Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/117

 ABRAHAM TO MOSES. 99

this view and the similar one that the merits of ancestors count for good to their posterity. 1 For example he says : " That people (the Patriarchs) are now passed away ; they have what they gained and ye shall have what ye gain, and ye shall not be questioned concerning that which they have done." 2 That Muhammad brings forward a dialogue be- tween Abraham and the people, where the Midrash has one with his father only, is explained by the fact that Abraham is intended to be a type of Muhammad, and so it is neces- sary that he should be represented as a public preacher. Another circumstance which is mentioned in the Qur&u, viz., that Lot became a believer with and through Abraham, 3 may possibly have arisen from a passage in the Midrash immediately following that quoted above, which says that Haran the father of Lot was at first irresolute, but turned to Abraham's opinion after the deliverance of the latter. Haran however failed in the ordeal of fire to which he was then subjected. The idea of Lot's conversion, however, is chiefly derived from the account given of his subsequent life, in which he shows himself to be a pious man ; and it is probably for this reason that Muhammad connects him with the event just related. Muhammad appears sometimes to have so confounded himself with Abraham that, in the middle of speeches ascribed to the latter, he indulges in digressions unsuitable to any but himself, and thus falls from the part of narrator into that of admonisher. In one passage 4 a long description of Hell and Paradise is found, and in another, 5 the declaration that those who came before had also been charged with imposture. No doubt Abraham might have said this with reference to Noah, Hnd and Salih ; still the words here seem rather forced into his speech, and indeed in one verse we find the word " say " which is to be regarded in the Quran as the stand-

9 Sura II, 128, 1S5. 3 Suras XXI. 71, XXIX. 25. 4 Sura XXVI. 88104. 5 Sura XXIX. 17-23.