Surah 17:79

And during a part of the night, pray Tahajjud beyond what is incumbent on you; maybe your Lord will raise you to a position of great glory.


Ibn Abbaas states in his commentary.


(And some part of the night awake for it) to recite the Qur'an and to pray after sleeping a little, (a largess for thee) a merit for you; it is also said that this means: you alone are enjoined to do so. (Ibn Abbaas, Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn 'Abbâs, Commentary on Chapter 17, Verse 79)


My question is why would the Prophet (peace be upon him) make a prayer late into the night compulsory upon himself in exclusion to the rest of the Muslims? Why would he do that to himself? Doesn't this show that the Prophet (peace be upon him) sincerely believed in and followed the revelation that he was receiving besides making them up?

Also an incident occurred with Aisha, the wife of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in which she was falsely accused of committing adultery and she and the Prophet (peace be upon him) had to wait in distress for the verse from the Qur'an to come down to vindicate Aisha of the crime. (Read the story in Qur'anic commentaries under Chapter 24, Verse 11)

Now if the Prophet (peace be upon him) were the author of the Qur'an he would have quickly (instead waiting for more than a month and causing distress for himself) made up a verse vindicating his beloved wife and also saved himself from the distress of having people suspecting his own wife for cheating on him. However, his sincerity shows that he did not make up the Qur'an, but was waiting to receive revelation from Allah Almighty.

The Arabs were challenged to produce something like the Qur'an, then ten Surahs (chapters) similar to it, and then one Surah similar to it:

Surah 2:23

And if ye are in doubt as to what we have revealed from time to time to our servant then produce a surah like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (if there are any) besides Allah if ye are truthful.

Surah 52: 33-34

Or do they say: "He fabricated the (message)" nay, they have no faith! Let them then produce a saying like unto it, If (it be) they speak the truth!


The question I would like to ask is which insincere prophet would author a book and challenge the best of Arab poets to find discrepancies in it? Would any sensible layman in mechanics challenge the mechanics of BMW or Mercedes to critique him and expose him? Doesn't this show that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was so confident about the revelations he was receiving?

Yes, one may think that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was sincerely wrong, however the point that I am trying to make is that it is most reasonable to assume that he was at least sincere.

So wouldn't this then according to Christian standards serve as evidence that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not plagiarize?

Just because the Qur'an mentions stories about Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) or David (peace be upon him), which are also found in the Bible does not necessarily imply that it was copied from the Bible. It is very possible that those true stories were maintained in the Bible and the Qur'an simply came to confirm their authenticity, especially when we take into consideration that this is one of the functions of the Qur'an. (Surah 5:48). There is no reason to think otherwise regarding the story of Jesus in the cradle.

The Christian might object and say that the Qur'an came to confirm the Gospel and Torah and that the story of Jesus in the cradle or making a bird from clay is not found in the Bible, rather it is found in an apocryphal book. However, as we have clearly clarified Islam teaches that the Gospels that Christians adhere to today only contain some truth, while other truth is missing. Hence, it's possible that the cradle story is true, yet hasn't found its way into the Bible.

The Christian would still insist that this story is not found in the Bible and that this is problematic. In response to this we reply back by saying "lack of evidence does not necessarily imply evidence of absence". The author of John's Gospel makes it clear that Jesus did many things (possibly miracles as well) which weren't recorded (John 21:25), therefore there is a good reason for us to believe that it's at least possible that this miracle of Jesus was also not recorded.

Someone might argue back that the Gospels teach that Jesus' ministry began later in life, while the Qur'an seems to indicate that it happened shortly after he was born.

Well first of all, this begs the question that whatever the Gospels have said is true.

Secondly, it would be possible to harmonize between the two claims if it is necessary. Perhaps, Jesus did this initially as a baby in order to vindicate his mother from the false accusations levelled against her and show that his birth was indeed a miracle from God (if you can believe that a baby can speak then why not believe in a virgin birth?) and then later on in the future Jesus began preaching full time and this is what the Gospel authors were referring to.

Furthermore, just because the Infancy Gospel was authored in the second century that does not exclude the possibility that it might have included stories circulating during the first century.

There is much doubt surrounding this book and where it has obtained its information from:


No final judgment about the original form and content is possible.

Even if the earliest version of this gospel remains uncertain (Helmut Koester, Ancient Christian Gospels, page 311-312)

The individual stories themselves, however, may derive from the end of the first century-though there is no possibility of proving so early an origin for any of them. (F. Lapham, An Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha, page 129)

If there is even a possibility that some of the stories contained in this book could have come from the first century and be true, then Christians have no right to claim with a certainty that this story of Jesus (peace be upon him) speaking in the cradle is a forgery.

Some Christians such as the early Islamic critic Tisdall tried to suggest that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) plagiarized the story from Mary-the Copt who back in Egypt had access to the story of Jesus in the cradle, since it was either popular and she heard the story or she read the Coptic translation from the Arabic version of the Infancy Gospel (Injil Al-Tufuliyyah). However, this assertion is not convincing because:
1) Possibility does not equal probability.
2) No motive has been provided for Muhammad (peace be upon him) to plagiarize the story and doesn't fit in with his overall character as a sincere person, for his sincerity is recognized by almost all people who have studied his life (more on this below).
3) The Qur'anic verse about Jesus in the cradle was revealed in Mecca, while the Prophet (peace be upon him) met Mary-the Copt only during the Medinan period.
Now the Christian may reply back and say:

"Obviously we cannot prove with 100% certainty that Muhammad plagiarized from the Infancy Gospel, since when dealing with history we are forced to work with probabilities. What we are saying is that the probability that Muhammad plagiarized from the Infancy Gospel is so high that it is more reasonable to assume that he did than to suggest otherwise. To suggest otherwise is to be prejudice"

I of course agree that we are only dealing with probabilities when it comes to history, however probabilities are dependent upon certain variables. One could not say that something is probable or improbable without working with some kind of background information. I contend that it is more reasonable to state that it is probable that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not plagiarize based on the convergence of the following points: 1) His sincerity and truthfulness; 2) his illiteracy; 3) lack of ready access to Jewish and Christian documents; 4) improbability of the presence of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas in the Hijaz 5) The many striking differences between the Quranic stories and the parallels in the Judeo-Christian documents, with a virtual lack of verbal similarities; 6) and the many more differences between the Quranic story and the account in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

We need to bare in mind that similarity between a Qur'anic account and a Biblical (or non-Biblical) story is not proof of the former borrowing from the latter. They could have the same source as well. Why could it not be that a certain event occurred and eventually came to be recorded either in a Biblical or a non-Biblical writing and later Allah revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him) the story as well? If a priori we reject the possibility of Muhammad's (peace be upon him) prophethood then we would have no choice but to look for a non-divine solution (i.e. that Muhammad (peace be upon him) either directly or indirectly borrowed a certain story). But if we are open to the possibility of revelation, miracles and Muhammad's (peace be upon him) prophethood, then the mere fact that two stories are the same or similar does not by itself negate the prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) or that he received the information through fresh revelation. Only by a priori denying the possibility of revelation and miracles can we come to this conclusion. We need to ensure that we are not appealing to the fallacy of false cause when examining this issue.

From a purely historical perspective, we cannot say with confidence that the story of Jesus making a clay bird and miraculously giving it life is a fabrication. It could be that this story was in circulation in the first century. Now, at the same time, neither could we say with confidence and certainty that this story existed in the first century. From a purely historical perspective, we would have to conclude: WE DON'T KNOW. May be it was in existence (either orally or in a written form) in the first century, or it was not. There is no evidence to speak against its existence (oral or written) in the first century, nor any positive evidence to "demonstrate" its existence in the first century (oral or written). All we know is that it existed in a written form in the fifth/sixth century (in a manuscript of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas) and that there may be evidence of its existence during the time of Ireaneus (180 AD).[1] Given the fact that oral traditions continued to be valued and in circulation even after the writing of the canonical gospels, we cannot a priori rule out the real possibility of authentic (and inauthentic/contaminated) oral traditions from the first century finding their way into documents which were not included in the canonical list of writings. Non-canonical documents may very well contain first century traditions, though identifying these traditions and determining their extant is not historically possible. The canonical documents cannot possibly consist of all or a big sample of traditions floating around in the first century.

Also, Muslims do accept this story as a genuine miracle from the life of Jesus (peace be upon) simply because the Quran says so. For the very same reason we accept the miracle of Jesus' virgin birth and the miracle of his healing the sick and the miracle of raising the dead. Miracles are accepted on faith. Christians ALSO accept the miracle of the virgin birth on faith, among other miracles mentioned in the gospels.

Furthermore, Jesus making a clay bird and giving that bird life is not more "grand" than Jesus actually raising dead men and walking on water. None of these stories are more "legendary" than the other. Thus, on the face of it, there would appear to be no reason to suspect the story of Jesus making a clay bird and miraculously giving it life. Just because it is found in a non-canonical document does not by itself follow that this tradition could not go back to the first century.

If one wishes to dismiss this story of clay-bird miracle as a "legend," then how is Jesus' raising of Lazarus not a legend?JUST BECAUSE A STORY IS NOT FOUND IN THE CANONICAL GOSPELS IT DOES NOT FOLLOW THAT IT IS A LEGEND.


Third, modern scholars are far more cautious on the question of the "sources" of the Quran than the earlier generation of scholars and writers, such as Tisdall and Geiger. The predominant stance of modern scholars is that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is unlikely to have had possession of actual written documents, be it Biblical documents or non-canonical Judeo-Christian writings. The reason being the lack of direct quotations from the latter in the Quran and the so many differences between the Quranic stories and their Biblical (canonical and non-canonical) counterparts. Instead, the common view is that Muhammad (peace be upon him) "must" have been reliant upon Biblical and non-Biblical traditions orally, which he then altered and reshaped to suit his own needs. Such a hypothesis is quite possible only if we a priori dismiss the possibility of Muhammad (peace be upon him) receiving revelation from God.

In a recent essay on the question of Quranic sources, Gerhard Bowering (Professor of Islamic Studies at Yale University) writes (Essay: "Recent Research On The Construction of The Quran." In, "The Qur'an in its Historical Context," p. 70 (bold added):

"No single collection of biblical writings, normative, apocryphal or midrashic, however, has been identified as the major source in which the Qur'an may have been rooted.1 To the best of our present knowledge, the Bible had not been translated into Arabic by the time of Muhammad, either in its entirety or in the form of single books.2 It is generally believed that Muhammad gathered his biblical knowledge principally, if not exclusively, from oral sources.3 This oral lore was communicated to Muhammad in his mother tongue, but its original forms were in Syriac, Aramaic, Ethiopian and Hebrew materials, as evidenced by the vocabulary of foreign origin to be found in the Arabic Qur'an.4 This foreign vocabulary formed an integral part of Muhammad's proclamation and was understood by his audience in Mecca and Medina whom he addressed in eloquent Arabic.5"

and (p. 83, bold mine):
"During his lifetime, Muhammad had a good number of his Qur'anic proclamations copied down by scribes, but there is no evidence that he used foreign written source materials for the composition of the Qur'an. Until the appearance of evidence to the contrary, one has to support the position that it was oral information on which the Qur'an drew directly, even if behind this oral information there was a core of passages extracted from written traditions that were translated into Arabic from one or the other of its sibling languages. This core, however, has not yet come to light in a distinct form. The almost total absence in the Qur'an of direct parallels with the normative, midrashic or apocryphal biblical traditions 60 makes it impossible to argue for a direct dependence on written sources. Essential sections of the Qur'anic message were received from the oral lore of a variety of religious communities who were rooted in the widely dispersed and non-normative Jewish and Christian traditions. Not a single written source, whether scriptural or liturgical, however, has been identified that would satisfy the search for an underlying Ur-Qur'an, whether postulated as a Christian hymnal or a Syro-Aramaic lectionary, that served as a written source book for the Qur'an." [2]

As an example, we may actually point to Jesus' clay-bird miracle in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which states:
When this boy, Jesus, was five years old, he was playing at the ford of a rushing stream. (2) He was collecting the flowing water into ponds and made the water instantly pure. He did this with a single command. (3) He then made soft clay and shaped it into twelve sparrows. He did this on the sabbath day, and many other boys were playing with him.
(4)But when a Jew saw what Jesus was doing while playing on the sabbath day, he immediately went off and told Joseph, Jesus' father: "See here, your boy is at the ford and has taken mud and fashioned twelve birds with it, and so has violated the sabbath."
(5)So Joseph went there, and as soon as he spotted him he shouted, "Why are you doing what's not permitted on the sabbath?"
(6)But Jesus simply clapped his hands and shouted to the sparrows: "Be off, fly away, and remember me, you who are now alive!" And the sparrows took off and flew away noisily.
(7)The Jews watched with amazement, then left the scene to report to their leaders what they had seen Jesus doing.