Page 327 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

THE ORIENTALIST AND THE QUR'AN 307

This issadly another moulding of Islam into foreign vocabulary, for who
is to say that Pharaoh did not also have a minister named Haman, simply
because earlier Scriptures fail to mention him? And in his deceit Noldeke
neglects to point out that the Qur'an refers to Mary (mother of Christ) as
"sister of Aaron", 10 not Moses. Aaron was the first in line for the Israelite
priesthood; according to the NT Elizabeth, cousin of Mary and mother
ofJohn the Baptist, came of a priestlyfamily and was thus "of the daughters
of Aaron". 1\ By extension we can just as convincingly designate either
Mary or Elizabeth as "sisters of Aaron" or "daughters of 'Imran" (Aaron's
father). 12
What of Noldeke's accusation regarding Egyptian fertility? The inun-
dations of the Nile are due in most part to variability of rainfall at its source,
as any ecologist will attest, but let us put that aside. Verse 12:49 reads:
>! ~ , , 0 , • , I ~ (I ' ,~, ." ,: ~ i t ~ 0' r f' ~ ~ J,.
"Z~~!U~ ~jU"''-'-J ..:.,,~~ i"'~'.:l ~IX JY~ r
"Then after that[period] will come ayear in which the people will be de-
livered, andin which they willpress [wine andoil]"

I will leave the reader to extract any reference to rain; in fact this.accu-
sation stems from Noldeke confusing the nouns for 'rain' and 'deliverance'.

ii. A Counterfeited Bible

This is the charge levelled against the Qur'an by Hirschfeld. 13 If by Bible
he refers to the NT, let us recall two of the major doctrines in Christianity:
Original Sin and Atonement. The former is the automatic inheritance of
every human, being the progeny of Adam, whilst the latter embodies the
belief that God sacrificed His only begotten Son as the sole means of
absolving this Sin. The Qur'an categorically rejects both:
14~ ~ y8 r' ~,l? ~~.J IX r~l~ z}B ~

"Thereupon Adam received words [if guidance] from his Lord, and He
accepted his repentance."

10 Qpr'an 19:28.
11 Luke 1:5. See also Luke 1:36.
12 Refer to Yusuf Ali's translation of the Holy Qur'an, commentaries for verses
3:35 and 19:28.
13 A. Mingana, "The Transmission of the Koran", in Ibn Warraq (ed.), TheOrigins
if the Koran, p. 112.
14 Qur'an 2:37.