One of the central claims of Islam is that the Qur’an contains the eternal, uncreated words of Allah. It should, in other words, be utterly impossible to identify any pre-existing documentary sources that contributed to the final shape of Islam’s holy text.
In a previous article I showed how this claim is challenged by the presence of Jewish material in the text of the Qur’an. In addition to this, there are also many passages where a Christian substratum to the Qur’an can be identified.
Interestingly this does not come from the canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Instead, the authors or compilers of Islam’s holy text seems to have had access to a cache of apocryphal Christian material. Some examples include the following:
Quran 19:29-31 and 3:46 claim that Jesus could speak while he was still in the cradle. This is not something that we find in the canonical Christian gospels. It does, however, occur in a later apocryphal (extra-Biblical) gospel. This is how the ‘Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Savior’ (written at the beginning of the 5th century) speaks of Jesus in the cradle: “We find what follows in the book of Joseph the high priest, who lived in the time of Christ. Some say that he is Caiaphas. He has said that Jesus spoke, and, indeed, when He was lying in His cradle said to Mary His mother: I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Logos, whom thou hast brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel announced to thee; and my Father has sent me for the salvation of the world.” Whoever wrote this part of the Qur’an was clearly unaware of the actual origins of this story, i.e., that it does not appear in the canonical Christian Gospels, and is therefore willing to grant it exalted status as the Word of Allah.
Qur’an 3:49 and 5:110 both describe how Jesus was able to breathe life into clay birds that he made. This is, once again, not part of the canonical Gospels, but it also comes from the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Savior. This is how this extra-Biblical Gospel relates this story: “And when the Lord Jesus was seven years of age, he was on a certain day with other boys, his companions about the same age. Who at play made clay into several shapes, namely, asses, oxen, birds, and other figures. Each boasting of his work and endeavoring to exceed the rest. Then the Lord Jesus said to the boys, I will command these figures which I have made to walk. And immediately they moved, and when he commanded them to return, they returned. He had also made the figures of birds and sparrows, which, when he commanded to fly, did fly, and when he commanded to stand still, did stand still; and if he gave them meat and drink, they did eat and drink. When at length the boys went away and related these things to their parents, their fathers said to them, Take heed, children, for the future, of his company, for he is a sorcerer; shun and avoid him, and from now on never play with him.” What we have here is, once again, the elevation of a story told among the Christians of the Arabian Peninsula to divinely inspired status.
Perhaps the most startling case of borrowing by Muhammad was from the infancy narratives of the Buddha. The Qur’an tells a story about Allah instructing Mary, giving birth under a tree, to eat a few dates from branches that bent towards her while she was overcome with labor pains during the birth of Jesus (Qur’an 19:22-26) These details are lifted from various accounts about the birth of the Buddha (including Nidanakatha Jatakam and Cariya-Pitakim, both included in the Pali Canon, the most authoritative collection of Buddhist texts). The stories seem to have reached whoever wrote the Qur’an through his old favorite, The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Savior!
Many people would dismiss the idea that parts of the Qur’an were essentially plagiarised as beyond preposterous. However, could I respectfully ask you to consider the evidence as laid out in my book 'The Mecca Mystery - Probing the Black Hole at the Heart of Muslim History' before finally making up your mind?
Regards,
Peter
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