Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/48

 Rh hammad's religious system in his own mind, it is absolutely necessary to read the Qurán through, not in the order in which it now stands, but that in which Muslim divines admit that it was revealed. At the same time it must be remembered that all Muhammadan doctors allow that in most of the Súrás there are verses which belong to a different date from that of other portions of the chapter; for example, in the Súra-i-ʾAlaq the first five verses belong to a much earlier date than the others; and in Súra-i-Baqr, verse 234 is acknowledged by all commentators to have been revealed after verse 240, which it abrogates.

The sources whence Muhammad derived the materials for his Qurán, are, over and above the more poetical parts, which are his own creation, the legends of his time and country, Jewish traditions based upon the Talmud, perverted to suit his own purposes, and the floating Christian traditions of Arabia and South Syria. Muhammadanism, however, owes more to Judaism than it does to either