Bible In Islam

This doctoral dissertation was written under the supervision of Professor Sabine Schmidtke and Professor Walid A. Saleh and defended in January 2017 at the Free University in Berlin, Germany. It is now freely available via 'Dissertation Online at the Freie Universität Berlin' as a PDF (https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/1332). For table of contents and abstract, please see the attachment.

Al-Biqa`i quoted the four Gospels in a unique fashion in his Qur'an commentary Nazm al-Durar.  He fashioned a harmony based on Mark's Gospel and proceeded to fashion what can only be called an Islamic Diatessaron.  This article shows how he cited his material in detail.

In Muslim polemical writings on the Bible written in Arabic, scriptural quotations frequently appear in Arabic transcription of the original Hebrew. This phenomenon also occurs in the Persian refutations of Christianity by the 11th/17th-century Shīʿī scholar Sayyed Aḥmad ʿAlavī. The adduced biblical materials, however, vary significantly depending on the particular manuscript or recension. Nevertheless, they reflect the common repertoire of scriptural verses invoked by Muslim authors. In contrast to Henry Corbin, who argued on the basis of the Hebrew verses transcribed in Arabic characters that ʿAlavī was a Hebraist and directly acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures, it is suggested here that the Shīʿī scholar relied instead on lists of biblical “testimonies” to Muḥammad. Although ʿAlavī’s literary sources are as yet unknown due to a lack of research, there is evidence from the manuscripts dating from ʿAlavī’s lifetime that he copied the transcribed Bible quotations from earlier Muslim writings.

Among the Islamic narrations about the Bible, there are two special narrations which seem to denote the most explicit tenor against the authenticity of the Jewish-Christian scriptures: one on the authority of ʿUthmān in interpretation of Q. 2: 78, and the other a tradition on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās forbidding Muslims from consulting Jews and Christians. This paper aims to date these narrations based on the method of isnād-cum-matn analysis and source criticism. This survey shows that they are, at best, the outcomes of the intellectual developments of the second century AH.

Saʿīd b. Ḥasan al-Iskandarī is among the earliest known Jewish converts to Islam who composed refutations of their former religion. He reports that he accepted Islam in Shaʿbān 697/May 1298 in Alexandria and later moved from Egypt to Syria. In Damascus, Saʿīd b. Ḥasan compiled a collection of biblical and pseudo-biblical “testimonies” in Arabic translation, allegedly predicting the advent of the Prophet Muḥammad. These “testimonies” include extensive Hebrew scriptural material transcribed in Arabic script. It is proposed here that Saʿīd b. Ḥasan’s collection is preserved in two recensions. The first version of 720/1320 was later revised by the author and this revision is preserved in the later recension dating from 732/1331. (...)

The verbal exchange between Noah and his people in the Qur’an. The verbal exchange between Noah and his people in the Qur’an will be discussed. Within the story of Noah one can see two often opposite worldviews: monotheism and polytheism. The talk will explore this verbal exchange compared to principles associated with dialogue theory (constructive exchange; turn taking, etc.)

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the three major creeds that can be grouped under the name of Abrahamic religions. This definition, coined by Louis Massignon in the 20th century, highlights their common origin, which can be traced back to the patriarch Abraham. A crucial peculiarity shared by the three of them is a retrospective form of religious pluralism, as they engage an interfaith dialogue and welcome or dismiss the earlier beliefs. The purpose of this study is to analyse how this process has developed in Islam. In this regard, the first chapter has analysed how the prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus are depicted in the Quran and what is the influence of the Jewish and Christian canonical and apocryphal scriptures on their portrayal. The second section has considered the assumptions of Muslim exegetes concerning some verses of the Hebrew and Christian Bible that would anticipate the prophet Muḥammad. Lastly, it has been evaluated how this form of religious pluralism can verge on the rejection of the earlier religious texts and in particular on the accuse of taḥrīf al-naṣṣ, alteration of the text of scripture, and taḥrīf al-maʻānī, misinterpretation of the scripture. The objective of the thesis is to describe how Islam has arisen as a religion to restore and correct the primordial divine message that Judaism and Christianity have not fulfilled in its wholeness.