Borrowing From the Tanakh and Jewish Mythology

Compared to what very little knowledge the Qur'an author had with even the basic stories of the Gospels, let alone anything else in the Christian Scriptures, he shows a significantly greater familiarity with the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures. Numerous stories well known to Jews and Christians appear in the text (at times in oddly edited forms). However, as noted above in reference to Christian sources both historical and legendary, the Qur'an seems to make no differentiation between legendary Jewish tradition and what actually appears in the Hebrew Scriptures. We are struck with the strong contrast between the New Testament's immersion in their actual text and the Qur'an sharp disconnection from and ignorance of the same (even though, once more, familiar with oral stories and myths drawn from it).

The most oft-cited example of the Qur'an reliance upon Jewish traditions and myths is Surah 5:30-32:

30. The spiteful soul of the other [Cain] led him to the killing of his brother, so he slew him and became one of the losers. Then Allah sent a raven scratching up the ground, to show him how to hide his brother's naked corpse. He said: "Woe is me! Am I not able to be as this raven and so hide my brother's naked body corpse?" And he became repentant. For that cause We ordained for the Children of Israel that whosoever kills a human being for other than [the crimes of] manslaughter or corruption in the earth, shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and whosoever saves the life of one, it shall be if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our Messengers came to them of old with clear signs, but afterwards many of them became committed to excesses in the earth. 

Jews and Christians familiar with Genesis 4 know well what happened when murder entered into the experience of the nascent human family. But where did the bird scratching on the ground come from? God sent a raven to teach a murder how to hide his victim's corpse? This is a strange addition. 

However, the Jews of Muhammad's day would not have been surprised, for once again again, in the sources containing the stories that were being told, we find a similar tale. A number of Jewish sources record tradition, dating to the second to third centuries AD, narrating an event that took place after the murder of Abel. While Adam and sat next to his corpse, a raven came up, scratched in the earth, and buried another bird. Adam and Eve take a lesson from it and bury Abel's body. In the Qur'anic version, Cain does the burying, buy in both a raven inspires the human family in the instance if its first death. 

How certain are we that this is Qur'an's source? Surety is increased greatly in that another extra-biblical Jewish tradition is referenced in this same section. The key text on mankind's unity, on the killing of one as the killing of all, is found almost word for work in the Jewish Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5: 

F In the case of a trial for property cases, a person pays money and achieves atonement for himself. In capital cases [the accused's] blood and the blood of all those who were destined to be born from him [who was wrongfully convicted] are held against him [who testifies falsely] to the end of time. 

G For so we find in the case of Cain who slew his brother, as it is said, The bloods of your brother cry (Gen. 4:10). 

H It does not say, "The blood of your brother," but, "The bloods of your brother" - his blood and the blood of all those who were destined to be born from him.

I Another matter: The bloods of your brother - for his blood was spattered on trees and stones. 

J Therefore man was created alone to teach you that who ever destroys a single Israelite soul is deemed by Scripture as if he had destroyed a whole world.

K And whoever saves a single Israelite soul is deemed by Scripture as if he had saved a whole world. 

So in the matter of only a few sentences, we find the Qur'an drawing from Jewish traditions that date from the second through the fifth centuries prior to its writing. The story of the raven is hardly found in the Mishnah, is one of the central theological affirmations in Islamic theology. That we can identify a preexisting source if such a vital section is extremely important. 

The next text often pointed to is the story of Abraham in Surah 21. Abraham refuses to worship the gods of his people. Upon destroying some of their idols, Abraham testifies that there is only one God. We pick up in ayah 68:

They said: "Burn him and help your gods, if you will!" We said: "O fire! Be coolness and peace for Abraham!" They wished to snare him, but We made then Losers.

There is no reference to such an incident, of course,  in the Hebrew Scriptures. But again, in the Jewish stories and traditions that existed in the centuries prior to the Qur'an's writing, we find a reference to Abraham, the destruction of idols, and a fiery pit. The second-century Midrash Rabbah has a strikingly similar story: Abraham smashes idols, and then is taken to the king, who, upon tiring of arguing with him, has him cast into a fiery furnace, and God saves him from the fire. The same pattern emerges: An ahistorical Jewish tradition is taken by the Qur'an's author to be historical and seemingly on the same level and authority as as the actual text of the Hebrew Scriptures.