==Introducton==

At the period when Mohammed was using the utmost endeavor to turn his people from idolatry to the Faith of Abraham, the Arabs had no religious writings acknowledged in common by them all, so that it was a matter of extreme difficulty to make them see the evils of their native faiths. There were three religions in the Peninsula - the Sabaean<ref>The Sabaean have disappeared. No trace of them anywhere remains, and even of their history but little is known. We are told by Eastern authorities (what follows is from Abu Feda, who quotes from Abu Isa alMaghrabi) that they were the first of all peoples who inhabited Syria; that they derived their faith from Seth and Idris; and that they possessed a book called ''Pages of Seth'', In which were inculcated righteousness, truth, bravery, care of the poor, and avoidance of evil. They had seven times for prayer, five of which were at the same hour as chosen by the Prophet. They prayed also for the dead, but without prostration; fasted thirty days from night to sunrise, and also if any new moon rose badly, for the remaining day of the month; observed Fed from the setting of their five stars; and venerated the Kaaba. Hence we see that the Sabaeans kept many observances still in force among the Moslems.</ref>, Jewish, and Christian - each of which, as we hope to show, helped to nurse Islam, which at the first lay like an infant in its cradle.

==Jewish Sources==

The story is scattered over various passages of the Koran, chiefly in those noted below.<ref>Surah ii. 260, vi. 74-84, xxi. 52-72, xix. 42-50, xxvi. 69-79,xxix.15, 16, xxxvii. 81-95, xliii. 25-27, Ix. 4, and other passages</ref> Now whoever will read these, as well as the Traditional Records of the Moslems,<ref>Such as the Qissas al Anbia and ArPish al Majalis.</ref> will at once perceive that the tale as there told has been taken from one of the ancient Jewish books called Midrash Rabbhh. To bring this clearly to view, we must first shew the history as given in the Koran and Moslem writings, and then compare it with the Jewish tale in the above book.

In a work of Abdul Feda we have the Moslem story as follows.<ref>Ancient History from the Mukhtasar fi Akhb~r ii Bashar.</ref> ‘Azar, Abraham's father used to construct idols, and hand them over to his son to sell Abraham would go about crying, "Who will buy that which will hurt and not benefit him?" Then when God Almighty commanded him to call his people to the Divine unity, his father refused the call, and so did his people. Thus the matter spread abroad till it reached Nimrod, son of Cush, king over the country who took Father Abraham, and cast him into a fierce fire; but the fire grew cool and pleasant unto Abraham, who came out of it after some days. And thereupon his people believed in him.~~<ref>Surah vi. 76, etc.; all is from the Koran so far as in italics; and so also in the next two pages.</ref>~~

Again, in the Araish al Majalis we read: Before this, when Abraham one night came up out of his cave and saw the stars before the moon arose, he said: This is my Preserver. (Surah 6:76) ''And when the night overshadowed him, he saw a star, and said, This is my Lord; and when it set, he said, ! love not those that · set. And when he saw the moon rising, he said, This is my Lord; but when it set, he said, Verily if my Lord direct me not, I shall be of those that go astray. And when he saw the sun rising, he said, This is my Lord; this is the greatest. But when it set, he said, O my people! Verily I am clear of that which ye associate together with God. Verily I direct my face unto him who hath created the heavens and the earth. I am orthodox, and not one of the idolaters.''

They say that Abraham's father used to make idol images and give them to Abraham to sell. So Abraham taking them about would cry: ''"These will neither hurt nor help him that buys," '' so that no one bought from him. And when it was not sold, he took an image to the stream, and striking its head, would say, ''Drink, my poor one! in derision'', - for his people and the heathen around him to hear. So when his people objected, he said, ''Ah! do ye dispute with me concerning God, and verily God hath directed me….And this Is our argument wherewith We furnished Abraham for his people. We raise the dignity of whom we wish, for thy Lord is wise and knowing. (Surah 6: 80-85) '' And so in the end Abraham overcame his, People by such arguments. Then he called his father Azar to the true faith, and said: ''O my father, wherefore dost thou worship that which , neither hears nor sees, nor yet doth profit thee in any way and so on to the end of the story. (Surah 19:40) '' But his rather refused that to which Abraham called him; whereupon Abraham cried aloud to his, people that he was free from what they worshipped and thus made known his faith to them. He said, ''what think ye? That which ye worship, and your forefathers also, are mine enemies, excepting only the lord of the worlds (Surah 26:75-77) ''" They said, Whom then dost thou worship? He answered, "The Lord of all worlds." "Dost thou mean Nimrod?" "Nay, but he that created me and guideth me," and so on. The thing then spread abroad among the people, till it reached the ears of the tyrant Nimrod, Who sent for him, and said: ''"O Abraham! Dost thou hold him to be thy god that hath Sent thee; dost thou call to his worship and speak of his power to those that worship other than him? Who is he?" '' Abraham replied. ''"My Lord, he that giveth life, and giveth death." (surah 2:260) '' Nimrod answered . "I give life, and cause to die." A. ''"How dost thou make alive, and cause to die?" '' N. ''"I take two men ~~Who~~ who at my hands deserve death, one I ~~kiII~~kill, who thus dies; the other I forgive. who thus is made alive." '' Whereupon Abraham answered, "~~l/erily~~ Verily God bringeth the sun from the East, now do thou bring him from the West."(Surah 2:260) Thereupon Nimrod was confounded, and returned him no reply. The people then went away to celebrate their Eed<ref>Surah vi. 76, etc.; all is from the Koran so far as in italics; and so also in the next two pages.</ref>, and Abraham, taking the opportunity, broke all the idols but the biggest, and then the story proceeds as follows: When they had prepared food, they set It before their gods and said, "When the time comes we shall return, and the gods having blessed the meat we shall eat thereof." So when Abraham looked upon the gods, and what was set before them, he said derisively. ''"Ah! ye are not eating"'', and when no answer came, ''"What aileth you, that ye do not speak?" and he turned upon them and smote them with his right hand.(Surah 37:90) '' And he kept striking tht:m with a hatchet in his hand. until there remained none but the biggest of thenl. and upon Its neck he hung the axe.(Surah 21:59) ) ''He broke them all in pieces except the biggest, that they might lay the blame on it .'' Now when the People returned from their Eed to the house of their gods, and saw it in such a Stafe, they said, ''Who hath done this to our gods? Verily he is a wicked one. They answered, We heard a young man speaking of them They call him Abraham. '' He it is, we think, who hath done it. When this reached the tyrant Nimrod and his chief men, ''They said, Bring him before the eyes of the people; perhaps they will bear witness that he hath ~~donethis~~ done this thing. '' And they were afraid to seize him without evidence.<ref>Cotada and Al Sidy are quoted here; and it is added from Al Dzahhak, "Perhaps they may ~~giveevidence~~ give evidence as to what we should do, and punish him." </ref> So they brought him and said: ''Hast thou done this unto our gods, O Abraham? '' He answered, ''Nay but that big one hath done it''; he was angry that ye worshipped along with him these little idols, and he so much bigger than all; and he brake the whole of them in pieces. Now ask them if they can speak.<ref>A note is here added to the following purport:-- Mohammaed on this remarked that Abraham in all told three lies, all on behalf of the Lord, namely, "I am sick"; "the big one hath done this"; and what he said to the King regarding Sarah, "She is my sister."</ref> When he had said this, ''they turned their backs'', and said (among themselves), ''"Verily it is ye that are the transgressors.. We have never seen him but telling us that we transgress, having those little idols and this great one." '' So they broke the heads of them all, and were amazed that they neither spake nor made any opposition. Then they said (to Abraham), ''Certainly thou knowest that they speak not. '' Thus when the affair with Abraham was ended, he said to them: ''Ah! do ye indeed worship, besides God, that which cannot profit you at all, nor can it injure you. Fie on you, and on that which ye worship besides God! Ah, do ye not understand?''

When thus overthrown and unable to make any answer, ''they called out, Burn him, and avenge your gods if ye do it. '' Abdallah tells us that the man who cried thus was a Kurd called Zeinun; and.the Lord caused the earth to open under him, and there he lies buried till the day of Judgment. When Nimrod and his people were thus gathered together to burn Abraham, they imprisoned him in a house, and built for him a great pile, as we read in Surah Saffat: ''They said, Build a pile for him and cast him into the glowing fire. '' Then they gathered together quantities of wood and stuff to burn; and so, by the grace of God, Abraham came out of the fire safe and sound, with the words on his lips, - ''God is sufficient for me (Surah 39;39)''; and ''He is the best Supporter (Surah 3. 37)''. For the Lord said, ''O Fire! be thou cool and pleasant unto Abraham.''<ref>In the last few pages the quotations from the Koran are all from Surahs 21. and 37., and the verses being so numerous and detached are not numbered in detail; but they will be found in passages succeeding verse 52 of the former, and verse 84 of the latter Surah. The Koran passages are throughout printed in italics.</ref>

Now, let us compare the story of Abraham as current amongst the Jews, with the same story in Koran and Tradition as given above, and see how they differ or agree. The following is from the Midrash Rabbah on Abraham brought out of Ur (Gen. xv. 7).

The Moslems, of course, hold that their Prophet gained the tale of Abraham's being cast into the fire neither from Jews nol Christians, but through Gabriel from on high; and as the Jews, being children of Abraham, so accepted it, the Koran, they say, must be right. But it could only have been the common folk among the Jews who believed it so; for those who had any knowledge of its origin must have known its puerility.

The origin of the whole story will be found in ''Genesis 15:7: I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees. '' Now Ur in Babylonish means a "city" as In Ur-Shalim (Jerusalem), "the City of Peace." And the Chaldaean Ur1 was the residence of Abraham. This name Ur closely resembles in speech another word, Or signifying light or fire. And so ages after, a Jewish Commentator<ref>The original Babylonish text is here given, as indeed the Author does in most of the Oriental quotations. A close translation is also given, but only the general purport is here attempted.</ref> ignorant of Babylonish, when translating the Scripture into Chaldean, put the above verse from Genesis, as follows: Im ''I'm the Lord that delivered thee out of the Chaldean fiery oven. '' The Same Ignorant writer has also the following comment on Genesis 11:27: ''"Now this happened at the time when Nimrod cast Abraham into the oven of fire, because he would not worship the idols, that leave was withheld from the fire to hurt him '' - a strange confusion of words, - Ur the city, for Or light and fire. It is as if a Persian seeing notice of the departure of the English post, should put in his diary that an Englishman had lost his skin, - not knowing that the same word for skin in Persian means the Post in English. No wonder then that an ignorant Jew should have mistaken a word like this, and made it the foundation whereon to build the grand tale of Abraham's fiery Oven. But it is somewhat difficult to understand how a Prophet like Mohammed could have given credence to such a fable, and entered it in a revelation held to have come down from heaven. And yet the evidence of it all is complete, as quoted above from the Jewish writer. Apart from this we know from Genesis that Nimrod lived not in the days of Abraham but ages before his birth. The name indeed is not in the Coran, though freely given in the Moslem Commentaries and Tradition. As if a historian should tell us that Alexander the Great cast Nadir Shah into the fire, not knowing the ages that elapsed between the two, or that Nadir never was so thrown.

===Visit of the Queen of Saba (Sheba) to Solomon===

===Harat and Marut===

There are many other stories in the Koran taken from the fanciful details of Jewish writers; but we shall content ourselves with this one other before entering on more general questions. We shall first recite the tale of those two Spirits as given in the Koran and Tradition, and then compare it with the same as told by Jewish writers. The passage in the Coran is this:-- :Solomon was not an unbeliever; but the Devils believed not. They taught men sorcery, and that which was sent down to the two angels at Babel, - Harat and Marut. Yet these taught no man until they had said, - Verily we are a temptation, therefore be not an unbeliever. (Surah 2:96)

The following is from the Araish al Majalis:-

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