The Quranic Abraham or is it Ibrahim! Surat al-Baqara 124

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Mar 4, 2018 at 13:22

Dr Pipes

Most Arabic speaking Muslims are surprised to read the name Abraham instead of Ibrahim in verses in Surat al-Baqra that mentions his name And it is a topic of discussion among Arabic speaking Muslims

http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=85010

So here is a primer about the name of Abraham/Ibrahim in the Qur'an

This is the form of the name Ibrahim that readers will find in most of the Qur'an

ابراهيم

However, the Quranic rasm would be missing the dot under the Ba letter and the two dots under the Ya letter

Now in Surat al-Baqara we read:

ابرهم

Or ABRHM And it is edited by al-Mufasereen as:

إبراهام

Or 'Abraham

Notice that even the shameful translation by Sahih International edits his name as

إبراهم

And here is Sahih International translation of Q2:124

https://quran.com/2/124

al-Mufasereen as usual do not have answers why would the name of Abraham be Ibrahim and Abraham

The name Ibrahim in Arabic has no meaning and this is for sure the crux of the problem because al-Mufasereen were not sure which one form of the name is the correct form

However, al-Qurtubi comes to the rescue. He tells the readers that

وإبراهيم تفسيره بالسريانية فيما ذكر الماوردي ، وبالعربية فيما ذكر ابن عطية : أب رحيم . قال السهيلي : وكثيرا ما يقع الاتفاق بين السرياني والعربي أو يقاربه في اللفظ ، ألا ترى أن إبراهيم تفسيره أب راحم ، لرحمته بالأطفال

Or Ibrahim is a Syriac name according to al-Mawardi and in Arabic according to Ibn Attiya: "Ab Raheem" (merciful father) Al-Suhaili said that it is common to have (same meaning) in Arabic and Syriac of similar words And the tafsir of the name Ibrahim is "Ab Rahem" (notice that he changes the above Syriac Raheem and makes it Arabic Rahem) for his rahma (read as love) to children

Still the Arabic word Ibrahim has no meaning because the above is an obvious case of tabrir (making things up)

Then al-Qurtubi comes to the strange conclusion that Muslims should read his word with a Ya as in Ibrahim and his God uses an Alif as in Abraham! Very strange indeed and not unlike Ibn Kathir telling Muslims to read Q20:63 as Ina Hadhayin la Sahiran and write as Ina Hadhan la Sahiran

وقراءة العامة إبراهيم بالنصب ، ربه بالرفع على ما ذكرنا

The most astonishing part of this disaster is that in the Saudi Qur'an in Arabic the Quranic Abraham in Q2:124 is edited as Ibrahim and they not only edited the Quranic text but they also edited the writings of al-Mufasereen and expunged the Quranic Abraham!

http://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/katheer/sura2-aya124.html

How did this happen?

1. Could this be just a mistake and the scribes who wrote إبراهام or Abraham instead of إبراهيم or Ibrahim? Not likely

2. Or could it be that the scribes that wrote the verses in Surat al-Baqara were familiar with the name Abraham and not Ibrahim? This is most likely what happened

The Quranic Abraham must be an Arabization of the Syriac ܐܒܪܗܡ or ABRHM! Compare this with the rasm in Q2:124 ابرهم or ABRHM same as in Syriac

And more evidence that the Qur'an is very much linked to Syro-Arabic Christianity

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".