Biblical Figures in the Koran

What If?

The contents of the Koran, according to the Koran, were delivered by the Archangel Gabriel to a wealthy merchant from the Quraysh tribe of Mecca by the name of Muhammad during impressive private meetings, two of which are described here:

53:1 By the star when it goes down,

53:2 Your Companion (Muhammad) has not gone astray or erred,

53:3 And he does not talk capriciously.

53:4 It (the Qur’an) is only a Revelation being revealed,

53:5 Taught him by a mighty one (the angel Gabriel),

53:6 Possessed of steadfastness. And so he arose,

53:7 While he was on the highest horizon;

53:8 Then, he came closer and hovered around;

53:9 Coming thus within two bows’ length or closer.

53:10 Then (Allah) revealed to His servant what He revealed.

53:11 The heart did not deny what it saw.

53:12 Do you then dispute with him (Muhammad) concerning what he saw;

53:13 He has indeed seen him (Gabriel) a second time;

53:14 By the Lotus Tree of the outermost limit.

53:15 Close by it is the Garden of Refuge.

53:16 As the Lotus Tree was covered by that which covers it;

53:17 His gaze did not shift nor did he exceed the bound.

53:18 He saw some of the Great Signs of his Lord.

In surah 97, The Power, Allah intimates that He sent the whole thing in just one night.

97:1 We have sent it (the Qur’an) down on the night of Power.

97:2 If only you knew what is the Night of Power.

97:3 The Night of Power is better than a thousands months.

97:4 The angels and the Spirit (the archangel Gabriel) descend thereon by the Leave of their Lord with every Command.

97:5 It is peace, till the break of dawn.

Then again, in another revelation, it was sent piecemeal.

17:106 It is a Qur’an which we have divided into parts that you may recite it with deliberation, and We revealed it piecemeal.

One thing for sure, the Koran did not spring from a madman’s imagination, and is definitely not the work of the Devil, and on this we have the Koran’s unequivocal assurances.

81:19 It is truly the discourse of a noble Messenger (the Angel Gabriel who brought Allah’s revelations to the Prophet);

81:20 Who has power, with the Lord of the Throne, and is highly placed;

81:21 Obeyed, then trustworthy.

81:22 Your Companion (the Prophet Muhammad) is not mad;

81:23 He saw him (Gabriel) upon the luminous horizon.

81:24 He is not, regarding the Unseen niggardly;

81:25 And it is not the discourse of a devil, accursed.

81:26 Where, then, will you go?

81:27 It is only a Reminder to all mankind;

81:28 To whoever of you who wishes to reform their ways.

A master copy of the Koran, written in Arabic and carved in some sort of tablet, is said to be with Allah at all times.

12:2 We have revealed it as an Arabic Qur’an, that perchance you may understand.

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43:3 We have made it an Arabic Qur’an that perchance you may understand.

43:4 And, indeed, it is in the Mother of the Book, with Us, lofty and wise.

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85:21 Yet, it is a glorious Qur’an,

85:22 In a Well-Preserved Tablet.

Allah takes a very dim view of those who would suggest that the Koran might be less than what it is.

41:26 The unbelievers said: “Do not listen to this Qur’an, but babble in reading it, that perchance you might win.”

41:27 Truly, We shall make the unbelievers taste a terrible punishment, and We shall reward them for the worst of what they used to do.

41:28 That is the reward of Allah’s enemies, the Fire wherein they shall have an eternal abode, as a reward for that they used to repudiate Our Signs.

As mentioned in the Introduction to Shared Prophets, divergent versions of the Koran existed until the very human Mushaf Uthman [644-656] the third Caliph decided which compilation would be dogma. The version approved by Uthman is most often referred to as the Uthman Codex. The earliest copy in existence of the Codex, dated approximately 150 years after Uthman’s death, can be found in the library of the 16th century Khast-Imam Madrassa in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In suggesting the following, I do not in any way wish to imply that the Koran is not what the Koran says it is, or to diminish its importance.

What if we took a leap of faith and imagined, if only for a moment, that the Koran in Tashkent even in its incompleteness  (only one third of the original surviving) is not an exact replica of the one in Heaven, perhaps far from it.

What if we took a leap of faith and speculated that the revelations concerning stories from the Bible that made it into the Koran were not all sent by Allah, but recollections of what the Prophet saw and heard, and which he took to be communications from the Almighty.

It could easily have happened, even the Koran admits to such a possibility.

25:5 And they say: “Legends of the ancients which he solicited their writing down. Hence they are dictated to him morning and evening.”

6:25 And some of them listen to you, but We have cast veils over their hearts, lest they should understand it (the Koran) and a deafness in their ears. And even where they see every sign, they will not believe in it; so that when they come to dispute with you, the unbelievers will say: “This is nothing but fables of the ancients.”

16:24 And if it is said to them: “What has your Lord revealed?” they say: “Fables of the ancients.”

And who told the Prophet Muhammad about these “Fables of the ancients”? The Jews it would seem.

25:4 The unbelievers say: “This (the Qur’an) is nothing but deceit, which he (Muhammad) has invented and was assisted therein by other people (the Jews).” They have simply come up with wrongdoing and falsehood.

To hear these "Fables", God’s Messenger  would only have had to travel 241 miles (340 km) from his home in Mecca to the oasis city of Medina which is on the caravan route to Damascus.

During the time of the Prophet there lived in Medina three Jewish tribes: the Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qurayzah, refugees from the 2nd century CE war with the Romans which led to the second Jewish Diaspora (the first being the 8th–6th century BCE conquests of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah by the Babylonians and expulsion of the population). They would have been more than willing, I am convinced, to discuss their scriptures with a regular and inquisitive visitor like the young Muhammad.

As the budding Prophet Muhammad, God’s Messenger would get the opportunity to rub shoulders, on an almost daily basis, with the Jews of Medina when he sought refuge there from his fellow Meccans who wanted to kill him, and all his followers.

The Meccans had had enough of the believers and what they considered a detestable, intolerant religion which required them to abandon the gods of their ancestors and worship only this Allah.

Making things worse, they were expected to acknowledge their fellow tribesman Muhammad, a man they knew well, as this Allah's earth-bound intermediary.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the Jew of Medina, Islam would have been stillborn. When Muhammad sought refuge in Medina, he was welcomed by its citizens, in large part because he had the approval and support of the Jews of the city. The Jews could not help but be welcoming to a man who preached that the god of the Hebrew Scriptures was the one and only god.

Muhammad had close, even cordial relations with the Jews of Medina for a number of years, until the war with Mecca caused him to turn upon his benefactors and slaughter, enslave, dispossess and/or exile all of them. He could not have avoided during his interaction with the Jews of Medina hearing stories about their past, stories from the Old Testament.

What about the Prophet's knowledge of Jesus? Could he have learnt about his life and teaching from someone other than Allah via the Angel Gabriel?

Muhammad was only twelve when he first accompanied his uncle on a business trip to Syria. On the way, the caravan passed by a Christian monastery near present day Basra where a Christian monk named Bahira invited the merchants to stay overnight.

Later that evening he invited the young Muhammad to sit with the men of the caravan and listen to stories which would have included stories about the life and teachings of Jesus. Remember, this was pre-Islam and after the collapse of most of the Roman Empire. It was a time when people of every faith could get together and without fear, talk about their gods and their religious beliefs.

The young Muhammad would return to this monastery many times during his extensive travels throughout the Middle East. In fact, in a rare moment of what could pass as fondness for members of another religion, here is what Allah has to say about monks and priests whom His Messenger invariably met during his travels.

5:82 You shall find the most hostile people to the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists; and you shall find the closest in affection to the believers those who say: “We are Christians.” For among them are priests and monks, and they are not arrogant.

It was not only during his travels that the future Prophet Muhammad would have become acquainted with stories about Jesus. In his day, before he made Islam the only acceptable religion, Christianity was well established on the Arabian Peninsula thanks, in part, to the pioneering efforts of one of the original apostles, Bartholomew.

In fact, in another variation of the childless patriarch story, Islamic folklore would have us believe that it was to the Christian god, to whom the Prophet’s grandfather prayed when his gods would not provide him with sons.

The Christian god to whom Abd al-Muttalib prayed would eventually give him ten sons, the tenth, being Abdullah the Prophet’s father (see appendix The Jinn).

The evidence presented here for how the Prophet Muhammad might have become acquainted with of the life and times of the heroes (and a few villains) of the Bible is not conclusive proof that the information was not delivered by the Angel Gabriel. To accept this evidence may require a leap of faith (something the believers often ask unbelievers to do), which I hope you will make after reading the Koran's version of the story of Abraham, Moses, Noah...