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David A. Wilson, Jr.

Kyndra Smith

English Composition II

8 February 2011

The Sources of the Qur’an

As of 2007, the World Factbook states that the world population consists of 21.02%

Muslims (CIA). That means that over a fifth of the world’s population believes that the Qur’an is

the inspired Word of God which was handed down to Muhammad for the benefit of the entire

world – an essential belief in Islam. However, the Qur’an itself seems to point to a different

origin and inspiration. It testifies that Muhammad used stories from Christian and Jewish

apocryphal literature as sources. This is a grave charge against the holy book of Islam, but it is a

necessary conclusion from the internal evidence within the Qur’an itself.

There are several reasonable objections that can be made against the charge that

Muhammad was influenced by outside sources when he composed the Qur’an. The first

objection is that Muhammad could not have come into contact with any Christian or Jewish

people during his life. To answer this first objection, the life of Muhammad should be examined.

It is most probably that Muhammad was born in AD 570 (Haykal 52). He was orphaned at a very

young age and was eventually adopted by his uncle. In the time of Muhammad, the poet was

highly respected and the merchants, including his clan, would pass the time telling stories,

especially by the poets (Islam). While Muhammad was in the care of his uncle, he went on his

first trip with the merchants to Bosra. Even at the age of twelve, he was hailed there as God’s

messenger by a Nestorian Christian monk named Bahira (Payne 12). This Bahira introduced

Muhammad to Christian teachings for the first time (Bodley 33). Muhammad would later
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encounter another Christian, Kuss ibn Saida, bishop of Nejran, at the fair at ‘Okaz which was

held close to Mecca (Bodley 34). But perhaps the most important Christian that Muhammad

knew was Waraqah. Waraqah was the cousin to Khadijah, Muhammad’s wife. Waraqah had

become a Christian before Muhammad’s calling and had even translated part of the Gospel into

the Arabic language (Haykal 85). Now, as for the Jews, “there were twenty tribes of Jewish

origin in Medina alone” by Muhammad’s time (Sell 2). The Jews also would both join and fight

with Christians at neighboring markets and during the reconstruction of the Ka’bah when

Muhammad was between twenty-five and thirty-five (Haykal 60, 73-74). This was just before

the time that Muhammad was first called upon by Gabriel at the age of forty. This securely

places Muhammad in a position to have encountered Christian and Jewish ideas, even up to the

time he was called by God.

Second, Muslims will object that Muhammad was very upright and trustworthy. He

would never lie about God or deceive people to believe in the Qur’an’s message. Muhammad’s

closest friend, Abū Bakr, even converted to Islam simply because he knew and trusted

Muhammad, as did Muhammad’s first wife, Khadijah (Haykal 85, 91). However, Muhammad

did have one known trait that affects all of mankind: Muhammad was human. Not only is human

character subject to change, it is subject to be self-seeking, deceived, and hypocritical as well. If

Muhammad was deceived by an evil spirit or his own mind, then he would have still been

honest, just incorrect regarding truth and reality. But might the power that Muhammad gained as

the new religion grew have affected his dictation of the Qur’an? This is tempting to pursue, but a

difficult task. The other evidence points to outside sources being used in the Qur’an regardless of

whether or not Muhammad was of noble character. So it is not necessary to theorize about

Muhammad’s encounters with God

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A third objection is one of the strongest. Muslims point out that even the authors within

the Bible used outside sources. The Muslim apologist, M.S.M. Saifullah, states that “Paul at least

on this occasion, was without Divine Guidance” when Paul quoted Epimenides’ Paradox in Titus

1:12 (par. 4). Therefore, Christians cannot argue that the Qur’an’s use of outside sources makes

it unauthentic or uninspired without stepping on their own toes concerning the Bible (Karîm).

However, it is true that Paul quoted Epimenides and other Greek philosophers, but Paul’s usage

is not to mention them as inspired like the Qur’an’s claims that Jesus speaking from the cradle is

inspired (mentioned in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas). Paul is simply making a point and using

an outside source to help drive the message home. Perhaps, the closest comparison that a Muslim

can use is the mention of Jude’s use of 1 Enoch and the Assumption of Moses. But, as Peter

Davids, former professor at Regents College in Vancouver, points out, “If Jude accidentally

reveals that he saw 1 Enoch on a par with Scripture, that is interesting, but since it is certainly

not in the least his intention to give us that information (in fact he was totally unaware it would

even interest us), it does not form part of the teaching of Scripture” (Kaiser et al. 756).

There are essential differences between the Islamic and Christian ideas of inerrancy.

Muslims believe that “the Qur’an claims to be the verbally inspired Word of God, copied from

the original in heaven” (Geisler and Saleeb 183). When Muhammad received a revelation, he

memorized it and then recited it to scribes. Then he would recheck by asking them to recite it

back to him (Naik). In this way, the Qur’an claims inerrancy in every Arabic text since it has

been faithfully transmitted through the centuries. The Bible, too, claims to be the Word of God,

coming from His very mouth (McDowell 334). However, the Bible is very different from the

Qur’an because God allowed the writers to reveal their own circumstances and personalities in

their works (Ghattas and Ghattas, 11). The Bible also only claims inerrancy in the original
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documents, which scholars maintain are faithfully reconstructed in our modern versions

(McDowell 348). Therefore, Muhammad’s use of fallible outside sources goes against the

understanding of Qur’anic inspiration; while the Bible can have these references depending on

genre and the writer’s given distinctions.

The final objection is that the so-called outside sources are not reliable and therefore

cannot have been influential on the Qur’an. However, even a brief analysis will make it evident

that this objection holds no water. Muhammad obviously had contact with either the following

stories or their traditions. The Jewish story of Abraham and the idols is the first example of what

can, at best, be called borrowing from the Genesis Rabbah (Shakespeare). The Genesis Rabbah is

essentially a Jewish commentary on the Book of Genesis. In the tale, Abraham’s father, Terah,

owned a shop which sold idols. One day, Terah had to leave and asked Abraham to watch the

shop while he was gone. When Terah returned, he found all of the idols smashed except for the

largest one, which had a stick in its hand. Terah asked Abraham what had happened and

Abraham explained that the largest idol destroyed the other ones. Terah became angry because

he knew that Abraham was mocking him and delivered Abraham over to Nimrod, ruler of the

land. Nimrod cast Abraham into a fire but God delivered him unharmed. In the Qur’an, we see

the same thing, especially in Surah 21:52-72 (Shakespeare). “So he [Abraham] broke them to

pieces, (All) but the biggest of them, that they might turn (And address themselves) to it”

(Qur’an 21:59)1. And after a crowd asks Abraham if he was the one who broke the idols, he

replies, “Nay, this was done by – this was their biggest one! Ask them, if they can speak

intelligently!” (Qur’an 21:63). Then the people became angry and said, “Burn him and protect

your gods, if ye do (anything at all)!” (Qur’an 21:68). Allah in turn commanded that the fire be

cool and safe for Abraham and rescued him (Qur’an 21:69-71).
1
All Qur’an quotations are from the translation by Yusuf Ali, unless otherwise noted.
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The Genesis Rabbah has been generally dated around the end of the fourth century to the

beginning of the fifth (Neusner 45). Other sources, like Holtz, Co-director of the Melton

Research Center at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, date the text between AD 400-

650 (188). The only argument that may be asserted against the Genesis Rabbah is that it could

have been composed during Muhammad’s lifetime. Given that the latest date is midway through

the seventh century, it is plausible that the Genesis Rabbah actually copied from the Qur’an. This

seems unlikely, though. Whatever date the text is does not necessarily date the actual story of

Abraham within the Genesis Rabbah. The most current date that the story could have come about

is 650 AD, but what about the oldest? Josephus seems to have no knowledge of it in the first

century AD (Antiquities). He surely would have had recollection of this story in his Antiquities if

it existed in his area, at his time. So it is most likely that the story was composed in a period

some two millennia after Abraham – from the early second to mid-seventh century AD. It would

seem most natural to conclude that either the Qur’an’s story of Abraham and the idols is based

upon a contemporary Jewish story or the Genesis Rabbah itself, the former being the most likely

source.

Another story that seems to have its origin outside of the Qur’an is that of Mary, Christ’s

mother, in her youth. In the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of James, also known as the

Protoevangelium, we read, “Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt

there, and she received food from the hand of an angel” (par. 8). Mary was dedicated to the

temple as a child under the care of Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father. Daily, Zacharias would

find that she had food which Mary attributed to an angel. The Qur’an states, “And her Lord

accepted her with full acceptance and vouchsafed to her a goodly growth; and made Zachariah

her guardian. Whenever Zachariah went into the sanctuary where she was, he found that she had
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food. He said, ‘O Mary! Whence cometh unto thee this (food)?’ She answered, ‘It is from Allah.

Allah giveth without stint to whom He will’” (Pickthall Qur’an 3:37).

It may seem like an obvious borrowing from an outside text to Western observers, but

this is a known passage by a number of Muslims that simply say that this confirms the text of the

Qur’an. Even Abdullah Yusuf Ali, one of the great translators and commentators of the Qur’an

recognizes that this story is found in Christian apocryphal works (132). Since Muslims simply

see the Protoevangelium as confirming the Qur’an, it is imperative that the source be examined

for authority. But no authority will be found. The earliest possible date for the text would be the

middle of the second century and the latest date would be the early third century before Origen

references it in passing (Cameron 108; Hamington 60). It is easy to conclude that this text was

existent before the Qur’an as is attested to by both biblical and Qur’anic scholars. However, this

text was written nearly half a century after the death of every person who directly knew Jesus on

earth. Finally, it was possibly rejected by Origen in his Commentary on Matthew, book ten,

when he mentioned it in passing as being held by some Christians because of the belief in the

perpetual virginity of Mary (Menzies, ch. 17).

The next case of the Qur’an’s borrowing is quite interesting in detail. In Sura 19:23-25,

Yusuf Ali translated, “And the pains of child birth drove her [Mary] to the trunk of a palm-tree,

she cried in anguish…. But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree), ‘Grieve not! For

thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee; and shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-

tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee.” However, Shakir translated verse 24 as “Then (the

child) called out to her from beneath her,” thus changing the voice to Christ speaking from

Mary’s womb or possibly as or after he has just been born. The child Jesus then tells Mary that

when she gets to her destination, she should tell anyone who wonders by who she had him that
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she is fasting and cannot have a conversation with anyone but God. Former Muslim and author,

Ibn Warraq, attributes this passage to the History of the Nativity of Mary and the Savior’s

Infancy which is found in The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (60). In Pseudo-Matthew, Jesus “said

to the palm, ‘O tree, bend thy branches, and refresh my mother with thy fruit. And immediately

at those words the palm bent its top down to the very feet of Mary… Then Jesus said to it, ‘Raise

thyself… and open from thy roots a vein of water which has been hid in the earth, and let the

waters flow” (Coxe, ch. 20). The difference between the story here and in the Qur’an is that in

Pseudo-Matthew, Christ has already been born and Joseph is present when Mary reaches the

palm-tree. The similarities are that the tree was a palm-tree, Christ spoke to the palm-tree and it

bent over to give its fruit, and Christ spoke to it and it stood straight up and let a stream of water

flow from beneath it.

The text is possibly from the late fifth, early sixth century (Gijsel 137; Elliott 86). Harris

Cowper mentions that Pseudo-Matthew sometimes follows the Septuagint which would suggest

that it was originally composed in Greek (liv). Another evidence for a Greek origin is that in a

Homeric hymn to the Delian Apollo, Apollo is born while his mother, Leto, grasped a palm tree.

Since Pseudo-Matthew is a compilation involving the Protoevangelium, this Homeric hymn

could account for the addition of the palm-tree story to the infancy narrative (Warraq 147). This

points to the suggested date of the late fifth to early sixth century.

This story leads into the next tale of interest, when Christ spoke as an infant. Just

following the verse on the palm-tree, Mary and Jesus reach their destination and the people start

to accuse her of being immoral because she illegitimately bore a child. Mary took the child

Jesus’ advice to not speak to men in 19:26 and in verse 30, “She pointed to the babe [suggesting

that they speak to Jesus]. They said, ‘How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?’ He
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[Jesus] said, ‘Verily, I a servant of God, who hath given the Book and made me a prophet.” This

is nearly a word for word copy of the first lines in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy which says,

“Verily, I am Jesus, the Son of God, the word…” (St. Clair-Tisdall, Sources 58). There are other

ancient texts that contain stories with Christ speaking as a child. For example, The Revelation of

the Magi also has Christ speaking as a child before and after birth (Landau 66-78).

As for the date, scholars have concluded that the fifth or sixth century AD is most likely

for the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy (Elliott 100). Also, Brent Landau, professor of Religious

Studies at the University of Oklahoma, takes great pain to date the Revelation of the Magi as

originating in the late second to early third century AD (18-25). This also could be the date of the

earliest Infancy Gospel tales. It should be noted plainly that the Arabic Infancy Gospel was never

considered inspired by any sect of Christianity (Tisdall, Original 171). Also, as Ghattas and

Ghattas, both missionaries to Muslims in North Africa, point out, when Jesus speaks in the

Qur’an, it appears more like a magic trick than a true miracle since all miracles in the New

Testament seem to point towards His deity (174). Overall, neither of these texts are authoritative

and are generally considered to contain fables.

Another short story that Muhammad mentions twice in the Qur’an is that of Jesus turning

clay pigeons into live ones. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas says that “He took the clay which

was of that fish-pond, and made it to the number of twelve sparrows…. And Jesus opened His

hands, and ordered the sparrows, saying, ‘Go up into the air, and fly; nobody will kill you.’ And

they flew…” (sec. 4). The Qur’an mentions Jesus creating birds out of clay in both Sura 5:110,

“And behold! Thou makest out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by my leave, and thou

breathest into it, and it becometh a bird by My leave,” and in Sura 3:49, “I [Jesus] have come to

you with a sign from your Lord, in that I make for you out of clay as it were, the figure of a bird,
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and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by God’s leave.” St. Clair-Tisdall states that “the

difference is sufficient to prove that Muhammad was reproducing a shortened form of it from

memory, and was not consulting any written document (Original 176). Most scholars date the

Infancy Gospel of Thomas to the end of the second century (Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace

154-155).

The last example of the Qur’an’s borrowing involves the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Sura

4:157-158 says, “That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Apostle

of God.’ – but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and

these who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to

follow for of a surety they killed him not; Nay God raised him up unto Himself; and God is

Exalted in Power, Wise.” There are two conclusions to draw from this passage. The first is that

Christ was substituted by another on the cross or that Christ swooned on the cross and escaped

His tomb. But Geisler, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, and Saleeb, former Muslim

and student of religion, state that the Muslim position is that Christ was not crucified or killed

because he was taken up to God (68). Yusuf gives a list of Christian sects that believed that

Christ did not die on the cross either. Those sects were the Docetae and Marcionites who

believed Christ never had a body and the crucifixion was an illusion, and the Basilidans who

believed that there was a substitute placed on the cross (230). It can also be seen in the Gnostic

Second Treatise of the Great Seth that Simon of Cyrene was placed on the cross while Jesus

“was rejoicing in the height over all the wealth of the archons and the offspring of their error, of

their empty glory” (Robinson 365). Another Gnostic text, the Gospel of Judas, contains the idea

that Jesus was separated from his body even before the crucifixion. The spiritual Jesus ascended

into the clouds while the corporeal Christ was killed on a cross (Kasser et al. 64, 52-52)
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There is solid evidence that Muhammad was indeed influenced by a number of outside

sources. During the two decades that he composed the Qur’an, these ideas slipped into the pages

of the world’s second largest religion’s holy book. The affect that this borrowing has on the

Qur’an is that the claims of divine inspiration are shattered. A book that reveres so many fables

from known false sources cannot be regarded as the divine word of God. Therefore, the Qur’an is

not of divine origin, but of one man’s mind.

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