The following provides a summation of the place of Abraham in Islamic thinking, in contradistinction to either Moses or Jesus, in Jewish and Christian thinking. Madigan writes:[1]

God’s knowledge of everything in creation (Q 6:59; 34:3) and of everything people do (both good and bad, Q 36: 12; 82:11-12) is often mentioned using the metaphor of writing and records. So also God is said to write rewards (Q 5:21; 7:156), entitlements (Q 2:187; 4:127), punishments (Q 22:4; 4:127) and obligations (e.g., Q 2:178, 180, 183, 216, 246) – including obligations God takes on himself (Q 6:12, 54). God determines by writing the course of events (Q 3:154; 7:156; 9:51; 58:22). The Qur’an’s use of the language of writing and recording for God’s knowledge and authority is closely linked to its concept of scripture (kitab, literally ‘a writing’, pl. kutub). The scriptures God gives through the prophets are exercises of God’s authority and revelations of God’s knowledge. Obviously they cannot contain all that God commands and knows: ‘If all the trees on earth were pens, and the sea [were ink], with seven more seas to help it, the words of God would not be exhausted. God is might, wise’ (Q 31:27). A community that is give3n scripture and continues to recite it and live by it is in a relationship through which God continues to guide it.

Since the truth does not change, it is axiomatic for the Qur’an that the present revelation contains fundamentally the same message as that give to the earlier messengers. The believers are expected to accept the revelations given before Muhammad (Q 2:4, 136; 4:60, 162), since God communicated with those messengers as he has done with Muhammad: ‘We communicated to you (awhayna ilayka) as we communicated to Noah and the prophets after him, as we communicated to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and as we granted David the Psalms’ (Q 4:163); ‘Say, “We believe in God and what has been sent down to us and in what was sent down to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and in what Moses and Jesus were given, and in what the prophets were given by their lord—we make no distinction between any of them—and to him do we submit” (Q 2:136). The term that binds together these diverse manifestations of revelation is kitab: ‘O you who believe, believe in God and his messenger and the kitab that he has sent down to his messenger, and the kitab that he sent down before. Whoever disbelieves in God and his angels and his kutub and his messengers and the last day has already gone far astray’ (Q 4:136). 9

The Qur’an sees itself as confirming (musaddiq) the previous revelations10 in the same way Jesus is said to have come to confirm the Torah given to Moses (Q 3:50; 5:46; 61:6). It pays a great deal of attention to asserting and defending its status as scripture that has been sent down by God—tanzil (e.g., Q 45:2)—rather than the human or demonic word of a poet or soothsayer: ‘But no! I swear by what you see and what you cannot see that it is indeed the speech of a noble messenger. It is not poet’s speech—how little you believe! Nor is it diviner’s speech—how little you remember! Rather it is something being sent down from the lord of the worlds. If he had invented falsehoods against us, we would have taken him by the right hand and severed his life-artery, and none of you could have held us off from him’ (Q 69:38-47; see also 52:29).

No other figure in the Qur’an is treated in such detail and at such length as Moses—recognizably similar to the figure known from the Bible and Jewish haggada. Characteristically for the Qur’an, all this material is presented not in a single structured narrative, but in myriad references of varying length and complexity—references take that for granted some knowledge of Moses’ story. In many respects Moses is the model for Muhammad, combining as he does a role as liberator of his people with the roles of lawgiver and channel of revelation.

The Qur’an also appeals to a history of prophecy unknown to the Judaeo-Christian tradition to show that what is taking place in the career of Muhammad follows a perennial pattern of God’s dealings with people. The stories of these messengers, the Midianite Shu’ayb, 11 and the Arabs, Hud12 and Salih, 13 follow a schema very similar to that traditionally recounted about Muhammad during his time in Mecca—the messenger is sent to his own people to call them back to the worship of the one God; he is rejected by most, accused of being possessed or merely a poet, and then is vindicated by the divine punishment brought on the unbelievers. In the case of Muhammad, of course, it remained to be seen how the divine chastisement would be expressed (cf. Q 46:35).

Apart from emphasizing Muhammad’s place in the centuries-long company of God’s messengers, the Qur’an has two other important interests in its recounting of the history of prophecy. The first of these is the figure of Abraham (Ibrahim), who is identified in the Qur’an no less than in the Bible, as the very model of the believer. Many elements of the Abraham story have parallels in the biblical or in post-biblical Jewish traditions, though the telling is spread out through twenty-five suras. 14 Other elements, however, are unique to the Qur’an: Abraham and Ishmael build (or restore) the Ka’ba and institute its associated rituals (Q 2:125-7). Abraham prays to God for the people of the place, that they might always be a nation submissive to God (umma muslima), and that a messenger like himself be sent to them (Q 2:128-9). Eight times the Qur’an refers to him as hanif, generally taken to mean a pious monotheist, since the word is contrasted with mushrik.15 In Q 30:30 the religion of Abraham (i.e. of a hanif) is described as being that according to which God formed human nature (fitrat Allah), and there is no changing what God has created. Muhammad in his turn is told to say to the Christians and Jews who seek to win him for their religions that he is to prefer this original, natural religion of Abraham (millat Ibrahim, Q 2:135). They are criticized for arguing about Abraham when he precedes both Moses and Jesus, both Torah and Gospel (Q 3:65). Perhaps each was claiming to be the genuine heirs of the patriarch, whereas in fact ‘Abraham was neither a Jew, nor a Christian; rather he was a hanif who had submitted himself (muslim) to God, and he was not one of those who associate partners with God (mushrikun)’ (Q 3:67).

Abraham is of key importance to the Qur’an’s understanding of religion: he is recognized as an essential part of the Jewish and Christian traditions—even to the extent that each of them would fight to claim him—yet at the same time his tradition has firm roots in Arabia, roots that pre-date either of the other traditions that look to him as a foundational figure. Islam, then, is presented as anything but a new religion. It is the return to the source, in two senses: the prophetic source of monotheism, and the real source of Arabian traditional religion. That is why it is in a position both to confirm and to offer a critique of other branches of the Abrahamic tradition: ‘O People of the Scripture! Now has our messenger come to you, making clear for you much in the scripture (al-kitab) that you used to hide’ (Q5:15). Accusations of altering the scriptures, common in the tradition, are not easily sustained from the text, which uses derivatives of the verb harrafa (Q 2:75; 4:46; 5:13, 41). It probably indicates that what is at issue is misinterpretation, perhaps even deliberate, resulting from taking words out of context or ignoring certain passages.

This critique of existing religious traditions is the second concern underlying the Qur’an’s presentation of the history of prophecy. Jesus (‘Isa) is not reduced to a schematic figure like some of the other prophets. He retains many features familiar from either mainstream or heterodox Christian traditions. Yet the Qur’an is anxious to set the record straight on his position: ‘O People of the Scripture, do not exaggerate in your religion nor say anything about God except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and his word which he conveyed to Mary, and a spirit from him. So believe in God and his messengers, and do not say “Three”. Cease! It will be better for you. God is only one god. He is exalted far above having a son’ (Q 4:171). However, the adoption of terms like ‘word’ and ‘spirit’, so frequently used in Christian dogma, could hardly resolve the issue, and discussion continues. Similarly the complexity of the statements about the death of Jesus (Q 3:55; 4:157-9) has opened the way to a verity of opinions in the commentary literature. The most widely held opinion is that the Qur’an denies Jesus’ death and that, therefore, he is alive and will return, undergoing death before being raised alive with the rest of creation on the day of judgment. Others hold that it is only the reality of the crucifixion that is denied, leaving open the possibility that Jesus died another kind of death, perhaps natural. Others still would interpret the verses in Q 4 as denying neither Jesus’ death itself nor the reality of the crucifixion. They see there only an assertion that, even though Jesus died, the end result was that the Jews did not succeed in doing away with him, since God raised him up.16 Though they boasted of having done so ‘it was only made to seem so to them’ (Q 4:157).

According to Q 5:116 Jesus will be asked on the day of judgment whether he encouraged people to worship himself and his mother as deities. He will deny it, adding, ‘I told them only what you commanded me: “Worship God, my lord and your lord.” Whether you punish them or pardon them, they are after all your servants, you are the mighty, the judicious (al-hakim)’ (Q 5:117-18).