Muhammad: Meccan Oppositionv. 40, and these are all to serve as examples to the Meccans (vv. 41f). The
vv. 47f depict God as the Provider, who among other things, divided salt
and fresh water with a barrier (v. 55) and created man from wat^253 er (v. 56).
The vv. 57f show pagans to be unbelievers. In v. 59 Muhammad reiterates
that he is asking for no wage, and the vv. 61f indicate that the n^254 ame
"Compassionate" ("Rahman") for God was alien to the Meccans. In the vv.
62f God is described as the Creator, and the vv. 64f contrast the servants of
the Compassionate with the ignorant. A few passages of this sura are similar
to Bible passages: 25:28 (cf. Rev. 12:10); 25:46 (cf. I Pet. 2:25;
Is. 53:6); 25:64 (cf. Mt. 5: 5), or the Talmud: 25:64 (Avot 4,15).^255
At least one collection of Sira traditions portrays a deputation of Christians
from Abyssinia as accepting Islam in Mecca; however, this information is
hedged by doubts on the part of Ibn Ishaq.^256 Sira traditions relate how
Muhammad was allegedly transported to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem^257
one night, but the various collections are in disagreement as to whether this
actually took place physically, or rather, in a dream. Many of these
traditions relate that Muhammad was taken to Jerusalem (or Heaven) on a
beast named "Buraq" by the angel Gabriel. Later, Muhammad is^258 said to
have been raised into the "seven" heavens and seen (1) Adam - (2) John and
Jesus - (3) Joseph - (4) Idris - (5) Aaron - (6) Moses - (7) Abraham, the last
of whom took him to God. At first 50 daily prayers were made obligatory
for Muhammad and his followers, but after talking to Moses, and returning
to God to ask for a reduction, ten less daily prayers were made obligatory;
and so on, until finally only five daily prayers remained. This tradition is
obviously a later elaboration of the exegetes for Qur'an 17:1, since the
strange name "Buraq" never appears in the Qur'an, "Gabriel" i^259 s only
known in Medinan passages (as well as the preference for Abraham),
Muhammad never claims to have been in heaven or in God's presence in the
Qur'an, the "reduction" in the number of daily prayers is also not referred to
in the Qur'an (much less that there should be "five" daily prayers), etc.
Moreover, the structure of the story seems to be based on other works: a
spiritual journey to Jerusalem (cf. Ezek. 8:3), seeing and sp^260 eaking with
other prophets in heaven (cf. The Revelation of Paul), and "b^261 argaining"
from 50 to a lesser number (cf. Gen. 18:26-33).