Exposing Islam

Part 13 – Borrowed Stories from Jewish, Christian, and Pagan Sources

How the Qur’an Recycles Earlier Religious Myths and Calls Them Revelation

Introduction: The “Confirming Previous Scriptures” Claim

The Qur’an repeatedly insists it confirms the Torah and the Gospel:

“He has sent down upon you the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.”
(Surah 3:3)

The Islamic position is:

Allah sent the Torah to Moses and the Gospel to Jesus.
The Qur’an confirms both, correcting distortions and restoring the pure message.

But when we actually examine the content of the Qur’an, a different picture emerges:

Many of its stories match neither the Torah nor the Gospel.
Instead, they mirror Jewish folklore, Christian apocrypha, and even pagan legends — works written centuries after the events they describe, and never considered scripture by Jews or Christians.
In some cases, the Qur’an misquotes, distorts, or merges multiple sources into a single, contradictory narrative.

If the Qur’an’s material is lifted from human, post-biblical sources, then it cannot be divine revelation — it is derivative literature.

Section 1 – The Jewish Folklore Sources

1. The Story of Abraham Destroying the Idols (Surah 21:51–70)

Qur’anic version: Abraham smashes his people’s idols, leaving only the largest one, then claims the big idol did it. The people burn him, but Allah saves him from the fire.
Source: This exact episode is not in the Torah. Instead, it appears in the Midrash Rabbah (a 5th–6th century Jewish commentary).
The rabbinic tale was a moral parable — not historical scripture — yet the Qur’an treats it as literal history.

2. Solomon Talking to Ants (Surah 27:18–19)

Qur’anic version: Solomon overhears an ant warning others to hide, and he smiles at her words.
Source: Targum Sheni (an Aramaic expansion of Esther), a Jewish folk text, features Solomon speaking with animals, including birds and insects.
This is not in the biblical book of Kings, where Solomon’s wisdom is political and judicial, not Disney-style animal chat.

3. Cain and the Raven (Surah 5:31)

Qur’anic version: After Cain kills Abel, Allah sends a raven to show Cain how to bury his brother.
Source: Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (8th century), a rabbinic commentary, has the same raven burial lesson — predating Islam but post-biblical.
The Genesis account simply says Cain buried Abel without divine ornithology.

Section 2 – The Christian Apocrypha Sources

4. The Baby Jesus Speaking from the Cradle (Surah 19:29–33)

Qur’anic version: As an infant, Jesus speaks to defend Mary’s honor.
Source: Infancy Gospel of Thomas and Arabic Infancy Gospel — non-canonical Christian works from the 2nd–6th centuries.
These texts were never considered inspired scripture and were often rejected as heretical by mainstream Christians.

5. Jesus Creating a Bird from Clay (Surah 3:49, 5:110)

Qur’anic version: Jesus forms a bird from clay and breathes life into it, by Allah’s permission.
Source: Infancy Gospel of Thomas again — same miracle, same setup.
This story is absent from the canonical Gospels, which focus on Jesus’ teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection.

6. The Cave Sleepers (Surah 18:9–26)

Qur’anic version: Young men hide in a cave to escape persecution and sleep for centuries, waking unharmed.
Source: The Legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a popular Christian legend in Syriac and Greek, dating to the 5th century.
In the legend, the sleepers were Christian youths hiding from a Roman emperor — nothing to do with Islam.

Section 3 – The Pagan and Pre-Islamic Sources

7. The Flood Narrative (Surah 11:25–48)

Qur’an’s flood story borrows elements from Genesis, but also aligns with Mesopotamian flood myths (Gilgamesh Epic, Atrahasis).
The Qur’anic Noah lives among polytheistic Arabs with idols — something not in the biblical context but matching pre-Islamic Arabian paganism.

8. Dhul-Qarnayn and the Wall of Gog and Magog (Surah 18:83–98)

Qur’anic version: Dhul-Qarnayn (“The Two-Horned One”) travels to the ends of the earth, builds a wall to block Gog and Magog.
Closest parallel: Alexander Romance — a Greek legend of Alexander the Great building a barrier to keep barbarian tribes out.
The Qur’an’s tale is a retelling of a popular paganized biography of Alexander, complete with mythical geography.

9. Jinn in Solomon’s Service (Surah 34:12–14)

Qur’an says Solomon commanded jinn to build structures.
Source: Arabian pagan beliefs in jinn as desert spirits, merged with post-biblical Jewish demonology (Testament of Solomon).
The Hebrew Bible never depicts Solomon ruling supernatural beings — this is folklore grafted onto his name.

Section 4 – Patterns in Qur’anic Borrowing

Across these stories, we see a pattern:

Not original — The Qur’an rarely provides narratives that are unique and historically verifiable.
From non-scriptural sources — Many are from midrash, apocrypha, or folk tales that Jews and Christians themselves rejected as scripture.
Retold with errors — The Qur’an often mixes up details, compresses timelines, or changes theological meaning.
Passed off as revelation — Stories are presented as direct revelations from Allah, not adapted from existing literature.

Section 5 – Why This Undermines the Qur’an’s Divine Claim

The Qur’an makes three major claims about itself:

It is from Allah.
It confirms earlier scriptures.
It contains no falsehood.

If much of it is derived from human folklore:

It is not original revelation.
It often contradicts the Torah and Gospel instead of confirming them.
It contains mythological elements with no historical evidence.

In short — a text that borrows from human sources and calls them divine is guilty of religious plagiarism.

Section 6 – Muslim Apologetic Defenses and Their Weaknesses

Defense 1: “Those sources came from earlier prophets, so the similarities prove authenticity.”

Problem: This is circular reasoning — assuming the Qur’an is divine to prove the Qur’an is divine.
Historical fact: Most of these stories only appear in late sources (2nd–8th century AD), long after Moses and Jesus.

Defense 2: “Oral traditions preserved these stories.”

Problem: Oral transmission is prone to change, exaggeration, and invention — especially over centuries.
The similarities to specific literary versions (e.g., Infancy Gospel of Thomas) are too precise to be “general oral tradition.”

Defense 3: “The Bible is corrupted, so the Qur’an restores the true version.”

Problem: Manuscript evidence for the Bible (Dead Sea Scrolls, Codex Sinaiticus) predates Islam by centuries and matches today’s text.
No evidence exists that the Qur’an’s alternative versions of these stories were ever part of original scripture.

Section 7 – Logical Breakdown

The Qur’an claims to confirm the Torah and Gospel.
The Qur’an’s narratives often contradict these texts and match later Jewish, Christian, and pagan folklore.
Therefore, the Qur’an does not confirm the original scriptures — it reproduces later, human-authored stories.
A book dependent on post-biblical folklore cannot be divine revelation.

Conclusion: A Patchwork of Borrowed Myths

The Qur’an’s narrative foundation is not original revelation — it’s a blend of:

Jewish rabbinic parables.
Christian apocryphal gospels.
Pagan legends and pre-Islamic folklore.

Islam’s claim that the Qur’an is the pure, unchanged word of God confirming earlier revelation collapses under the weight of its human literary borrowings.

When a supposed divine book shares its DNA with discredited fables, we’re not looking at revelation — we’re looking at religious repackaging.

Next in series Part 14 “No Archaeological Evidence for Key Early Islamic Events