Muhammad, the Qur\'an & Islam

Muhammad: Break with the Jews

Many of the suras of this section seem to be composed of fragmentary
passages (from diverse time periods), which give the general impression of
having been more or less haphazardly thrown together. At least one
Western scholar has proposed a theory to account for the "disjointedness"
of the Qur'an, in which some of the suras of this group provide classic
examples.^303

Notes:

[1] Guillaume, Muhammad, pp. 228 f; Tabari, History, vol. 7, pp. 1 f.

[2] Guillaume, Muhammad, pp. 230 f; Tabari, History, vol. 7, pp. 2 f.

[3] Guillaume, Muhammad, pp. 231 f.

[4] For example, the "middle prayer" (Qur'an 2:239), which is the time of
the congregational prayer on Fridays, is based on the Jewish prayer times.
The introduction of the Friday service is also thought to have somehow
been related to the day of preparation for the Sabbath; Buhl, Muhammeds,
pp. 214, 228; Watt, Muhammad, p. 99; EI², s.v. "Muhammad," p. 368. The
institution of the call to prayer must have been contemporary with the
introduction of the congregational Friday prayer.

[5] The text given by Tabari is longer than that found in Ibn Hisham. The
account given by Ibn Hisham also contains a Biblical phrase (about one
being killed and leaving his flock without a shepherd; cf. I Kgs. 22:17; II
Chr. 18:16; Zech. 13:7; etc.), which does not appear in the Qur'an.

[6] The mention of "war" in the constitution betrays a time period after the
start of Muhammad's raids, and the description of the Jews as having "their
own religion" presumes that Muhammad's break with the Jews had already
occurred. Most Western scholars of Islam consider this document to have
been drawn up in 2 AH; cf. Buhl, Muhammeds, pp. 211 f; Andrae,
Mohammed, pp. 135 f; Guillaume, Islam, p. 41; Watt, Muhammad, pp. 95
f; EI², s.v. "Muhammad," p. 367.