Muhammad: Meccan Oppositionthat his revelations had been given him by a "spirit" (cf. Qur'an 26:193).^129
The blessing in 19:15, for John, is basically the same as the one in v. 34,
which is given for Jesus. The vv. 16f relate a narrative about M^130 ary, who
is said to have had a book named after her, and the birth of Je^131 sus, who
remains unnamed until v. 35 (which appears to have been a later addition).
Most of the materials for this story seem to have come from apocryphal
works of various sects. In v. 16 Mary is said to have withdrawn f^132 rom her
relatives, and again, no mention of Gabriel is made where it sh^133 ould have
been (vv. 17, 19), but simply a spirit (v. 19) is referred to. In vv^134. 23f
Mary is said to have given birth under a palm tree, and "her Lord" has a
brook flow beneath her (v. 24). Mary is later accused of immor^135 ality (vv.
28f), and is addressed as the "sister of Aaron" (v. 29). It is cer^136 tain that
Muhammad confused Miriam the sister of Moses with Mary the mother of
Jesus, as this misunderstanding also serves as the basis fo^137 r other Qur'an
passages, where Amram (`Imran) the father of Moses is said to be the father
of Mary (cf. 3:30f; 66:12). In v. 30 the infant [Jesus] speaks fr^138 om the
cradle to absolve Mary from the charge of immorality, and v. 34^139 contains
the blessing similar to that of John's in v. 15. Strangely eno^140 ugh, the name
of Jesus does not appear in this earlier section, nor does Muhammad reveal
any acquaintance with the title Messias ("Masih") until Medinan passages.
Since the term "Masih" together with "son of Mary" was used for Jesus
among the pre-Islamic Arab poets, it may have been that Mu^141 hammad did
not yet know of Him from those sources. The vv. 42f give a narrative about
Abraham (cf. 87:19), who is said to have a book named after him, whose
father is depicted as having been an idolater (vv. 43f), and w^142 hose sons
were (apparently) Isaac and Jacob (v. 50). A brief narrative^143 about Moses
follows (vv. 52f), who is also said to have a book bearing his name (cf.
87:19). In the vv. 55f a story about Ishmael is given, who is also said to
have had a book. The fact that he was not mentioned together with Isaac
and Jacob indicates that Muhammad must not have known that Ishmael was
Abraham's son at the time. The ministry of his prophethood, a^144 s described
in these verses, was probably an invention of Muhammad, for not only are
the doctrines mentioned typically Qur'anic, but later Islamic traditionists
were hard put to find any sources for this narrative. In vv. 57^145 f a book is
ascribed to Idris, who is briefly described, vv. 61f Paradise^146 is associated
with Eden, and the vv. 67f deal with the Resurrection. The Qur'anic names
for most of the characters in these sections of this sura, seem to have come
from (or have been influenced by) Syriac, and at least thre^147 e of them: the
names for Zacharias, Mary and Idris, do not appear to have existed in
Arabic before Muhammad's time. Just how well these early se^148 ctions of