A Critical Analysis of the Orientalist Perspective on the Human Origin of the Quran With Emphasis on Intertextual Interactions with the Texts of the People of the Book

Document Type : پژوهشی

Author

Assistant Professor of the Qur'an and Orientalist Department, Imam Khomeini (RA) Higher Education Complex, Al-Mustafa Al-Alamiya University

Abstract

Divine revelation, as the beating heart of monotheistic religions, has been manifested in the Holy Quran and has gained a distinguished status among the heavenly texts. In recent decades, some orientalists, relying on the conceptual and content similarities between the Quran and previous texts, especially the Jewish and Christian holy books, have made claims that the Quran was adapted from human sources. The present study, with an analytical-critical approach and using historical, linguistic and interpretative sources, examines these views scientifically. In this study, by analyzing the opinions of the most prominent orientalists and examining the historical, cultural and linguistic contexts of the era of revelation, it is shown that many of the hypotheses put forward have fundamental flaws from a methodological and content perspective. Also, citing the lack of reliable evidence that the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) had access to the written sources of the People of the Book, the authenticity and independence of the Quran as a revealed text is emphasized. The findings of the article indicate that the similarities between the Quran and previous books do not arise from adaptation, but from the single divine origin of the Abrahamic religions, and that the Quran, while sharing principles, expresses an independent, critical, and reformative view of past teachings.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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