The Bible, the Qur'an and the religious life of Muslims

Introduction to Episode 1

Presented by Gabriel Reynolds

The last two verses of Chapter, or Sura, 85 of the Qur’an relate:

21. In fact, it is a Glorious Quran.

22. In a Preserved Tablet.

This passage helps form the foundation of a common Muslim belief that the Qur’an is more than an inspired book. Instead it is an eternal, heavenly book, brought down from a “preserved tablet.” This notion of the Qur’an as a heavenly book is a good starting point for a comparative study of Islam and Christianity more generally, as we move through our series The Church and Islam.

Muslims believe that God spoke to prophets throughout history, beginning with Adam and including Jesus (and other major Biblical figures such as Noah, Abraham, and Moses). However, there was one more prophet to come after Jesus: Muhammad. Between the years AD 610 and 632, in the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, Muhammad proclaimed the Qur’an: a collection messages that he understood to be the very words of God given to him by the angel Gabriel.

In episode 1 of our Church and Islam series, we will discover that the Qur’an does not break radically from Jewish and Christian tradition. Instead, it features Biblical characters and retells Biblical stories. From an academic perspective, the Qur’an offers an interesting vision of the religious world of the late antique Middle East, where Christians and Jews were advancing claims about God and scripture. The Qur’an is a new voice to this debate and advances its own claims.

Experience the Episode

Presented by Gabriel Reynolds

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 12:00 pm

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Featured Speakers: 

• Gabriel Said Reynolds, Jerome J. Crowley and Rosaleen G. Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology, University of Notre Dame; Author of Qur’an and the Bible and Allah: God in the Qur’an
• John Shinkwin, Graduate Student in Theology, University of Notre Dame

Getting to Know the Qur’an and the Bible

Presented by Gabriel Reynolds

Professor Reynolds offers an introduction to the Qur’an, the scripture of Islam, and the Qur’an’s interest in the characters and themes of the Bible.

Thinking Theologically about the Qur’an and the Bible

Presented by Gabriel Reynolds

What is the vision of divine revelation in Islam and Christianity? In this video, Professor Reynolds explains why the Qur’an is better compared to Christ, who is the Word of God, than to the Bible.

Moses and “Faith over Family” in the Qur’an

Presented by Gabriel Reynolds

Moses is an important figure in both the Bible and the Qur’an (which names Moses more than any other character). In this video, Professor Reynolds describes why in the Qur’an he becomes the adopted son of Pharaoh and what this says about the Qur’an’s religious worldview.

Meet the Faculty: Gabriel Said Reynolds

Presented by Gabriel Reynolds

Gabriel Said Reynolds is the Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at Notre Dame. He is the author of the Qur’an and the Bible and Allah: God in the Qur’an. 

Gabriel Said Reynolds did his doctoral work at Yale University in Islamic Studies. Currently he researches the Qur’ān and Muslim/Christian relations and is Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology in the Department of Theology at Notre Dame. He is the author of The Qur’ān and Its Biblical Subtext (Routledge 2010) and The Emergence of Islam (Fortress, 2012), the translator of ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s Critique of Christian Origins (BYU 2008), and editor of The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context (Routledge 2008) and New Perspectives on the Qur’ān: The Qur’ān in Its Historical Context 2 (Routledge 2011). In 2012-13 Prof. Reynolds directed, along with Mehdi Azaiez, “The Qurʾān Seminar,” a year-long collaborative project dedicated to encouraging dialogue among scholars of the Qurʾān, the acts of which appeared as The Qurʾān Seminar Commentary (De Gruyter, 2016). At Notre Dame he teaches courses on theology, Muslim/Christian Relations, and Islamic Origins.  He is also a regular contributor to Notre Dame’s World Religions World Church podcast: Minding Scripture. 

New on Coursera: Sacred Texts in Dialogue

Interested in going even deeper on this topic? Join Professor Said Reynolds for his new online course Sacred Texts in Dialogue, offered through the Coursera platform, to explore the common points, and stark differences, between the Bible and the Qur’an. The course consists of six modules and assumes no previous knowledge of the two books.

To enroll, click here.

Additional Resources

Presented by Gabriel Reynolds

• First Things Article for further reading: Reading the Qur’an through the Bible by Gabriel Reynolds
• The Qur’an and the Bible by Gabriel Reynolds