The Alleged Debt of the Quran to the Old and New Testaments in the Works of Orientalists and its Context in al-Baydawi's Tafsir

One of the most significant challenges within Orientalist studies is the claim that the Quran was influenced by Jewish and Christian texts—especially the Old and New Testaments. This issue, echoed in numerous Orientalist works, finds a pivotal argument in the use of al-Bayḍāwī’s exegesis as an interpretive source. This paper poses two central questions: “On what bases and through which aspects of al-Bayḍāwī’s exegesis do Orientalists argue for the borrowing hypothesis regarding the Quran’s relationship with the biblical texts?” and “Are their interpretive and historical analyses methodologically sound?” To address these inquiries, the study scrutinizes contentious issues such as the interpretation of the term “Furqān,” the origins of fasting regulations, the designation of Jesus as the “Word of God,” the influence of potential pedagogues of the Prophet Muhammad, and the presence of the ‘People of the Book’ vocabulary in the Quran. Employing a method of interpretive content analysis alongside a comparative approach to Islamic and Orientalist sources, the research demonstrates that Orientalist references to al-Bayḍāwī’s exegesis often rest on a superficial understanding of the Quran’s historical context, an inadequate consideration of traditional Muslim exegetical methods, and a disregard for the underlying theological principles. The findings reveal that many of these claims lack sufficient scholarly grounding and are, at times, driven by ideological biases and distortions of Quranic concepts. Contrary to the Orientalists’ assertions, al-Bayḍāwī’s exegesis does not affirm the borrowing hypothesis but rather attests to the structural independence and intrinsic richness of the Quranic discourse in response to pre-Islamic religious traditions.