A funny thing happened
on the way to Mecca
on the way to Mecca
Part Two:
Mecca has likely been substituted
for Beersheba
by
Damien F.
Mackey
“Apparently
drawing from early Jewish scriptural interpretations known as Targumim,
Muslim interpreters linked the building of the sanctuary in Mecca with the
account in
Gen
21 of digging a well in Beersheba—the place where,
according to the Targumim, Abraham also built a shrine”.
The Qur’an
(Koran) can, at times, present its reader with some appallingly bad geography; with unashamedly
anachronistic history; and with endless biblical and Jewish appropriations.
For example, in
my article:
Durie's Verdict: No Mohammed
I quoted the
Rev. Mark Durie to this effect: “Another issue is the observation in Q37:137–38
that the Qur'an’s audience can pass by the remains of Lūṭ’s [Lot's] people in
the morning and by night. The Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah is associated with the region around the Dead Sea...”.
Geographical
swing and a miss!
A vast geographical
distance separates Lot’s place of abode from that of the early Moslems.
Moreover, whilst
Abram (Abraham), considered to be the very father of the Islamic religion,
lived in a most ancient time that has been properly (so I believe) located
archaeologically to the Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze phase (c. 3500 BC,
conventional dating), the site of Mecca, to where Abraham is supposed to have
gone, is, in archaeological terms, extremely young.
As I wrote in Part One:
…. I, whilst indeed accepting at least the
religious and the evangelical aspects of things in relation to Islam, find,
nevertheless, that there are immense problems with the conventional view of
Islam as an historical phenomenon. There are many articles currently surfacing
that support a view that the historical claims of Islam are quite false and
inaccurate, with no underlying archaeology to support them.
‘A funny thing has happened on the way to Mecca’ –
for it is most curious that, according to this recent scholarship:
·
“Archaeology
of Mecca – the History of Mecca”. There is no archaeological evidence that suggests
that Mecca is an ancient town that existed before the Christian era, or even
that it existed before about the 4th century A.D. ….
·
“Did
Abraham Build the Kaaba?” The body of this paper will deal primarily with places and destinations,
not theology or personality. I will examine the Biblical accounts of Abraham in
the natural and sequential order in which they are preserved in the Bible,
while I examine and compare a small sampling of the similarities and
differences in the Quran and other Islamic sources. In doing so,
I’ll point out the several fatal contradictions in the Islamic perspective
and leave the reader to determine whether the Islamic version is truth to be
believed or fable created to connect a pagan Arabian shrine to the Biblical
patriarch of the Israelites. I will cover the ancient evidence and promptly
dismember Islamic dogma as inauthentic and based on inadequate grounds. ….
[End of quotes]
Brannon Wheeler
thinks that (and I would have to agree with him here) Moslem interpreters
appropriated the biblical (the Jewish) story of Abraham at Beersheba and
shifted it to Mecca: https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/people/related-articles/abraham-and-islam
Abraham
and Islam by Brannon Wheeler
Muslims understand Islam to be the religion
of Abraham. The biblical figure of Abraham is mentioned by name in the Qur’an
69 times—more than any other person except for Moses (137 times). Muslim interpreters of the Qur’an provide additional details linking the passages in the
Qur’an to the stories of Abraham known from the Bible and from Jewish and
Christian interpretation.
The Qur'an is
familiar with some of the biblical stories about Abraham, including his journey
to the promised land (Qur’an 21:71-73), the annunciation of
Isaac (Qur’an 11:69-74, Qur’an 15:51-56, Qur’an 51:24-30), God's command for Abraham to sacrifice his son (Qur’an 37:99-113),
the sacrifice of the birds (Qur’an
2:260), and Abraham's interaction with Lot and
the angels (Qur’an 11:74-83, Qur’an 29:28-35, Qur’an 51:31-37).
In the Qur’an, God calls upon people to
"follow the religion of Abraham" (Qur’an 3:95). Abraham is the
"model" of obedience to God (Qur’an 16:120) and the "friend
of God," and no one can be "better in religion" (Qur’an 4:125) than those who follow
him.
The Bible begins the narrative of Abraham's life with his call by God in Gen 12, but the Qur’an begins
earlier, with the story of Abraham smashing the idols of his father. A number
of close parallels exist between Jewish versions of this story (found in rabbinic literature) and the details provided by Muslim interpreters, including
Abraham's discovery of monotheism (Qur’an 6:74-87, Qur’an 41:37), his scheme to
disprove idolatry (Qur’an 19:41-50, Qur’an 21:51-70), and his escape from
the fiery furnace into which he was cast as punishment by the Babylonian king Nimrod (Qur’an
37:83-99, Qur’an 29:16-27).
Abraham is credited with establishing both
the sanctuary in Mecca known as the Kaaba and the practice of Islamic pilgrimage (Haj) to that site (Qur’an 22:26-27, Qur’an 3:96-97, Qur’an 2:125-129).
Apparently drawing from early Jewish
scriptural interpretations known as Targumim,
Muslim interpreters linked the building of the sanctuary in Mecca with the
account in Gen 21 of digging a well in Beersheba—the place where, according to the Targumim,
Abraham also built a shrine.
The Qur’an does not identify the name of
the son whom Abraham is commanded to sacrifice (see Gen 22), and the earliest Muslim interpreters were divided over whether it was
Isaac or Ishmael. In the context of the larger narrative linking Abraham with
Mecca, later Muslim traditions clearly identify the son to be sacrificed as
Ishmael, the ancestor of the prophet Muhammad.
Muslim interpreters also differ from the biblical account in making explicit
that Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son, trying a number of times to slit
his son's throat. ….
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