WHO compiled the Quran and WHEN??? Anyone reading the entire Quran begins to wonder WHERE did these stories originate. We know, the traditional concept of having been dictated. Many of the Qurans stories and legends are recorded elsewhere and centuries before the Quran was compiled. Abraham Geiger in 1833, (also documented by the scholar, Dr. Abraham Katsh of New York University), in 1954 (The Concise Dictionary of Islam, p. 229; Jomier, The Bible and the Quran -- Henry Regency Co., Chicago, 1959, 59ff; Sell, Studies, pp. 163ff.; Guillaume, Islam, p. 13) after extensive research concluded these were the original sources: • The source of Sura 3:35-37 is the fanciful book called The Protevangelions James the Lesser. • The source of Sura 87:19 is the Testament of Abraham. • The source of Sura 27:17-44 is the Second Targum of Esther. • The fantastic tale that God made a man die for a hundred years with no ill effects on his food, drink, or donkey was a Jewish fable (Sura 2:259ff.). • The idea that Moses was resurrected and other material came from the Jewish Talmud (Sura 2:55, 56, 67). • The story in Sura 5:30,31 can also be found in pre-Islamic works from Pirke Rabbi Eleazer, the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziah and the Targum of Jerusalem. • The tale of Abraham being delivered from Nimrods fire came from the Midrash Rabbah (see Suras 21:51-71; 29:16, 17; 37:97,98). It must be also pointed out that Nimrod and Abraham did not live at the same time. Muhammad was always mixing people together in the Quran who did not live at the same time. • The non-biblical details of the visit of the Queen of Sheba (Saba) in Sura 27:20-44 came from the Second Targum of the Book of Esther. • The source of Sura 2:102 is no doubt the Midrash Yalkut (chapter 44). • The story found in Sura 7:171 of God lifting up Mount Sinai and holding it over the heads of the Jews as a threat to squash them if they rejected the law came from the Jewish book Abodah Sarah. • The story of the making of the golden calf in the wilderness, in which the image jumped out of the fire fully formed and actually mooed (Suras 7:148; 20:88), came from Pirke Rabbi Eleazer. • The seven heavens and hells described in the Quran came from the Zohar and the Hagigah. • Muhammad utilized the Testament of Abraham to teach that a scale or balance will be used on the day of judgment to weigh good and bad deeds in order to determine whether one goes to heaven or hell (Suras 42:17; 101:6-9). Arabian Sources The Quran repeats fanciful Arabian fables as if they were true. Arabic legends about the fabulous jinns fill its pages (G.G. Pfander, Balance of Truth, pp. 283). The story of the she-camel who leapt out of a rock and became a prophet was known long before Muhammad (Suras 7:73-77,85; 91:14; 54:29). The story of an entire village of people who were turned into apes because they broke the sabbath by fishing was a popular legend in Muhammads day (Suras 2:65; 7:163-166). The gushing 12 springs story found in Sura 2:60 comes from pre-Islamic legends. In what is called the Rip Van Winkle story, seven men and their animals slept for 309 years in a cave and then woke up perfectly fine (Sura 18:9-26)! This legend is found in Greek and Christian fables as well as Arabian lore. The fable of the pieces of four dead, cut-up birds getting up and flying was well known in Muhammads time (Sura 2:260). It is also clear that Muhammad used such pre-Islamic literature as the Saba Moallaqat of Imraul Cays in his composition of Suras 21:96; 29:31,46; 37:59; 54:1, and 93:1 The Quran is collection of stories, many of them corrupted through the ages, but, the irony is they are told and retold over and over and over and over and over.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 10:50:12 +0000
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