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Some readers will already have noticed a number of similarities between the Qur\u2019an and the standard works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>. And, indeed, there are many. The present section will highlight some of them. In this regard, perhaps the most obvious feature of the Qur\u2019an is the fact that it contains many of the same stories and refers to many of the same historical figures that are familiar to the West from the pages of the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\n The Qur\u2019an speaks, for instance, about the fall of Lucifer and the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve.[1]<\/a> It is familiar with the story of Adam\u2019s naming of the animals and the conflict between Cain and Abel.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The story of Noah appears more than once.[3]<\/a> Job is men\u00adtioned, as is a figure called Idris, who is universally identified by Muslim commentators with Enoch.[4]<\/a> Even Jonah is mentioned.[5]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Told often, and in considerable detail, are the stories of Abra\u00adham and his nephew Lot, including the miraculous annunciation of Isaac, Abraham\u2019s near-sacrifice of his son, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.[6]<\/a> The story of Abraham\u2019s youthful renun\u00adciation of his idolatrous family and people is favored and referred to numerous times throughout the Qur\u2019an.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 The Qur\u2019anic retelling of the story, however, contains a number of interesting details that either do not occur in the Bible or are not emphasized at all. Abraham appears in the Qur\u2019an as a watcher of the skies, much as he does in the third chapter of the Book of Abraham. And the prayer for wisdom and righteousness that the Qur\u2019anic Abraham offers seems to parallel his quest as recorded in Abraham 1:2. Some details are even amusing, as in the following dialogue between the patriarch and an unidentified royal idol worshiper:<\/span><\/p>\n Have you not heard of him who argued with Abraham about his Lord because He had bestowed upon him the Kingdom?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Abraham said: \u201cMy Lord is He who has power to give life and to cause death.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI, too,\u201d replied the other, \u201chave power to give life and to cause death.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGod brings up the sun from the east,\u201d said Abraham. \u201cBring it up yourself from the west.\u201d<\/strong>[8]<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n A personal favorite of mine, however, is a story to which the Qur\u2019an merely alludes, without telling it all in detail.[9]\u00a0 This is the story of Abraham and the idols of his father, with which some Latter-day Saint readers will already be familiar, from the book called Jasher:<\/span><\/p>\n Attempting to demonstrate to his father Terah the futility of wor\u00adshiping idols, Abraham one day went into his father\u2019s shrine with a hatchet and hacked all of the gods to pieces\u2014except for their chief. Then, before leaving the room, he placed the hatchet in the hands of the still-intact chief god. His father, hearing the noise of violent chopping in his private sanctuary, ran and met Abraham at the door. Pushing past his son, Terah went into the shrine. There he found all the idols fallen down and broken, while the chief idol still stood with the hatchet in its hand. He was furious. Knowing his son\u2019s atti\u00adtude toward idolatry and having seen his son emerging from the shrine, he naturally demanded to know what Abraham had done to the gods of his father. But Abraham denied having anything to do with the destruction of the idols. \u201cNo,\u201d he said, \u201cit was the chief god who did it, out of jealousy when the other, subordinate gods had tried to beat him to the meat offering.\u201d Terah roared with anger. \u201cYou are lying!\u201d he told his son. \u201cThese gods are just wood and stone. I made them myself!\u201d How could they possibly have done anything like what Abraham had described? \u201cAh,\u201d said Abraham, \u201cbut that is precisely the point! They are merely wood and stone, which can neither hear nor speak nor act. So why pray to them?\u201d[10]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n I have already spoken about the common assumption that the Qur\u2019an identifies the son of Abraham who was nearly sacrificed upon Mount Moriah as Ishmael, rather than the Bible account\u2019s Isaac. We have seen, though, that the Qur\u2019an nowhere names the son who came so near to human sacrifice. And, in fact, the Qur\u2019an has a great respect for Isaac. Of Abraham, the God of the Qur\u2019an says, \u201cWe gave him Isaac and Jacob and bestowed on his descendants prophethood and the Scriptures.\u201d[11]<\/a> Clearly, this passage teaches the continuation of the prophetic gift in the Jewish line, through Jacob or Israel. Ishmael appears in the Qur\u2019an and is treated with immense respect as a chosen servant of God and a messenger, but Isaac is described as a prophet.[12]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> 2:30_39; 7:11-25; 15:26-44; 17:61-65; 20:115-23; 38:71-85.<\/span><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> 2:31-33; 5:27-31.<\/span><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> As at 10:71-73; 11:25-49.<\/span><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> 21:83-84; 19:56-57, with perhaps a hint of his translation. Idris<\/em> is pronounced with a hissing \u201cs,\u201d as Ih-DREES<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n [5]<\/a> 37:139-49; 68:48-50.<\/span><\/p>\n [6]<\/a> 11:69-83; 17:50-77; 27:54-58; 29:28-35; 37:99-111, 113-38; 51:24-37; 54:33-40.<\/span><\/p>\n [7]<\/a> For instance, at 6:74-79; 19:41-50; 21:51-72; 26:70-102; 37:83-98.<\/span><\/p>\n [8]<\/a>\u00a02:258.<\/span><\/p>\n [9].\u00a0This is the usual Qur\u2019anic approach.\u00a0 It frequently refers to stories that it presumes its audience will already find familiar. This somewhat elliptical or allusive quality of the Qu\u2019ran is probably the main reason that many Western readers find the book so off-putting.<\/span><\/p>\n [10]<\/a> This story is told at Jasher 11:16-51. See The Book of Jasher <\/em>(Thousand Oaks, CA: Artisan Sales, 1990), 25-27. This translation of the Book of Jasher first appeared in 1840. It was reprinted, at Salt Lake City, in 1887.<\/span><\/p>\n