The Qur'an borrowed the wrong prophetic stories!

When we read the Qur’an, we are struck by the large number of Biblical stories within its pages.  Yet, these stories have little parallel with that which we read in our Bible.  The Qur'anic accounts include many distortions, amendments, and some bizarre additions to that which we have heard our parents read to us at devotional times. So, where did these stories come from, if not from the previous scriptures? Upon reading and observing these dubious teachings in the Qur'an we are forced to ask whether they contain stories which have parallels in pre-Islamic writings which were of questionable authenticity? If so, then we should be able to find these "apocryphal" accounts and compare them with that which we read in the Qur'an. Fortunately, we do have much Jewish apocryphal literature (much of it from the Talmud), dating from the second century A.D. with which we can compare many of these stories. It is when we do so, that we find remarkable similarities between these fables or folk tales, and the stories which are recounted in the Qur'an. The Talmudic writings were compiled in the second century A.D., from oral laws (Mishnah) and traditions of those laws (Gemara).  These laws and traditions had been created to adapt the law of Moses (the Torah) to the changing times.  They also included interpretations and discussions of the laws (the Halakhah and Haggadah etc.).  Many Jews do not consider the Talmudic writings authoritative but use them as windows to understand the times in which they were written. So, how did these non-authoritative Talmudic writings come to be a part of the Qur'an? In the Arabian Peninsula (known as the Hijaz), during the seventh century many Jewish communities could be found. They were part of the diaspora who had fled Palestine after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. A large number of these Jews were guided by these Talmudic writings which had been passed down orally from father to son for generations. Each generation embellished the accounts, or at times incorporated local folklore, so that it was difficult to know what the original stories contained. There were even those amongst the Jews who believed that these Talmudic writings had been added to the "preserved tablets" (i.e. the Ten Commandments, and the Torah which were kept in the Ark of the Covenant) and were believed to be replicas of the heavenly book. When the writers of the Qur'an needed material for their book, it is not surprising that they simply looked to their cousins, the Jews, for help, incorporating a number of their traditions into the text of the Qur’an. Those who are critical of these sources, yet who adhere to Muslim Tradition, and consider Muhammad as the `originator' of the Qur'an contend that many of these stories came to Muhammad via Jewish friends which he had in Mecca and Medina. We do know from Muslim tradition that Khadija’s cousin, Waraqa ibn Nofal, translated portions of the Gospels into Arabic, and that Buhaira, a Nestorian monk, was his secret teacher (Tisdall, pg.15). Muslim Tradition also maintains that Muhammad's seventh wife, Raihana, and his ninth wife, Safiyya, were Jewesses. Furthermore, his first wife, Khadija, had a Christian background. His eighth wife, Maryam, also belonged to a Christian sect. If the traditions were true, than it is likely that these wives shared with him much of their Old and New Testament literature, their dramas, and their prophetic stories. Another scenario is that many of the corresponding stories which we find in the Qur'an are from a later date (towards the end of the eighth century, or 100-150 years after the death of Muhammad), and have little to do with Muhammad. They were possibly written by later Persian or Syrian redactors (belonging to the Ummayad and Abyssid dynasties of the later seventh and eighth centuries), who simply borrowed stories from their own oral traditions (Persian Zoroastrians, or Byzantine Christians) as well as stories from the apocryphal Jewish literature which would have been around at that time. They then simply telescoped or redacted back the stories onto the figure of Muhammad in the early seventh century. Whatever is the case, the Qur'anic accounts do have interesting parallels with the Jewish apocryphal literature from the second century A.D.  © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2020 (32,990) (Music: "small adventure", by Rafael Krux (from filmmusic-io - License CC BY)