Gabriel: "Read" or "Recite?"

"When you study religions you realize that religious ideas do not fall from heaven but are reinterpretations or borrowings of already existing religions."

I would hope that if you believe in God, you believe that religious ideas originate with the Word of God. Not the word of man.

Cyril wrote: Ibnuarradi Christians did not borrow anything from Judaism because they were originally Jews. You do not borrow from your own religion. What they did was to interpret verses from the Old Testament, that is the Jewish Bible, to corroborate their belief in the incarnation of God as Jesus.

Hmm...it seems we somehow don't have a common agreement in the meaning of "borrowing"....
 
There are similarities between the religions....But similarity between any two compositions or books does not in itself constitute sufficient evidence that one was copied from the other, or the latter from the earlier one. Both could be based on a common third source. (This is precisely the argument of the Quran.)

Anyway, there is a site that discuss a lot in details concerning this "Borrowing theory":
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Sources/Bibindex.html

I extract some paragraphs from that site which I believe good to ask oneself when one consider this theory:

1. Why is it in spite of the abundance of historical material on Muhammad(P)'s life, and in spite of the extensive research on his life for centuries by his severe critics, that it was not possible to discover the mysterious teacher(s) through whom Muhammad(P) might have learned all that?

2. It is known that Muhammad(P) was opposed, ridiculed and persecuted for nearly 13 years by his own contemporaries. With this magnitude of severe enemies, was it not possible for them to prove to the masses that Muhammad(P)'s claim of revelation was sheer fabrication? Was it not possible for them to reveal and name the person whom they alleged to be the human source or sources of his teachings? Even some of his adversaries who had made this assertion, changed their minds later on and accused him, instead, of magic or being possessed by evil... etc.

3. Muhammad(P) was raised among his people and every aspect of his life was exposed to them, especially by the openness that characterises tribal life in the desert. How could the multitudes of his contemporaries, including many of his close relatives who knew him so well, how could they believe in his truthfulness if they had any doubt that he was claiming credit for ideas taught to him by some other teachers without bothering to give them credit ?

4. What kind of teacher might have taught Muhammad(P) a coherent and complete religion that changed the face of history? Why didn't he or they (if any) speak against the alleged student who continued learning from them, while ignoring them and claiming some other divine source for his teachings?

5. How could many Jews and Christians amongst his contemporaries become Muslims and believe in his truthfulness if they knew he was copying from their scriptures or learning from their priests or rabbis?

6. It is known that some of the Qur'�nic revelations to Muhammad(P) in the presence of people. The Qur'�n was revealed over the span of 23 years, where then that was mysterious, perhaps invisible teacher of Muhammad(P)? How could he have hidden himself for so long? Or how could Muhammad(P) who was constantly surrounded by companions, how was he able to make frequent secret visits to that mysterious teacher or teachers for 23 years without even being caught once?

The answer to all these questions are never given. But the Christian missionaries' logic is that still Muhammad(P) borrowed from the Judeo-Christian sources even though there is no evidence to show. What you do not know, you do not have to show; just say it and it becomes so.

Allah knows best
wassalam