Several parables or pieces of narrative appear in the Quran, often with similar motifs to Jewish and Christian traditions which may predate those in the Quran.
Some included legends are the story of Cain and Abel (sura al-Ma'idah, of Abraham destroying idols (sura al-Anbiya 57), of Solomon's conversation with an ant (sura an-Naml), the story of the Seven Sleepers, and several stories about Mary, mother of Jesus. Parallel narratives include the stories of Abraham and the Idol Shop (Genesis Rabbah, 38) and Valley of the ants.
Folklorist Alan Dundes has noted three "folktales" in the Quran that fit the pattern of those included in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index of folklore narratives.[1] Peter G. Bietenholz has also noted legends in the Quran that share themes found in Jewish and Christian legends.
The Quran mentions accusations by non-believer contemporaries of Muhammad that many stories in the Quran are fables:
Those who disbelieve say: "This (Quran) is but a fabrication which he (Muhammad) himself has invented, and some others have helped him with it, so they have produced a wrong and a falsehood." They also say: "(It consists of) only fables of the ancients which he has got written. They are being read to him in early mornings and evenings (while people are at home)." Say: "(It is a Book full of knowledge revealing many secrets such as no human being could in any wise discover by himself) He Who knows all the secrets contained in the heavens and the earth sends it down (to teach you some of these secrets and guide you in your life so that you may attain happiness in both worlds). He surely is All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate." (Q.25:4-6)[2]Muslims (such as Muhittin Akgul writing in Islamicity) do not deny that some stories found in the Quran are from "ancient nations", but insist they are not mythology but "factual", and were not taught to Muhammad by Jews or Christians in his region, but revealed by God and provided to humanity as guidance and "deterrents".[2]
See also: Cain and Abel. Some narratives appear to reflect Jewish Tanhuma legends, like the narrative of Cain learning to bury the body of Abel in Sura al-Ma'ida (5:31).[3] [4] 5:32, when discussing the legal and moral applications to the story of Cain and Abel, is similar to what is found in the Tanhuma tradition.[5]
See main article: Abraham and the Idol Shop. Al-Anbiya, which tells of Abraham destroying the idols, after which he is delivered by God from being thrown into the fire, parallels a legend found in the Midrash Rabbah.[6]
See main article: Valley of the ants. Both the Quran and the text Legends of the Jews feature the story of Solomon and the Valley of the Ants:
However, the Jewish text of the Beth ha-Midrash by Adolf Jellinek (simply referred to as "Jellinek") was written between 1853 and 1878, about 1,200 years after the Quran.[7] Of all the midrashim associated with Solomon, the episode of the Ant is most directly influenced by the Islamic traditions. While the King's connection to this small insect might derive from the Tanakh (e.g. Proverbs 6:6), the stories told in this narrative seem predominantly, if not exclusively, to come from a Muslim context: Solomon's dominion over demons, control of the wind, reliance upon Asaph the Jew, and confederacy with the vulture are all well-attested themes in the Quran and subsequent traditions, yet barely discoverable in a Jewish context. However, these borrowings from Islamic culture ultimately are framed in a very Jewish fashion.[8]
The Quran also contains many references to Apocryphal Christian legends.[9]
See also: Seven Sleepers. In the Seven Sleepers legend, seven believers from Ephesus seek refuge in a cave from pagans threatening them with death and fall into a miraculous sleep lasting hundreds of years. They awake to find the pagans vanquished and the land converted to their faith. The story fits Aarne-Thompson story type 766.[10] [11]
The earliest version of this story comes from the Syrian bishop Jacob of Serugh (–521), which is itself derived from an earlier Greek source, now lost. An outline of this tale appears in Gregory of Tours (538–594), and in Paul the Deacon's (720–799) History of the Lombards.[12] The best-known Western version of the story appears in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend.
Christians celebrate the "Seven Sleepers of Ephesus" as a miracle and for centuries the Roman church celebrated its feast day on 27 July.[13]
The Seven Sleepers legend also appears in the Quran (25. nosup.), where the sleepers are described as Muslims, and the length of their sleep is given specifically as 309 years; but the threat of death from pagans, the location of the cave, and even the exact number of sleepers are not mentioned.
Both the apocryphal Gospel of James and the Quran feature the legend of the naming of Mary:
Both the apocryphal Gospel of James and the Quran feature the story of Mary being fed in the Second Temple by an angel of the Lord:
Both the apocryphal Gospel of James and the Quran feature the story of the selection of Mary's guardian:
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Quran both feature the story of Mary eating from a palm tree:
See also: Syriac Infancy Gospel. The Syriac Infancy Gospel and the Quran share the legend of Jesus speaking from the cradle as a baby:
Both the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Quran feature the story of Jesus creating birds of clay:
See main article: Islamic views on Jesus' death.
The view that Jesus only appeared to be crucified, and did not actually die, predates Islam; it is found in several apocryphal gospels.[14]
Irenaeus, in his book Against Heresies, describes Gnostic beliefs that bear remarkable resemblance with the Islamic view:
Islamic tradition, similarly, holds that someone else was crucified instead of Jesus. Frequently the substitute is identified as either Judas Iscariot or Simon of Cyrene.[15] [16]
See main article: Theories about Alexander the Great in the Quran.
See main article: Dhu al-Qarnayn. The Quran alludes to a legendary figure referred to as Dhu al-Qarnayn ("he of the two horns"). Early Muslim commentators and historians assimilated Dhu al-Qarnayn to several figures, among them Alexander the Great, the Parthian king Kisrounis, the South-Arabian Himyarite king Sa'b Dhu Marathid, and the North-Arabian Lakhmid king al-Mundhir ibn Imru al-Qays. Some have argued that the origins of the Quranic story lies in the Syriac Alexander Legend. According to Bietenholz, The legend went through much further elaboration in subsequent centuries before eventually finding its way into the Quran through a Syrian version. Others disagree citing dating inconsistencies and missing key elements. Some modern Muslim scholars are in favor of identifying him with Cyrus the Great. However, the majority of modern researchers of the Qur'an as well as Islamic commentators identify Dhu al-Qarnayn as Alexander the Great.[17]
The reasoning behind the name "Two-Horned" is somewhat obscure: the scholar al-Tabari (839–923 CE) held it was because he (Alexander) went from one extremity ("horn") of the world to the other, but it may ultimately derive from the image of Alexander wearing the horns of the ram-god Zeus-Ammon, as popularised on coins throughout the Hellenistic Near East.
According to Muslim records, the Dhu al-Qarnayn story was revealed on the inquisition of Jews who held a high opinion of Cyrus and is also honoured in the Bible; the "He of the Two Horns" (lit. meaning of Dhu al-Qarnayn) is allegedly referring to the two-horned ram mentioned in Book of Daniel, Chapter 8.
The wall Dhul-Qarnayn builds on his northern journey may have reflected a distant knowledge of the Great Wall of China (the 12th century scholar al-Idrisi drew a map for Roger II of Sicily showing the "Land of Gog and Magog" in Mongolia), or of various Sassanid Persian walls built in the Caspian area against the northern barbarians, or a conflation of the two.
Dhul-Qarnayn also journeys to the western and eastern extremities ("qarns", tips) of the Earth. In the west he finds the sun setting in a "muddy spring", equivalent to the "poisonous sea" which Alexander found in the Syriac legend. In the Syriac original Alexander tested the sea by sending condemned prisoners into it, but the Quran describes a general administration of justice. In the east both the Syrian legend and the Quran have Alexander/Dhul-Qarnayn find a people who have no protection from the heat of the rising sun.
"Qarn" also means "period" or "century", and the name Dhul-Qarnayn therefore has a symbolic meaning as "He of the Two Ages", the first being the mythological time when the wall is built and the second the age of the end of the world when Allah's shariah, the divine law, is to be removed and Gog and Magog are to be set loose. Modern Islamic apocalyptic writers, holding to a literal reading, put forward various explanations for the absence of the wall from the modern world, some saying that Gog and Magog were the Mongols and that the wall is now gone, others that both the wall and Gog and Magog are present but invisible.