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Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature: Difference between revisions
Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature (view source)
Revision as of 11:11, 31 August 2024
, 31 August→Possible Channels and Circulation of Stories: Added a final parallel, and linked the 'pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam' as a main article into a relevant section.
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==Possible Channels and Circulation of Stories== | ==Possible Channels and Circulation of Stories== | ||
{{Main|Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam}} | |||
The Quran itself (especially Surah Imran) is concerned that some people of the book were trying to lead the believers astray. Many academic scholars have further noticed that the | The Quran itself (especially Surah Imran) is concerned that some people of the book were trying to lead the believers astray. Many academic scholars have further noticed that the elliptical and homiletic way many of the stories are told in the Quran indicates that their basic outlines must have been in circulation already, [[Pre-Islamic Arab Religion in Islam#Islamic Prophet Narratives|common knowledge to its listeners]]. Some even suspect that the direct stories were already circulating in Arabic and in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. There is also a hadith narrated from Abu Huraira that the Jews used to explain the Torah in Arabic to the Muslims ({{Bukhari|6|60|12}}) | ||
===Syriac Christian missionary activity=== | ===Syriac Christian missionary activity=== | ||
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{{Quote|Jacob of Sarugh, Homilies 3:35 quoted by Julien Decharneux<ref>Ibd. p. 146</ref>|[The firmament] became like an arch hanging and standing without foundation [d-lā šatīsē], borne not by columns [law ʿamūdē], but by the remzā.}} | {{Quote|Jacob of Sarugh, Homilies 3:35 quoted by Julien Decharneux<ref>Ibd. p. 146</ref>|[The firmament] became like an arch hanging and standing without foundation [d-lā šatīsē], borne not by columns [law ʿamūdē], but by the remzā.}} | ||
== The Rich Man and the Poor Man == | |||
Rayhan Durmaz (2022) notes<ref>Reyhan Durmaz. Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond. (pp. 77-78.) University of California Press (2022)</ref> In the {{Quran|18|32-44}} following the story of the Companions of the Cave, describes a narrative of two men: a wealthy man who boasts about his material wealth and a poor man who admonishes him, reminding him of the transient nature of worldly possessions. Eventually, the rich man loses all his wealth, repents, and acknowledges the supremacy of God, wishing he had not associated anything with him. | |||
Durmaz (2022) compares this to the biblical parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus from the Gospel of Luke, noting that both stories share a similar narrative arc of reversed fortunes, where the rich are punished and the poor are rewarded in the afterlife. However, while there are parallels in themes of repentance, helplessness, and the resurrection, the details and contexts of the stories differ significantly. The Quranic narrative focuses on monotheism and warns against associating others with God, while the biblical story discusses the consequences of earthly actions in the afterlife; which given the large homiletic tradition of the general trope in Syriac Christianity and Talmudic Judaism, and and lack of exact biblical details may be a better candidate for the parallel. This also may explain why the Islamic exegetical tradition does not make a direct connection to the Christian tradition for the hermeneutics of this passage.<ref>Reyhan Durmaz. Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond. (pp. 78-79.) University of California Press (2022)</ref> | |||
{{Quote|Reyhan Durmaz. Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond. (pp. 78.) University of California Press (2022)|The eschatological reversal of fate was certainly a common theme in ancient | |||
and late antique mythology,<sup>60</sup> including the Palestinian Talmud where we find a similar tale about a rich tax collector and a poor Torah scholar whose fates are reversed after their deaths.<sup>61</sup> As summarized above, the quranic version is relatively close to the Lucan story in its plot, for which we find a long and rich homiletic tradition. Basil of Caesarea (d. 379), Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394), Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 390), Jerome (d. 420), and Jacob of Sarug (d. 521), among others, have homilies on the Rich Man and Lazarus.<sup>62</sup> Moreover, the Quran displays considerable knowledge of the Lucan passage 16:19–31,63 as well as other parts of the Gospel of Luke.<sup>64</sup> It is likely that this knowledge was also reflected in Q18. It is worth noting that again in the Gospel of Luke there is one more story in which the fates of a rich man and a poor man are reversed (18:9–14), and just like the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, this passage was interpreted in the homiletic tradition.<sup>65</sup>}} | |||
== Parallels in the hadith == | == Parallels in the hadith == | ||