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

(add to part 1) The Story of Noahs floodThe 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)."[1]

Or theology - Durie suggesting Arabic understanding of servant master relationship etc.

Different Ranks of Believers in Paradise

See, how We have exalted some above others in this world, and in the Life to Come they will have higher ranks and greater degrees of excellence over others.
Quran 17:21
It is they who are truly the faithful. They shall have ranks near their Lord, forgiveness and a noble provision.
Quran 8:4
Of these all have ranks according to their deeds so that Allah may fully recompense them for their deeds. They shall not be wronged.
Quran 46:19

Just like people on earth are not equal, with many having different ranks 'darajāt'[2] (e.g. men are a rank above women Quran 2:228, some messengers are ranked higher than others Quran 2:253, and people generally Quran 6:165),[3] those in the afterlife among the believers similarly have different ranks/degrees.[4] Sinai (2023) notes verses such as Quran 8:2-4, Quran 20:75, Quran 4:95–96, Quran 9:20 and Quran 58:11 suggest that degrees of belief, action, and knowledge appear lead to these differences in eschatological rewards.[5] This idea is further confirmed in hadith, such as Sahih Bukhari 9:93:519 and Qur'anic commentaries.[6]

He notes a parallel that paradise comprises different ranks/orders is found in Ephrem's Hymns of Paradise (e.g. 2:10-13), and the vocabulary he employs in this context includes the Syriac word dargā, a cognate of the Arabic darajah used in the Qur'an.[7] And that both the present world and the hereafter are portrayed as hierarchical, with earthly dualities (e.g., day/night, male/female) foreshadowing ultimate salvation or damnation - and that this way of thinking (worldly structures anticipate the stratified reality of the afterlife) parallels other traditions, such as Ephrem’s view of paradise as prefigured in sacred history (e.g., on Noah’s ark).[7]

Jinn help Solomon build temples

And to Solomon [We subjected] the wind - its morning [journey was that of] a month - and its afternoon [journey was that of] a month, and We made flow for him a spring of [liquid] copper. And among the jinn were those who worked for him by the permission of his Lord. And whoever deviated among them from Our command - We will make him taste of the punishment of the Blaze. They made for him what he willed of elevated chambers, statues, bowls like reservoirs, and stationary kettles. [We said], "Work, O family of David, in gratitude." And few of My servants are grateful.
Quran 34:12-13

Reynolds notes that behind these verses is a legend found in the Talmud (Babylonian Talmud Gittin 68a-b) about demons who help Solomon build the Jerusalem temple (the Arabic word for elevated chamber in v. 13 is the same as is used for the Jerusalem temple sanctury in Quran 3:37-39). [8] It appears to stem from an idosyncratic exegesis on Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes 2:8.

I gat me sharim and sharoth, and the delights of the sons of men, Shidah and shidoth. 'Sharim and Sharoth', means diverse kinds of music; 'the delights of the sons of men' are ornamental pools and baths. 'Shidah and shidoth': Here [in Babylon] they translate as male and female demons. In the West [Palestine] they say [it means] carriages. R. Johanan said: There were three hundred kinds of demons in Shihin, but what a shidah is I do not know.

The Master said: Here they translate 'male and female demons'. For what did Solomon want them? — As indicated in the verse, And the house when it was in building was made of stone made ready at the quarry, [there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building]; He said to the Rabbis, How shall I manage [without iron tools]? — They replied, There is the shamir which Moses brought for the stones of the ephod.
[...]
What I want is to build the Temple and I require the shamir.
[...]

Solomon kept him with him until he had built the Temple.
Babylonian Talmud Gittin 68b

The Queen of Sheba

Qur'anic Account

The story of the Queen of Sheba is an ancient one, dating back to the Old Testament (1 Kgs. 10:1-10 and 2 Chr. 9:1-12). Josephus also makes mention of the Queen of Sheba, as does the Qur'an, which interestingly embellishes the Old Testament account with the episodes of the hoopoe and the Queen of Sheba exposing her legs.

Below is the Quranic account of the story:

And he took attendance of the birds and said, "Why do I not see the hoopoe - or is he among the absent? I will surely punish him with a severe punishment or slaughter him unless he brings me clear authorization." But the hoopoe stayed not long and said, "I have encompassed [in knowledge] that which you have not encompassed, and I have come to you from Sheba with certain news. Indeed, I found [there] a woman ruling them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne. I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah, and Satan has made their deeds pleasing to them and averted them from [His] way, so they are not guided, [And] so they do not prostrate to Allah, who brings forth what is hidden within the heavens and the earth and knows what you conceal and what you declare - Allah - there is no deity except Him, Lord of the Great Throne." [Solomon] said, "We will see whether you were truthful or were of the liars. Take this letter of mine and deliver it to them. Then leave them and see what [answer] they will return." She said, "O eminent ones, indeed, to me has been delivered a noble letter. Indeed, it is from Solomon, and indeed, it reads: 'In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, Be not haughty with me but come to me in submission [as Muslims].' " She said, "O eminent ones, advise me in my affair. I would not decide a matter until you witness [for] me." They said, "We are men of strength and of great military might, but the command is yours, so see what you will command." She said, "Indeed kings - when they enter a city, they ruin it and render the honored of its people humbled. And thus do they do. But indeed, I will send to them a gift and see with what [reply] the messengers will return." So when they came to Solomon, he said, "Do you provide me with wealth? But what Allah has given me is better than what He has given you. Rather, it is you who rejoice in your gift. Return to them, for we will surely come to them with soldiers that they will be powerless to encounter, and we will surely expel them therefrom in humiliation, and they will be debased." [Solomon] said, "O assembly [of jinn], which of you will bring me her throne before they come to me in submission?" A powerful one from among the jinn said, "I will bring it to you before you rise from your place, and indeed, I am for this [task] strong and trustworthy." Said one who had knowledge from the Scripture, "I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you." And when [Solomon] saw it placed before him, he said, "This is from the favor of my Lord to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful. And whoever is grateful - his gratitude is only for [the benefit of] himself. And whoever is ungrateful - then indeed, my Lord is Free of need and Generous." He said, "Disguise for her her throne; we will see whether she will be guided [to truth] or will be of those who is not guided." So when she arrived, it was said [to her], "Is your throne like this?" She said, "[It is] as though it was it." [Solomon said], "And we were given knowledge before her, and we have been Muslims [in submission to Allah]. And that which she was worshipping other than Allah had averted her [from submission to Him]. Indeed, she was from a disbelieving people." She was told, "Enter the palace." But when she saw it, she thought it was a body of water and uncovered her shins [to wade through]. He said, "Indeed, it is a palace [whose floor is] made smooth with glass." She said, "My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to Allah, Lord of the worlds."
Quran 27:20-44

Targum Sheni

Regarding the above passage, Reynolds cites the Targum Sheni 1:1-3 (also known as The Second Targum of Esther).[9] The Targums were translations (in this case, Aramaic) of the Hebrew scriptures, often with significant exegesis, paraphrase, or additional tales interwoven with the text.

A few verses earlier, Quran 27:16-17 also has a parallel at the start of the same Targum Sheni passage. Reynolds remarks that "The Qurʾān's declaration that Solomon was taught the 'speech of the birds' (v. 16) and that his army included 'jinn, humans and birds' (v. 17) reflects the Second Targum of Esther (the date of which is disputed, but may date originally from the fourth century AD; On its relationship with the Qurʾān see BEQ, 390-91; 393-98)."[10] However, it must be cautioned that the date of the Targum Sheni (Second Targum of Esther) is extremely uncertain. It has received various datings from the 4th to 11th centuries AD (as Reynolds also mentions), though certainly in its final redaction includes material which post-dates the lower end of that range.[11]

Dozens of details correspond between this passage and the Quranic verses when they are compared:

At another time, when the heart of Solomon was gladdened with wine, he gave orders for the beasts of the land, the birds of the air, the creeping things of the earth, the demons from above and the Genii, to be brought, that they might dance around him, in order that all the kings waiting upon him might behold his grandeur. And all the royal scribes summoned by their names before him; in fact, all were there except the captives and prisoners and those in charge of them. Just then the Red-cock, enjoying itself, could not be found; and King Solomon said that they should seize and bring it by force, and indeed he sought to kill it. But just then the cock appeared in presence of the King, and said: O Lord, King of the earth! having applied thine ear, listen to my words. It is hardly three months since I made a firm resolution within me that I would not eat a crumb of bread, nor drink a drop of water until I had seen the whole world, and over it make my flight, saying to myself, I must know the city and the kingdom which is not subject to thee, my Lord King. Then I found the fortified city Qîtôr in the Eastern lands, and around it are stones of gold and silver in the streets plentiful as rubbish, and trees planted from the beginning of the world, and rivers to water it, flowing out of the garden of Eden. Many men are there wearing garlands from the garden close by. They shoot arrows, but cannot use the bow. They are ruled by a woman, called Queen of Sheba. Now if it please my Lord King, thy servant, having bound up my girdle, will set out for the fort Qîtôr in Sheba; and having "bound their Kings with chains and their Nobles with links of iron," will bring them into thy presence. The proposal pleased the King, and the scribes prepared a despatch, which was placed under the bird's wing, and away it flew high up in the sky. It grew strong surrounded by a crowd of birds, and reached the Fort of Sheba. By chance the Queen of Sheba was out in the morning worshipping the sea; and the air being darkened by the multitude of birds, she became so alarmed as to rend her clothes in trouble and distress. Just then the Cock alighted by her, and she seeing the letter under its wing opened and read it as follows: "King Solomon sendeth to thee his salaam, and saith, The high and holy One hath set me over the beasts of the field, etc.; and the kings of the four Quarters send to ask after my welfare. Now if it please thee to come and ask after my welfare, I will set thee high above them all. But if it please thee not, I will send kings and armies against thee; — the beasts of the field are my people, the birds of the air my riders, the demons and genii thine enemies, — to imprison you, to slay and to feed upon you." When the Queen of Sheba heard it, she again rent her garments, and sending for her Nobles asked their advice. They knew not Solomon, but advised her to send vessels by the sea, full of beautiful ornaments and gems, together with 6000 boys and girls in purple garments, who had all been born at the same moment; also to send a letter promising to visit him by the end of the year. It was a journey of seven years but she promised to come in three. When at last she came, Solomon sent a messenger shining in brilliant attire, like the morning dawn, to meet her. As they came together, she stepped from her carriage. "Why dost thou thus?" he asked. "Art thou not Solomon?" she said. "Nay, I am but a servant that standeth in his presence." The queen at once addressed a parable to her followers in compliment to him, and then was led by him to the Court. Solomon hearing she had come, arose and sat down in the Palace of glass. When the Queen of Sheba saw it, she thought that the glass floor was water, and so in crossing over lifted up her garments. When Solomon seeing the hair about her legs, cried out to her: Thy beauty is the beauty of women, but thy hair is as the hair of men; hair is good in man, but in woman it is not becoming. On this she said: My Lord, I have three enigmas to put to thee. If thou canst answer them, I shall know that thou art a wise man: but if not thou art like all around thee. When he had answered all three, she replied, astonished: Blessed be the Lord thy God, who hath placed thee on the throne that thou mightest rule with right and justice. And she gave to Solomon much gold and silver; and he to her whatsoever she desired.
Targum Sheni 1:1-3[12]

One cannot be too dogmatic about this parallelism, as the dating of Targum Sheni is not beyond doubt. Nevertheless, it is likely that the story of the Queen of Sheba pre-dates the Qur'an as the Targum is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud. It is also clear that the post-Quranic dates often ascribed to Targum Sheni are that of the final redaction and not necessarily that of the Queen of Sheba myths.

Jacob tells his sons to not enter through one gate

And he said, "O my sons, do not enter from one gate but enter from different gates; and I cannot avail you against [the decree of] Allah at all. The decision is only for Allah; upon Him I have relied, and upon Him let those who would rely [indeed] rely."
Quran 12:67

According to Reynolds, Jacob's instruction to his sons to enter through different gates rather than one is a Midrashic tale found in Genesis Rabbah 91:6 "Do not enter through one gate."[13]

Every living thing from water

In two verses the Quran states that Allah created every living thing from water:

Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?
Quran 21:30
Allah has created every [living] creature from water. And of them are those that move on their bellies, and of them are those that walk on two legs, and of them are those that walk on four. Allah creates what He wills. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.
Quran 24:45-1

It is significant that the first of the two verses, 21:30, is explicitly about the creation of the world. Reynolds notes an earlier parallel taught by the Syriac church father Ephrem (d. 373 CE). He writes, "[...] Ephrem, who explains that God created everything through water: 'Thus, through light and water the earth brought forth everything.' Ephrem, Commentary on Genesis, 1:1-10)."[14] Ephrem's comment is in the context of the Genesis creation story, much like the first Quranic verse, 21:30. Ephrem says that when heaven and earth were created there were no trees or vegetation as it had not yet rained, so a fountain irrigated the earth. Tafsirs say that when the heaven and earth were separated rain fell so that plants could grow. There is also a similarity with Ephrem in the other verse (24:45), which mentions creatures that move on two, four or no legs. Ephrem explains that as well as the "trees, vegetation and plants", the "Scripture wishes to indicate that all animals, reptiles, cattle and birds came into being as a result of the combining of earth and water".[15]

The story of Noah

The story of Noah contains many elements and different theological focuses not found in the account of Genesis, including an unbelieving son. Reynolds (2017) argues is a play on the theoretical son is Ezekiel 14[16] (pp.147-148), as editing bible stories families was common in biblical tradition .[17]

Marshall (1998) says it's just to highlight family members, even first born sons who disavow god to be released

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.[18]

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.[19]

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)[20] as "fountains". The Arabic verb translated "gushed forth" (fara فَارَ) means overflowed or boiled in the context of water in a cooking pot[21], 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,[22] 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)[22]

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).[23] 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.[23]

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)[24] does not have a parallel in the bible,[25] but does in other Judeo-Christian (later) works.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28]

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.[29] Moses's salvation from persecution after manslaughter is commemorated with similar consideration of Moses’s mental condition.[30]

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)"[31]

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)[32] 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:[33]

"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.[34]

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.[35]

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)"[36]

Allah keeps the heavens and the birds from falling

Do they not see the birds above them with wings outspread and [sometimes] folded in? None holds them [aloft] except the Most Merciful. Indeed He is, of all things, Seeing.
Quran 67:19
Do they not look at the birds, held poised in the midst of (the air and) the sky? Nothing holds them up but (the power of) Allah. Verily in this are signs for those who believe
Quran 16:79

The same verb for holding (amsaka) appears in Quran 22:65 and Quran 35:41 with regard to Allah holding the sky from falling to earth.

Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you whatever is on the earth and the ships which run through the sea by His command? And He restrains the sky from falling upon the earth, unless by His permission. Indeed Allah, to the people, is Kind and Merciful.
Quran 22:65
Indeed, Allah holds the heavens and the earth, lest they cease. And if they should cease, no one could hold them [in place] after Him. Indeed, He is Forbearing and Forgiving.
Quran 35:41

In his 2023 academic book on Quranic cosmology, Julien Decharneux observes that the 6th century CE Syriac Christian writer Jacob of Serugh repeatedly used birdflight as an illustration of the concept of remzā ("[The remzā] is, both in Narsai and Jacob, the medium through which God’s power operates."[37]) A very close similarity with Q. 16:79 can be seen in this homily:

See! They are suspended and stand like a bird who is suspended in the air with nothing on which it rests except the remzā.
Jacob of Sarugh, Homily on the Chariot that Ezekiel saw, Homilies 4:551, translated by Julien Decharneux[38]

A more elaborat passage makes the parallel with the Quranic concept clearer:

Look at the bird when it is standing erect and relaxed and its feathers are spread out and it is standing on nothing, and it is not heavy for that nothing on which it is set, but its wing is stable and rests as if on something, and its feet and wings are spread to and it stands there and that empty space where it is please is like the earth for it, and when it is not leaning nor resting, hanging in the air and imagining the earth hanging on nothing. The hidden force [ḥaylā kasyā] of the Divinity, that is that something on which all the creation hangs and with which it is held.
Jacob of Sarugh, Homily on the fifth day of Creation, Homilies 3:96, translated by Julien Dechaneux[39]

Just as the Quran uses the same verb to say that Allah holds up the birds and the heavens (as noted above), Jacob uses the concept of remzā (God's action in the world) also for the firmament.

[The firmament] became like an arch hanging and standing without foundation [d-lā šatīsē], borne not by columns [law ʿamūdē], but by the remzā.
Jacob of Sarugh, Homilies 3:35 quoted by Julien Decharneux[40]

The seven skies/heavens

He created seven heavens in layers. You do not see any discordance in the creation of the All-beneficent. Look again! Do you see any flaw?
Quran 67:3

The idea of multiple layered heavens above each other, including seven among other numbers, dates back to at least ancient Mesopotamian times.[41] The seven skies/heavens however, are not mentioned in the bible, though a 'third' heaven is specifically mentioned in the new Testament with Corinthians 12:2. Reynolds (2018) notes that the cosmology of seven heavens specifically however is found in both Jewish Talmudic and apocrypha texts (e.g., BT, Ḥagīgā, 12b) and Christian traditions (e.g. church fathers, Irenaeus (Proof of the Apostolic Preaching 9); in the Ascension of Isaiah, a composite text extant in Ethiopic with Jewish origins but redacted by Christians, Isaiah travels to the seventh heaven.[42] Other non-biblical Judeo-Christian works range in the number of heavens, including three (family α of Testament of Levi),  five (3 Baruch), and seven (long and shorter recensions of 2 Enoch).[43]

Late antique Christian Martyrdom

LINK TO Shaheed (Martyr) and vice versa

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.[44]

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,[45] 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

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.. [46] 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…"[47] He notes these similarities are likely caused by being on the fringes of the Roman empire.[48]


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).[49] 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.[50]

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.

Martyrs sidestep judgement day

The barzakh as the usual place after death

In other words (and unlike Christian thinking), according to the Qur’an the reward or punishment of humans does not take place immediately upon death. At death, the soul falls into a sort of sleep. The period between the death of humans and their resurrection from the dead—a period known as barzakh in Islamic tradition—is merely a time of waiting for the Day of Judgment.5 This does not mean, however, that nothing will happen to the dead during this time. In fact, certain Islamic traditions relate that a “torture of the grave” will take place during barzakh. According to these traditions two angels known as Munkir and Nakir (not found in the Qur’an) will impose punishments upon sinners in their tombs. Some accounts relate that these angels will ask certain questions of the dead about the Islamic faith, and for each wrong answer the angels will strike them with a hammer. Another tradition relates that while bodies lie in the tomb, souls will be taken away and dwell mysteriously all together under the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem—in a spot known as the “Well of Souls.” One legend reports that if you descend into the chamber below the rock in the dome and put your ear to the rock wall, you will hear the dead speaking. What the Qur’an itself teaches is that on the Day of Judgment the soul will be awoken, the body will be raised, and the two will be united. At this, the individual, regaining consciousness, will feel as though only a moment has passed. Thus, if most Christians believe in something that might be called “immediate retribution” (that souls will be sent to heaven or hell after an individual judgment after death), most Muslims believe that a “delayed retribution” will take place only after the collective resurrection of the dead on the Day of Judgment.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 71-72). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Similarities - but not exact parralels

Souls fall 'asleep' at death

The Sleep of Souls This notion that souls will fall “asleep” at death is vividly depicted in two qur’anic stories. The first of these is contained in one verse of Sura 2 and has to do with a man and his donkey:

Or him who came upon a township as it lay fallen on its trellises. He said, “How will God revive this after its death?!” So God 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 the bones, how We raise them up and then clothe them with flesh!” When it became evident to him, he said, “I know that God has power over all things.” (Q 2:259)

The man in this story (which is connected to a Jewish tale about Jerusalem)6 has no sense that a hundred years has passed: he feels as though it has been only “a day or part of a day” since he died, or “fell asleep,” so he is surprised to learn that he has slept for one hundred years. According to the Qur’an this is what the experience of death will be like: we will fall “asleep” and will be “woken up” on the Day of Judgment. Yet even if a hundred (or a million) years have passed, we will experience this time as though it were “a day or part of a day.”
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 72-73). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

footnote 6 from above:

6. This verse is related to an anecdote found in the Paraleipomena of Jeremiah (a Jewish text, also known as 4 Baruch, from the second century AD) by which Abimelech (see Jer 38:7–13) is made to fall asleep just before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and is awoken sixty-six years later, when Jerusalem lies in ruins.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 254). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Souls are taken away at 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).[1][51]

He mentions sleep resembles death, and Xtain writers wrote about sleep metaphorically Jesus's death and waking up like the resurrection; this taken literally by Muhammad, could well have been done by Arabic people pre-Islam.

Arguments for resurrection

Few arguments are more common in the Qur’an than the analogy that it makes between God’s ability to bring a dead body to life and the way in which rain brings a barren land back to life:

17So glorify God when you enter evening and when you rise at dawn. 18To Him belongs all praise in the heavens and the earth, at nightfall and when you enter noontime. 19He 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]. (Q 30:17–19; cf. Q 16:65, 43:11, 50:6–11, 57:17)

One can imagine that this argument would be meaningful in the arid climate of the Middle East. In many places, when autumn rains come after a long dry summer, one can see a barren landscape turn dramatically green.10
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 76-77). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Footnote 10 above :

10. This argument in the Qurʾan, that the resurrection of the dead is like the effect of rain on dry earth, might be related to a Jewish tradition that God will resurrect the dead with dew. For example, see b. Shabbat 88b.
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 254). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Expansions on the afterlife

The vividness of the qur’anic hell is not shared with the New Testament, in which Jesus refers only in allusive ways to the punishment of the afterlife. The closest the Gospels get to descriptions of the punishment of hell are those passages that speak of “fire,” “wailing,” and “gnashing” of teeth. In the explanation of the Parable of the Weeds (or “Tares”) told in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus explains the following: 40Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. 41The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. (Matt 13:40–42)

Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 81-82). 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.15
Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (pp. 82-83). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

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.

Reynolds, Gabriel Said. Allah: God in the Qur'an (p. 88). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

The term sakīnah

The term sakīnah is a Rabbinic rather than a biblical one[52] describing the physical manifestation of God on Earth. [53] This term is used in the Qur'an,

The Qur’anic noun sakīnah appears six times, mostly in Medinan verses. Linked to the root s-k-n (“rest, repose, stillness”), it denotes a divinely granted calm or fortification, often in situations of fear or external threat. In five occurrences (Q 9:26, 9:40, 48:4, 48:18, 48:26), God “sends down” sakīnah into believers’ hearts, strengthening their faith. A related concept appears in Q 3:154 and 8:11, where God sends down “security.” The sixth occurrence (Q 2:248) associates sakīnah with the Israelite ark, providing reassurance of Saul’s legitimacy as king. Etymologically, sakīnah derives from rabbinic Hebrew/Aramaic shekinah (“God’s dwelling/presence”), but the Qur’an reshapes its meaning. Unlike the Jewish sense of God’s tangible presence in a place, the Qur’anic sakīnah emphasizes inner reassurance and divine support, integrating it into a theology of God fortifying believers’ hearts rather than manifesting in sacred locations. (Sinai summary pp390-391)

  • A Talmudic term, not biblical meaning X
  • Durie - biblical concept of god coming down to earth that the rabbinical concept is based off not developed in the quran
  • Word used in Quran Medinan passages - alongside jews - likely taken from them
  • However mixed with the same pre-existing Arabic root to make a slightly new related meaning
  • Get Durie Reference in there so ppl read his book

Sinai sums up

..Etymologically, the word is descended from rabbinic Hebrew shәkinah or its Aramaic equivalent (WMJA 53–55; NB 24–25; JPND 208–209; CQ 21; FVQ 174; Stewart 2021, 42–54), which in targumic and rabbinic texts designate God’s “dwelling” or “presence” in the world and can on occasion appear as a downright hypostasis of the deity (see DTTM 1573 and DJBA 1145 as well as the overview in Unterman et al. 2007). The Qur’anic use of sakīnah, a word that was presumably adopted from the language of the Medinan Jews, is an evident case in which the semantics of a loanword underwent far-reaching adjustment in accordance with the meaning of its Arabic root s-k-n, conveying rest and calmness. As a result, the Qur’anic sakīnah, though explicitly identified as being God’s, has a distinctly psychological slant and does not convey the presence of God at a particular place, as does the rabbinic concept (Durie 2018, 178–179). One may surmise that the Jews of Medina employed the word sakīnah to describe God’s presence in the ark of the covenant (Q 2:248). This would be in line with God’s statement in Exod 25:8 that he will “dwell” in the Israelites’ sanctuary, which the Targum Onqelos renders, “And I shall cause my presence (shkinti) to dwell among them.” The Qur’an, by contrast, integrates the term into the theme of God’s reassuring impact on the believers’ hearts, into which the sakīnah is sent down according to Q 48:4 (see AHW 67 and under → qalb). Thus, while the concept’s original doctrinal context was a theology of God’s presence at particular places and times (see Durie 2018, 179), in its Qur’anic reception it is absorbed into what one might call the Islamic scripture’s theology of divine fortification: the prime arena in which God can be experienced as present, above and beyond his universal role as the world’s creator and sustainer (→ khalaqa), is the human heart.
sakīnah | composure, tranquillity Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (pp. 391). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

THe term khalāq

Further vocabulary discussed: ummī | scriptureless, not hitherto endowed with a scriptural revelation    baraʾa tr. | to create (s.th.)    al-ākhirah | what is final or last, the final state of things, the hereafter Q 2:102.200 and 3:77 threaten various kinds of people with having “no share in the hereafter” (mā lahu fī l-ākhirati min khalāqin or lā khalāqa lahum fī l-ākhirati). The noun khalāq also occurs, in the general sense of “portion, share,” in Q 9:69, where it refers to people’s “share” of goods in the present life. Khalāq may reasonably be suspected of being a loanword, given that it stands apart from the otherwise prevalent semantics of the Arabic root kh-l-q to do with creation (thus in the Qur’an; see under → khalaqa) or, outside the Qur’an, with smoothness or with being old and worn out (AEL 800). Moreover, the word’s morphological pattern faʿāl is usually associated with verbal nouns (e.g., fasād, dhahāb) and adjectives (e.g., jawād, jabān). What might be the word’s ancestor, then? Syriac ḥelqā means one’s allotted fate (FVQ 124–125; SD 460) and does not appear to be used in an eschatological context. Instead, at least at Q 2:102.200 and 3:77 the Qur’an’s diction is convincingly linked with a rabbinic turn of phrase (BEḲ 87; Hirschfeld 1902, 114; JPND 198–199; FVQ 124–125; BEQ 459). The latter is exemplified, for instance, by a Mishnaic declaration that all of Israel have “a share (ḥēleq) in the world to come (la-ʿolam ha-ba),” followed by a catalogue of various groups of sinners said to have “no share in the world to come” (m. Sanh. 10). The expression “a share in the world to come” (ḥēleq la-ʿolam ha-ba) has two more occurrences in the Mishnah (m. Abot 3:11 and m. Sanh. 6:2) as well as a great number of further attestations in the Tosefta (e.g., t. Sanh. 9:5), the two Talmuds (e.g., b. B. Mәṣ. 59a), and Genesis Rabbah (e.g., Gen. Rab. 1:5). Hence, Q 2:102.200 and 3:77, while certainly reflecting rabbinic rabbinic diction, are unlikely to be a targeted allusion specifically to m. Sanh. 10. The claim that the three verses at hand echo a rabbinic turn of phrase is strengthened by the Medinan provenance of all Qur’anic occurrences of khalāq. To be sure, one may query why Hebrew ḥēleq should become Arabic khalāq. As regards the long ā vowel, Horovitz notes that the Hebrew word corresponds to Jewish Aramaic ḥulaqa (DJPA 191; DJBA 439), which is morphologically closer to the Arabic form (JPND 198–199). Like Hebrew ḥēleq, Aramaic ḥulaqa is employed to refer to an individual’s share in this world and in the next in the so-called Second Targum on the book of Esther (ḥulaqa b-ʿalma haden wa-b-ʿalma d-ate; Grossfeld 1994, 42 = Esther 2:7; Ego 1996, 88; the passage is pointed out in JPND 198–199). As regards the transition from word-initial ḥ to kh, there is at least some evidence that such a shift was not impossible: Arabic khardal, “mustard” (Q 21:47, 31:16), is descended from Aramaic or Syriac ḥardlā (Fraenkel 1886, 141; Pennachio 2013, 94), and Arabic khamr, “wine” (e.g., Q 2:219, 5:90–91), is generally derived from ḥamrā (Fraenkel 1886, 160–161; FVQ 125–126; Pennachio 2013, 91–92). In sum, it seems safe to posit that the word khalāq was employed, and very likely coined, by Arabophone Jews in order to render a common rabbinic idiom about the prospect of salvation in the world to come.73 Like → ummī, “scriptureless,” or baraʾa, “to create” (→ khalaqa), khalāq would seem to be a case of the Qur’an employing terminology current among the Medinan Jews.
khalāq | share Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p. 281-282). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

Parallels in the hadith

The /r/AcademicQuran SubReddit are also compiling a list of Talmudic Parallels with the hadith listed here talmudparallels, and also linked Levi Jacober's 1935, Ph.D. dissertation 'The traditions of al-Bukhārī and their aggadic parallels', which collects the numerous traditions of al-Bukhari which bear a striking similarity to the aggadic (non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism) traditions to be found chiefly in the Talmud and the Midrashim for those interested in this topic further.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ darajah - Lanes Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary p.869 Lane's Lexicon Quranic Research - root درج
  3. ↑ See uses of the word for ranks/degrees applied to people in the Qur'an on the noun section of Qur'an Corpus root dāl rā jīm (د ر ج) page
  4. ↑ darajah | rank Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (p.283-289). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
  5. ↑ Ibid pp. 288. As one would expect, those who believe and do righteous deeds will have “the highest ranks” (Q 20:75: fa-ulāʾika lahumu l-darajātu l-ʿulā). But there also seem to be differences of rank among the believers themselves. For instance, God “favours in rank” (faḍḍala … darajatan) those who “contend (→ jāhada) by means of their possessions and their lives” over those who remain sitting at home (Q 4:95–96; cf. also 9:20), and according to Q 57:10, those who have “spent and contended before the decisive success (al-fatḥ)”—meaning probably before the conquest of Mecca10—are “greater in rank” than those who only did so afterwards. It follows that disparities of merit among believers must correspond to different levels of eschatological reward.
  6. ↑ E.g. commentaries on Q46:19, Q8:4, Q17:21 or any other verse listed in this section.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 darajah | rank Sinai, Nicolai. Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary (pp. 289). Kindle Edition. These hymns can be read: SAINT EPHREM HYMNS ON PARADISE Introduction and translation by Sebastian Brock. St Vladmimir's Seminary Press, Crestwoof, New York, 1990. E.g. Hymn 2 on pp. 84-89 (p.82-87/239 of the PDF)
  8. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds (2018) The Qurʾān and Bible: Text and Commentary p. 654
  9. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible pp. 585-6
  10. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 524 The BEQ reference in the quote is to H. Speyer Die biblischen Erzahtungen im Qoran 1931, reprint 1961
  11. ↑ Targum Sheni - Encyclopedia.com (originally from the Encyclopaedia Judaica)
  12. ↑ William St. Clair Tisdall, The Sources of Islam translated and abridged by William Muir, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1901, pp. 26-27
  13. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 377
  14. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, "The Quran and Bible:Text and Commentary", New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018 p. 553. This is regarding Quran 24:45, though on p. 508 Reynolds cross references the same parallel regarding the other verse, Quran 21:30, which is more clearly a statement in the context of the Genesis creation story, like Ephrem's comment.
  15. ↑ Ephrem's commentary on Genesis - Faber Institute.com
  16. ↑ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. “Noah’s Lost Son in the Qurʾān.” Arabica, vol. 64, no. 2, 2017, pp. 147-148. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26396237. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025.
  17. ↑ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. “Noah’s Lost Son in the Qurʾān.” Arabica, vol. 64, no. 2, 2017, pp. 129–48. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26396237. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025.
  18. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 858
  19. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 841
  20. ↑ Lane's Lexicon p. 318 تَّنُّورُ
  21. ↑ Lane's Lexicon p. 2457 فور
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 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
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 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.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ Moses and the Holy Valley Ṭuwan: On the biblical and midrashic background of a qurʾānic scene. Rubin 2014. Ibid. pp. 75.
  26. ↑ Ibid. pp. 76-78
  27. ↑ 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.
  28. ↑ The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect Ibid. pp. 201.
  29. ↑ Ibid. pp. 201-202.
  30. ↑ Ibid. pp. 202.
  31. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 598
  32. ↑ Kugel, James L.. The Bible As It Was (Kindle Edition. pp. 432-433). Harvard University Press.
  33. ↑ Ibid. pp. 432 - 433 (Kindle Edition)
  34. ↑ Ibid. pp. 433 - 434 (Kindle Edition)
  35. ↑ 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.
  36. ↑ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qurʾān and Bible p. 339
  37. ↑ Julien Decharneux (2023), Creation and Contemplation: The Cosmology of the Qur’ān and Its Late Antique Background, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 149
  38. ↑ Ibid. p. 160
  39. ↑ Ibid. p. 160
  40. ↑ Ibd. p. 146
  41. ↑ Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. Wayne Horowitz. Eisenbrauns. 1998. ISBN 9780931464997. Chapter "Seven Heavens and Seven Earths". pp. 208-222. Read PDF online for free on internetarchive.org: horowitzmesopotamian cosmic geography mesopotamian civilizations -.pdf
  42. ↑ Reynolds, Gabriel Said. The Qur'an and the Bible: Text and Commentary. pp. 843. Yale University Press, 2018.
  43. ↑ Stephen Wunrow. 2022. Biblical Research. Paul among the Travelers into Heaven: 2 Corinthians 12:1–4 and Other Early Jewish and Christian Ascent Texts. pp.39-41.
  44. ↑ 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
  45. ↑ Thomas Sizgorich. Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity: Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion). 2008. University of Pennsylvania Press.
  46. ↑ Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 299).
  47. ↑ Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 301).
  48. ↑ Ibid. (Kindle Edition. pp. 301).
  49. ↑ 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.
  50. ↑ Ibid. pp. 251-252
  51. ↑ 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”. <pp40-41> 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. <pp42> Tesei, Tommaso. (2016). 2 The barzakh and the Intermediate State of the Dead in the Quran. 10.1163/9789004301368_003. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344524709_2_The_barzakh_and_the_Intermediate_State_of_the_Dead_in_the_Quran 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)
  52. ↑ Bible Hub - Shekinah
  53. ↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur'an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion. pp.177-178. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018

Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and Arabian inscription parallels.

Strong similarities with immediate environment than special eternal non-influenced by culture god.


Poetry Parallels

Qur'an#Poetry and prose

Articles

  • Dmitriev , K 2009 , An Early Christian Arabic Account of the Creation of the World . in A Neuwirth , N Sinai & M Marx (eds) , The Qurʾān in Context : Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾānic Milieu . Texts and Studies on the Qurʾān , vol. 6 , Brill , pp. 349-387 . https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004176881.i-864.81

Link:https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/4426

https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/4426/K_Dmitriev_EarlyChristianArabic.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y


Morals

daf

Cosmology

Mountains

sds

Not only is this metonymy immediately understandable thanks to the early ‘excuse’ in Q 79:32: wa-l-jibāla arsāhā (“and established the mountains firmly”), it is also already prepared in the poetry (see Zuhayr 13:101: a-lā lā arā ʿalā l-hawādithi bāqiyan wa-lā khālidan illā l-jibāla l-rawāsiyā, “I see nothing that can withstand the processes or is eternal but the established mountains”; see SEAP, 516). Because it is based on the image of the anchor throwing, cf. Noah’s Ark Q 11:41: wa-qāla rkabū fīhā bi-smi llāhi majrāhā wa-mursāhā (“He said: ‘Embark in it, in the name of God make it journey and drop anchor.’​”). The idea of the mountains as supporting pillars on which the tent of Heaven rests can already be found in the Psalms, for example Ps 104, which is reflected in the Qurʾan in Q 78 (see HC 1, 274–289).
Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 162). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
V. 19–21 wa-l-arḍa madadnāhā wa-alqaynā fīhā rawāsiya wa-anbatnā fīhā min kulli shayʾin mawzūn / wa-jaʿalnā lakum fīhā ma ʿāyisha wa-man lastum lahu bi-rāziqīn / wa-in min shayʾin illā ʿindanā khazāʾinuhu wa-mā nunazziluhu illā bi-qadarin ma ʿlūm] The āyāt series, which began with the embellishment of Heaven, continues with the description of the earth, in which—according to the same worldview that is also used in ancient Arabic poetry—mountains (here metonymically referred to as “solidly founded,” rawāsin,) serve as the pillars of the sky and are therefore firmly fixed (see Zuhayr, Diwan 13:101; SEAP, 361: a-lā lā arā ʿalā l-hawādithi bāqiyan wa-lā khālidan illā l-jibāla l-rawāsiya, “Well I see nothing that face the blows of fate and outlast them as the firmly inserted mountains”). For this idea of the earth as a tent covered by Heaven spread evenly, see Ps 104 and see its qurʾanic paraphrase in Q 78:6–16 (on this HC 1, 274–289). Qualifying the vegetation as mawzūn could refer to its paired character; elsewhere min kulli zawjin bahīj (Q 50:7), min kulli zawjin karīm (Q 26:7) are mentioned.
Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 136). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Style

dsf

Words

Direct phrases

Ruins aṭlāl ( sing. ṭalal)

https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/ccs.2022.0454

https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20180820-the-6th-century-poems-making-a-comeback

Saj3

https://phoenixblog.typepad.com/blog/2016/07/the-quran-in-relation-to-pre-islamic-poetry.html#:~:text=The%20Quran's%20poetic%20style%20seems,different%20Pre%2DIslamic%20Arabic%20dialects.

Negative textuality

Inscriptions

pp40 Ahmed

Other

Judgement day would be close to Muhammad's time

The idea of judgment day being imminent was a common belief in late antiquity, with many prominent Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings preaching the eschaton (the purposeful end of the world as part of Gods divine plan for judgement day) was about to happen, which continued in early Islam.[1] Muhammad preached this belief in the Qur'an.[2]

The Hour has drawn near and the moon is split.
Quran 54:1

(See also e.g. Quran 40:18 and Quran 53:57 where it's imminence/closeness is implied in the words azifati / āzifat[3]) Some take Quran 54:1 as a future prediction of a sign of judgment day, however Neuwirth (2024) notes the issue with interpreting this as a future event is not based on the Qur'an words but later traditions.[4] Alongside the moon splitting in this verse, which given the dubious scientific issues and lack of sighting's from anywhere else in the world, modern academics have noted was most likely referring to a celestial phenomenon like a lunar eclipse,[5] given as a sign of the hour close to happening, which the Meccans rejected due to it seemingly being unrelated to Muhammad.[6] The hours non-arrival seemed to be a repeated source of contention with his audience, with opponents regularly questioning when it would arrive, and questioning why the punishment that was promised to them has not yet come.[7] Though one might point out there may appear to be tension with the creation of a law-giving prophet and community building in the Medinan Qur'an, Shoemaker and Cook point out those preaching the end of the world often also preached living righteously until the hour arrived.[8] Alongside the plain meaning of the text, there is ample evidence this belief was held by many early Muslims too, including very early canonical and sahih rated hadith (see: failed eschatological predictions in the hadith) with more cited by Shoemaker.[9] There are also many other non-canonical but early (within the first century of Islam) traditions stating the end of the eschaton would occur within Muhammad's lifetime or shortly after,[10] in other sources such biographical 'seerah' material[11] Later Islamic scholars like al-Tabari would often use metaphorical interpretations of these to reconcile the continued passage of time by pushing the predicted end date into the future.[12] Given we are still here more than a millennium after it was stated, we can say like other contemporary preachers who thought they were at the end of history, this prediction was not historically accurate.

External Links

  • dd

References

  1. ↑ For examples of sudden end times being promised due to political movements in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrianism literature in the centuries preceding Islam, see Shoemaker, Stephen J. The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Chapters 1 - 4 And for early Islam, see chapters 5 and 6.
  2. ↑ Ibid. pp. 124-132
  3. ↑ Lane's Lexicon Quranic Research for root ازف Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary أَزِفَتِ / (ءَازِفَة Book 1. pp 53.
  4. ↑ Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (pp. 57-58). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
  5. ↑ Ibid. pp. 56 - 57 (Citing Uri Rubin who suggests a partial lunar eclipse, who also notes Rudi Paret came to the same conclusion in “Muhammad’s message in Mecca: warnings, signs, and miracles" [The case of the splitting of the moon (Q 54:1-2)]. in Jonathan E. Brockopp, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (Cambridge, 2010), 39-60. Uri Rubin. Rudi Paret's opinion is noted in footnote 9 pp. 44.
  6. ↑ Ibid. pp. 57
  7. ↑ Shoemaker, Stephen J.. The Death of a Prophet (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion) (p. 161-163). University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition. (For example Q79:42, and he is told to hasten it in Q29:53, cf: Q11:8, and questioned as why the punishment promised to them hasn't come in Q7:70, 77; Q10:48; Q13:6; Q21:38; Q22:47; Q46:22).
  8. ↑ Ibid. pp. 159
  9. ↑ Shoemaker, Stephen J. The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. pp. 131-132 & pp. 142-144
  10. ↑ Shoemaker, Stephen J.. The Death of a Prophet (p. 174-178). Kindle Edition.
  11. ↑ Ibid. & Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2018. The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. pp. 142-144.
  12. ↑ Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2018. The Death of a Prophet (p. 173-174). Kindle Edition. [Note the following numerical symbolism interpretation of the eschatological hadith are also false predictions as this would move judgment day to no later than ~1,132AD (As 500 years after Muhammad's death being traditionally recorded in 632AD)] "Perhaps the most famous effort to reconcile the two fingers tradition with the Hour’s delay occurs at the beginning of al-Ṭabarī’s History, where he rather cleverly deploys this tradition in order to place his work within an extended version of Islam’s eschatological calendar.231 This he achieves by transforming these eschatological warnings of imminent doom into an orderly model of historical periodization that frames his historical narrative. Al-Ṭabarī here concludes that since the index finger is one-fourteenth shorter than the middle finger, and the total length of the world’s existence is known to be seven thousand years, Muhammad clearly meant to signal that the Hour would arrive five hundred years after him, thus leaving another two hundred years or so beyond al-Ṭabarī before the world would come to an end. In the same context, al-Ṭabarī also identifies a second eschatological tradition that he employs to similar effect. According to this report, Muhammad once addressed his followers at a time “when the sun had almost set and only a small sliver of it remained visible,” and he explained to them that “as compared to what remains of our world, that which has passed is like what remains of this day as compared to what has passed of it, and you will see only a little (more) of the sun.”232 The eschatological immediacy of this ḥadīth is rather clear, and once again it seems quite unlikely that such a prediction would have been ascribed to Muhammad very long after his death. Yet here al-Ṭabarī deploys a similar hermeneutic strategy that enables him again to push the Hour into the future. When Muhammad spoke these words, according to al-Ṭabarī, the day was half past, and since a day with God is as a thousand years, the Hour’s advent could be expected five hundred years after the time when Muhammad spoke. In this way, what was presumably a very early expression of Islamic belief in the Hour’s immediacy could be reconciled with the centuries that had elapsed between Muhammad’s warnings and al-Ṭabarī himself. By reinterpreting the tradition’s “small sliver” of the sun as somehow the equivalent of midday, al-Ṭabarī postpones the Hour into a distant future."
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