Key Stories in Islam — Abrahamic Religions 4 (C1)

THE ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS · LESSON 4 OF 5

Key Stories in Islam

C1 (B2–C2) · 70 minutes

Quran or Bible?

Task Read each story in one line. Write Q if you think it is told only in the Quran, B if only in the Bible (Old or New Testament), or QB if it is told in both.

Q only in the Quran · B only in the Bible · QB in both

1. A man builds a great boat and survives a flood that drowns his people.

5. A queen from Sheba comes to visit King Solomon.

2. A young woman gives birth to a child who has no human father.

6. The first man and woman leave a garden after eating from a forbidden tree.

3. A prophet confronts Pharaoh, and the sea parts in two.

7. King Solomon hears an ant warn the other ants to hide from his army.

4. A prophet who runs away from his mission is swallowed by a great fish.

8. A strong man loses his strength when his hair is cut.

What the books say

1  QB. Genesis 6–9; Quran 11:25–49 and Surah 71. In the Quran, one of Noah's sons refuses to board and drowns (11:42–43).

5  QB. 1 Kings 10; Quran 27:20–44, where she is not named. Later Muslim tradition calls her Bilqis.

2  QB. Luke 1–2 and Matthew 1; Quran 3:42–47 and Surah 19, which is named after Mary (Maryam). In Surah 19 she gives birth alone, under a palm tree.

6  QB. Genesis 2–3; Quran 2:35–38 and 7:19–25. The Quran names Adam but not his wife; the name Hawwa (Eve) comes from later tradition.

3  QB. Exodus 5–14; in the Quran, for example, 26:10–66.

7  Q. Quran 27:18–19, in the surah called The Ant.

4  QB. The Book of Jonah; Quran 37:139–148. Surah 10 is named after him (Yunus).

8  B. Samson, Judges 13–16. He does not appear in the Quran.

The Quran describes itself as confirming the scriptures that came before it (12:111). Muslims read these shared stories as one message, sent again.

A

TEXT A

"Read!"

Task Read Text A. Prepare a 2-minute teach-back: what happens, which details come from the Quran and which from later tradition, and what Muslims do because of it.

Muslim tradition holds that around 610 CE Muhammad, then about forty, would withdraw to a cave called Hira on a mountain outside Mecca, now Jabal al-Nour, "the Mountain of Light". The fullest account of what happened there comes not from the Quran but from hadith, reports of the Prophet's words and deeds collected by later scholars. In one traced to his wife Aisha (Sahih al-Bukhari 3), an angel commands him three times: "Read!" Then come the words most scholars regard as the first revelation: "Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth" (96:1, Pickthall). Shaken, he returns to his first wife, Khadija, who takes him to her Christian cousin Waraqa. Waraqa

says this is the messenger who came to Moses.

The Quran itself says it was sent down on the Night of Power, "better than a thousand months" (97:3), in the month of Ramadan (2:185). Muslims fast from dawn to sunset through that month and seek the Night of Power in its last ten nights: many Sunnis on the 27th, Shia Muslims above all on the 19th, 21st and 23rd.

B

TEXT B

The Hijra

Task Read Text B. Prepare a 2-minute teach-back: what happens, which details come from the Quran and which from later tradition, and what Muslims do because of it.

In Mecca the new message met growing hostility from leaders of Quraysh, the ruling tribe. In 622 CE, after people from the northern oasis of Yathrib pledged to protect him, Muhammad's followers left in small groups. According to the sira, the traditional biography (the earliest is by Ibn Ishaq, who died around 767), Muhammad left last, with Abu Bakr, while his young cousin Ali slept in his bed to deceive the men sent to kill him, a night Shia tradition especially honours. The two hid for three days in a cave on Mount Thawr. The Quran alludes to it without naming the companion: "the second of two; when they two were in the cave" (9:40, Pickthall).

Yathrib became Medina, "the City" of the Prophet, where Muhammad led the umma, the community of believers, as a political as well as a religious body. The Hijra, "emigration", marks that beginning: under the caliph Umar, around 638, it became year 1 of the Islamic calendar. The calendar is lunar, about eleven days shorter than the solar year, so Ramadan moves through every season over about 33 years.

C

TEXT C

Hagar's well

Task Read Text C. Prepare a 2-minute teach-back: what happens, which details come from the Quran and which from later tradition, and what Muslims do because of it.

Genesis tells of Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian servant and mother of Abraham's son Ishmael, sent into the desert, where God shows her a well (Genesis 21:19). The Quran does not name her, but gives Abraham's prayer: "I have settled some of my posterity in an uncultivable valley near unto Thy holy House" (14:37, Pickthall). Muslim tradition tells the rest. In a hadith narrated by Ibn Abbas (Sahih al-Bukhari 3364), Ibrahim (Abraham) leaves Hagar (Hajar) and the infant Ismail in the valley of Mecca. When the water runs out, she runs seven times between two hills, Safa and Marwa. Then an angel strikes the ground and water rises: the well of Zamzam. Later, says the Quran,

Ibrahim and Ismail raise the foundations of the House, the Kaaba (2:127).

These stories shape the Hajj, the pilgrimage the Quran makes a duty for all who can make the journey (3:97). Pilgrims circle the Kaaba seven times, walk seven times between Safa and Marwa (the sa'i) and drink Zamzam water: millions retracing a mother's search for water.

Three stories: teach-back

Task Each group: 2 minutes. Listeners: for each story, note what happens, where each detail is told (the Quran, hadith or sira), and one question you would ask a Muslim who lives by it.

Story

What happens

Where it is told

My question

A

"Read!"

B

The Hijra

C

Hagar's well

Map it: story into ritual

Task In pairs, complete each line by writing the missing story, practice or time where you see (?). Then mark where the story itself is told: Q = in the Quran, T = in later tradition (hadith or sira), QT = both.

2

1

2

3

7

12

4

3

1  Muharram

9  Ramadan

12  Dhu al-Hijjah

4

11

5

5

10

6

6

9

8

7

1

354 or 355 days

Map it: story into ritual

1

Story: the Quran first sent down on the Night of Power  · Practice: (?)  · When: Ramadan, the ninth month

2

Story: (?)  · Practice: counting the years from 622 CE  · When: the new year, 1 Muharram, the first month

3

Story: Hagar runs between two hills, looking for water  · Practice: (?)  · When: the Hajj, and the lesser pilgrimage (Umrah) at any time of year

4

Story: an angel strikes the ground beside the infant Ismail  · Practice: (?)  · When: during the Hajj, and often brought home as a gift

5

Story: Ibrahim and Ismail raise the foundations of the House  · Practice: (?)  · When: on arriving in Mecca, and again later in the Hajj

6

Story: Ibrahim ready to sacrifice his son, who is ransomed (Lesson 1)  · Practice: (?)  · When: 10 Dhu al-Hijjah, the twelfth month

7

Story: (?) for many Sunnis; the killing of Husayn, the Prophet's grandson, at Karbala in 680 for Shia Muslims  · Practice: a voluntary fast; mourning and processions  · When: Ashura, 10 Muharram

One story, three tellings: Joseph

Task Read the three cards. Find two details in the Islamic telling that the Genesis text does not have. Then, for each telling, choose the theme it seems to put first, and be ready to defend your choice.

A forgiveness B God's hidden plan C patience in grief

D resisting temptation E a sign of a saviour to come

Judaism

Christianity

Islam

Genesis 37–50 tells how Jacob's favourite son, Joseph, is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, rises to govern Egypt and saves his family from famine. Synagogues read it over four weekly Torah portions each year. The rabbis called him Yosef ha-Tzaddik, "Joseph the righteous", above all for refusing his master's wife (Genesis 39).

Christians read the same Genesis text as Old Testament; Stephen retells it in Acts 7:9–16. Church Fathers such as Ambrose read Joseph as a "type" of Christ: a beloved son sold for silver, brought low, then raised to save others. Genesis 50:20, "ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (KJV), became a key text on providence.

Surah 12, Yusuf, calls itself "the best of narratives" (12:3, Pickthall) and tells the whole story in one continuous surah. Jacob (Yaqub) sees through his sons' lie at once and chooses patience (12:18). The master's wife invites the city's women to a banquet; seeing Yusuf, they cut their hands (12:31). Yusuf is honoured as a prophet.

Stories you can walk

Task First choose a position, A, B or C, on question 1 and give one reason. Then choose three or four of the other questions. Spend most of your time on the one you disagree about.

A  Ritual: people remember what they do with their bodies, like fasting, walking and drinking.

B  Text: a fixed scripture, recited aloud, keeps a story from drifting.

C  Calendar: a shared year makes a whole community remember at the same moment.

1. What keeps a religion's stories alive for fourteen centuries: ritual, text or calendar?

2. Does it matter whether the story behind a ritual happened exactly as told?

3. Millions retrace the steps of an Egyptian servant mother. Whom do the great stories of your region honour?

4. Should later tradition carry as much weight as scripture when a ritual depends on it?

5. Festivals that follow the moon move through the seasons. Is that a strength or a nuisance?

6. Is a story shared by three religions a bridge between them, or a source of rivalry?

Private reflection

Task Choose one prompt and write privately. Nobody will read what you write. Sharing afterwards is optional.

Prompt 1

Think of a place you have visited or read about where people retrace a story on foot: a pilgrimage route, a historic march, a memorial walk. What does walking add that reading cannot?

Prompt 2 (lighter)

Which of today's stories would you most like to tell a friend this evening, and which detail would you start with?

Before Lesson 5

This week, choose one festival or custom where you live and trace it back to the story behind it.

Judaism

Note which parts come from a written text and which from later tradition or habit. Sharing it next week is optional.

Christianity

Next lesson: The New Atheists and Criticisms of the Canon. What happens when sceptics and scholars read these sacred texts as human, historical documents?

Islam

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (1)

WHAT THE BOOKS SAY gives the answers to Quran or Bible? Six of the eight stories are told in both.

THREE STORIES: TEACH-BACK suggested points; groups may choose others

• Text A, "Read!": Quran: the Night of Power (97), the Ramadan link (2:185), the words of 96:1–5. Tradition (hadith, Bukhari 3): the cave of Hira, the threefold command, Khadija and Waraqa. Practice: the Ramadan fast; seeking the Night of Power in the last ten nights (Sunni and Shia emphases differ).

• Text B, The Hijra: Quran: only an allusion (9:40, companion unnamed). Tradition (sira): Abu Bakr, Ali in the bed, three days in the cave of Thawr. Practice: the Islamic calendar, AH, the new year on 1 Muharram; Ramadan's movement through the seasons.

• Text C, Hagar's well: Quran: Abraham's prayer (14:37), Safa and Marwa (2:158), the raising of the House (2:127), the duty of Hajj (3:97); Hagar is not named. Tradition (hadith, Bukhari 3364): Hagar and Ismail left in the valley, the seven runs, the angel and Zamzam. Practice: tawaf, sa'i, drinking Zamzam.

MAP IT: STORY INTO RITUAL

1 Practice: the dawn-to-sunset fast of Ramadan; extra prayer and recitation; seeking the Night of Power in the last ten nights; Eid al-Fitr at the end. QT (the Night of Power and Ramadan link are in the Quran, 97 and 2:185; the cave scene is in hadith).

2 Story: the Hijra, the emigration from Mecca to Medina in 622. QT (allusion in 9:40; the details are sira; the calendar itself was a later decision, traditionally Umar's, around 638).

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (2)

3 Practice: the sa'i, walking seven times between Safa and Marwa. QT (Safa and Marwa are named in 2:158; Hagar's running is in hadith, Bukhari 3364).

4 Practice: drinking Zamzam water. T (Zamzam is not named in the Quran; its origin story is in Bukhari 3364).

5 Practice: the tawaf, circling the Kaaba seven times. Q (2:125, 2:127, 22:26).

6 Practice: the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha, with the meat shared with family, neighbours and the poor (22:36). Q (37:102–107; the son is not named there, and most Muslims hold that it was Ismail).

7 Story: for many Sunnis, God saving Moses and the Israelites from Pharaoh, which Muhammad, according to hadith, saw the Jews of Medina marking with a fast. The rescue itself is Q; its link to Ashura is T. Karbala is a historical event, mourned in Shia practice.

ONE STORY, THREE TELLINGS: JOSEPH

• Details in Surah 12 that Genesis does not have: Jacob sees through the lie at once (12:18; in Genesis 37:33 he believes Joseph is dead); the banquet where the women cut their hands (12:31); Yusuf's shirt torn from behind proves his innocence (12:25–28; in Genesis 39 he leaves his garment in her hand); Jacob's eyes turn white with grief and are healed by Yusuf's shirt (12:84, 12:93–96). The banquet scene also appears in a Jewish midrash (Tanhuma), where the women are peeling citrons; which text came first is debated.

• Themes: any letter is defensible with evidence. Typical readings: Judaism D (Yosef ha-Tzaddik) or A (the brothers' reconciliation); Christianity E or B (Genesis 50:20); Islam C ("comely patience", 12:18, 12:83) or B (12:100).