The reason for connecting Qur’an and Bible in this way is explained in the Qur’an itself: first, with reference to its concept of the unity of revelation and the succession of revelations and revealed books emerging from it and, secondly, with reference to the—likewise—Qur’anic concept of the succession of prophets.
The unity of revelation and succession
the same God’s word and commandment,” as Ğalāl ad-Dīn al-Maḥallī (d.
1459) explained in his commentary on the verse cited.20
If God is One and the only One and God’s message is likewise one message only, then all the prophets (provided they all are messengers of this One God) who received and proclaimed God’s divine message constitute a silsilat al-isnād, a single chain of transmitters and their respective messages likewise constitute one chain of transmission, in other words:
a “prophetic succession” or “succession of prophets,” as could be inferred from the Sura 4:163 verse quoted above.
Though every nation has its own messenger or prophet (Sura 10:47), they all are part of one and the same sequence of messengers, between whom “no distinction is being made” (Sura 2:136 and 285). Therefore, with reference to Muhammad we read in the Qur’an: “[And as for you,] nothing is being said to you but what was said to all messengers before you” (Surah 41:43). Therefore, Muhammad “is not an innovation among the messengers”
(ma kuntu bidʽan mina-r-rusul), but is proclaiming “what the earlier revealed books contain” (Sura 26:196).
This concept of a “succession of prophets”—according to the Qur’anic idea of prophets and prophetology—includes the stipulation that every prophet announces the coming of his successor explicitly as, in turn, every successor explicitly refers to his predecessor: Thus, Muhammad is “the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet (an-nabīy al-ummī)21 whom they shall find described in the Torah that is with them and in the Gospel” (Sura 7:157),22 provided that they understand the Torah and the gospel correctly
20 Tafsir al-Ğalālain, ed. Ḫālid al-Ğūğā (Damaskus: n.d.), 531–32.
21 For theological reasons, every prophet must be “unlettered, illiterate” to make sure that he is not the author of his message or scripture, but its transmitter only, as Philon of Alexandria (c. 15/10 BCE—c. 40 CE) already discussed with reference to Moses; see, Yehoschua Amir (1911–2002), “Mose als Verfasser der Tora bei Philon,” in Yehoschua Amir, Die hellenistische Gestalt des Judentums bei Philon von Alexandrien, Forschungen zum jüdisch-christlichen Dialog, vol. 5 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1983), 77–106. Therefore, Jeremiah dictated his message to his secretary Baruch (cf. Jeremiah 36,4sq.). Similarly, Muḥammad had his personal scribe in the person of Zaid b. Ṯābit al-Anṣārī (d. between the years 662 and 676) who, according to Islamic tradition, wrote down the message which Muḥammad was proclaiming. The only exception to this rule seems to be the Persian prophet Mani (216–276) who, so we are informed, himself authored his books accepted by the Manicheans as their Holy Scriptures.
22 At this point, Muslim Qur’an commentators usually refer to biblical passages such as Deuteronomy 18:18–20; Isaiah 5:26–30; Matthew 21:33–46 etc. For further details, see Hava Lazarus-Yafeh (1930–1998), Intertwined Worlds. Medieval Islam and Bible Criticism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992), 75–110.
(Sura 2:121).23 An illuminating early example of this type of Muslim Bible interpretation that reveals dozens of announcements of and allusions to (the coming of) Muhammad in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament alike, can be found in the Kitāb ad-dīn wad-daula by Abū l-Ḥasan ‘Alī b. Sahl Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī (c. 830/8–c. 870)24 (who, by the way, was a Christian physician from Persia who at an advanced age converted to Islam).25
From Sura 2:129, we learn that Ibrāhīm/Abraham already prayed (alluding to Deut 18:18): “Our Lord, raise up for them a messenger from among themselves who shall convey unto them Your Verses and teach them the Scripture and the Wisdom and purify them.” And in Sura 61:6 it is ‘Īsā/
Jesus himself who announces the coming of his successor:
And ‘Īsā/Jesus, the Son of Maryam/Mary said: “O children of Israel, behold, I am the Messenger of God unto you, confirming [the truth of] whatever there still remains of the Torah and announcing a messenger who shall come after me, and his name shall be Aḥmad.”
Since an entire library has been written on this much debated verse,26 it would go well beyond the scope of this paper to discuss it anew. Muslim commentators see in it a clear reference to Jesus announcing the coming of a paráklētos (Jn 14:16f.; 15:26; 16:4b–15 etc.) and Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī already suggested that the word paráklētos in the Gospel of John should
23 Cf. Muḥammad ‘Izzat Ismā’īl at-Tahtārī, Muḥammad—nabīy al-islām fī t-Taurāt wal- Inğīl wal-Qur’ān (Cairo, n.d.); David Benjamin, Muhammad in der Bibel (München: SKD Bavaria Verlag, 1992); Martin Accad, “Muhammad’s Advent as the Final Criterion for the Authenticity of the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Hidāyat al-ḥayārā fī ağwibat al-yahūd wa-‘l-naṣārā,” in Barbara Roogema, Marcel Porthuis, Pim Valkenberg (eds), The Three Rings—Textual Studies in the Historical Trialogue of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2005), 216–36.
24 Arabic text ed. Alphonse Mingana (1878/81–1937) (Manchester/London: Univ.
Press, Longmans, Green, and Co/Bernard Quaritch Ltd, 1923); English, The Book of Religion and Empire, transl. Alphonse Mingana (Manchester [etc.]: University Press, 1922, last reprint LaVergne, TN: Kessinger Publishing LLC, 2010).
25 See Max Meyerhof (1874–1945), “Alī ibn Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī, ein persischer Arzt des 9. Jahrhunderts n. Chr.,” in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 85 (1931), 38–68.
26 For a summary, see Asad, op. cit. (note 7), 861 n. 6; and Yūsuf Qazmā Khūrī et al.
(eds),’Īsā wa- Maryam fī l-Qur’ān wat-tafāsīr (Amman: Dār āš-Šurūq lin-našr wat-tauzī’, 1996), 525a-532b. In the same way, and long before the rise of Islam, the Manicheans
too regarded Jesus announcing the coming of the paráklētos as Jesus’ announcement of the coming of their prophet Mani (216–276/7); cf. Alexander Böhlig (1912–1996), Die Gnosis—der Manichäismus (Düsseldorf/Zürich: Artemis Verlag, 1997), 23–24 etc.
be understood as a misspelling of an alleged “original” períklytos which in Arabic means aḥmad (“praised”), just as ‘Īsā/Jesus said in Sura 61:6.27
According to this concept of the “succession of prophets,” the “differences”
between the prophets are rather “formal.” They differ from each other only with regard to: (1) their audience; (2) the time and (3) place of proclaiming their message; and (4) their language. Thus, every prophet conveys his message (1) to his people; (2) in his time; (3) in his place; and (4) in his language—Moses to the Jews of his time in Hebrew (the language of the Torah), Jesus to the Christians in Greek (the language of the gospel) and Muhammad to the Arabs of his time in Makkah and Madinah in “clear, pure Arabic” (Sura 12:2; 43:2 etc.).