Responses to Islamic Awareness

Well, Did Not Muhammad Copy Some Verses Of The Qur'an From Imru'l Qais?


In this article, the "Islamic Awareness" team (a record 8 members) attempts to attack an argument that was never made. In spite of the accusation that this is an age old polemic, the "Islamic Awareness" team tells us in their CONTENT tag:

"The Christian missionaries at last have shown some honesty for mentioning that Muhammad(P) did not copy some of the verses of the Qur'an from Imru'l Qais' poetry."

In fact, the Answering-Islam site has, since 1997, denied that Muhammad copied verses from Imru'l Qais. So, what is the point of the "Islamic Awareness" article?

Was Imru'l Qais a Christian?

The "Islamic Awareness" team often believes that one looks best when they are on the attack. In this article, they must find, or invent, an argument to attack. Their first target is Louis Cheikho who, in the 1890's, claimed that Qais was a Christian. I am not sure why this is an issue, and the article provides no background information as to why this is relevant to an argument that Christians have not made against the Qur'an!

A Kind Word for Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall?

The "Islamic Awareness" team now turns to Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall, one of their favorite targets for ad hominem attacks. However, Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall cannot be attacked in this debate. According to the "Islamic Awareness" team:

The second reason is the age old polemic of Muhammad(P) borrowing the parts of Qur'ânic verses from Imru'l Qais' poetry. Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall at least understood the anachronic explanation and was brave enough to acknowledge that Muhammad(P) did not involve in plagiarism. The below material is taken from Appendix To Chapter II of Tisdall's book The Original Sources Of The Qur'ân.

After all of these words, the "Islamic Awareness" team has no one to attack for an accusation (that Muhammad copied the works of Imru'l Qais) that was never made.

Sir C. J. Lyall

Lacking an argument, or person, to attack, the "Islamic Awareness" team turns to Sir C. J. Lyall. They quote a passage from Arabic Literature to the End of the Ummayad Period (A.F.L. Beeston, T.M. Johnstone, R.B. Serjeant and G.R. Smith (ed.), 1983, Cambridge University Press) :

The Qur'ân is not verse, but it is rhythmic. The rhythm of some verses resemble the regularity of Saj', and both are rhymed, while some verses have a similarity to Rajaz in its vigour and rapidity. But it was recognized by Quraysh critics to belong to neither one nor the other category.[10]

Was that so difficult for Lyall to say that?

The most reasonable explanation for this could be that Lyall was most concerned with pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. This assumption can be made from the title of Lyall's book : Translations of Ancient Arabian Poetry, Chiefly Pre-Islamic. Lyall does make some minor points concerning the Qur'an, especially the issue of the "Satanic Verses" (page xxix), however, the Qur'an is not the subject of this book.

Quotes provided by the "Islamic Awareness" team must also be placed in the context in which they were written. Beeston, Johnstone, Serjeant and Smith were quoting Mubarak's Nathr. The authors agree that the Qur'an is in a literary category of its own. However, on pages 196-197, they tell us:

The Qur'an is written throughout in rhyming prose (saj'), and appears therefore, to a greater or lesser extent, artistically constructed and strongly rhetorical in comparison with ordinary prose. The individual parts of a sentence, the sentence or combination of sentences which end with a rhyme and are called verses (ayah, plural ayat) follow the rhyme scheme a-a, b-b, c-c. The same rhyme is repeated not only once but as often as the author pleases, e.g. a-a-a, b-b, c-c-c-c (surah ci). Short surahs sometimes have only one rhyme. Ideally, as in the earliest surahs, the rhymes follow in rapid succession at farily equal intervals; this also seems to have been the case with the rhymes of the ancient Arabic soothsayers. (Presumably the Prophet in fact adopted the alternation of short rhyme sequences from the practice of these soothsayers ...). In the surahs from the latter years of Muhammad's career the verses lengthen increasingly, and the rhymes no longer have the effect of rhetorically enlivening elements, but sound monotonous and often forced, as though they have been added later.

On page 198, we are told:

A large number of early pronouncements in the Qur'an are introduced by strange oaths, or rather asseverations, a stylistic device which Muhammad in all probability copied from the old Arabic soothsayers.

As in other articles, the "Islamic Awareness" team "quote mines" sources in an attempt to find some information which will extricate the Qur'an from charges that Muhammad borrowed from other traditions. In this case, the "Islamic Awareness" team attempts to rescue the Qur'an from an accusation that was not made - that Muhammad plagiarized the work of Imru'l Qais. As in other articles, the sources that the "Islamic Awareness" team "quote-mines" do not prove their position. These sources, more often than not, contradict the "Islamic Awareness" arguments and further support the idea that Muhammad borrowed his materials from Pagan, Jewish, and Christian traditions.

Andrew Vargo

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