Note 29 — DICTIONARY OF ISLĀM. (continued 14)

The following social precepts are likewise copied from Judaism: a divorced woman must wait three months before marrying again29 [DIVORCE]; mothers are to nurse their children two full years; and the degrees of affinity within which marriages are lawful.30 [MARRIAGE.] The historical incidents which Muḥammad borrowed from Judaism are embodied, regardless of the sources from which he gleaned them, and indifferent to all order or system. Ignorant of Jewish history, Muḥammad appropriates none of the historical way-marks which determine the great epochs recorded in the Old Testament, but confines himself to certain occurrences in the lives of single individuals. At the head of the antediluvian patriarchs stands the primogenitor of the human race. In Sūrah ii. 28–33 we read, “When thy Lord said to the angels, Verily I am going to place a substitute on earth, they said, Wilt thou place there one who will do evil therein and shed blood? but we celebrate Thy praise and sanctify Thee. God answered, Verily I know that which ye know not; and He taught Adam the names of all things, and then proposed them to the angels, and said, Declare unto me the names of these things if ye say truth. They answered, Praise be unto Thee, we have no knowledge but what Thou teachest us, for Thou art knowing and wise. God said, O, Adam, tell them their names. And when he had told them their names, God said, Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and know that which ye discover, and that which ye conceal?” Let us examine whence the Qurʾān obtained this information. “When God intended to create man, He advised with the angels and said unto them, We will make man in our own image (Gen. i. 26). Then said they, What is man, that Thou rememberest him (Psalm viii. 5), what shall be his peculiarity? He answered, His wisdom is superior to yours. Then brought He before them cattle, animals, and birds, and asked for their names, but they know it not. After man was created, He caused them to pass before Him, and asked for their names and he answered, This is an ox, that an ass, this a horse, and that a camel. But what is thy name? To me it becomes to be called ‘earthly,’ for from ‘earth’ I am created.”31 To this may be added the fable that God commanded the angels to worship Adam,32 which is likewise appropriated from Talmudic writings. Some Jewish fables record that the angels contemplated worshipping man, but were prevented by God; others precisely agree with the Qurʾān,33 that God commanded the angels to worship man, and that they obeyed with the exception of Satan.