________________
THE ORIGIN OF THE QORAN.
the Talmud, else he would not have fathered their authorship on Christ, and would have had a more exalted perception of the nature and potency of the Saviour. Besides, the rest of the books of the New Testament were outside the pale of his knowledge, excepting perhaps the Second Epistle of Peter, various Suras of the past Meccan period betokening its influence in their ideas and expressions. Of the secondary documents of Christianity there are only vestiges of the Gospel of Infancy in the Qordn.33 But they are of a description such as could be straightway derived from folklore or legends. Yet there remains to be accounted for a series of observations on Christian dogma which are not in the remotest degree connected with any written authorities come down to us. They are the Trinity conceived as a triad composed of the Father, the Son, and Mary, the docetical account of the apparent death of Christ on the Cross, the descending of the table for the Lord's Supper, etc.36 These, considered as a whole, could not have been learnt by hearsay from any Christian source, for no sect, be it ever so much corrupt or degenerate, represented a like confusion of curious symbolism. They have to be looked upon as things learnt at second or third hand, with the pristine stamp blurred and rubbed off.
JUNE, 1903.]
259
Some part of the sacred history, as treated of in the Qorán, had its roots in the creed of the Christians of Syria, to wit, the account of the seven sleepers, of Dhul Karnain, Alexander the Great and of his expedition against Yajuj and Majuj. It found its way into the Qorán not direct from the original, but as filtered through popular legends.
The tradition mentions by name several Christians with whom Muhammad is alleged to have come in occasional contact, with the monk Nestor or Bahira, who greeted him, when the latter was in Basra on a commercial journey, as the future prophet, or with Abu Amir, the head of the Christian Settlement in Medina. But time and other circumstances tell against the assumption that the Prophet was any way influenced by this. The balance of probability points to one of the anchorites, not rare in Arabia then, to whom the Qoran in many places refers in terms of landatory appreciation, 37
32 Súra 57, 27.
[And we sent Neah and Abraham; and placed in their seed prophecy and the book; and some of them are guided, though many of them are workers of abomination. Then we followed up their footsteps with our apostles; and we followed them up with Jesus the Son of Mary: and gave Him the Gospel; and we placed in the hearts of those who followed Him kindness and compassion.-S. B. E. IX. 269. - TR.]
83 80ra S, 41 and 43: Sora 4, 55; Sara 5, 110,
[When the angel said, 'O Mary! verily, God gives thee the glad tidings of a Word from Him; His name shall be the Messiah Jesus the Son of Mary, regarded in this world and the next and of those whose place is nigh to God, And He shall speak to people in His cradle, and when grown up, and shall be among the righteous. She said, Lord, how can I have a son, when man has not yet touobed me?' He said, Thus God creates what Ho pleaseth. When He deerees a matter He only says BE, and it is; and He will teaah Him the Book and wisdom and the Law and the gospel and He shall be a Prophet to the people of Israel, (saying) that I have come to you with a sign from God.' 8. B. E. IX. 52. - TR.]
54 Sara 5, 79 and 116.
35 Súra 4, 158.
[... and for their misbelief and for their saying about Mary a mighty calumny and for their saying Verily we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the Son of Mary the Apostle of God'
Him and they did not crucify Him, but a similitude was made for them.
sure! Nay, God raised Him up unto Himself; for God is mighty and wise. S. B. E. IX, 94,
36 Sara 5, 112-115.
but they did not kill They did not kill Him, for TR.]
[When the apostles said, 'O Jesus, Son of Mary! is Thy Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven?' He said, Fear God, if ye be believers,' and they said, We desire to eat therefrom that our hearts may be at reet." Said Jesus the Son of Mary, O God, our Lord! send down to us a table from heaven to be to us a festival.' God said, 'Verily I am about to send it down to you, but who so disbelieves amongst you after that, verily, I will torment him with the torment which I have not tormented any one with in all the worlds. S. B. E. IX., 114.- TR.]
37 Bdra 24, 36-37; 5, 85. See also Ibn Hisham, p. 848.
[Thou wilt surely find that the strongest in enmity against those who believe are the Jews and the idolators; and thou wilt find the nearest in love to those who believe to be those who say, We are Christians; that is because there are amongst them priests and monks and because they are not proud.'-B. B. E. VI., 109.TR.]
[For Abu Amir, see Muir's Mahomet, p. 174.TR.]
