“Does the Qur’an Teach Creation Ex Nihilo?”

Back in the Bad Old Days, when I was still spewing vitriol from my perch at the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies or FARMS, and long before real scholarship had made its long overdue appearance in that organization, this was one of the hit-pieces that I published there:

http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1128&index=26

Incidentally, my answer to the question is no.

I contend, along with more than a few other scholars, that the doctrine of creation out of nothing doesn’t appear in the Bible — and, more or less on my own, I also argue that it can’t be found in the Qur’an.

Fortunately, the author of the subsequently-published article on “creation” in the prestigious multivolume  Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an published by E. J. Brill in the Netherlands comes to exactly the same conclusion.  Unfortunately, he and I are the same person.  Still, it’s good to have back-up!