For centuries, a recurring allegation leveled by various critics and Christian polemicists has been that the Quran is merely a derivative copy of the Bible. According to this viewpoint, Prophet Muhammad simply plagiarized the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity, weaving them together to fabricate his own religious scripture.
It is an undeniable historical reality that the Prophet received the Quran chronologically after the Bible had already come into existence. Furthermore, objective observers note that both the biblical canon and the Quran cover substantial common ground, sharing narratives of numerous prophets, historical events, and foundational moral principles. However, the critical conclusion drawn by some adversaries—that the Prophet systematically studied the Bible with the explicit intention of copying its verses to manufacture the Quran—collapses under the weight of historical, linguistic, and textual scrutiny.
The Linguistic Barrier: The Non-Existent Arabic Bible of the Seventh Century
The foundational premise of the plagiarism accusation relies heavily on the assumption that the text of the Bible was readily accessible to an Arab merchant living in the Arabian Peninsula during the seventh century. Historical evidence, however, demonstrates that this was simply not the case.
During the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad, there was no comprehensive Arabic translation of the Bible available to the general public, nor was there an established literary tradition of biblical texts circulating in the Arabic language within Makkah or Medina. This historical reality is thoroughly documented by biblical scholars.
Noted scholar Ernst Würthwein addresses this linguistic evolution in his authoritative work, The Text of the Old Testament. He explains how the expansion of early Islamic governance drastically altered the linguistic landscape of the Middle East, noting that with the spread of Islam, the use of Arabic expanded widely. For Jewish and Christian populations living in the newly conquered lands, Arabic gradually became the primary language of daily life.
This sociological shift eventually generated an organic need for Arabic versions of the scriptures. As Würthwein points out, this emerging requirement was eventually met by a variety of independent versions that were primarily concerned with interpretation and community access. Consequently, the very first translations of the Hebrew Bible into Arabic only began to appear after the advent of Islam. Historical records confirm that the oldest known, dated manuscript of the Old Testament written in Arabic dates back no further than the first half of the ninth century—centuries after the passing of the Prophet.
The timeline for the New Testament follows a similar historical trajectory. Renowned researcher Sidney H. Griffith, who has dedicated extensive academic study to the emergence of the Arabic language and its earliest Christian texts, provides crucial chronological context. According to Griffith’s findings, the oldest dated manuscript containing the canonical Gospels in Arabic is cataloged as Sinai Arabic MS 72.
In this historic manuscript, the text of the four canonical Gospels is meticulously organized according to the lessons of the temporal cycle belonging to the Greek liturgical calendar of the Jerusalem Church. A colophon embedded within the manuscript informs historians and researchers that it was penned by a scribe named Stephen of Ramleh. The date of its completion is recorded in the year 284 of the Arab calendar, which corresponds precisely to the year 897 CE.
When placed side-by-side with the established chronology of early Islamic history, these scholarly findings present an insurmountable obstacle to the plagiarism hypothesis. Prophet Muhammad passed away in the first half of the seventh century, specifically in the year 632 CE. Therefore, the earliest verifiable Arabic translations of the New Testament Gospels emerged more than two and a half centuries after his death, while the oldest Arabic Old Testament manuscripts appeared around the same era. The physical absence of an Arabic Bible during the Prophet’s lifetime renders the theory of direct textual copying entirely untenable.
The Reality of the Unlettered Prophet
Beyond the absolute lack of Arabic scriptural sources during his lifetime, another profound historical reality stands in stark opposition to the plagiarism narrative: the well-documented illiteracy of Prophet Muhammad.
It presents a staggering historical irony to suggest that an unlettered individual could have systematically studied, comprehended, synthesized, and successfully assimilated a vast array of complex theological sources—spanning Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, indigenous Hanif, and ancient Arabian belief systems—before compiling them into the eloquent literary masterpiece of the Quran.
The illiteracy of the Prophet was not a secret discovered by modern historians; rather, it was a widely recognized fact acknowledged even by the fiercest pagan adversaries of Islam living in Makkah fourteen centuries ago. Throughout the intense socio-religious conflicts of early Islamic history, contemporary critics of the Prophet raised numerous objections against his mission, accusing him of practicing sorcery, poetry, or repeating ancient fables. Yet, there is not a single historical record or transmitted tradition indicating that the pagan Arabs in Makkah ever accused Muhammad of secretly being a literate scholar who merely pretended to be unlettered while consulting foreign texts.
This defining characteristic of the Prophet’s life is directly addressed within the text of the Quran itself, which highlights his inability to read or write prior to the revelation as a definitive proof of divine authorship. Addressing the matter directly, the Quran states in Surah Al-Ankabut: "And thou wast not [able] to recite a Book before this [Book came] nor art thou [able] to transcribe it with thy right hand: in that case indeed would the talkers of vanities have doubted. Nay here are signs self-evident in the hearts of those endowed with knowledge: and none but the unjust reject Our signs."