[Sūrah ii. 70–73]: “Desire ye then that for your sakes the Jews should believe? Yet a part of them heard the word of God, and then, after they had understood it, perverted it, and knew that they did so. And when they fall in with the faithful, they say, ‘We believe’; but when they are apart one with another, they say, ‘Will ye acquaint them with what God hath revealed to you, that they may dispute with you about it in the presence of your Lord?’ Understand ye their aim? Know they not that God knoweth what they hide, as well as what they bring to light? But there are illiterates among them who are not acquainted with the Book, but with lies only, and have but vague fancies. Woe to those who with their own hands transcribe the Book corruptly, and then say, ‘This is from God,’ that they may sell it for some mean price! Woe then to them for that which their hands have written! and, Woe to them for the gains which they have made!”
[Sūrah v. 64–69]: “Say: O people of the Book! do ye not disavow us only because we believe in God, and in what He hath sent down to us, and in what He hath sent down aforetime, and because most of you are doers of ill? Say: Can I announce to you any retribution worse than that which awaiteth them with God? They whom God hath cursed and with whom He hath been angry—some of them hath He changed into apes and swine; and they who worship T̤āg͟hūt are in evil plight, and have gone far astray from the right path! When they presented themselves to you they said, ‘We believe’; but Infidels they came in unto you, and Infidels they went forth! God well knew what they concealed. Many of them shalt thou see hastening together to wickedness and malice, and to eat unlawful things. Shame on them for what they have done! Had not their doctors and teachers forbidden their uttering wickedness, and their eating unlawful food, bad indeed would have been their doings! ‘The hand of God,’ say the Jews, ‘is chained up.’ Their own hands shall be chained up—and for that which they have said shall they be cursed. Nay! outstretched are both His hands! At His own pleasure does He bestow gifts. That which hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase the rebellion and unbelief of many of them; and we have put enmity and hatred between them that shall last till the day of the Resurrection. Oft as they kindle a beacon fire for war shall God quench it! and their aim will be to abet disorder on the earth: but God loveth not the abettors of disorder.”
Nearly all the leading scripture characters connected with Old Testament history are either mentioned by name in the Qurʾān or are referred to in the Traditions and commentaries:—
(a) In the Qurʾān we have Adam (Ādam), Abel (Hābīl), Cain (Qābīl), Enoch (Idrīs), Noah (Nūḥ), Abraham (Ibrāhīm), Lot (Lūt̤), Isaac (Isḥāq), Ishmael (Ismāʿīl), Jacob (Yaʿqūb), Joseph (Yūsuf), Job (Aiyūb), Moses (Mūsā), Aaron (Hārūn), Korah (Qārūn), Pharaoh (Firʿaun), Haman (Hāmān), David (Dāʾūd), Goliath (Jālūt), Solomon (Sulaimān), Saul (T̤ālūt), Jonah (Yūnus), Elisha (Alyasaʿ).
(b) In the Traditions and in the earliest commentaries on the Qurʾān, are mentioned: Eve (Ḥawwāʾ), Hagar (Hājar), Nebuchadnezzar (Buk͟htnaṣṣar), Joshua (Yūshaʿ), Jeremiah (Armiyā), Isaiah (Shaʿyāʾ), Benjamin (Binyāmīn), Ezekiel (Ḥizqīl), Balaam (Balʿam), Daniel (Dāniyāl), Sarah (Sārah), and many others. But it is remarkable that after Solomon, there is no mention of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
(c) The chief incidents of Jewish history are recorded in the Qurʾān with a strange and curious admixture of Rabbinical fable. The creation of the world, the formation of Adam and Eve, the fall, the expulsion from Eden, Cain’s and Abel’s sacrifices, the death of Abel; Noah’s preaching, the Ark built, the deluge, the tower of Babel; Abraham, the friend of God, his call from idolatry, Isaac the son of promise, Sarah’s incredulity, Hagar and Ishmael, the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Lot and the cities of the plain; Jacob and the tribes, Joseph sold into Egypt, Potiphar’s wife, Joseph tempted, the dreams of the baker and butler, and of the king; Moses, his preservation in infancy, kills an Egyptian, flies to Midian, works miracles in the presence of Pharaoh, manna from heaven, the giving of the law, Aaron’s rod, the golden calf, the passage of the Red Sea; Job’s patience; Balaam cursing the Israelites; David’s psalms, his sin and repentance; Solomon’s wisdom, the Queen of Sheba, the building of the temple; Jonah’s preaching, his escape from the fish: these and many other incidents, evidently taken from the Old Testament, and worked up into a narrative with the assistance of Talmudic interpretations, form the chief historical portion of the Qurʾān.
(d) Many of the doctrines and social precepts of the Qurʾān are also from Judaism. The Unity of God, the ministry of angels, the inspired law, the law of marriage and divorce, domestic slavery, the day of Sacrifice, prayer and ablution, the lex talionis, the degrees of affinity, the stoning of the adulterer, and many other injunctions, are precisely those of the Mosaic code, with some modifications to meet the requirements of Arabian social life.
Whilst, therefore, Muḥammad took little of his religious system from Christianity, he was vastly indebted to Judaism both for his historical narratives and his doctrines and precepts. Islām is nothing more nor less than Judaism plus the Apostleship of Muḥammad. The teachings of Jesus form no part of his religious system. [[CHRISTIANITY].]
(e) The Quraish charged Muḥammad with want of originality in his revelations. For even at the end of his career, and when he was uttering his latest Sūrahs, “they said, as our verses were rehearsed to them—‘This is nothing but tales of yore.’ ” ([Sūrah viii. 31].) “And when it was said to them, What is it your Lord sent down? They said, ‘Old folk’s tales.’ ” ([Sūrah xvi. 25].) The Quraish even charged him with having obtained assistance, “They said it is only some mortal who teaches him.” And Muḥammad admits there was someone who might be suspected of helping him, for he replies, “The tongue of him whom they lean towards is barbarous and this (Qurʾān) is plain Arabic.” ([Sūrah xvi. 105].) Ḥusain, the commentator, in remarking upon this verse, says, “It is related that there was a slave belonging to ʿAmr ibn ʿAbdi ʾllāh al-Ḥaẓramī, named Jabr (and according to some a second slave named Yasār), who used to read the Law and the Gospel, and Muḥammad used, when he passed, to stand and listen.”
And the whole construction of the Qurʾān bears out the supposition that its subject matter was received orally and worked into poetical Arabic by a man of genius. Whatever he may have heard from the readings of Jabr and Yasār of the text of the Old and New Testament scriptures, it is very evident that he obtained his explanations from one well versed in Talmudic lore. A Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Geiger, in A.D. 1833, wrote a prize essay in answer to the question put by the university: “Inquiratur in fontes Alcorani seu legis Muhammedicæ eos, qui ex Judæismo derivandi sunt.” His essay in reply is entitled, “Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen?” In this treatise it is clearly demonstrated how much the whole system of Islām is indebted to Talmudic Judaism for its teachings. Its narratives, its doctrines, and its theological terms, are chiefly derived from those of the Talmud.