conveying any ennobling lesson, are derogatory to the dignity of prophethood and, sometimes, even of an obscene nature. An educated Jew or Christian would prefer that his sacred book did not contain such statements as that Abraham, that great and revered patriarch of all nations, was a liar, that Lot committed incest with his own daughters, that Aaron made the image of a calf and led the Israelites to its worship; that David, whose beautiful Psalms are the texts of sermons in churches and synagogues, committed adultery with Uria’s wife, and that Solomon with all his wisdom worshipped idols to please his wives! The Holy Qur’ān speaks of all these great men but it accepts none of these statements and rejects most of them in unmistakable words. Again, it speaks of the Devil tempting Adam, but in a language which makes it clear that it is the story of man’s everyday experience; there is no image of dust into whose nostrils the breath of life is breathed; no rib of Adam is taken out to make the woman; there is no Divine interdiction against the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; there is no serpent to beguile the woman, nor does the woman tempt the man; the Lord God does not walk in the garden in the cool of the day; no punishment is meted out to the serpent that he shall go on his belly and eat dust; the bringing forth of children is not a punishment for the woman, nor is labouring in the fields a punishment for the man. Similarly the Holy Qur’ān relates the history of Noah several times, but not once does it state that there was a deluge which covered the whole earth and destroyed all living creatures on the face of the earth. It only speaks of a flood that destroyed Noah’s people. There are many other examples9 which show that, though the Holy Qur’ān relates the histories of some of the prophets of yore in order to draw lessons therefrom, yet it does not borrow from the Bible. It is from the Divine source that its knowledge is drawn, and hence it is that when referring to those histories, it removes all their defects.
The examples given above show that the old scriptures, though revealed by God, have undergone considerable changes; and this is not only true of the Bible but applies with equal truth to all the ancient revealed books. Modern criticism of the Bible, together
9 I have noted these and other differences between the Holy Qur’ān and the Bible in the notes to my Translation of the Holy Qur’ān to which I may refer the reader who seeks further information on this point.