Did Muhammad know the previous scriptures before receiving the revelation

[Zack]

Hello friends,

From what I understand, it is recommended to start a new topic if the content is dealing with something different. So I would like to respond to the following:

Thank you for your comments. If you notice the verses you kindly quoted they are speaking about before he became a prophet of God.
I stated that after or during his ministry sometime he might of possibly been familiar with the previous scriptures."

I would like to make comment concerning a couple of things..

1) There is nothing to suggest Muhammad did NOT have a reasonable understanding of the previous scriptures. The reference used in 29:48 is more likely a linguistic issue (43.3), "The Book" was in another language (Syriac), and therefore the Arab peoples dependant upon oral traditions of scripture. Because of this linguistic issue, the understanding of Muhammad was limited.

2) On the other hand, Muhammad DID NOT have a thorough understanding of the previous books after receiving the revelation, he continued to have a lack of clarity, in which case the source was the People of the Book (10:94)

3) The Qur'an does not contain the contents of the previous books, only pieces of it. There is no evidence from the Qur'an that Muhammad had a significantly greater knowledge of the Book after the revelation of the Qur'an. (Which from what is increasingly understood by scholars was a process of revelations responding to real events, not a single revelation in a cave.)

4) The idea that before the revelations Muhammad didn't know the content of the Books, and afterwards he did, is removing all the natural element from the life of Muhammad. This is the result of later traditions, where Muhammad was increasingly elevated and removed from the context he lived.

Wasalam

Zack