&version=NIV 1 Corinthians 7:10-16], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2010%3A2-9&version=NIV Mark 10:2-9], in contrast to Judaism ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2024%3A1-4&version=NIV Deuteronomy 24:1-4]) and Islam e.g. Quran 2:228-232, Q65:1-7, (Q4:19 https://quranx.com/hadiths/4.19 & Q4:35), Q33:49 )
==== A man is killed for 100 years then resurrected ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|259}}|Or him who came upon a township as it lay fallen on its trellises. He said, ‘How will Allah revive this after its death?!’ So Allah made him die for a hundred years, then He resurrected him. He said, ‘How long did you remain?’ Said he, ‘I have remained a day or part of a day.’ He said, ‘No, you have remained a hundred years. Now look at your food and drink which have not rotted! Then look at your donkey! [This was done] that We may make you a sign for mankind. And now look at its bones, how We raise them up and clothe them with flesh!’ When it became evident to him, he said, ‘I know that Allah has power over all things.’}}


===== As is his donkey =====
He notes that Jesus commanded loving and doing good to enemies in [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A38-48&version=NIV Matt. 5:38-48]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%206%3A27-36&version=NIV Luke 6:27-36], while the Qur'an generally advises treating other Muslims well, it specifically states not to be merciful to unbelievers Q48:29.  [ For more examples of not being merciful to unbelievers, let alone 'enemies' see:  '''[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Non-Muslims|https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Non-Muslims]] & [[Kafir (Infidel)#Guidelines%20on%20how%20to%20deal%20with%20disbelievers|https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Kafir_(Infidel)#Guidelines_on_how_to_deal_with_disbelievers]] Quran 48:29 ]'''
See above {{Quran|2|259}}


===== And his food is kept from rotting =====
• Jesus enjoined unlimited forgiveness: [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018%3A21-22&version=NIV Matt. 18:21-22]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A3-4&version=NIV Luke 17:3-4]. [forgiveness against shirk - Qur'an says no Q4:48 and 4:116. - anyone who believed in him would/could be saved ]
See above {{Quran|2|259}}


==== Seven people are kept sleeping for 309 years ====
He notes Jesus called some to a life without marriage: [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2019%3A11-12&version=NIV Matt. 19:11-12], while the Qur'an promotes it as a virtue encouraging those to do so.
{{Main|Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran}}{{Quote|{{Quran|18|25}}|So they stayed in their Cave three hundred years, and (some) add nine (more).}}
==== Punishment narrative miracles/destructions ====
Listed in Devlin Stewarts articles; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382862079_Signs_for_Those_Who_Can_Decipher_Them_Ancient_Ruins_in_the_Quran


Marriage is a virtue https://www.getquranic.com/marriage-in-islam-8-quranic-verses-about-marriage/


Historical errors page: In the Qur'an, the people of ''Thamud'' are killed instantly by an earthquake Quran 7:78 {{Quran|7|78}}or thunderous blast Quran 11:67, Quran 41:13-17, Quran 51:44, Quran 69:5. The people of ''A'ad'' are killed by a fierce wind that blew for 7 days Quran 41:13-16, Quran 46:24-35, Quran 51:41, Quran 69:6-7. The people of Midian (''Midyan'') are killed overnight by an earthquake Quran 7:91, Quran 29:36. The towns of Lot (''Lut'') are destroyed by a storm of stones from the sky Quran 54:32, Quran 29:34. The actual locations of these towns or tribes is unknown. Midian in particular was a wide geographical desert region rather than a particular location or city, which makes archaeological investigation difficult.
{{Quote|{{Quran|24|32}}|Marry off those who are single among you, and the upright among your male and female slaves. If they are poor, Allah will enrich them out of His grace, and Allah is all-bounteous, all-knowing.}}
* Thunderbolt
* 'The cry'
* Hurricane for 7 days - 'Ad
* Flood - Noah
* Sea split - Moses
* Earthquake - Midyan
* Fire and stones from the sky - Lot
* Turning up and flattening? - Lot
Explain narrative - get quote from Marshall or Durie.


Or just keep solely to myths and link to the Chronology page where it can be discussed in more detail / broken down into early/late middle Meccan periods?
And criticizes monasticism/monks, with celibacy and no marriage being a key aspect<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/monasticism Monasticism] | religion | Britannica Entry</ref> in general 


Quotes from other scholars{{Quote|Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (p. 53). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.|If Muhammad again and again holds before the eyes of his Meccan fellow people the fate of earlier nations as a warning example … the intention can only have been to threaten them with a similar fate, referring to a punishment on Earth and not only in the Hereafter. (Horovitz 1926, p.30) There is no doubt that Muhammad proclaimed the imminence of a special and particular judgement upon the Meccans. (Bell 1926, p.121)}}(early Meccan period quote{{Quote|Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (pp. 49-50). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.|The first point to make is simply the observation that by the end of the earliest Meccan period the Qurʾan has repeatedly narrated accounts of past acts of divine punishment in this world, which it makes clear are meant to serve as a warning to the unbelievers in Mecca. On the slender evidence available in this period it is difficult to prove that these passages implied a threat to the Meccans in this life rather than on the Last Day, but prima facie that would seem to be their message. At 79:25 we have already seen how the Qurʾan distinguishes between God’s eschatological and this-worldly punishment of unbelievers, a distinction which recurs later (e.g. 32:21; 39:26). This indicates that, although they are related, the two types of punishment are not identical. It would thus seem natural to assume that when the Qurʾan warns the Meccan unbelievers with accounts of divine punishment in this world, the primary reference is to the possibility of the recurrence of the same kind of this-worldly punishment, an event within a human history which continues thereafter, rather than the eschatological culmination of that history.}}Main academic works on this inc Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers, Durie, Mark. Biblical Reflexes in the Qur'an: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion Chapters 2 & 3.{{Quote|{{Quran|89|6-14}}|89:6–14 Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with ʿĀd, Iram of the pillars, the like of which was never created in the land, and Thamūd who hollowed the rocks in the valley, and Pharaoh, he of the tent-pegs, who all were insolent in the land and worked much corruption therein? Your Lord unloosed on them a scourge of punishment; surely your Lord is ever on the watch.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|53|50-54}}|53:50–4 [God] destroyed ʿĀd, the ancient, and Thamūd, and he did not spare them, and the people of Noah before - they did exceeding evil and were insolent - and the subverted city he also overthrew, so that there covered it that which covered.}}{{Quote|Hoyland, Robert G.. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (Peoples of the Ancient World) (p. 223). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.|It would appear from the audience’s reaction that these were well-known stories, and indeed all are either famous Biblical narratives (Noah and the Flood, Abraham the religious reformer, Moses and Pharaoh, Lot and licentiousness) or Arabian traditions that had already achieved, judging from the allusions to them in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, legendary status. In the Quran all are constrained into one genre, the punishment story, and adduced as examples of how God vents his wrath upon those who fail to heed his warnings.}}Threatened to Mecca as well{{Quote|{{Quran|41|13}}|But if they [the unbelievers] turn away, then say, ‘I warn you of a thunderbolt like to the thunderbolt of ʿĀd and Thamūd.’}}
{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. <i>Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (pp. 131-132).</i> Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|These verses critical of monks are often read together with Q 57:27, which, while praising certain positive qualities of Christians, also seems to accuse Christians of “innovating” monasticism: Then We sent, following in their footsteps, Our Messengers; and We sent, following, Jesus son of Mary, and gave unto him the Gospel. And We set in the hearts of those who followed him tenderness and mercy. And monasticism they invented—We did not prescribe it for them—only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they observed it not as it should be observed. So We gave those of them who believed their wage; and many of them are ungodly.}}
== Natural law in the Quran ==
It could be argued that there is no randomness or natural law in the Qur'an, but rather every single thing is determined and given by God/Allah. For example the famous Muslim theologian and philosopher Al-Ghazali,  ''in his work entitled “On Power,” argues that all of the events that occur in this world, whether sensed or not, are caused by one being: Allah (hereafter referred to as “god”). He even goes so far as to suggest that there is no true connection between what people would traditionally call causes and effects''.<ref>Garber, Christopher P. (2016) "Al-Ghazali on Causation, Omnipotence, and Human Freedom," Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: <nowiki>https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lujpr/vol2/iss1/</nowiki>


Edward Omar Moad. “Al-Ghazali on Power, Causation, and ‘Acquisition.’” ''Philosophy East and West'', vol. 57, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–13. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488073</nowiki>. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025.</ref> https://www.ghazali.org/articles/gz-theo-nkm.pdf


God is active in the Cosmos & continuous creation{{Quote|Decharneux, Julien. De Gruyter. 2023. <i>Creation and Contemplation: The Cosmology of the Qur'ān and Its Late Antique Background (Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East Book 47) (Kindle Edition. pp. 203-204).</i>|The text repeatedly ascribes to God the cosmic role of sustaining the world. God continuously provides humans with food and necessary supplies (e. g. Q 6:96, 7:9, 26:75, 28:57, 29:60, 30:40, 34:24, 36:71 – 73). He is also responsible for the regularity of astral motions in the sky (e. g. Q 7:54, 13:2, 14:33, 16:12, 29:61, 31:29, 35:13, 39:5), for the succession of day and night (e. g. Q 14:33, 16:12), as well as any other things that allow humans to live on a daily basis. All these passages show that the Qur’ān grants to the theme of the creatio continua (“continuous creation”; i. e. maintenance of the universe) a prominent place within the overall Qur’ānic cosmological discourse. This is hardly surprising given the natural theological system described in the first chapter. God’s creatorship is observable in the cycles and the regularity of the world.}}He is seen as deciding the outcome of battles {{Quran|36|74-75}} (36: 74-75), and other gods cannot {{Quran|46|28}} (46: 28), and working through believers to fight unbelievers {{Quran|8|17}} Q8:17<ref>Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion. 2.4 An Act of God by Human Hands (p. 58-59) (Kindle Edition pp. 165-166)'' Lexington Books. 2018.</ref> and sending invisible angels to Muhammad {{Quran|3|123-126}} (3: 123-126), {{Quran|33|9}} Q33:9, Q9:26 {{Quran|9|26}} (cf: {{Quran|3|123-126}} Q3:123-126)
Criticism of monasticism (https://www.britannica.com/topic/monasticism) - lack of marriage for monks (though admittedly also praises monks in general elsewhere pp130-132)<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said. ''Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (pp. 130-132).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>


=== Natural scientifically explained processes as miracles ===
{{Quote|{{Quran|57|27}}|Then We sent on their footsteps Our Messengers and We followed with Isa, son (of) Maryam, and We gave him the Injeel. And We placed in (the) hearts (of) those who followed him compassion and mercy. But monasticism they innovated - not We prescribed it for them - only seeking (the) pleasure (of) Allah, but not they observed it (with) right observance. So We gave those who believed among them their reward, but most of them (are) defiantly disobediently.}}


==== Wind & rain ====
Wind is seen as a sign of God {{Quran|35|9}} ((Q 35:9)) rather than from heat differences,<ref>[https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/wind/ Wind explained.] U.S Energy information Administration. Last reviewed December 2023. </ref> and bringing down rain rather than within a cloud, water droplets condense onto one another, causing the droplets to grow. When these water droplets get too heavy to stay suspended in the cloud, they fall to Earth as rain.


(water cycle science citation).<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/science/water-cycle Water Cycle Entry] - Britannica


[https://scijinks.gov/rain/ What Makes It Rain?] Water and Ice. NOAA SciJinks.gov </ref> '''- this verse mentions clouds specifically - rain as clouds go to dead land to revive it.'''
<nowiki>-----------------------------------------------------------------</nowiki>


==== Lightning ====
==== Father-son relationship ====
The Qur'an states that lighting is a sign shown by god for fear(''khawfan'') and hope (''waṭamaʿan),'' however now we know that lightening is simply an electrical phenonoma caused by negative and positive charges in clouds or between the cloud and the ground build up and suddenly discharge, creating a bright flash,<ref name=":0">[https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-science-overview Understanding Lightning Science.] Safety. National Weather Service.</ref> (i.e. explained by science), it is difficult to see why it would give people hope.
{{Quote|Dale C. Allison Jr.. <i>The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (Kindle Location 841-848).</i> Kindle Edition.|2=Working through the tradition in the way I suggest leads to a large number of conclusions. Jesus must have been an exorcist who interpreted his ministry in terms of Satan's downfall. He must have thought highly of John the Baptist. He must have repeatedly spoken of God as Father. <b>[Durie differences in metaphor and understanding of relationship from Hebrew to Arab society = markedly different]</b> He must have composed parables. He must have come into conflict with religious authorities. All of this may seem obvious, but the procedure is not trite, for it also issues in some controversial verdicts. As I have argued elsewhere, for example, ample, the quantity of conventional eschatological material in our primary sources almost necessitates that Jesus was an eschatological prophet.' The reconstruction of Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar is for this reason alone problematic. Even more controversial is what my approach leads me to infer about Jesus' self-conception. Consider these Synoptic materials:
{{Quote|{{Quran|30|24}}|And among His Signs, He shows you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope, and He sends down rain from the sky and with it gives life to the earth after it is dead}}
 
• Jesus said that the Son of man will return on the clouds of heaven and send angels to gather the elect from throughout the world: Mark 13:26-27; cf. 14:62; Matt. 10:23 (allusions to Daniel 7's depiction of the last judgment are clear). <b>[the son of man plays no part in Islam]</b>}}
 
===== Slave-master relationship =====
Father son Hebrew relationship Jesus used distinctly abandoned, instead using other things (other metaphors) in Arab society to describe the relationship between humans and God, such as a slave-master relationship,<ref>Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. XX-XX)  (pp. 107-110 Kindle Edition)''. 4.1.1. Shirk - Proprietary Partnership. Lexington Books. 2018.</ref> a Patron - Protege (needs explanation of what this is) <ref>Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. XX-XX)  (pp. 110-111 Kindle Edition)''. 4.1.2. Shirk - Patron - Protege Relationships. Lexington Books. 2018.</ref>. having strongly condemned the idea that God could have offspring against the unscripted pagans (mushrikun) taking angels as daughters of god, then against God having a son<ref>Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. XX-XX)  (pp. 112-113 Kindle Edition)''. 4.1.5 A Polemical Doctrine. Lexington Books. 2018.</ref>
 
Slave analogy Dure Print edition pp108 - 110 summary:<ref name=":1">Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. 108-110)  (pp. XX-XX Kindle Edition)''. 4.1.5 A Polemical Doctrine. Lexington Books. 2018.</ref> Before its theological use, the Arabic root ''sh-r-k'' referred to ordinary '''partnership or shared ownership'''. The Qurʾan draws on this everyday meaning to illustrate why associating partners with God is impossible. Using the metaphor of '''a master and a slave''', the Qurʾan argues that just as a slave with multiple masters suffers confusion and conflict, attributing partners to God creates an impossible and chaotic situation. This logic appears in verses such as Q39:29 and others that argue multiple gods would lead to conflict and the ruin of creation (Q23:91; Q21:22).<ref name=":1" />
{{Quote|{{Quran|39|29}}|Allah presents a parable, “a man was owned by several quarreling partners
(shurakaʾ), and a man was the slave of (just) one man. Are the two equal?”}}
 
The Qurʾan’s use of the slave-master metaphor differs from Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament. Whereas Jesus uses it to highlight divided human devotion, the Qurʾan uses it to assert the logical impossibility of multiple divine authorities.<ref name=":1" />
 
{{Quote|Luke 16:13; cf. Matthew. 6:24|No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the
other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.}}
 
Shirk encompasses various forms of error: attributing partners or helpers to God, believing He needs allies, or seeking aid from others besides Him. The Qurʾan also explores God’s unity through three social analogies relevant to Arabian society: '''patron–protégé relationships''', '''alliances of mutual help''', and '''relationships of equal or unequal status'''.<ref name=":1" />
 
===== '''Patron–protégé relationships''' =====
The Qur'an distinctly ignores the father-son relationship (and theology) metaphor by using another term that is harder to translate
 
Explanation of what this is Durie pp.110-111:<ref name=":3">Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. 110-111)  (pp. XX-XX Kindle Edition)''. 4.1.5 A Polemical Doctrine. Lexington Books. 2018.</ref> The Qurʾan uses terms from the root '''w-l-y''' to describe '''patron–protégé relationships''', alliances, and guardianship. The key term '''walī''' can mean ally, protector, guardian, or patron, and may indicate either symmetrical alliances or asymmetrical power relationships.<ref name=":3" /><ref>[https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/27_w/219_wle.html Root: ''wāw lām yā'' (و ل ي)] - Lane's Lexicon Qur'anic Research
 
See Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_3060.pdf pp.3060] & [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_3061.pdf pp.3061] </ref>  
 
In pre-Islamic Arab society, such patronage was essential for protection, as shown by the example of Muḥammad being safeguarded by his uncle Abū Ṭālib. Without a patron, a person was vulnerable.<ref name=":3" /> [in the sirah of Ibn Ishaq]
 
The Qurʾan emphasizes that '''God has no need of any patron''' and that '''humans should recognize God alone as their walī'''. Seeking any protector besides God is considered '''shirk'''. Believers may take other believers and the Prophet as allies (''awliyāʾ'') alongside God, but not in place of Him.<ref name=":3" />
 
As the Muslim community developed, especially after what the passage calls the ''Eschatological Transition''—the Qurʾan increasingly stressed exclusive allegiance to God. This served to detach believers from prior tribal or familial loyalties that could compromise their commitment to the faith community.<ref name=":3" />
 
- and calls for help-
 
===== Unequal status vs Jesus' views on Wealth =====
Sinai - darajah passage
 
And inequality in general - inc. the afterlife
 
=== Punishment narratives ===
 
==== Punishment BEFORE the day of judgement ====
We are told the sole exception in history was the unnamed town<ref>Unnamed in the Qur'an, though identified as Nineveh (in modern day Iraq) as in the Biblical "Book of Jonah" by Islamic exegetes; e.g. see [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/37.147 tafsirs on Q37:147]</ref> of more than 100,000 people that the messenger Yūnus (Jonah) when the warning was heeded in full by the entire people, and therefore punishment averted ({{Quran|10|98}}, {{Quran|37|147-148}}) “no town believed . . . except the people of Yūnus”<ref>Durie, Mark. 2018. ''The Qur'an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations Into the Genesis of a Religion. pp 49. Kindle Edition pp 151.''</ref>
 
 
How many a town defied the command of its Lord and His apostles, then We called it to a severe account and punished it with a dire punishment.  Q65:8
 
So it tasted the evil consequences of its conduct, and the outcome of its conduct was ruin. Q65:9
 
How many generations that had far more wealth and ostentation have We laid low before them! <<nowiki>https://quranx.com/19.74</nowiki>>
 
Say, ‘Whoever abides in error, the All-beneficent shall prolong his respite until they sight what they have been promised: either punishment, or the Hour.’ Then they will know whose position is worse, and whose host is weaker <<nowiki>https://quranx.com/19.75</nowiki>>
 
------
 
Q34:16 - flood of the damn of Yemen / Saba', the people of Sheba E.g. <ref>See tafsirs on [https://quranx.com/Tafsirs/34.14 Q34:14], [https://quranx.com/Tafsirs/34.15 Q34:15] & [https://quranx.com/Tafsirs/34.16 Q34:16]</ref> {{Quran|34|14-16}}
 
{{Quote|{{Quran|34|14-16}}|And when We decreed for Solomon death, nothing indicated to the jinn his death except a creature of the earth eating his staff. But when he fell, it became clear to the jinn that if they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in humiliating punishment.
Certainly, (there) was for Saba in their dwelling place a sign: Two gardens on (the) right and (on the) left. "Eat from (the) provision (of) your Lord and be grateful to Him. A land good and a Lord Oft-Forgiving."
But they turned away, so We sent upon them (the) flood (of) the dam, and We changed for them their two gardens (with) two gardens producing fruit bitter, and tamarisks and (some)thing of lote trees few.}}
, {{Quran|65|8-9}}, {{Quran|19|74-75}}
 
Add: 34:15–21: The punishment of the people of Sheba, without explicit reference to a messenger. Sheba reference <ref>Marshall, David. ''God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (p. 73).'' Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.</ref>
 
=== Surah 36 ===
Similarly an unnamed town is sent three messengers in {{Quran|36|13-32}}, who's identities have differed in traditional Islamic scholarship,<ref>E.g. see commentaries on [https://quranx.com/Tafsirs/36.13 Q36:13] & [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/36.14 Q36:14], and the later verses in the story, cited as a parable ''(mathal).''</ref> are rejected and so are killed with a cry/shout (''ṣayḥatan)'' ({{Quran|36|29}}). <ref>Marshall, David. ''God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (p. 63 & 72).'' Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.</ref>
{{Quote|Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (p. 72). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.|36:13–32: Described as a parable (mathal, v.13), but in outline very similar to the punishment-narratives. The messengers (two of them, reinforced with a third) and the town in which they preach are anonymous. ‘A man from the furthest part of the city’ (v.20) exhorts his people to follow the messengers.}}
 
== The Lote Tree of the utmost Boundary (Sid'rati al-Muntahā) ==
Lote tree's are a real type of tree (Ziziphus spina-christi) native to Arabia and the Middle East.<ref>[https://www.suewickison.com/products/lote-tree?srsltid=AfmBOorj_RU2x1OPxgfRe689M2TWw1g4uZTQLkpSolPGYnIatiIe7h6K Lote Tree | Sidr | Ziziphus spina-christi |] Plants of the Qur'an | Sue Wickison </ref> Different to the tree of eternity/immortality ''(shajarati ul-khul'di)'' in paradise ''jannah,'' the Qur'an mentions The Lote Tree (sidr) of ''the utmost boundary (al-muntahā)''<ref>مُنْتَهَىٰ - [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_3029.pdf Lane's Lexicon pp.3029]
 
</ref> near (but notably not in) the 'garden of abode', said to be 'covered' yaghshā by something unspecified in Q53:16, typically taken by exegetes to mean by angels, light and/or golden animals.<ref>E.g. see [https://quranx.com/Tafsirs/53.16 Tafsirs on Q53:16]</ref>
 
{{Quote|{{Quran|53|13-17}}|And certainly he saw him (in) descent another,
Near (the) Lote Tree (of) the utmost boundary,
Near it (is the) Garden (of) Abode.
when there covered the Lote Tree what covered it.
Not swerved the sight and not it transgressed.}}
 
This furthest boundary/limit is said in the hadith, to place the cosmic tree in the sixth heaven, where even celestial creatures cannot go beyond as the limit of creation; said to be seen by Muhammad in his Night Journey (mi’rāj) on the [[:en:Buraq|Buraq]] (E.g. {{Muslim|1|329}}, {{Al Tirmidhi|2=5|3=44|4=3276}}, {{Bukhari|5|58|227}} & {{Al Nasai|2=1|3=5|4=452}}), and by many Islamic exegetes.<ref>See [https://quranx.com/tafsirs/53.14 tafsirs on Q53:14]</ref>
 
This would align the cosmology of Islamic traditions supporting the idea that paradise (and therefore the garden of the abode) is in the seventh heaven,<ref>[https://islamqa.info/en/answers/215011/where-are-paradise-and-hell#Where_is_Paradise Where is Paradise] | [https://islamqa.info/en/answers/215011/where-are-paradise-and-hell Where Are Paradise and Hell?] | 07/January/2015 islamqa</ref> while some traditions support the idea that paradise is above the seventh heaven,<ref>[https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/107126/the-location-of-paradise-now#:~:text=Paradise%20that%20Allaah%20promised%20for,are%20many%20texts%20proving%20this. The location of Paradise now] | Paradise and Hell | Belief in the Hereafter | Islamic Creed | Fatwa | islamweb.net </ref> both placing the tree relatively close to jannah. However others suggest that this specific ''garden of the abode (jannatu l-mawā)'' is a separate garden/paradise to the eternal one all righteous Muslims will eventually enter, being instead one where martyrs (those killed in war or for their religion) go before judgement day.<ref>E.g. see [https://quranx.com/Tafsirs/53.15 tafsirs on Q53:15]</ref>
 
Either way there is no evidence of a celestial tree, which must be magic to survive outside of an Earthly plant ecosystem, but is rather an example of tree mythology.
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(See also: <nowiki>https://sunnah.com/mishkat:5865</nowiki> & https://sunnah.com/mishkat:5640,  ) read; https://quranx.com/tafsirs/53.14 - exegetes also confirm this is where boundary is the boundary of the skies/heavens where things other than God cannot pass (at least until judgement day where paradise and hell can be entered). 
AND Similarly seen next to the 4 main Near-East rivers (Nile, Euphratesm Tigres,) <nowiki>https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5610</nowiki>, which area said to flow from paradise: <nowiki>https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-5/Book-58/Hadith-227/</nowiki> )
cite: [https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/107126/the-location-of-paradise-now#:~:text=Paradise%20that%20Allaah%20promised%20for,are%20many%20texts%20proving%20this. https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/107126/the-location-of-paradise-now#:~:text=Paradise%20that%20Allaah%20promised%20for,are%20many%20texts%20proving%20this.]
The utmost boundary at the end of t heavens confirmed by exegetes in https://quranx.com/tafsirs/53.14
" Jannat al-ma'va' literally means "the Jannat (Garden) that is to be an abode. " Hadrat Hasan Basri says that this is the same Jannat which the believers and righteous will be given in the Hereafter, and from this same verse he has argued that that Jannat is in the heavens. Qatadah says that this is the Jannat in which the souls of the martyrs are kept; it does not imply the Jannat that is to be given in the Hereafter. Ibn 'Abbas also says the same but adds that the Jannat to be granted to the believers in the Hereafter is not in the heavens but here on the earth.
== Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature - Part 2 ==
Following on from [[Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature|Part 1]], this is Part 2 of Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature found in the Qur'an. This material, drawing heavily on rabbinical commentaries on the bible, and late Syriac Christian thought found in homilies, was created far later than the biblical cannon; no-where near the time of the events that occurred. This suggests the stories were transmitted in an oral millennia along with local Arabian traditions<ref>Bannister, Andrew G.. ''An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur'an (Kindle Location 249-259 in Chapter 1.2 The Biblicist Roots of the Iblis and Adam Story).'' Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
..When the Qur’an emerged in the seventh-century, it did so in an oral culture in which Biblicist traditions were freely circulating and thus there existed a large pool of commonly known stories and traditions to fish from; a pool in which stories could cross-fertilize and influence one another. <sup>23</sup> It is this, more than direct borrowing that perhaps best explains stories like Iblis and Adam as well as other qur’anic tellings of older tales, such as the Seven Sleepers (Q. 18: 9– 25) <sup>24</sup> and the Legend of Alexander (Dhu al-Qarnayn, Q. 18: 83– 101). <sup>25</sup> The Qur’an originates from a milieu in which Biblicist material was well-known to the first audience of the Qur’an; even a simple allusion to a story was often enough to trigger a connection for the hearer. <sup>26</sup> That Biblicist material has been filtered through storytelling rather than simply copied from a written text is further suggested by what the Qur’an leaves out; no minor prophets are referenced, probably because almost no Old Testament narratives feature them nor did the rabbinic literature weave lengthy tales about them. <sup>27</sup> The exception which proves the rule is Jonah (Q. 21: 87– 88; 37: 139– 148; 68: 48– 50), whose short but dramatic story was extremely popular in both Jewish and Christian contexts.<sup>28</sup>..
And: Bannister, Andrew G.. ''An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur'an (Kindle Locations 1391-1392. Chapter 2.3 The Islamic Tradition and Orality).'' Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.</ref> where biblical and much later Jewish and Christian stories could be commonly mixed without the new community realizing.
== The story of Noah ==
The prophet Noah is portrayed extremely differently to the one in Genesis,<ref>Segovia, Carlos A.. ''[https://almuslih.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Segovia-C-The-Quranic-Noah-and-the-Making-of-the-Islamic-Prophet.pdf The Quranic Noah and the Making of the Islamic Prophet: A Study of Intertextuality and Religious Identity Formation in Late Antiquity]'', Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, 2015. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110405897</nowiki></ref> taking on Jewish and Christian traditions, characteristics, as well as terms from late antique Judeo-Christian writings,<ref>The Qur'anic Noah. pp.21-21</ref> molded to suit Muhammad's situation in line with other messengers in the Qur'an.<ref>''The Qurʾan and its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion. Chapter 5.3 Messenger Uniformatism. pp.135-143'' By Mark Durie. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018. </ref>
=== The preaching of Noah ===
Surah 71 consists entirely of the preaching of Noah and his supplications to Allah.{{Quote|{{Quran-range|71|1|28}}|Indeed, We sent Noah to his people, [saying], "Warn your people before there comes to them a painful punishment." He said, "O my people, indeed I am to you a clear warner, [Saying], 'Worship Allah, fear Him and obey me. Allah will forgive you of your sins and delay you for a specified term. Indeed, the time [set by] Allah, when it comes, will not be delayed, if you only knew.' "<BR />
[...]
And Noah said, "My Lord, do not leave upon the earth from among the disbelievers an inhabitant. Indeed, if You leave them, they will mislead Your servants and not beget except [every] wicked one and [confirmed] disbeliever. My Lord, forgive me and my parents and whoever enters my house a believer and the believing men and believing women. And do not increase the wrongdoers except in destruction."}}Reynolds remarks that "The Qur'ānic character of Noah is quite unlike that of the Noah in Genesis, who does not speak a word until after the flood." Citing the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a, he observes that "[his preaching] is also suggested by a passage in the Talmud:
::"The righteous Noah rebuked them, urging, 'Repent; for if not, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring a deluge upon you and cause your bodies to float upon the water like gourds, as it is written, He is light [i.e., floats] upon the waters. Moreover, ye shall be taken as a curse for all future generations.' (b. Sanhedrin 108a)"
Reynolds further notes, "It is also prominent in the Syriac fathers, several of whom report that Noah preached to his people for a hundred years before God finally sent the flood." citing for example the Syriac authors Narsai, "On the Flood", 33, II. 227-30 and Jacob of Serugh, ''Homilies contre les juifs'', 70, homily 2, II. 37-40.<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, ''The Qurʾān and Bible'' p. 858</ref>


The opponents reject Noah's preaching despite him doing so 'day and night' (Quran 71:5-6) in which they respond by putting their fingers in their ears Quran 71:7, on which Neuwirth (2024) notes that "the means of plugging one’s ears in order to shut oneself off from unpleasant news is also encountered in the Talmud (bKetubbot 5a)."<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, ''Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 280).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>


{{Quran|9|26}} (angels you can't see help)
=== Noah's disbelieving wife ===
{{Quote|{{Quran|66|10}}|Allah presents an example of those who disbelieved: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under two of Our righteous servants but betrayed them, so those prophets did not avail them from Allah at all, and it was said, "Enter the Fire with those who enter."}}The Bible briefly mentions Noah's wife in one verse without further comment ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%207%3A7&version=NIV Genesis 7:7]), "And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." Regarding the Quranic verse which speaks of her negatively, Reynolds briefly considers the possibility that the Quran has extended to their wives the parallelism between Noah (though not his wife) and Lot found in the New Testament ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Peter%202&version=NIV 2 Peter 2]), but then comments, "However, it is important to note that already in the pre-Islamic period certain groups had developed hostile legends about Noah's wife." He cites Epiphanius (d. 403 CE), ''Panarion'' 2:26, which relates the Gnostic belief that she was not allowed onto the ark, having burned it down three times before the flood.<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, ''The Qurʾān and Bible'' p. 841</ref>


“You did not kill them, but God killed them, and you didn’t shoot the arrows when you shot, but God shot them.”  {{Quran|8|17}}
=== Noah's flood waters overflowed from an oven ===
The Qur'anic version of the Noah's flood story describes the flood waters as overflowing from an oven. This element is not found even in more ancient versions of the story (Epic of Gilgamesh, Atra hasis, and Ziusudra).


“Allah had helped you at Badr, when ye were a contemptible little force; then fear Allah, that you may show your gratitude. Remember, you said to the Faithful, ‘Is it not enough for you that Allah should help you with three thousand angels, sent down?’ Nay, but if you remain firm, and act aright, even if the enemy should rush here on you suddenly, your Lord would help you with five thousand angels, making a terrific onslaught. Allah made it but a message of hope for you, and an assurance to your hearts. There is no help except from Allah. The Exalted, the Wise.” (3: 123-126)
Note that in his translation, Yusuf Ali mistranslates the Aramaic loan word for the oven (alttannooru ٱلتَّنُّورُ)<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000355.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 318 تَّنُّورُ]</ref> as "fountains". The Arabic verb translated "gushed forth" (fara فَارَ) means overflowed or boiled in the context of water in a cooking pot<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000241.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 2457 فور]</ref>, as well as in the other verse where it is used, {{Quran|67|7}}. Here is Pickthall's more accurate translation:{{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|
* Simialr to pre-sialmic potery (sinai citation) wind is described as being sent by God, rather than scientific process off https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/wind/ predictability.
(Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass '''and the oven gushed forth water''', We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|23|27}}|
* And bring down rain? ''Rain-Giver, Bone-Breaker, Score-Settler: Allāh in Pre-Quranic Poetry,'' New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society, 2019. Essay 15. Nicolai Sinai. (https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:977914cb-d783-4949-aed4-f0b6c2eaa562/files/m34f1a166246ec073a79d42ea09d9cc1a)
Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration. Then, when Our command cometh '''and the oven gusheth water''', introduce therein of every (kind) two spouses, and thy household save him thereof against whom the Word hath already gone forth. And plead not with Me on behalf of those who have done wrong. Lo! they will be drowned.}}At one time academic scholars thought this verse alluded to a Midrashic exegesis in which the flood waters were boiling hot (b. Sanhedrin 108b, [https://www.sefaria.org/Rosh_Hashanah.12a.4?lang=bi|Tracate Rosh Hashanah 12a:4]). More recent scholarship, particularly by Olivier Mongellaz in 2024,<ref name="Mongellaz2024">Olivier Mongellaz (2024) [https://brill.com/view/journals/arab/71/4-5/article-p513_4.xml Le four de Noé : un cas d’intertextualité coranique], Arabica 71(4-5), 513-637. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-20246900</ref> has identified that these verses most likely reflect a late antique legend in which water gushing up through a bread oven (a large hole dug into the ground) was a sign warning Noah's family of the imminent flood. The interpretation as Noah's own oven is attributed to a number of early commentators (such as Ibn Abbas, Mujahid), while others understood it to be the area of land where the flood waters first rose. Qurtubi said: "The sayings of commentators appear to be different as to the meaning of tannur, but this, in reality, is not a difference. When water began to bulge out, it overflowed from the bread baking oven, and from out of the surface of the land".
(It is) God who sends the winds, and it stirs up a cloud, and We drive it to some barren land, and by means of it give the earth life after its death. So (too) is the raising up. (Q 35:9)


'''d'''
Significantly, Mongellaz has argued on literary grounds that a fragmentary Arabic text falsely attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, and which mentions the overflowing bread oven story, is independent of the Islamic tradition and was originally written in a very specific environment which has parallels with the context in which certain parts of the Quran were written.{{Quote|Pseudo. Hippolytus of Rome (translated to English from Mongellaz's French translation)<ref name="Mongellaz2024" />|Meanwhile, Ham's wife stood up to take out the bread that remained in the oven and immediately water sprang out of the oven [fāḍa l-māʾmin al-tannūr] and immediately water came out of the oven, as the Lord had said: "The fountains of the great deeps were opened." Ham's wife called to Noah, saying, "My lord, the word of God has come true (Syr. what God promised has come true!)" - for it had come true just as the Lord had promised her. When Noah heard Ham's wife's words, he said to her, "Oh, the flood has come."}}
* ships that drown
* Birds held up by God & parallel
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=== Inanimate objects and animals worship God ===
=== Noah's ark left behind as a sign ===
Inanimate objects that do not have a consciousness capable of worshipping anything. (pre-Islamic parallel)? - ask academic
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|54|13|15}}|And We carried him on a [construction of] planks and nails, Sailing under Our observation as reward for he who had been denied. And We left it as a sign, so is there any who will remember?}}Unlike the bible, which does not mention the ark as a sign for future generations, Neuwirth (2024) notes the salvation of Noah is made physically plausible to the listeners through the reference to the material verifiability of the ark, which could be taken from various late antique traditions, for example Flavius Josephus (b. 37AD) reports in the ''Jewish Antiquities (I 3.5 § 92)'' of the existence of the remains of Noah’s ark in Armenia (Clementz 1959: 22).<ref name=":0">Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 62).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> She also notes that the appeal to the willingness of the listeners to be admonished by the sign (āya) of Noah’s ark is also reminiscent of the Talmudic story (bSanhedrin 96a) of the death of Sennacherib, who was led to a fateful decision by seeing the remains of Noah’s ark.<ref name=":0" />
==Moses and Pharaoh==
Alongside the biblical account of Moses and the Pharoah, there are some key aspects that match Jewish Rabbinic and Christian non-biblical traditions. Even the place where Moses communicates with God in the story of the burning bush, the word used ''ṭuwan'' in e.g. {{Quran|20|12}} (for the folded land, implying double the holiness)<ref>See; Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 199).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. Ṭuwā stands for the holy Mount Sinai or Horeb (cf. KU, 124ff.; FVQ, 206ff.; BEQ, 255ff.). The word was long thought to be a rhyming transformation of Aramaic ṭūrā (“the mountain”), but now, based on rabbinic tradition and in agreement with traditional exegetes, Uri Rubin has convincingly interpreted bi-l-wādī l-muqaddasi Ṭuwā to mean “in the doubly hallowed valley” (see Rubin 2014). (The Sinai is in a sense the “folded Holy Land” [ṬWY = “to fold”].) Citing: Rubin, Uri, 2014, ''[https://urirubin.com/assets/docs/Tuwan.86132451.pdf Moses and the Holy Valley Ṭuwan. On the Biblical and Midrashic Background of a Qurʾanic Scene],'' Journal of Near Eastern Studies 73, 73–81.</ref> does not have a parallel in the bible,<ref>''[https://urirubin.com/assets/docs/Tuwan.86132451.pdf Moses and the Holy Valley Ṭuwan: On the biblical and midrashic background of a qurʾānic scene.]'' Rubin 2014. Ibid. pp. 75.</ref> but does in other Judeo-Christian (later) works.<ref>Ibid. pp. 76-78</ref> And the idea of eschatology in Moses's story such as {{Quran|20|15}}, with reward in the afterlife being mentioned, is not contained in the biblical story of Moses, Neuwirth (2024) notes moves the story into a late antiquity interpretation.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 199).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Key details in the stories include:
===The prophecy of baby Moses===
Alongside the scene of [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%201%3A8-2%3A10&version=NIV Exodus 1:8-2:10] where the Hebrews in Egyptian bondage are told to kill all male babies to control the growing Israelite population, where Moses's mother places his basket in the Nile to escape; Neuwirth (2024) citing Speyer, notes that ''the prophecy to Moses’s mother that an enemy—of Moses as well as of God himself—would take him in reflects a Midrashic interpretation of Exodus Rabba (1:31: “So the daughter of Pharaoh raised the daughter, who was once to take revenge on her father”). The event is explicitly based on a divine intention, namely, to make Moses his chosen one.''<ref>''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect'' Ibid. pp. 201.</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran-range|20|37|39}}|We have bestowed Our favour on you before this, When We told your mother what We relate: 'Put him in a wooden box and cast it in the river. The river will cast it on the bank. An enemy of Ours, and his, will retrieve it.' We bestowed Our love on you that you may be reared under Our eyes.}}And similarly the next verse unlike the bible focuses on the emotional impact of the event on Moses’s mother, Neuwirth notes is comparable to Midrash Exodus Rabba 1:25.<ref>Ibid. pp. 201-202.</ref> Moses's salvation from persecution after manslaughter is commemorated with similar consideration of Moses’s mental condition.<ref>Ibid. pp. 202.</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|20|40}}|When your sister walked up [to Pharaoh’s palace] saying, “Shall I show you someone who will take care of him?” Then We restored you to your mother, that she might not grieve and be comforted. Then you slew a soul, whereupon We delivered you from anguish, and We tried you with various ordeals. Then you stayed for several years among the people of Midian. Then you turned up as ordained, O Moses!}}
===Moses not suckled by Egyptians===
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|28|12|13}}|And We had prevented from him [all] wet nurses before, so she said, "Shall I direct you to a household that will be responsible for him for you while they are to him [for his upbringing] sincere?" So We restored him to his mother that she might be content and not grieve and that she would know that the promise of Allah is true. But most of the people do not know.}}Reynolds comments, "On this passage cf. Exodus 2:7-9. The Qurʾān's declaration (v. 12) 'We had forbidden him to be suckled by any nurse' (v. 12) reflects a tradition in the Babylonian Talmud that Moses (from whose mouth would come forth the word of God) refused the impure breasts of the Egyptian women:
::Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women? Why just 'of the Hebrew women'? - It teaches that they handed about to all the Egyptian women but he would not suck. He said: Shall a mouth which will speak with [God] suck what is unclean! (b. Sotah 12b)"<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, ''The Qurʾān and Bible'' p. 598</ref>
===Moses's speech impediment===
Moses has some kind of speech impediment when going to speak to Pharaoh in the Qurʾān.{{Quote|{{Quran-range|20|24|28}}|"Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed."( Moses) said: "O, my Lord! Expand me my breast,” ease my task for me, <b>And untie the knot from my tongue,</b> so they may understand what I say.”}}Biblical Scholar James Kugel (1997)<ref>Kugel, James L.. The Bible As It Was (Kindle Edition. pp. 432-433). Harvard University Press.</ref> notes that later Jewish and Christian commentators found it necessary to explain Moses's statement in the Old Testament “''Oh my Lord, I am not a man of words … but I am heavy of speech and heavy of tongue''” ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%204%3A10&version=NIV Exodus 4:10]), as he was believed to be a highly educated man who had been supposedly been schooled in every branch of wisdom, including eloquence.


{{Quote|{{Quran|13|13}}|<b>The Thunder celebrates His praise,</b> and the angels [too], in awe of Him, and He releases the thunderbolts and strikes with them whomever He wishes. Yet they dispute concerning Allah, though He is great in might.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|22|18}}|Have you not regarded that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth prostrates to Allah, as well as the sun, the moon, and the stars, the mountains, the trees, and the animals and many humans? And many have come to deserve the punishment. Whomever Allah humiliates will find no one who may bring him honour. Indeed Allah does whatever He wishes.}}
He notes  "it occurred to interpreters that Moses might have been referring here not to any lacuna in his education, but to an actual speech defect, some physical deformity of his mouth or tongue that prevented him from speaking in the usual fashion." We see this in:<ref>Ibid. pp. 432 - 433 (Kindle Edition)</ref>


Even their shadows do somehow.
"''I'' ''am not by nature eloquent; my tongue with difficulty speaks, I stammer, so that I cannot speak before the king."'' —Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exaggē 113– 115 (3rd-2nd century BCE)


{{Quote|{{Quran|13|15}}|To Allah prostrates whoever there is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and their shadows at sunrise and sunset.}}Everything in the cosmos (presumably covering the vast amounts of near-empty space and elements) worships and prostrated before him, as does every animal and angel, all allegedly fearing God ({{Quran|16|49-50}} {{Quran|22|18}}), including the birds, which do so while flying ({{Quran|24|41}}), and trees ({{Quran|55|6}}).
''He [Moses] pleased his parents by his beauty, but grieved them by his speech impediment. —''Ephraem, Commentary on Exodus 2: 4 (d. 373 AD)


The Qur'an states that lighting is a sign shown by god for fear (''khawfan'') and hope (''waṭamaʿan),'' however now we know that lightening is simply an electrical phenonoma caused by negative and positive charges in clouds or between the cloud and the ground build up and suddenly discharge, creating a bright flash,<ref name=":0" /> (i.e. explained by science), it is difficult to see why it would give people hope.
Others even added stories on how he might have acquired that deformity, such as Josephus in Jewish Antiquities 2: 232– 236 (published ~93/94 AD), connecting their explanation of Moses’ speech problems to the tradition of Pharaoh’s wise men and their warnings about a boy that might grow up and save Israel.<ref>Ibid. pp. 433 - 434 (Kindle Edition)</ref>
{{Quote|{{Quran|30|24}}|And among His Signs, He shows you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope, and He sends down rain from the sky and with it gives life to the earth after it is dead}}
===Pharaohs questions===
Neuwirth (2024) comments that the list of further detailed questions to Moses in Surah 26 'The Poets' / al-shuʿarāʾ (i.e. in {{Quran-range|26|22|29}}), citing Speyer, reflect a more detailed episode from Midrash Exodus Rabba 5:18, which also starts from Pharaoh’s self-praise as God.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 250).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>
===The Drowning of Pharaoh===
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|10|90|92}}|And We took the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his soldiers pursued them in tyranny and enmity until, when drowning overtook him, he said, "I believe that there is no deity except that in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of the Muslims." Now? And you had disobeyed [Him] before and were of the corrupters? So today We will save you in body that you may be to those who succeed you a sign. And indeed, many among the people, of Our signs, are heedless}}Reynolds comments, "The question of Pharaoh's survival appears in an opinion found in the (late fourth century AD) ''Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael'' (cr. Gavin McDowell):
::"And the waters returned and covered the chariot etc. [Exo 14:27]. Even Pharaoh, according to the words of R. Judah, as it is said, 'The chariots of Pharaoh and his force, etc.' [Exo 15:4]. R. Nehimiah says: ''Except for Pharaoh.'' About him it says, 'However, for this purpose I have let you live' [Exo 9:16]. Others say that in the end Pharaoh went down and drowned, as it is said, 'Then went the horse of Pharaoh, etc.' [Exo 15:19]. (Beshallah 7)"<ref>Gabriel Said Reynolds, ''The Qurʾān and Bible'' p. 339</ref>
==Arguments for resurrection==
Reynolds (2020) notes the repeated argument that God can resurrect the dead using the analogy that he can bring life back to barren (or dead) land may be connected to  a Jewish tradition that God will resurrect the dead with dew, for example, in b. Shabbat 88b.<ref name=":2" />
{{Quote|{{Quran|30|19}}|He brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living, and revives the earth after its death. Likewise, you [too] shall be raised [from the dead].}}


==== Inanimate objects refused the task of being Gods followers, but humans accepted. ====
Cf: {{Quran|16|65}}, {{Quran|43|11}}, {{Quran|50|6-11}}, {{Quran|57|17}}
It is hard to know what was meant by this or why Allah would offer an inanimate object with no biology for consciousness (unless you think they're magic pegs in the Earth) that he already knew couldn't answer the task, nor how they refused it. (look at tafsirs (some such as al-Jalalayn say they could speak at that time: https://quranx.com/tafsirs/33.72, Ibn Kathir doesn't mention that but took it literally).
==Late antique Christian Martyrdom==
{{Main|Shaheed (Martyr)}}
Durie (2018) notes the violence of the Qur'an shares more commonality with contemporary late antique religious (primarily Christian) violence and warfare rather than being directly biblically based.<ref>Durie, Mark. ''The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion.'' Lexington Books. 2018. Pp. 229 -237.  (Kindle Edition: pp. 423-439).  6.9 Stories of Fighting Prophets</ref>


it is hard to see why humans would accept this task with the risk of hell being involved, given our natural propensity for risk aversion.<ref>Kahneman, Daniel, and Amos Tversky. “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.” ''Econometrica'', vol. 47, no. 2, 1979, pp. 263–91. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.2307/1914185</nowiki>. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.
=== Textual overlap ===


See also: Kahneman, D. (2011). ''Thinking, fast and slow.'' ''Chapter 26: Prospect Theory.''</ref>
Covering the continuity and similarities between late antique religious violence & warfare and the Qur'an (and other Islamic traditions) is too big a topic to cover here; perhaps the most in-depth academic work looking at the continuity between this and Islam is Thomas Sizgorich's ''Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity: Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam'', however Sinai (2017) notes alongside similar ideas and theology, there are some direct textual references.{{Quote|Sinai, Nicolai. Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (pp. 301-302). Edinburgh University Press. Kindle Edition.|That the Qur’anic community’s access to Biblical notions of militancy was mediated by late antique Christian discourse is indicated by an intriguing intertextual overlap. According to Q 3: 169–170, those who have been ‘killed in the path of God’ are not dead but ‘alive with their Lord’, rather than having to spend the remaining time until the Resurrection in a state of slumber (similarly Q 2: 154).<sup>39</sup><b> Tor Andrae has pointed out that the phrase ‘alive with their Lord’ (ayāun inda rabbihim) corresponds exactly to the Syriac phrase h. ayyē lwāth alāhā, which a sixth-century Syriac Christian writer (Mar Ishay) applies to the martyrs.</b><sup>40</sup> Furthermore, Mar Ishay contrasts the true fate of the martyrs with unfounded prior opinion: ‘they are believed to be already dead’.<sup>41</sup> The same contrast is found in the two Qur’anic passages just cited.<sup>42</sup> It could be objected that the parallel demonstrates merely that the Qur’an is familiar with the widespread Christian idea that martyrs are granted prompt access to paradise but that this does not establish a Christian precedent for the Qur’anic application of this idea specifically to those who actively enact – rather than just suffer – violence. However, as Sizgorich reminds us, a Christian martyr was by no means seen merely as a passive victim of persecution but rather as someone who actively ‘defeats the power of the Roman state’.<sup>43</sup>}}{{Quote|{{Quran|3|169}}|And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision}}{{Quote|{{Quran|2|154}}|Do not say that those who are killed in the way of God, are dead, for indeed they are alive, even though you are not aware.}}


Tafsirs often say this applied to Adam - unsure why it would therefore apply to everyone?
=== Martyrs sidestep judgement day ===
{{Quote|{{Quran|33|72}}|Indeed We presented the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to undertake it and were apprehensive of it; but man undertook it. Indeed he is most unjust and ignorant.}}
After death, humans are typically said to spend their time in an intermediate state known to traditional Islamic scholars as the ''barzakh'' while they wait.<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said. 2020. ''Allah:'' ''God in the Qur'an (p. 71-72).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.


=== Allah speaks to the heavens/skies and the earth and they respond ===
It is also the same term used for the barrier between the living and the dead (whilst awaiting judgement day) in the Qur'an, e.g. {{Quran|23|99-100}}</ref> However, as in the above verses, one exception to this rule is Martyrs being with God straight away rather than being judged at judgment day, a non-biblical idea having parallels with late antique Christian thought.
{{Quote|{{Quran|41|11}}|Then He turned towards the heaven when it was smoke, saying to it and to the earth, ‘Submit, willingly or unwillingly.’ They both responded, ‘We submit willingly.’"}}


*
Sinai (2017) similarly notes strong ideological parallels a 6th century hagiographical text (the Panegyric on Macarius, Bishop of Tkow by Pseudo-Dioscorus of Alexandria) of a 5th-century martyr, Egyptian Bishop Macarius of Tkow who was martyred for opposing the council of Chalcedon. Citing Michael Gaddis's summary of the document, ‘He was both willing to die for his faith, and willing to kill for it.’ he notes the same idea in {{Quran|9|111}} … they fight in the way of Allah, kill, and are killed.. <ref>Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 299).</ref>  As well as citing English historian of the Byzantine Empire James Howard-Johnston "''..James Howard-Johnston draws attention to a passage in the Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor (d. 818), which reports that at about the same time when the Qur’an promised those ‘killed in the path of God’ immediate entry to paradise, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius similarly announced that those fighting the Sasanians would be recompensed with eternal life. In Heraclius’s address as reported by Theophanes Confessor, we find some of the same general ingredients that are noticeable in Qur’anic calls to militancy…''"<ref>Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 301).</ref> He notes these similarities are likely caused by being on the fringes of the Roman empire.<ref>Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 301).</ref>
* Inanimate objects worship god: All created things naturally    adore God {{Quran|13|13}} (Q 13:13: “the thunder adores by praising him”). See {{Quran|22|18}} "Have you not regarded that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth prostrates to Allah, as well as the sun, the moon, and the     stars, the mountains, the trees, and the animals and many humans?."
* Moreover, all the creatures  in heaven or on earth, as a sign of their devotion to the creator, perform    this act directly or by means of their shadows (Q 7:206; 13:15; 16:4.8-9;    22:18; 55:6). {{Quran|7|206}}, {{Quran|13|15}} (shadows inc), {{Quran|16|4-9}} (check),
* Wind by allah - pre-Islamic allah poetry parallel in Sinai paper?
* Mountains and earth couldn't    deal with task of being human? Worshipping or something they were asked? {{Quran|33|72}}
* he animals (every dabba, Q    16:49; 22:18) {{Quran|16|49}} {{Quran|22|18}}worship God by prostrating themselves, including the birds,    which do so while flying (Q 24:41). {{Quran|24|41}}
*
==== Not random cause and effect; ====
{{Main|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Predestination}}


'''Battles above'''“They have taken gods other than He, in order that they be given victory, but they are not able to give them victory.” (36: 74-75) {{Quran|36|74-75}} - also loses battles to
==== Martyrdom wipes away other sins and is privileged above other acts from believers ====
{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (pp. 178-179). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|The teaching on the glory earned by martyrs is widespread in the early church. It is nevertheless telling to find the way it is emphasized in the third-century Christian text the aforementioned Didascalia Apostolorum, originally written in Greek but preserved in Syriac.<sup>87</sup> The Didascalia clearly teaches that the martyrs will have a privilege above other faithful believers: If then He raises up all men,—as He said by Isaiah: All flesh shall see the salvation of God [Isa 40.5; 52.10],—much more will He quicken and raise up the faithful; and (yet more) again will He quicken and raise up the faithful of the faithful, who are the martyrs, and establish them in great glory and make them His counsellors. For to mere disciples, those who believe in Him, He has promised a glory as of the stars [Dan 12.3]; but to the martyrs He has promised to give an everlasting glory, as of the luminaries which fail not, with more abundant light, that they may be shining for all time.<sup>88</sup>


Similarly: “Why did those whom they had chosen for gods as a way of approach (unto God) not help them? Nay, but they did fail them utterly. And that was their lie, and what they used to invent.” (46: 28)
The Didascalia is also clear, as is the Qur’an, that martyrs enjoy a special grace through the forgiveness of sins that their deaths have earned for them: But again, sins are forgiven by baptism also to those who from the Gentiles draw near and enter the holy Church of God. Let us inquire also, to whom sins are not imputed. To such as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs, as also to the martyrs. Let us hear then, brethren, for the Scripture saith: Who shall boast himself and say: I am clear of sins? Or who shall be confident and say: I am innocent? [Prov 20.9].


Bestows favours: “And whatever favour is (bestowed) on you it is from God.” (16: 53) {{Quran|16|53}}
And again: There is no man pure of defilement: not though his life be but one day [Job 14.4–5 LXX]. To everyone therefore who believes and is baptized his … former sins have been forgiven; but after baptism also, provided that he has not sinned a deadly sin nor been an accomplice (thereto), but has heard only, or seen, or spoken, and is thus guilty of sin. But if a man go forth from the world by martyrdom for the name of the Lord, blessed is he; <i>for brethren who by martyrdom have gone forth from this world, of these the sins are covered.</i><sup>89</sup>


Regulates all affaris: “He regulates affairs from the heaven to the earth.” (32: 5) {{Quran|32|5}}
We might compare Q 3:195: “ ‘And those who emigrated, and were expelled from their habitations, those who suffered hurt in My way, and fought, and were slain—<i>them I shall surely acquit of their evil deeds,</i> and I shall admit them to gardens underneath which rivers flow.’ A reward from God! And God with Him is the fairest reward” (italics added). In other words, the Qur’an seems to be well aware of Christian devotion to the martyrs.}}


“Say: the angel of death, who is given charge of you, shall cause you to die.” (32: 11) {{Quran|32|11}}
=== Martyrdom in the Torah and Gospels ===
Muslims who fight are promised paradise, which the Qur'an claims is also a promise in the Torah and Gospel.{{Quote|{{Quran|9|111}}|Indeed Allah has bought from the faithful their souls and their possessions for paradise to be theirs: they fight in the way of Allah, kill, and are killed. A promise binding upon Him in the Torah and the Evangel and the Quran. And who is truer to his promise than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him, and that is the great success.}}Nickel (2020)<ref>Nickel, Gordon D. ''The Quran with Christian Commentary: A Guide to Understanding the Scripture of Islam (p. 222).'' Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition. 9.111 – They fight in the way of God, and they kill and are killed When the Quran describes believers as fighting “in the way of Allah,” it makes a theological claim by associating Allah with human fighting. See the analysis of these expressions at 73.20 (p. 597). 9.111 – a promise binding on Him in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Qur’ān This is the only verse in the Quran that brings the Torah (tawrāt), Gospel (injīl), and qur’ān (lit. “recitation”) together. The Quran claims here that the particular point on which the Torah and Gospel agree with the Muslim recitation is that believers “fight in the way of Allah, and they kill and are killed.” This verse makes the reader question whether the Quran has a clear idea of the contents of the Torah and Gospel. A similar question is raised by 61.14, which appears to say that ‘Īsā and his disciples fought against their enemies (cf. 3.52). Along with these misunderstandings, the Quran gives no information about the peaceable teaching and example of Jesus in the Gospel accounts. See the analysis of the Quran’s verses on the “Gospel” at 57.27 (p. 549). Do the Torah and Gospel in fact contain such a promise? See the comment on this characterization of the Bible at 61.14 (p. 566).</ref> and Reynolds (2018) however notes that this is not found there:{{Quote|1=Reynolds, G. S. (2018). <i>The Qur'an and the Bible: Text and Commentary. Commentary on 9:111 (pp. 322)</i> United Kingdom: Yale University Press.|2="9:111 The point of this verse is that those who are prepared to give their lives to God in the holy war are promised paradise as a payment for their services (cf. 2:245; 4:74; 61:10–12). The idea that the martyrs have a special assurance of paradise follows from the Qurʾān’s teaching elsewhere that the act of martyrdom involves forgiveness of sin. <b>This teaching is close to that of the Syriac fathers (see commentary on 2:154, with further references). It is curious that the Qurʾān insists that the promise of heaven for holy warriors is found in the Torah and the Gospel (or “Evangel”); heaven is not found in the Torah and holy war is not found in the Gospels...</b>}}While his commentary on 2:154 (pp. 76) once again highlights the Syriac parallel:{{Quote|2="As Tor Andrae has shown (Les origines de l’islam et le christianisme, 161ff.), the idea that martyrdom involves the absolution of sins is prominent in Syriac Christian texts such as the third-century Didascalia (chap. 20) and the Treaty on the Martyrs of Mar Isaï (d. late sixth cen.); the latter text also insists—much like the Qurʾān—that the martyrs are “living”:


“And His are the ships sailing smoothly through the seas, lofty as mountains.” (55: 24) “And, surely, We have honoured the children of Adam, and We carry them in the land and the sea.” (17: 70) “Your Lord is He Who speeds the ships for you in the sea that you may seek of His grace; surely He is ever Merciful to you.” (17: 66)
The true martyrs who, by way of a death that covers their sins, demonstrate even more the beauty of their deeds and receive this glorious inheritance by virtue of their blood. By leaving this life they have prepared for their souls an honorable abode in paradise. It was thought that they are already dead, but by their death they have killed their sin, and they are alive with God. (Mar Isaï, Treaty on the Martyrs, 32)}}
=== Further Martyrdom Influence ===
Neuwirth (2024) also notes the influence of Christian martyrdom stories on the sudden conversion and prayers/asking for forgiveness to God of Pharaoh's magician's, who are originally opponents of Moses until he shows them proof of his prophecy via a miracle in the face of a sudden and violent death as threatened by the arrogant ruler (e.g. in {{Quran-range|26|50|51}} and {{Quran-range|20|71|73}}).<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 204).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Both Jewish and Christian traditions present individual “anti-Moses” sorcerers named Jannes and Jambres, who continue to appear in later interpretations; citing Nora Schmid, she notes that, although there is no explicit textual reference and the magicians are typically depicted in a negative light, they came to be associated with penance and martyrdom in Christian tradition - in the Qurʾan, this idea is developed further: the forgiveness that Jannes and Jambres either did not receive or only partially received in earlier sources is ultimately granted.<ref>Ibid. pp. 251-252</ref>{{Quote|Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 204). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|V. 72–73 qālū lan nuʾthiraka ʿalā mā jāʾanā mina l-bayyināti wa-lladhī faṭaranā fa-qḍi mā anta qāḍin innamā taqḍī hādhihi l-ḥayāta l-dunyā / innā āmannā birabbinā li-yaghfira lanā khaṭāyānā wa-mā akrahtanā ʿalayhi mina l-siḥri wallāhu khayrun wa-abqā] Conversion scene as later in Q 26:50–51. The sorcerers renounce their allegiance to Pharaoh on the basis of the obvious evidence (bayyināt) and give preference to the Creator God, they submit to their worldly fate and hope for the forgiveness of their sins and what they have been forced to do by the ruler—they are a role model for the community, which is also subject to pressure from outside. The request for forgiveness of sins before a violent death is a topos of Christian martyr stories. The entire scene, leaving the context of ‘ancient’ Egypt, reflects the notion of Christian martyrdom stories. Khaṭāyā (singular khaṭīʾa) also lets a Syriac terminus technicus ring through, but the word can be derived from the Arabic root KhṬʿ (“to miss a goal”) (see FVQ, 123ff.). The idea of the forgiveness of sins is prominent in the Christian liturgy—not only through the Lord’s Prayer. In addition to khaṭīʾa, there is the genuine Arabic dhanb, dhunūb.}}


Makes female & male: scientific error? :makes barren “He creates whatever He wants and bestows female to whomever He wants and bestows male to whomever He wants. Or He mingles them, males and females, and He makes barren whom He pleases. Lo! He is Knower, Powerful.” (42: 49-50)
== Expansions on the afterlife ==
===== Punishes towns that aren't grateful to him in general =====
''“And Allah sets forth a parable: (Consider) a town safe and secure to which its means of subsistence come in abundance from every quarter; but it became ungrateful to Allah’s favors, therefore Allah made it to taste the utmost degree of hunger and fear because of what they wrought.” (16: 112)''
=== Anthropomorphisms of Allah ===
Non transcendent -
==== Hands, ====
{{Quote|{{Quran|38|75}}|He said, ‘O Iblis! What keeps you from prostrating before that which I have created with <b>My [own] two hands?</b> Are you arrogant, or are you one of the exalted ones?’}}
''in Q 38:75 God upbraids Iblīs for failing to “prostrate to what I have created with my hands,” bi-yadayya. As recognised by al-Ashʿarī (Gimaret 1990, 326), the point of God’s statement here is presumably to highlight a trait of Adam that endows him with peculiar dignity and elevates him over Iblīs—namely, the fact that God has formed Adam in a more intimate fashion than other creatures. Hence, although the Qur’anic God is perfectly capable of creating by verbal fiat, as maintained in places like Q 2:117 and 3:47 (when God “decides on [creating] something, he merely says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is,” idhā qaḍā amran fa-innamā yaqūlu lahu kun fa-yakūn), he can also create in what is literally a hands-on manner, by making use of his own limbs.106 In passing, one may note that the claim that humans were fashioned manually has pre-Qur’anic parallels that lend further support to taking it quite literally. According to Aphrahat, Adam alone was created by God’s own hands while everything else was created by God’s word (Demonstrations 13:11 = Parisot 1894, 563–566, identified in BEQ 46). The same idea is developed at length by Jacob of Sarug (Mathews 2020, 46–51, ll. 2157–2194): whereas all other creatures were brought into existence by a divine “signal” (remzā; cf. Decharneux 2019, 244–245), Adam was uniquely created by God’s hands (l. 2169)—an instance of divine self-abasement that prefigures the incarnation of Christ (ll. 2189–2194). The Cave of Treasures also reports that Adam was shaped by God’s “holy hands” (Ri 1987, ch. 2:12; see Zellentin 2017, 109).107''


Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (pp. 73-74). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
Reynolds (2020) notes the Qur’ans provides vivid depictions of hell are highly unlike the New Testament, where Jesus refers to afterlife punishment mostly allusively. The closest the Gospels describe hell is through the few images of “fire,” “wailing,” and “gnashing of teeth.”, for example in Matthew’s Parable of the Weeds, Jesus explains that at the end of the age, the Son of Man will send his angels that will cast evildoers into a fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 13:40–42).<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said. ''Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 81-82).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> He notes the much more constant an vivid Qur'anic descriptions far better match later Christian works that expanded the descriptions to be more gruesome, in order to scare the reader/audience.<ref>Ibid. pp. 88.
==== Eyes ====
fd


==== Ears ====
''We might note how all of these traditions are meant to make humans yearn for paradise and fear hell. The Qur’an, from this regard, is a profoundly psychological work. Like a Christian preacher, like John Chrysostom or Saint Ephrem, the author of the Qur’an speaks of heaven and hell to persuade his audience to repent and believe. He does so in a way, however, that is distinct—emphasizing physical pain and physical pleasure in order, apparently, to make a greater impression on his audience. He puts a terrible tree into hell and young women in paradise.''
sdf
</ref>{{Quote|Reynolds, Gabriel Said. <i>Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 82-83).</i> Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|The way that the Qur’an describes hell in particularly vivid, gruesome terms brings us back to something we mentioned in Chapter 1, namely, that the Qur’an in many ways is a “homiletic” work, a work written like a homily or sermon. The Qur’an’s intention is not simply to declare that those who disobey God will be punished, but to describe that punishment in a way which brings the awfulness of hell to life. Similarly, homilists in the early centuries of Christianity expanded dramatically on the New Testament allusions to hell. In a sermon attributed to John Chrysostom (d. 407) we read a description of hell with the sort of detail that we find in the Qur’an: It is a sea of fire—not a sea of the kind or dimensions we know here, but much larger and fiercer, with waves made of fire, fire of a strange and fearsome kind. There is a great abyss there, in fact, of terrible flames, and one can see fire rushing about on all sides like some wild animal…. There will be no one who can resist, no one who can escape: Christ’s gentle, peaceful face will be nowhere to be seen.<sup>15</sup>}}Sinai (2017) in his paper titled "''The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’an''" notes many overlap with Syriac Homilies on the afterlife as well as other apocalyptic ideas and terminology.<ref>“[https://almuslih.org/wp-content/uploads/Library/Sinai,%20N%20-%20The%20Eschatological%20Kerygma.pdf The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’an]”, Nicolai Sinai, in ''Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity: Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6th–8th Centuries'', edited by Hagit Amirav, Emmanouela Grypeou, and Guy Stroumsa, Leuven: Peeters, 2017, 219–266.


==== Throne carried ====
These are discussed throughout the whole paper, and a summary can be found in pp.50-57. On heaven and hell specifically, the summary is on pp.55-57.</ref>
As Sinai (2023) notes, these continue to him sitting on a throne, which angels will carry


[get cosmology verses here. 1 quote, others referenced]{{Quote|<i>allāh {{!}} God</i> Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 74). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.|Qur’an quite literally understands God to possess a countenance, sensory percipience, and limbs capable of touching, grasping, or imparting movement that the Islamic scripture employs various idioms and formulae involving these features. After all, there is no Qur’anic equivalent to Ephrem’s caveat that God only “put on the names of body parts”—i.e., speaks of himself in anthropomorphic and anthropopathic language—due to the weakness of human understanding (Beck 1955, no. 31:1–4). The Qur’anic God, therefore, is not merely a body but also, at least in some sense, an anthropomorphic body: he is endowed with a face, he is empirically receptive to worldly occurrences (rather than just knowing about them), and he can directly, with his own body, manipulate objects in the world. That the divine body has a fundamentally humanoid shape is further accentuated by the use of the verb istawā, “to stand up straight” or “to sit upright,” which is applied both to God, indicating the modality of his being located on the throne (Q 7:54, 10:3, 13:2, 20:5, 25:59, 32:4, 57:4),108 and to humans, who are described as “sitting upright” in a boat or on the back of a mount (Q 23:28, 43:13; see CDKA 142).}}
== Souls are taken away at night ==
==== Light - photons, ====
God is described as being made of light, essentially modern science tells us he is made of photons.<ref>[https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/what-is-a-photon?language_content_entity=und What is a photon?] Symmetry Magazine. Amanda Solliday and Kathryn Jepsen. 2021</ref>{{Quote|{{Quran|39|69}}|And (will) shine the earth with (the) light (of) its Lord and (will) be placed the Record and (will) be brought the Prophets and the witnesses, and it (will) be judged between them in truth, and they will not be wronged.}}
''Nonetheless, with regard to Q 39:69 it seems more likely that the verse speaks of literal light, given that the same context also mentions the blowing of the eschatological trumpet (v. 68) and the display of the celestial register of deeds in preparation for the judgement (v. 69). But if reference is to concrete light rather than to the metaphorical light of divine guidance, then it stands to reason that this is light emitted by God, who arrives in order to judge humans and other moral agents.''


The Qur'an (and traditional Islamic exegetes)<ref>See classical commentaries on these verses such as Al-Jalalayn on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/39.42 Q39:42], [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Jalal/6.60 Q6:60] and Ibn Kathir on [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/39.41 Q39:41-2] and [https://quranx.com/Tafsir/Kathir/6.60 Q6:60]</ref> state that the soul is taken away by Allah during the night.{{Quote|{{Quran|39|42}}|<b>Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those who have not died, in their sleep.</b> Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until a specified time. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.}}{{Quote|{{Quran|6|60}}|<b>It is He who takes your souls by night,</b> and He knows what you do by day, then He reanimates you therein so that a specified term may be completed. Then to Him will be your return, whereat He will inform you concerning what you used to do.}}Tesei (2016) notes this idea may mimic a late antique Syriac Christian parallel in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) mentions sleep resembles death, and other Christian writers (such as Babai) wrote about sleep metaphorically Jesus's death and waking up like the resurrection;<ref>Tesei, Tommaso. (2016). "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344524709_2_The_barzakh_and_the_Intermediate_State_of_the_Dead_in_the_Quran 2 The barzakh and the Intermediate State of the Dead in the Quran]". pp. 40-42 In Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004301368_003</nowiki> (Open access)


''At the same time, the Quran also compares death to the “common sleep” that people experience on a daily basis. This seems to be the case in the cryptic statement found in Q 39:42 (cf. Q 6:60), “God takes the souls at the time of their death (ḥīna mawtihā), and [He takes] that which has not died, in its sleep ( fī manāmihā); He withholds that against which He has decreed death, but sets loose the other until a stated term”. This obscure passage appears to indicate that sleep is a death-like state; sleepers resemble the dead since their souls enter into a state similar to that which they will experience at the moment of death. However, unlike the souls of the dead, which will be raised only on the Day of Resurrection, the ordinary sleeper’s soul is sent back when he awakens―that is, of course, until the time of his death. This parallel between death and “common sleep” finds a fairly close correspondence in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) affirms that: “The one who lies down to sleep resembles the departed and death resembles a dream, and the resurrection the morning”. In these passages the Quran’s eschatological discourse is particularly close to that formulated by Babai, in whose ideas the belief in the soul’s sleep is intimately connected to the strong affirmation of the physical resurrection of the body on the Day of Judgment.'' </ref> with this idea taken literally by Muhammad.


Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 71). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
== Arguments for resurrection ==
Reynolds (2020) notes the repeated argument that God can resurrect the dead using the analogy that he can bring life back to barren (or dead) land may be connected to  a Jewish tradition that God will resurrect the dead with dew, for example, in b. Shabbat 88b.<ref name=":2">See: Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: ''God in the Qur'an (pp. 76-77).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.


Look up Nicolai Sinai Entry 2024 and Intro 2017 book
And Footnote 10: Reynolds, Gabriel Said. ''Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 254).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>
{{Quote|{{Quran|30|19}}|He brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living, and revives the earth after its death. Likewise, you [too] shall be raised [from the dead].}}


''The obvious reading of the material just surveyed is that the Qur’an considers God to be at least in principle visible and to be spatially located. The Qur’anic God cannot, therefore, be immaterial in any strict sense.''
Cf: {{Quran|16|65}}, {{Quran|43|11}}, {{Quran|50|6-11}}, {{Quran|57|17}}


Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 69). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
==See Also==
*[[Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam]]


== External Links ==
* [[Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature|Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature - Part 1]]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QvRSAAHjlo Yasir Qadhi on Ya'juj & Ma'Juj (Gog and Magog)] - YouTube video by Hassan Radwan
* [[Historical Errors in the Quran]]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty_2G_esUvI The lost tribes of Gog & Magog in Islam] -  YouTube video by The Masked Arab
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN8rSybXBaw Stories in the Qur'an] - YouTube video by Abdullah Sameer (now [https://www.youtube.com/@FriendlyExmuslim Friendly ExMuslim])
==References==
==References==
<references />
<references />

Latest revision as of 22:57, 1 December 2025

The Historical Jesus

Other Traditions

Intro

Alongside the main consensus from Biblical Scholars/Historians that Jesus was an eschatological preacher in the early first century AD who believed the Earth would end during his time (and therefore couldn't be the Muslim Jesus), there are many other of the most considered authentic teachings of Jesus that clash with Islam considering the message of Messenger Uniformitarianism (cite Durie - reuse 51 citation),[1] where all messengers from God/Allah are outside of minor variations said to essentially preach the same thing.

The Apostle and the faithful have faith in what has been sent down to him from his Lord. Each [of them] has faith in Allah, His angels, His scriptures and His apostles. [They declare,] ‘We make no distinction between any of His apostles.’ And they say, ‘We hear and obey. Our Lord, forgive us, and toward You is the return.’
Quran 2:285
“This was the sunnah [customary way] of Our messengers whom We sent before you, and you will find no change in Our sunnah”
Quran 17:77

cf: cf. Quran 6:112, Quran 35:43, Quran 22:78. We are explicitly told that messengers bring the same message from Allah: “Nothing is said to you but what has already been said to messengers before you” Quran 41:43. Durie (2018) notes The idea of the “same message” is further reinforced when the Qurʾan repeatedly states that the Messenger was only sent to confirm what was sent down by previous messengers (Q2:91, 97; Q3:3, 50; Q5:48; Q12:111; Q16:43–44; Q35:31), just as previous messengers had done for messengers that preceded them, for example, ʿĪsa¯ “confirmed” the Tawra¯ h of Mūsa¯(Q5:46), and the Qurʾan confirms the book(s) sent by previous prophets (Q4:47), just as the Messenger has been doing in his turn.[2]

• It is also explicitly asserted that messengers bring the same message

from Alla¯h: “Nothing is said to you but what has already been said to messengers before you” (Q41:43; Q22:78) and “we make no distinction between any of them” (Q2:136). They also preached the same dīn “commandment” or “religion” (Q42:13; cf. Q3:84; Q4:150), which is referred to as the “religion of Ibra¯hīm” (Q2:130; Q4:125; Q16:121–23). The validating function of this idea becomes clear when it is applied against a group of Jews who reject the concept of the “same message” because it would mean validating the Messenger. These Jews hold to their own faith, saying “we believe in what has been sent down on us,” but they reject the Messenger, or “anything after that” (Q2:91). The ruling against these Jews is that because they reject the Messenger, they are disbelievers, rejecting “what All a¯ h has sent down” (Q2:91).31 The idea of the “same message” is further reinforced when the Qurʾan repeatedly states that the Messenger was only sent to confirm what was sent down by previous messengers (Q2:91, 97; Q3:3, 50; Q5:48; Q12:111; Q16:43–44; Q35:31), just as previous messengers had done for messengers that preceded them, for example, ʿĪsa¯ “confirmed” the Tawra¯ h of Mūsa¯(Q5:46), and the Qurʾan

confirms the book(s) sent by previous prophets (Q4:47), just as the Messenger has been doing in his turn.
Durie, Mark. The Qur'an and it's Biblical Reflexes. pp.140

While the large differences between the New Testament / Gospels / Christian Jesus and the Muslim Jesus are clear to anyone who has read both the Qur'an and NT, (which takes from apocrypha considered inauthentic by NT scholars,[3] and later Christian thought/writings ) are too large to list here, and have lead to many Muslims arguing for biblical corruption based on theological grounds [textual grounds too - though don't affect authentic traditions] in general, a disputed idea (cite - Reynolds article. See also: Corruption of Previous Scriptures & Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Corruption of Previous Scriptures) a summary of some of the most likely authentic traditions from Biblical historians (using historical-critical methods not Christian or Muslim theologians - more likely to be true and not taken from bias or proving or disproving Islam but historical context, widespread across sources, early - cite Allison explanation - Why - different to time and context, unlikely to be fabricated later by Christians, across all early sources etc.) are shown here as an example of the clashes. [Point: not arguing against Christian Jesus - but secular historians one]

Examples

Given that we typically remember the outlines of an event or the general purport of a conversation rather than the particulars and that we extract patterns and meaning from our memories, it makes little sense to open the quest for Jesus by evaluating individual items with our criteria, in the hope that some bits preserve pristine memory. We should rather be looking for repeating patterns and contemplating the big picture. true. We should trust first, if we are to trust at all, what is most likely to be trustworthy. Although we may, after reading Thucydides, be confident that there was a Peloponnesian War, we may well wonder about many of the details of his account.

The larger the generalization and the more data upon which it is based, the greater our confidence; the more specific the detail and the fewer the data supporting it, the more room we have for doubt. With regard to the sources for Jesus, the traditional criteria of authenticity privilege the parts over the whole. It seems more prudent to privilege generalizations drawn from the whole than to concentrate upon one individual item after another. As a demonstration of how this works in practice, consider the following traditions:

• Jesus prohibited divorce: 1 Cor. 7:10; Mark 10:2-9; Luke 16:18. [Qur'an divorce rules - https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Khula]

• Jesus sent forth missionaries without staff, food, or money: Matt. 10:9-10; Mark 6:8-9; Luke 10:4.

• Jesus instructed missionaries to get their living by the gospel: 1 Cor. 9:14; Matt. 10:10; Luke 10:7.

• Jesus commanded loving and doing good to enemies: Matt. 5:38-48; Luke 6:27-36. [Qur'an do not be merciful to unbelievers https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Non-Muslims & https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Kafir_(Infidel)#Guidelines_on_how_to_deal_with_disbelievers Quran 48:29 ]

• Jesus forbade judging others: Matt. 7:1-2; Luke 6:37-38.

• Jesus asked a prospective follower not to bury his father: Matt. 8:21-22; 22; Luke 959-60.

• Jesus spoke of hating one's father and mother: Matt. 10:37; Luke 14:26; Gospel of Thomas 55, 101. [respect parents - too tenuous]

• Jesus enjoined disciples to take up a cross: Matt. 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27.

• Jesus enjoined unlimited forgiveness: Matt. 18:21-22; Luke 17:3-4. [forgiveness against shirk - Qur'an says no Q4:48 and 4:116. ]

• Jesus exhorted hearers to lose their lives in order to save them: Matt. 10:39; Mark 8:35; Luke 17:33.

• Jesus called people away from their livelihoods: Mark 1:16-20; 2:14. [?]

• Jesus figuratively demanded violent removal of hand, foot, and eye: Mark 9:42-48.

• Jesus asked a wealthy man to relinquish his money: Mark 10:17-27. [bring in wealth inequality section of Islam darajat - here]

• Jesus forbade taking oaths: Matt. 5:33-37. [1]

• Jesus commanded money to be lent without interest: Matt. 5:42; Gospel of Thomas 95.

• Jesus called some to a life without marriage: Matt. 19:11-12. [Qur'an criticism of monasticism]

• Jesus asked a prospective follower not to say farewell to his parents: Luke 9:61-62. [respect parents?]

• Jesus asked his disciples to renounce all of their possessions: Luke 14:33"
Dale C. Allison Jr.. The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (Kindle Locations 822-836). Kindle Edition.

--------------------------------------------------

[ highlight those being spoken about in italics or bold]

Dale/Allison (2009) notes that Jesus' banning divorce was an important teaching that stood out to early Christians, Luke 16:18, 1 Corinthians 7:10-16, Mark 10:2-9, in contrast to Judaism (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) and Islam e.g. Quran 2:228-232, Q65:1-7, (Q4:19 https://quranx.com/hadiths/4.19 & Q4:35), Q33:49 )

He notes that Jesus commanded loving and doing good to enemies in Matt. 5:38-48; Luke 6:27-36, while the Qur'an generally advises treating other Muslims well, it specifically states not to be merciful to unbelievers Q48:29. [ For more examples of not being merciful to unbelievers, let alone 'enemies' see: https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Non-Muslims & https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Kafir_(Infidel)#Guidelines_on_how_to_deal_with_disbelievers Quran 48:29 ]

• Jesus enjoined unlimited forgiveness: Matt. 18:21-22; Luke 17:3-4. [forgiveness against shirk - Qur'an says no Q4:48 and 4:116. - anyone who believed in him would/could be saved ]

He notes Jesus called some to a life without marriage: Matt. 19:11-12, while the Qur'an promotes it as a virtue encouraging those to do so.

Marriage is a virtue https://www.getquranic.com/marriage-in-islam-8-quranic-verses-about-marriage/

Marry off those who are single among you, and the upright among your male and female slaves. If they are poor, Allah will enrich them out of His grace, and Allah is all-bounteous, all-knowing.
Quran 24:32

And criticizes monasticism/monks, with celibacy and no marriage being a key aspect[4] in general

These verses critical of monks are often read together with Q 57:27, which, while praising certain positive qualities of Christians, also seems to accuse Christians of “innovating” monasticism: Then We sent, following in their footsteps, Our Messengers; and We sent, following, Jesus son of Mary, and gave unto him the Gospel. And We set in the hearts of those who followed him tenderness and mercy. And monasticism they invented—We did not prescribe it for them—only seeking the good pleasure of God; but they observed it not as it should be observed. So We gave those of them who believed their wage; and many of them are ungodly.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (pp. 131-132). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.


Criticism of monasticism (https://www.britannica.com/topic/monasticism) - lack of marriage for monks (though admittedly also praises monks in general elsewhere pp130-132)[5]

Then We sent on their footsteps Our Messengers and We followed with Isa, son (of) Maryam, and We gave him the Injeel. And We placed in (the) hearts (of) those who followed him compassion and mercy. But monasticism they innovated - not We prescribed it for them - only seeking (the) pleasure (of) Allah, but not they observed it (with) right observance. So We gave those who believed among them their reward, but most of them (are) defiantly disobediently.
Quran 57:27


-----------------------------------------------------------------

Father-son relationship

Working through the tradition in the way I suggest leads to a large number of conclusions. Jesus must have been an exorcist who interpreted his ministry in terms of Satan's downfall. He must have thought highly of John the Baptist. He must have repeatedly spoken of God as Father. [Durie differences in metaphor and understanding of relationship from Hebrew to Arab society = markedly different] He must have composed parables. He must have come into conflict with religious authorities. All of this may seem obvious, but the procedure is not trite, for it also issues in some controversial verdicts. As I have argued elsewhere, for example, ample, the quantity of conventional eschatological material in our primary sources almost necessitates that Jesus was an eschatological prophet.' The reconstruction of Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar is for this reason alone problematic. Even more controversial is what my approach leads me to infer about Jesus' self-conception. Consider these Synoptic materials: • Jesus said that the Son of man will return on the clouds of heaven and send angels to gather the elect from throughout the world: Mark 13:26-27; cf. 14:62; Matt. 10:23 (allusions to Daniel 7's depiction of the last judgment are clear). [the son of man plays no part in Islam]
Dale C. Allison Jr.. The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (Kindle Location 841-848). Kindle Edition.
Slave-master relationship

Father son Hebrew relationship Jesus used distinctly abandoned, instead using other things (other metaphors) in Arab society to describe the relationship between humans and God, such as a slave-master relationship,[6] a Patron - Protege (needs explanation of what this is) [7]. having strongly condemned the idea that God could have offspring against the unscripted pagans (mushrikun) taking angels as daughters of god, then against God having a son[8]

Slave analogy Dure Print edition pp108 - 110 summary:[9] Before its theological use, the Arabic root sh-r-k referred to ordinary partnership or shared ownership. The Qurʾan draws on this everyday meaning to illustrate why associating partners with God is impossible. Using the metaphor of a master and a slave, the Qurʾan argues that just as a slave with multiple masters suffers confusion and conflict, attributing partners to God creates an impossible and chaotic situation. This logic appears in verses such as Q39:29 and others that argue multiple gods would lead to conflict and the ruin of creation (Q23:91; Q21:22).[9]

Allah presents a parable, “a man was owned by several quarreling partners (shurakaʾ), and a man was the slave of (just) one man. Are the two equal?”
Quran 39:29

The Qurʾan’s use of the slave-master metaphor differs from Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament. Whereas Jesus uses it to highlight divided human devotion, the Qurʾan uses it to assert the logical impossibility of multiple divine authorities.[9]

No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Luke 16:13; cf. Matthew. 6:24

Shirk encompasses various forms of error: attributing partners or helpers to God, believing He needs allies, or seeking aid from others besides Him. The Qurʾan also explores God’s unity through three social analogies relevant to Arabian society: patron–protégé relationships, alliances of mutual help, and relationships of equal or unequal status.[9]

Patron–protégé relationships

The Qur'an distinctly ignores the father-son relationship (and theology) metaphor by using another term that is harder to translate

Explanation of what this is Durie pp.110-111:[10] The Qurʾan uses terms from the root w-l-y to describe patron–protégé relationships, alliances, and guardianship. The key term walī can mean ally, protector, guardian, or patron, and may indicate either symmetrical alliances or asymmetrical power relationships.[10][11]

In pre-Islamic Arab society, such patronage was essential for protection, as shown by the example of Muḥammad being safeguarded by his uncle Abū Ṭālib. Without a patron, a person was vulnerable.[10] [in the sirah of Ibn Ishaq]

The Qurʾan emphasizes that God has no need of any patron and that humans should recognize God alone as their walī. Seeking any protector besides God is considered shirk. Believers may take other believers and the Prophet as allies (awliyāʾ) alongside God, but not in place of Him.[10]

As the Muslim community developed, especially after what the passage calls the Eschatological Transition—the Qurʾan increasingly stressed exclusive allegiance to God. This served to detach believers from prior tribal or familial loyalties that could compromise their commitment to the faith community.[10]

- and calls for help-

Unequal status vs Jesus' views on Wealth

Sinai - darajah passage

And inequality in general - inc. the afterlife

Punishment narratives

Punishment BEFORE the day of judgement

We are told the sole exception in history was the unnamed town[12] of more than 100,000 people that the messenger Yūnus (Jonah) when the warning was heeded in full by the entire people, and therefore punishment averted (Quran 10:98, Quran 37:147-148) “no town believed . . . except the people of Yūnus”[13]


How many a town defied the command of its Lord and His apostles, then We called it to a severe account and punished it with a dire punishment.  Q65:8

So it tasted the evil consequences of its conduct, and the outcome of its conduct was ruin. Q65:9

How many generations that had far more wealth and ostentation have We laid low before them! <https://quranx.com/19.74>

Say, ‘Whoever abides in error, the All-beneficent shall prolong his respite until they sight what they have been promised: either punishment, or the Hour.’ Then they will know whose position is worse, and whose host is weaker <https://quranx.com/19.75> 

------

Q34:16 - flood of the damn of Yemen / Saba', the people of Sheba E.g. [14] Quran 34:14-16

And when We decreed for Solomon death, nothing indicated to the jinn his death except a creature of the earth eating his staff. But when he fell, it became clear to the jinn that if they had known the unseen, they would not have remained in humiliating punishment.

Certainly, (there) was for Saba in their dwelling place a sign: Two gardens on (the) right and (on the) left. "Eat from (the) provision (of) your Lord and be grateful to Him. A land good and a Lord Oft-Forgiving."

But they turned away, so We sent upon them (the) flood (of) the dam, and We changed for them their two gardens (with) two gardens producing fruit bitter, and tamarisks and (some)thing of lote trees few.
Quran 34:14-16

, Quran 65:8-9, Quran 19:74-75

Add: 34:15–21: The punishment of the people of Sheba, without explicit reference to a messenger. Sheba reference [15]

Surah 36

Similarly an unnamed town is sent three messengers in Quran 36:13-32, who's identities have differed in traditional Islamic scholarship,[16] are rejected and so are killed with a cry/shout (ṣayḥatan) (Quran 36:29). [17]

36:13–32: Described as a parable (mathal, v.13), but in outline very similar to the punishment-narratives. The messengers (two of them, reinforced with a third) and the town in which they preach are anonymous. ‘A man from the furthest part of the city’ (v.20) exhorts his people to follow the messengers.
Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (p. 72). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.

The Lote Tree of the utmost Boundary (Sid'rati al-Muntahā)

Lote tree's are a real type of tree (Ziziphus spina-christi) native to Arabia and the Middle East.[18] Different to the tree of eternity/immortality (shajarati ul-khul'di) in paradise jannah, the Qur'an mentions The Lote Tree (sidr) of the utmost boundary (al-muntahā)[19] near (but notably not in) the 'garden of abode', said to be 'covered' yaghshā by something unspecified in Q53:16, typically taken by exegetes to mean by angels, light and/or golden animals.[20]

And certainly he saw him (in) descent another,

Near (the) Lote Tree (of) the utmost boundary, Near it (is the) Garden (of) Abode. when there covered the Lote Tree what covered it.

Not swerved the sight and not it transgressed.
Quran 53:13-17

This furthest boundary/limit is said in the hadith, to place the cosmic tree in the sixth heaven, where even celestial creatures cannot go beyond as the limit of creation; said to be seen by Muhammad in his Night Journey (mi’rāj) on the Buraq (E.g. Sahih Muslim 1:329, Jami` at-Tirmidhi 5:44:3276, Sahih Bukhari 5:58:227 & Sunan an-Nasa'i 1:5:452), and by many Islamic exegetes.[21]

This would align the cosmology of Islamic traditions supporting the idea that paradise (and therefore the garden of the abode) is in the seventh heaven,[22] while some traditions support the idea that paradise is above the seventh heaven,[23] both placing the tree relatively close to jannah. However others suggest that this specific garden of the abode (jannatu l-mawā) is a separate garden/paradise to the eternal one all righteous Muslims will eventually enter, being instead one where martyrs (those killed in war or for their religion) go before judgement day.[24]

Either way there is no evidence of a celestial tree, which must be magic to survive outside of an Earthly plant ecosystem, but is rather an example of tree mythology.


(See also: https://sunnah.com/mishkat:5865 & https://sunnah.com/mishkat:5640, ) read; https://quranx.com/tafsirs/53.14 - exegetes also confirm this is where boundary is the boundary of the skies/heavens where things other than God cannot pass (at least until judgement day where paradise and hell can be entered).

AND Similarly seen next to the 4 main Near-East rivers (Nile, Euphratesm Tigres,) https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5610, which area said to flow from paradise: https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-5/Book-58/Hadith-227/ )

cite: https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/107126/the-location-of-paradise-now#:~:text=Paradise%20that%20Allaah%20promised%20for,are%20many%20texts%20proving%20this.

The utmost boundary at the end of t heavens confirmed by exegetes in https://quranx.com/tafsirs/53.14


" Jannat al-ma'va' literally means "the Jannat (Garden) that is to be an abode. " Hadrat Hasan Basri says that this is the same Jannat which the believers and righteous will be given in the Hereafter, and from this same verse he has argued that that Jannat is in the heavens. Qatadah says that this is the Jannat in which the souls of the martyrs are kept; it does not imply the Jannat that is to be given in the Hereafter. Ibn 'Abbas also says the same but adds that the Jannat to be granted to the believers in the Hereafter is not in the heavens but here on the earth.

Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature - Part 2

Following on from Part 1, this is Part 2 of Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature found in the Qur'an. This material, drawing heavily on rabbinical commentaries on the bible, and late Syriac Christian thought found in homilies, was created far later than the biblical cannon; no-where near the time of the events that occurred. This suggests the stories were transmitted in an oral millennia along with local Arabian traditions[25] where biblical and much later Jewish and Christian stories could be commonly mixed without the new community realizing.

The story of Noah

The prophet Noah is portrayed extremely differently to the one in Genesis,[26] taking on Jewish and Christian traditions, characteristics, as well as terms from late antique Judeo-Christian writings,[27] molded to suit Muhammad's situation in line with other messengers in the Qur'an.[28]

The preaching of Noah

Surah 71 consists entirely of the preaching of Noah and his supplications to Allah.

Indeed, We sent Noah to his people, [saying], "Warn your people before there comes to them a painful punishment." He said, "O my people, indeed I am to you a clear warner, [Saying], 'Worship Allah, fear Him and obey me. Allah will forgive you of your sins and delay you for a specified term. Indeed, the time [set by] Allah, when it comes, will not be delayed, if you only knew.' "

[...]

And Noah said, "My Lord, do not leave upon the earth from among the disbelievers an inhabitant. Indeed, if You leave them, they will mislead Your servants and not beget except [every] wicked one and [confirmed] disbeliever. My Lord, forgive me and my parents and whoever enters my house a believer and the believing men and believing women. And do not increase the wrongdoers except in destruction."
Quran 71:1-28

Reynolds remarks that "The Qur'ānic character of Noah is quite unlike that of the Noah in Genesis, who does not speak a word until after the flood." Citing the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a, he observes that "[his preaching] is also suggested by a passage in the Talmud:

"The righteous Noah rebuked them, urging, 'Repent; for if not, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring a deluge upon you and cause your bodies to float upon the water like gourds, as it is written, He is light [i.e., floats] upon the waters. Moreover, ye shall be taken as a curse for all future generations.' (b. Sanhedrin 108a)"

Reynolds further notes, "It is also prominent in the Syriac fathers, several of whom report that Noah preached to his people for a hundred years before God finally sent the flood." citing for example the Syriac authors Narsai, "On the Flood", 33, II. 227-30 and Jacob of Serugh, Homilies contre les juifs, 70, homily 2, II. 37-40.[29]

The opponents reject Noah's preaching despite him doing so 'day and night' (Quran 71:5-6) in which they respond by putting their fingers in their ears Quran 71:7, on which Neuwirth (2024) notes that "the means of plugging one’s ears in order to shut oneself off from unpleasant news is also encountered in the Talmud (bKetubbot 5a)."[30]

Noah's disbelieving wife

Allah presents an example of those who disbelieved: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under two of Our righteous servants but betrayed them, so those prophets did not avail them from Allah at all, and it was said, "Enter the Fire with those who enter."
Quran 66:10

The Bible briefly mentions Noah's wife in one verse without further comment (Genesis 7:7), "And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." Regarding the Quranic verse which speaks of her negatively, Reynolds briefly considers the possibility that the Quran has extended to their wives the parallelism between Noah (though not his wife) and Lot found in the New Testament (2 Peter 2), but then comments, "However, it is important to note that already in the pre-Islamic period certain groups had developed hostile legends about Noah's wife." He cites Epiphanius (d. 403 CE), Panarion 2:26, which relates the Gnostic belief that she was not allowed onto the ark, having burned it down three times before the flood.[31]

Noah's flood waters overflowed from an oven

The Qur'anic version of the Noah's flood story describes the flood waters as overflowing from an oven. This element is not found even in more ancient versions of the story (Epic of Gilgamesh, Atra hasis, and Ziusudra).

Note that in his translation, Yusuf Ali mistranslates the Aramaic loan word for the oven (alttannooru ٱلتَّنُّورُ)[32] as "fountains". The Arabic verb translated "gushed forth" (fara فَارَ) means overflowed or boiled in the context of water in a cooking pot[33], as well as in the other verse where it is used, Quran 67:7. Here is Pickthall's more accurate translation:

(Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass and the oven gushed forth water, We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him.
Quran 11:40
Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration. Then, when Our command cometh and the oven gusheth water, introduce therein of every (kind) two spouses, and thy household save him thereof against whom the Word hath already gone forth. And plead not with Me on behalf of those who have done wrong. Lo! they will be drowned.
Quran 23:27

At one time academic scholars thought this verse alluded to a Midrashic exegesis in which the flood waters were boiling hot (b. Sanhedrin 108b, Rosh Hashanah 12a:4). More recent scholarship, particularly by Olivier Mongellaz in 2024,[34] has identified that these verses most likely reflect a late antique legend in which water gushing up through a bread oven (a large hole dug into the ground) was a sign warning Noah's family of the imminent flood. The interpretation as Noah's own oven is attributed to a number of early commentators (such as Ibn Abbas, Mujahid), while others understood it to be the area of land where the flood waters first rose. Qurtubi said: "The sayings of commentators appear to be different as to the meaning of tannur, but this, in reality, is not a difference. When water began to bulge out, it overflowed from the bread baking oven, and from out of the surface of the land". Significantly, Mongellaz has argued on literary grounds that a fragmentary Arabic text falsely attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, and which mentions the overflowing bread oven story, is independent of the Islamic tradition and was originally written in a very specific environment which has parallels with the context in which certain parts of the Quran were written.

Meanwhile, Ham's wife stood up to take out the bread that remained in the oven and immediately water sprang out of the oven [fāḍa l-māʾmin al-tannūr] and immediately water came out of the oven, as the Lord had said: "The fountains of the great deeps were opened." Ham's wife called to Noah, saying, "My lord, the word of God has come true (Syr. what God promised has come true!)" - for it had come true just as the Lord had promised her. When Noah heard Ham's wife's words, he said to her, "Oh, the flood has come."
Pseudo. Hippolytus of Rome (translated to English from Mongellaz's French translation)[34]

Noah's ark left behind as a sign

And We carried him on a [construction of] planks and nails, Sailing under Our observation as reward for he who had been denied. And We left it as a sign, so is there any who will remember?
Quran 54:13-15

Unlike the bible, which does not mention the ark as a sign for future generations, Neuwirth (2024) notes the salvation of Noah is made physically plausible to the listeners through the reference to the material verifiability of the ark, which could be taken from various late antique traditions, for example Flavius Josephus (b. 37AD) reports in the Jewish Antiquities (I 3.5 § 92) of the existence of the remains of Noah’s ark in Armenia (Clementz 1959: 22).[35] She also notes that the appeal to the willingness of the listeners to be admonished by the sign (āya) of Noah’s ark is also reminiscent of the Talmudic story (bSanhedrin 96a) of the death of Sennacherib, who was led to a fateful decision by seeing the remains of Noah’s ark.[35]

Moses and Pharaoh

Alongside the biblical account of Moses and the Pharoah, there are some key aspects that match Jewish Rabbinic and Christian non-biblical traditions. Even the place where Moses communicates with God in the story of the burning bush, the word used ṭuwan in e.g. Quran 20:12 (for the folded land, implying double the holiness)[36] does not have a parallel in the bible,[37] but does in other Judeo-Christian (later) works.[38] And the idea of eschatology in Moses's story such as Quran 20:15, with reward in the afterlife being mentioned, is not contained in the biblical story of Moses, Neuwirth (2024) notes moves the story into a late antiquity interpretation.[39] Key details in the stories include:

The prophecy of baby Moses

Alongside the scene of Exodus 1:8-2:10 where the Hebrews in Egyptian bondage are told to kill all male babies to control the growing Israelite population, where Moses's mother places his basket in the Nile to escape; Neuwirth (2024) citing Speyer, notes that the prophecy to Moses’s mother that an enemy—of Moses as well as of God himself—would take him in reflects a Midrashic interpretation of Exodus Rabba (1:31: “So the daughter of Pharaoh raised the daughter, who was once to take revenge on her father”). The event is explicitly based on a divine intention, namely, to make Moses his chosen one.[40]

We have bestowed Our favour on you before this, When We told your mother what We relate: 'Put him in a wooden box and cast it in the river. The river will cast it on the bank. An enemy of Ours, and his, will retrieve it.' We bestowed Our love on you that you may be reared under Our eyes.
Quran 20:37-39

And similarly the next verse unlike the bible focuses on the emotional impact of the event on Moses’s mother, Neuwirth notes is comparable to Midrash Exodus Rabba 1:25.[41] Moses's salvation from persecution after manslaughter is commemorated with similar consideration of Moses’s mental condition.[42]

When your sister walked up [to Pharaoh’s palace] saying, “Shall I show you someone who will take care of him?” Then We restored you to your mother, that she might not grieve and be comforted. Then you slew a soul, whereupon We delivered you from anguish, and We tried you with various ordeals. Then you stayed for several years among the people of Midian. Then you turned up as ordained, O Moses!
Quran 20:40

Moses not suckled by Egyptians

And We had prevented from him [all] wet nurses before, so she said, "Shall I direct you to a household that will be responsible for him for you while they are to him [for his upbringing] sincere?" So We restored him to his mother that she might be content and not grieve and that she would know that the promise of Allah is true. But most of the people do not know.
Quran 28:12-13

Reynolds comments, "On this passage cf. Exodus 2:7-9. The Qurʾān's declaration (v. 12) 'We had forbidden him to be suckled by any nurse' (v. 12) reflects a tradition in the Babylonian Talmud that Moses (from whose mouth would come forth the word of God) refused the impure breasts of the Egyptian women:

Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women? Why just 'of the Hebrew women'? - It teaches that they handed about to all the Egyptian women but he would not suck. He said: Shall a mouth which will speak with [God] suck what is unclean! (b. Sotah 12b)"[43]

Moses's speech impediment

Moses has some kind of speech impediment when going to speak to Pharaoh in the Qurʾān.

"Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed."( Moses) said: "O, my Lord! Expand me my breast,” ease my task for me, And untie the knot from my tongue, so they may understand what I say.”
Quran 20:24-28

Biblical Scholar James Kugel (1997)[44] notes that later Jewish and Christian commentators found it necessary to explain Moses's statement in the Old Testament “Oh my Lord, I am not a man of words … but I am heavy of speech and heavy of tongue” (Exodus 4:10), as he was believed to be a highly educated man who had been supposedly been schooled in every branch of wisdom, including eloquence.

He notes "it occurred to interpreters that Moses might have been referring here not to any lacuna in his education, but to an actual speech defect, some physical deformity of his mouth or tongue that prevented him from speaking in the usual fashion." We see this in:[45]

"I am not by nature eloquent; my tongue with difficulty speaks, I stammer, so that I cannot speak before the king." —Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exaggē 113– 115 (3rd-2nd century BCE)

He [Moses] pleased his parents by his beauty, but grieved them by his speech impediment. —Ephraem, Commentary on Exodus 2: 4 (d. 373 AD)

Others even added stories on how he might have acquired that deformity, such as Josephus in Jewish Antiquities 2: 232– 236 (published ~93/94 AD), connecting their explanation of Moses’ speech problems to the tradition of Pharaoh’s wise men and their warnings about a boy that might grow up and save Israel.[46]

Pharaohs questions

Neuwirth (2024) comments that the list of further detailed questions to Moses in Surah 26 'The Poets' / al-shuʿarāʾ (i.e. in Quran 26:22-29), citing Speyer, reflect a more detailed episode from Midrash Exodus Rabba 5:18, which also starts from Pharaoh’s self-praise as God.[47]

The Drowning of Pharaoh

And We took the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his soldiers pursued them in tyranny and enmity until, when drowning overtook him, he said, "I believe that there is no deity except that in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of the Muslims." Now? And you had disobeyed [Him] before and were of the corrupters? So today We will save you in body that you may be to those who succeed you a sign. And indeed, many among the people, of Our signs, are heedless
Quran 10:90-92

Reynolds comments, "The question of Pharaoh's survival appears in an opinion found in the (late fourth century AD) Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael (cr. Gavin McDowell):

"And the waters returned and covered the chariot etc. [Exo 14:27]. Even Pharaoh, according to the words of R. Judah, as it is said, 'The chariots of Pharaoh and his force, etc.' [Exo 15:4]. R. Nehimiah says: Except for Pharaoh. About him it says, 'However, for this purpose I have let you live' [Exo 9:16]. Others say that in the end Pharaoh went down and drowned, as it is said, 'Then went the horse of Pharaoh, etc.' [Exo 15:19]. (Beshallah 7)"[48]

Arguments for resurrection

Reynolds (2020) notes the repeated argument that God can resurrect the dead using the analogy that he can bring life back to barren (or dead) land may be connected to a Jewish tradition that God will resurrect the dead with dew, for example, in b. Shabbat 88b.[49]

He brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living, and revives the earth after its death. Likewise, you [too] shall be raised [from the dead].
Quran 30:19

Cf: Quran 16:65, Quran 43:11, Quran 50:6-11, Quran 57:17

Late antique Christian Martyrdom

Main Article: Shaheed (Martyr)

Durie (2018) notes the violence of the Qur'an shares more commonality with contemporary late antique religious (primarily Christian) violence and warfare rather than being directly biblically based.[50]

Textual overlap

Covering the continuity and similarities between late antique religious violence & warfare and the Qur'an (and other Islamic traditions) is too big a topic to cover here; perhaps the most in-depth academic work looking at the continuity between this and Islam is Thomas Sizgorich's Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity: Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam, however Sinai (2017) notes alongside similar ideas and theology, there are some direct textual references.

That the Qur’anic community’s access to Biblical notions of militancy was mediated by late antique Christian discourse is indicated by an intriguing intertextual overlap. According to Q 3: 169–170, those who have been ‘killed in the path of God’ are not dead but ‘alive with their Lord’, rather than having to spend the remaining time until the Resurrection in a state of slumber (similarly Q 2: 154).39 Tor Andrae has pointed out that the phrase ‘alive with their Lord’ (ayāun inda rabbihim) corresponds exactly to the Syriac phrase h. ayyē lwāth alāhā, which a sixth-century Syriac Christian writer (Mar Ishay) applies to the martyrs.40 Furthermore, Mar Ishay contrasts the true fate of the martyrs with unfounded prior opinion: ‘they are believed to be already dead’.41 The same contrast is found in the two Qur’anic passages just cited.42 It could be objected that the parallel demonstrates merely that the Qur’an is familiar with the widespread Christian idea that martyrs are granted prompt access to paradise but that this does not establish a Christian precedent for the Qur’anic application of this idea specifically to those who actively enact – rather than just suffer – violence. However, as Sizgorich reminds us, a Christian martyr was by no means seen merely as a passive victim of persecution but rather as someone who actively ‘defeats the power of the Roman state’.43
Sinai, Nicolai. Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (pp. 301-302). Edinburgh University Press. Kindle Edition.
And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision
Quran 3:169
Do not say that those who are killed in the way of God, are dead, for indeed they are alive, even though you are not aware.
Quran 2:154

Martyrs sidestep judgement day

After death, humans are typically said to spend their time in an intermediate state known to traditional Islamic scholars as the barzakh while they wait.[51] However, as in the above verses, one exception to this rule is Martyrs being with God straight away rather than being judged at judgment day, a non-biblical idea having parallels with late antique Christian thought.

Sinai (2017) similarly notes strong ideological parallels a 6th century hagiographical text (the Panegyric on Macarius, Bishop of Tkow by Pseudo-Dioscorus of Alexandria) of a 5th-century martyr, Egyptian Bishop Macarius of Tkow who was martyred for opposing the council of Chalcedon. Citing Michael Gaddis's summary of the document, ‘He was both willing to die for his faith, and willing to kill for it.’ he notes the same idea in Quran 9:111 … they fight in the way of Allah, kill, and are killed.. [52] As well as citing English historian of the Byzantine Empire James Howard-Johnston "..James Howard-Johnston draws attention to a passage in the Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor (d. 818), which reports that at about the same time when the Qur’an promised those ‘killed in the path of God’ immediate entry to paradise, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius similarly announced that those fighting the Sasanians would be recompensed with eternal life. In Heraclius’s address as reported by Theophanes Confessor, we find some of the same general ingredients that are noticeable in Qur’anic calls to militancy…"[53] He notes these similarities are likely caused by being on the fringes of the Roman empire.[54]

Martyrdom wipes away other sins and is privileged above other acts from believers

The teaching on the glory earned by martyrs is widespread in the early church. It is nevertheless telling to find the way it is emphasized in the third-century Christian text the aforementioned Didascalia Apostolorum, originally written in Greek but preserved in Syriac.87 The Didascalia clearly teaches that the martyrs will have a privilege above other faithful believers: If then He raises up all men,—as He said by Isaiah: All flesh shall see the salvation of God [Isa 40.5; 52.10],—much more will He quicken and raise up the faithful; and (yet more) again will He quicken and raise up the faithful of the faithful, who are the martyrs, and establish them in great glory and make them His counsellors. For to mere disciples, those who believe in Him, He has promised a glory as of the stars [Dan 12.3]; but to the martyrs He has promised to give an everlasting glory, as of the luminaries which fail not, with more abundant light, that they may be shining for all time.88

The Didascalia is also clear, as is the Qur’an, that martyrs enjoy a special grace through the forgiveness of sins that their deaths have earned for them: But again, sins are forgiven by baptism also to those who from the Gentiles draw near and enter the holy Church of God. Let us inquire also, to whom sins are not imputed. To such as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs, as also to the martyrs. Let us hear then, brethren, for the Scripture saith: Who shall boast himself and say: I am clear of sins? Or who shall be confident and say: I am innocent? [Prov 20.9].

And again: There is no man pure of defilement: not though his life be but one day [Job 14.4–5 LXX]. To everyone therefore who believes and is baptized his … former sins have been forgiven; but after baptism also, provided that he has not sinned a deadly sin nor been an accomplice (thereto), but has heard only, or seen, or spoken, and is thus guilty of sin. But if a man go forth from the world by martyrdom for the name of the Lord, blessed is he; for brethren who by martyrdom have gone forth from this world, of these the sins are covered.89

We might compare Q 3:195: “ ‘And those who emigrated, and were expelled from their habitations, those who suffered hurt in My way, and fought, and were slain—them I shall surely acquit of their evil deeds, and I shall admit them to gardens underneath which rivers flow.’ A reward from God! And God with Him is the fairest reward” (italics added). In other words, the Qur’an seems to be well aware of Christian devotion to the martyrs.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (pp. 178-179). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Martyrdom in the Torah and Gospels

Muslims who fight are promised paradise, which the Qur'an claims is also a promise in the Torah and Gospel.

Indeed Allah has bought from the faithful their souls and their possessions for paradise to be theirs: they fight in the way of Allah, kill, and are killed. A promise binding upon Him in the Torah and the Evangel and the Quran. And who is truer to his promise than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him, and that is the great success.
Quran 9:111

Nickel (2020)[55] and Reynolds (2018) however notes that this is not found there:

"9:111 The point of this verse is that those who are prepared to give their lives to God in the holy war are promised paradise as a payment for their services (cf. 2:245; 4:74; 61:10–12). The idea that the martyrs have a special assurance of paradise follows from the Qurʾān’s teaching elsewhere that the act of martyrdom involves forgiveness of sin. This teaching is close to that of the Syriac fathers (see commentary on 2:154, with further references). It is curious that the Qurʾān insists that the promise of heaven for holy warriors is found in the Torah and the Gospel (or “Evangel”); heaven is not found in the Torah and holy war is not found in the Gospels...
Reynolds, G. S. (2018). The Qur'an and the Bible: Text and Commentary. Commentary on 9:111 (pp. 322) United Kingdom: Yale University Press.

While his commentary on 2:154 (pp. 76) once again highlights the Syriac parallel:

"As Tor Andrae has shown (Les origines de l’islam et le christianisme, 161ff.), the idea that martyrdom involves the absolution of sins is prominent in Syriac Christian texts such as the third-century Didascalia (chap. 20) and the Treaty on the Martyrs of Mar Isaï (d. late sixth cen.); the latter text also insists—much like the Qurʾān—that the martyrs are “living”: The true martyrs who, by way of a death that covers their sins, demonstrate even more the beauty of their deeds and receive this glorious inheritance by virtue of their blood. By leaving this life they have prepared for their souls an honorable abode in paradise. It was thought that they are already dead, but by their death they have killed their sin, and they are alive with God. (Mar Isaï, Treaty on the Martyrs, 32)

Further Martyrdom Influence

Neuwirth (2024) also notes the influence of Christian martyrdom stories on the sudden conversion and prayers/asking for forgiveness to God of Pharaoh's magician's, who are originally opponents of Moses until he shows them proof of his prophecy via a miracle in the face of a sudden and violent death as threatened by the arrogant ruler (e.g. in Quran 26:50-51 and Quran 20:71-73).[56] Both Jewish and Christian traditions present individual “anti-Moses” sorcerers named Jannes and Jambres, who continue to appear in later interpretations; citing Nora Schmid, she notes that, although there is no explicit textual reference and the magicians are typically depicted in a negative light, they came to be associated with penance and martyrdom in Christian tradition - in the Qurʾan, this idea is developed further: the forgiveness that Jannes and Jambres either did not receive or only partially received in earlier sources is ultimately granted.[57]

V. 72–73 qālū lan nuʾthiraka ʿalā mā jāʾanā mina l-bayyināti wa-lladhī faṭaranā fa-qḍi mā anta qāḍin innamā taqḍī hādhihi l-ḥayāta l-dunyā / innā āmannā birabbinā li-yaghfira lanā khaṭāyānā wa-mā akrahtanā ʿalayhi mina l-siḥri wallāhu khayrun wa-abqā] Conversion scene as later in Q 26:50–51. The sorcerers renounce their allegiance to Pharaoh on the basis of the obvious evidence (bayyināt) and give preference to the Creator God, they submit to their worldly fate and hope for the forgiveness of their sins and what they have been forced to do by the ruler—they are a role model for the community, which is also subject to pressure from outside. The request for forgiveness of sins before a violent death is a topos of Christian martyr stories. The entire scene, leaving the context of ‘ancient’ Egypt, reflects the notion of Christian martyrdom stories. Khaṭāyā (singular khaṭīʾa) also lets a Syriac terminus technicus ring through, but the word can be derived from the Arabic root KhṬʿ (“to miss a goal”) (see FVQ, 123ff.). The idea of the forgiveness of sins is prominent in the Christian liturgy—not only through the Lord’s Prayer. In addition to khaṭīʾa, there is the genuine Arabic dhanb, dhunūb.
Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 204). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Expansions on the afterlife

Reynolds (2020) notes the Qur’ans provides vivid depictions of hell are highly unlike the New Testament, where Jesus refers to afterlife punishment mostly allusively. The closest the Gospels describe hell is through the few images of “fire,” “wailing,” and “gnashing of teeth.”, for example in Matthew’s Parable of the Weeds, Jesus explains that at the end of the age, the Son of Man will send his angels that will cast evildoers into a fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 13:40–42).[58] He notes the much more constant an vivid Qur'anic descriptions far better match later Christian works that expanded the descriptions to be more gruesome, in order to scare the reader/audience.[59]

The way that the Qur’an describes hell in particularly vivid, gruesome terms brings us back to something we mentioned in Chapter 1, namely, that the Qur’an in many ways is a “homiletic” work, a work written like a homily or sermon. The Qur’an’s intention is not simply to declare that those who disobey God will be punished, but to describe that punishment in a way which brings the awfulness of hell to life. Similarly, homilists in the early centuries of Christianity expanded dramatically on the New Testament allusions to hell. In a sermon attributed to John Chrysostom (d. 407) we read a description of hell with the sort of detail that we find in the Qur’an: It is a sea of fire—not a sea of the kind or dimensions we know here, but much larger and fiercer, with waves made of fire, fire of a strange and fearsome kind. There is a great abyss there, in fact, of terrible flames, and one can see fire rushing about on all sides like some wild animal…. There will be no one who can resist, no one who can escape: Christ’s gentle, peaceful face will be nowhere to be seen.15
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 82-83). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Sinai (2017) in his paper titled "The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’an" notes many overlap with Syriac Homilies on the afterlife as well as other apocalyptic ideas and terminology.[60]

Souls are taken away at night

The Qur'an (and traditional Islamic exegetes)[61] state that the soul is taken away by Allah during the night.

Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those who have not died, in their sleep. Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until a specified time. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect.
Quran 39:42
It is He who takes your souls by night, and He knows what you do by day, then He reanimates you therein so that a specified term may be completed. Then to Him will be your return, whereat He will inform you concerning what you used to do.
Quran 6:60

Tesei (2016) notes this idea may mimic a late antique Syriac Christian parallel in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) mentions sleep resembles death, and other Christian writers (such as Babai) wrote about sleep metaphorically Jesus's death and waking up like the resurrection;[62] with this idea taken literally by Muhammad.

Arguments for resurrection

Reynolds (2020) notes the repeated argument that God can resurrect the dead using the analogy that he can bring life back to barren (or dead) land may be connected to a Jewish tradition that God will resurrect the dead with dew, for example, in b. Shabbat 88b.[49]

He brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living, and revives the earth after its death. Likewise, you [too] shall be raised [from the dead].
Quran 30:19

Cf: Quran 16:65, Quran 43:11, Quran 50:6-11, Quran 57:17

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. 135-142)  (pp. 281-294 Kindle Edition). 5.3 Messenger Uniformitarianism. Lexington Books. 2018.
  2. ↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur'an and it's Biblical Reflexes. pp.140
  3. ↑ Sanders, E.. The Historical Figure of Jesus (pp. 78-79). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition. ..(Gnosticism was a world view that held everything material to be evil; the god who created the world was a bad god, and the creation was wicked. Gnostics who were also Christians held that the good God had sent Jesus to redeem people’s souls, not their bodies, and that Jesus was not a real human being. The Christians who objected to these views finally declared them heretical.) I share the general scholarly view that very, very little in the apocryphal gospels could conceivably go back to the time of Jesus. They are legendary and mythological. Of all the apocryphal material, only some of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas are worth consideration. This does not mean that we can make a clean division: the historical four gospels versus the legendary apocryphal gospels. There are legendary traits in the four gospels in the New Testament, and there is also a certain amount of newly created material (as we saw just above)..
  4. ↑ Monasticism | religion | Britannica Entry
  5. ↑ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (pp. 130-132). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  6. ↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. XX-XX)  (pp. 107-110 Kindle Edition). 4.1.1. Shirk - Proprietary Partnership. Lexington Books. 2018.
  7. ↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. XX-XX)  (pp. 110-111 Kindle Edition). 4.1.2. Shirk - Patron - Protege Relationships. Lexington Books. 2018.
  8. ↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. XX-XX)  (pp. 112-113 Kindle Edition). 4.1.5 A Polemical Doctrine. Lexington Books. 2018.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. 108-110)  (pp. XX-XX Kindle Edition). 4.1.5 A Polemical Doctrine. Lexington Books. 2018.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion (pp. 110-111)  (pp. XX-XX Kindle Edition). 4.1.5 A Polemical Doctrine. Lexington Books. 2018.
  11. ↑ Root: wāw lām yā (و ل ي) - Lane's Lexicon Qur'anic Research See Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary pp.3060 & pp.3061
  12. ↑ Unnamed in the Qur'an, though identified as Nineveh (in modern day Iraq) as in the Biblical "Book of Jonah" by Islamic exegetes; e.g. see tafsirs on Q37:147
  13. ↑ Durie, Mark. 2018. The Qur'an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations Into the Genesis of a Religion. pp 49. Kindle Edition pp 151.
  14. ↑ See tafsirs on Q34:14, Q34:15 & Q34:16
  15. ↑ Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (p. 73). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.
  16. ↑ E.g. see commentaries on Q36:13 & Q36:14, and the later verses in the story, cited as a parable (mathal).
  17. ↑ Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers (p. 63 & 72). Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition.
  18. ↑ Lote Tree | Sidr | Ziziphus spina-christi | Plants of the Qur'an | Sue Wickison
  19. ↑ مُنْتَهَىٰ - Lane's Lexicon pp.3029
  20. ↑ E.g. see Tafsirs on Q53:16
  21. ↑ See tafsirs on Q53:14
  22. ↑ Where is Paradise | Where Are Paradise and Hell? | 07/January/2015 islamqa
  23. ↑ The location of Paradise now | Paradise and Hell | Belief in the Hereafter | Islamic Creed | Fatwa | islamweb.net
  24. ↑ E.g. see tafsirs on Q53:15
  25. ↑ Bannister, Andrew G.. An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur'an (Kindle Location 249-259 in Chapter 1.2 The Biblicist Roots of the Iblis and Adam Story). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. ..When the Qur’an emerged in the seventh-century, it did so in an oral culture in which Biblicist traditions were freely circulating and thus there existed a large pool of commonly known stories and traditions to fish from; a pool in which stories could cross-fertilize and influence one another. 23 It is this, more than direct borrowing that perhaps best explains stories like Iblis and Adam as well as other qur’anic tellings of older tales, such as the Seven Sleepers (Q. 18: 9– 25) 24 and the Legend of Alexander (Dhu al-Qarnayn, Q. 18: 83– 101). 25 The Qur’an originates from a milieu in which Biblicist material was well-known to the first audience of the Qur’an; even a simple allusion to a story was often enough to trigger a connection for the hearer. 26 That Biblicist material has been filtered through storytelling rather than simply copied from a written text is further suggested by what the Qur’an leaves out; no minor prophets are referenced, probably because almost no Old Testament narratives feature them nor did the rabbinic literature weave lengthy tales about them. 27 The exception which proves the rule is Jonah (Q. 21: 87– 88; 37: 139– 148; 68: 48– 50), whose short but dramatic story was extremely popular in both Jewish and Christian contexts.28.. And: Bannister, Andrew G.. An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur'an (Kindle Locations 1391-1392. Chapter 2.3 The Islamic Tradition and Orality). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
  26. ↑ Segovia, Carlos A.. The Quranic Noah and the Making of the Islamic Prophet: A Study of Intertextuality and Religious Identity Formation in Late Antiquity, Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110405897
  27. ↑ The Qur'anic Noah. pp.21-21
  28. ↑ The Qurʾan and its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion. Chapter 5.3 Messenger Uniformatism. pp.135-143 By Mark Durie. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018.
  29. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 858
  30. ↑ Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 280). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  31. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 841
  32. ↑ Lane's Lexicon p. 318 تَّنُّورُ
  33. ↑ Lane's Lexicon p. 2457 فور
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Olivier Mongellaz (2024) Le four de Noé : un cas d’intertextualité coranique, Arabica 71(4-5), 513-637. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-20246900
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 62). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  36. ↑ See; Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 199). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. Ṭuwā stands for the holy Mount Sinai or Horeb (cf. KU, 124ff.; FVQ, 206ff.; BEQ, 255ff.). The word was long thought to be a rhyming transformation of Aramaic ṭūrā (“the mountain”), but now, based on rabbinic tradition and in agreement with traditional exegetes, Uri Rubin has convincingly interpreted bi-l-wādī l-muqaddasi Ṭuwā to mean “in the doubly hallowed valley” (see Rubin 2014). (The Sinai is in a sense the “folded Holy Land” [ṬWY = “to fold”].) Citing: Rubin, Uri, 2014, Moses and the Holy Valley Ṭuwan. On the Biblical and Midrashic Background of a Qurʾanic Scene, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 73, 73–81.
  37. ↑ Moses and the Holy Valley Ṭuwan: On the biblical and midrashic background of a qurʾānic scene. Rubin 2014. Ibid. pp. 75.
  38. ↑ Ibid. pp. 76-78
  39. ↑ Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 199). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  40. ↑ The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect Ibid. pp. 201.
  41. ↑ Ibid. pp. 201-202.
  42. ↑ Ibid. pp. 202.
  43. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 598
  44. ↑ Kugel, James L.. The Bible As It Was (Kindle Edition. pp. 432-433). Harvard University Press.
  45. ↑ Ibid. pp. 432 - 433 (Kindle Edition)
  46. ↑ Ibid. pp. 433 - 434 (Kindle Edition)
  47. ↑ Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 250). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  48. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 339
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 See: Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 76-77). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. And Footnote 10: Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 254). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  50. ↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion. Lexington Books. 2018. Pp. 229 -237.  (Kindle Edition: pp. 423-439).  6.9 Stories of Fighting Prophets
  51. ↑ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. 2020. Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 71-72). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. It is also the same term used for the barrier between the living and the dead (whilst awaiting judgement day) in the Qur'an, e.g. Quran 23:99-100
  52. ↑ Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 299).
  53. ↑ Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 301).
  54. ↑ Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 301).
  55. ↑ Nickel, Gordon D. The Quran with Christian Commentary: A Guide to Understanding the Scripture of Islam (p. 222). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition. 9.111 – They fight in the way of God, and they kill and are killed When the Quran describes believers as fighting “in the way of Allah,” it makes a theological claim by associating Allah with human fighting. See the analysis of these expressions at 73.20 (p. 597). 9.111 – a promise binding on Him in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Qur’ān This is the only verse in the Quran that brings the Torah (tawrāt), Gospel (injīl), and qur’ān (lit. “recitation”) together. The Quran claims here that the particular point on which the Torah and Gospel agree with the Muslim recitation is that believers “fight in the way of Allah, and they kill and are killed.” This verse makes the reader question whether the Quran has a clear idea of the contents of the Torah and Gospel. A similar question is raised by 61.14, which appears to say that ‘Īsā and his disciples fought against their enemies (cf. 3.52). Along with these misunderstandings, the Quran gives no information about the peaceable teaching and example of Jesus in the Gospel accounts. See the analysis of the Quran’s verses on the “Gospel” at 57.27 (p. 549). Do the Torah and Gospel in fact contain such a promise? See the comment on this characterization of the Bible at 61.14 (p. 566).
  56. ↑ Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 204). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  57. ↑ Ibid. pp. 251-252
  58. ↑ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 81-82). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  59. ↑ Ibid. pp. 88. We might note how all of these traditions are meant to make humans yearn for paradise and fear hell. The Qur’an, from this regard, is a profoundly psychological work. Like a Christian preacher, like John Chrysostom or Saint Ephrem, the author of the Qur’an speaks of heaven and hell to persuade his audience to repent and believe. He does so in a way, however, that is distinct—emphasizing physical pain and physical pleasure in order, apparently, to make a greater impression on his audience. He puts a terrible tree into hell and young women in paradise.
  60. ↑ “The Eschatological Kerygma of the Early Qur’an”, Nicolai Sinai, in Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity: Encounters in the Abrahamic Religions, 6th–8th Centuries, edited by Hagit Amirav, Emmanouela Grypeou, and Guy Stroumsa, Leuven: Peeters, 2017, 219–266. These are discussed throughout the whole paper, and a summary can be found in pp.50-57. On heaven and hell specifically, the summary is on pp.55-57.
  61. ↑ See classical commentaries on these verses such as Al-Jalalayn on Q39:42, Q6:60 and Ibn Kathir on Q39:41-2 and Q6:60
  62. ↑ Tesei, Tommaso. (2016). "2 The barzakh and the Intermediate State of the Dead in the Quran". pp. 40-42 In Locating Hell in Islamic Traditions. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004301368_003 (Open access) At the same time, the Quran also compares death to the “common sleep” that people experience on a daily basis. This seems to be the case in the cryptic statement found in Q 39:42 (cf. Q 6:60), “God takes the souls at the time of their death (ḥīna mawtihā), and [He takes] that which has not died, in its sleep ( fī manāmihā); He withholds that against which He has decreed death, but sets loose the other until a stated term”. This obscure passage appears to indicate that sleep is a death-like state; sleepers resemble the dead since their souls enter into a state similar to that which they will experience at the moment of death. However, unlike the souls of the dead, which will be raised only on the Day of Resurrection, the ordinary sleeper’s soul is sent back when he awakens―that is, of course, until the time of his death. This parallel between death and “common sleep” finds a fairly close correspondence in the poetical language used by Ephrem, who in the Nisibene hymns (7:15) affirms that: “The one who lies down to sleep resembles the departed and death resembles a dream, and the resurrection the morning”. In these passages the Quran’s eschatological discourse is particularly close to that formulated by Babai, in whose ideas the belief in the soul’s sleep is intimately connected to the strong affirmation of the physical resurrection of the body on the Day of Judgment.
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