The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

Quran and Muslim Exegesis as a Source for the Bible and Ancient History r 37

As for the People of the Torah, they allege that there is no mention

of ̔Ād, Hūd, Thamūd, and Sālih in the Torah. Their word among the

Arabs in pre-Islamic and Islamic times is like the repute of Abra-

ham. Their rejection of this was not as astounding as their rejection

of the prophethood of Abraham and his message and likewise their

rejection of the existence of the Christ.^88

That Jews (and Christians) might deny the mention of the Arab prophets
is not unwarranted given the argument made by Muslim exegetes for the
Arab provenance of ancient prophecy. Muslim exegesis maintains that
the prophets Hūd, Sālih, and Shu ̔ayb are part of the biblical tradition as
is the prophet Muhammad and the model of prophethood epitomized by
the stories of these prophets.
Muslim exegetes draw upon a rich tradition of cultic activity attested
throughout the ancient and late antique Near East and Mediterranean but
especially in the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile Crescent. Stories of the
prophets in the Quran are provided against the backdrop of a larger bibli-
cal and ancient Near Eastern milieu in which prophets are identified for
their role as custodians of the sanctuary, and the sanctuary as a model for
civilization. For the Muslim exegetes, the historicity of Arab prophecy is
demonstrated by reference to this pre-Islamic evidence, evidence which is
taken to depict prophethood in terms consistent with the model of proph-
ecy found in the Quran and in the life of the prophet Muhammad. This
model, evinced in ancient sources, allows Muslim exegetes to emphasize
biblical materials to demonstrate the Arabian heritage of Israelite proph-
ecy and the central importance of Arabian prophets to the history of an-
cient prophecy.
It is important to note that, by drawing upon the Bible and other an-
cient sources to construct a Quranic model of prophethood, Muslim ex-
egetes are engaging directly with the extant text of the Bible. Despite the
widespread idea that Muslims do not accept the Bible as authoritative and
dismiss it as unreliable, it is evident that Muslim exegetes used the Bible to
demonstrate the authority of the Quran and the prophet Muhammad.^89 At
issue is not a matter of arguing over the text of the Bible but of gaining the
biblical text as an ally, as data for the construction of a generic paradigm
of prophethood that allows for Islam to have a historical pedigree. It is
not a question of whether or not prophethood was, historically, like it is