The Sources of Islam: an Abridged Reprint

According to Islam, the Koran is the perfect word from the only god-Allah. However, this book shows that the stories and ideas in the Koran could be found in the world around Mohammed. Indeed, one view of the Koran is that it is a picture of the religions in Arabia and Syria in the seventh century. Once you take out all of the material that came from the Jews, Christians, Sabaeans, Zoroastrians and Arabs, you have a very small Koran. Even the Islamic religious rituals were taken from the Arab customs of the day. The only original ideas found in the Koran are that Mohammed is the prophet of Allah and if you do not believe it jihad can be used to convince you. Everything else is derivative.