Citation

Krylov GL. Christianity in the Middle East 2019; 2019(3): 21-35.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

This article, based exclusively on traditional Islamic sources, focuses on Christian neighbors of the Islamic prophet and their influence on him. At least two of them - Muhammad's wife Hadija and her cousin Waraqa - are documented by the Islamic tradition to be at the origin of Islam, as they have been the first to hear Muhammad's striking story about an angel forcing him to utter the first verses of what would be later called Al-Qur'an. Their role was crucial for the future of the new religion, as they were those who ascertained Muhammad of his prophetic mission. Waraqa's decease was meaningfully succeeded by the expressive pause of revelations that repeatedly brought Muhammad to the brink of suicide. As the revelations continued, Muhammad was frequently seen by his Meccan countrymen in the company of Christian slaves. Naturally, the Meccans suspected him to adopt the stories of those strangers; the fact that Muhammad energetically and yet flimsily denied in his verses. With all the differences, Islam dogmatically is the closest religion to Christianity and contains numerous allusions to the narrations of the Bible and Christian apocrypha suggesting that Muhammad's early interaction with Christians has by no means been fruitless. © 2019, Evgenii Palamarenko. All rights reserved.

Language: ru

Keywords

Islam; religion; Christianity; Quran; tradition