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symbolism of the wine of Paradise.” 22
Luxenberg also looks at the Qur'anic verses (44:54 and 52:20) in which, according to the typical
understanding, Allah promises that virgins will be given in marriage to the blessed. He suggests that the
word understood to mean “marriage,” zawwagnahum, could be a misreading of rawwahnahum, which
refers to giving rest to the departed in heaven, for without diacritical marks, the differing letters, such as
the r and the z, are interchangeable. Here again, then, the verses would have nothing to do with virgins.
Instead, they would be prayers for God to grant eternal rest to the souls of the deceased. Such prayers are
part of Christian memorial observances. Other evidence supports Luxenberg's position. For instance,
ancient North African inscriptions use r-ww-H, the root of rawwahnahum, in exactly this Christian
liturgical context of praying for God to give eternal rest to the souls of the departed. 23
All this evidence reinforces the possibility that Arabic exegetes of the Qur'an were working with what
was originally a Christian text.
The Last Supper
The Qur'an's Christian substratum can be seen in what Islamic tradition regards as chronologically the
Qur'an's very first segment. In what now stands as sura 96, the angel Gabriel appears before Muhammad
in the cave on Mount Hira and exhorts him to “Recite!”:
1. Recite: In the name of thy Lord who created,
2. Created Man of a blood-clot.
3. Recite: And thy Lord is the Most Generous,
4. who taught by the Pen,
5. taught man that he knew not.
6. No indeed; surely Man waxes insolent,
7. for he thinks himself self-sufficient.
8. Surely unto thy Lord is the Returning.
9. What thinkest thou? He who forbids
10. a servant when he prays—
11. What thinkest thou? If he were upon guidance
12. or bade to godfearing—
13. What thinkest thou? If he cries lies, and turns away—
14. Did he not know that God sees?
15. No indeed; surely, if he gives not over, We shall seize him by the forelock,
16. A lying, sinful forelock.
17. So let him call on his concourse!
18. We shall call on the guards of Hell.
19. No indeed; do thou not obey him, and bow thyself, and draw nigh.
This text is, in the words of the contemporary Islamic scholar Ibn Rawandi, “for the most part,
incoherent nonsense” that “makes a mockery of the Koran's description of itself as ‘clear Arabic