Biblical narratives in the Quran
The Islamic methodology of tafsir al-Qur'an bi-l-Kitab (Arabic: تفسير القرآن بالكتاب) refers to interpreting the Qur'an with/through the Bible.[2] This approach adopts canonical Arabic versions of the Bible, including the Tawrat (Torah) and the Injil (Gospel), both to illuminate and to add exegetical depth to the reading of the Qur'an.[2] The Quran usually mentions God creating Adam from "earth" or "clay" (ṭīn,[3] although one verse suggests "dust" or "dirt" (turāb)).While not found in Genesis, the Quranic account is linked to a Jewish exegesis of Psalm 8,[9] which wonders why God cares for human beings despite their cosmic insignificance.This led to a tradition in the Babylonian Talmud in which the angels object to the evils that humans will commit in the future, which may be the source of the Quranic narrative.The difference highlights the Quranic emphasis on both God's absolute knowledge, and the superiority of humanity to the angels implied earlier.[12] In the Cave of Treasures, Satan refuses God's order to bow before Adam "since I am fire and spirit, not that I worship something that is made of dirt", using almost the same words as in the Quran.While Genesis states that Adam and Eve "realized"[21] that they were naked, the Quran is more ambiguous, referring to Satan's desire to "expose to them what was hidden from them of their nakedness".[Quran 7:20] This may reflect Syriac Christian traditions in which Adam and Eve were thought to be clothed with "glory" before eating from the tree, at which point they became naked instead of merely realizing their prior nakedness.[Quran 5:32] This verse is nearly identical to a passage in the Mishnah Sanhedrin tractate, part of the Jewish Oral Torah, which also concludes that the lesson of the murder of Abel is that "whosoever destroys a single soul is regarded as though he destroyed a complete world, and whosoever saves a single soul is regarded as though he saved a complete world".[31] In the context of the Quran, it emphasizes the crucial notion that Noah and other biblical figures were prototypes of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, all preaching righteousness to save their people from doom.They then promise their host that Isaac (ʾIsḥāq إسحٰق) will soon be born to Abraham's wife, Sarah (Sārah سارة).The Quran mentions that Abraham left his wife and Ishmael (as an infant) in the land where present-day Mecca is, while he returned to Canaan.[43] The story continues further after the destruction of the twin cities, with Lot leaving Zoar (where he had fled for refuge) with his two daughters to live in a cave.[citation needed] A group of angels visited Ibrahim as guests[49] and gave him glad tidings of a son "endowed with wisdom";[50][51] they told him that they had been sent by God to the "guilty people"[52] of Sodom,[53] to destroy them [54][55] with "a shower of stones of clay (brimstone)"[56] and deliver Lot and those who believed in him.Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "In my dream, I was standing on the bank of the Nile, 18.when out of the river there came up seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds.(Yusuf 12:43) The king (of Egypt) said: "I do see (in a vision) seven fat kine, whom seven lean ones devour, and seven green ears of corn and seven (others) withered.He put his brother Aaron in charge of the people (Al-Baqara 2:48) On a mountain, God gave Moses a revelation of precepts for Israel to follow.Because the army is still large enough to credit its own strength for victory, God tells Gideon to observe the drinking habits of his troops at the river.In 2:246-248 of the Quran, God chooses Talut (generally considered to be Saul) to lead the Israelites into battle against the army of Goliath.God gives the Ark of the Covenant back to the Israelites in order to verify His choice (this is an event that predates Saul in the Bible).According to an Islamic tradition [citation needed] however, the big fish gets frightened at first, fearing it might have swallowed a holy person as it heard prayers and supplications read in a wonderful voice from her stomach, hearing which numerous sea creatures had surrounded it.In the Bible, Haman was an Agagite noble and vizier of the empire under Persian King Ahasuerus who desires to persecute the Jews.After Elizabeth gives birth and they went to circumcise the child, Zechariah confirms that the son's name is John and receives his speech back.In the Bible, in the sixth month after the conception of John the Baptist by Elizabeth, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to the Virgin Mary, at Nazareth.Mary having heard the greeting words did not speak; she was troubled in spirit, since she knew not the angel, nor the cause of his coming, nor the meaning of the salutation.[63] Jesus's ministry takes up the whole of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in the Bible, as well as being the focus of the subsequent books of the New Testament.Jesus directly appears several times in the Quran: Al-Imran 35–59; An-Nisa' 156–158; Al-Ma'idah 109–120; Maryam 16–35, Al-Mu'minun 50; Az-Zukhruf 57–65; As-Saff 6 and 14.Surah 26:94-95 state "then they shall be pitched into it, they and the perverse and the hosts of Iblis, altogether", reminiscent of Matthew, XXV:41: "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.A man called "the Samari" (in Yusuf Ali's translation) or "the Samaritan" (in Arberry's) is blamed for protagonizing their idolatry (Surah Ta-Ha 20:85-88, 95).
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