“Observe the prayers and the middle prayer”: Jewish and Christian origins of Q. 2:238

The close and mutually fruitful ties between the Jewish tradition and the Muslim tradition are topics that scholars have been intensely dealing with for the past 200 years. The times of the prayers in Islam were formulated as a result of the textual influence of Judaism and Christianity that penetrated Islamic literature through the Jewish and Christian converts. It is my opinion that Q. 2:238 is a metamorphosis of the Talmudic expression, “One must always be careful of the Mina prayer”. In Muslim literature itself, one can find reference to the idea that the extra holiness of the alāt al-ar in Islam was influenced by early Jewish and Christian texts. The Muslim tradition portrays the Jews and the Christians as neglecting prayer, so that it is the antithesis of the Muslims who are very strict when it comes to prayer. This tendentious description is for theological and polemic purposes in order to justify the existence of Muslims as part of the newly chosen nation.