Creation of the World with the Divine Word:A Textological Approach to a Qur’anic Concept Based upon Some Jewish, Christian and Manichaean Documents

The present paper focuses on the concept of the miraculous power of the divine word in the creation of the world. This old concept, a part of which is illustrated in the various religious systems in the pre-Islamic Near East is the same supernatural power of the creation that is shown in the Qur‟an with the phrase kun fa-yakūn “be! And it is!” as well as in the Jewish literature, esp. in the Hebrew Book of Enoch with the cosmic power of the twenty-two characters of the alphabet. Christian Texts, and specifically the Revelation of John, show it in the form of a phrase quoted by Jesus Christ. This study, which is textologically based upon the diachronic and synchronic approaches, shows some rational structural links between Mani‟s thinking and the Jewish as well as Christian thoughts on one side and the Qur‟anic phrase kun fa-yakūn on the other. This Qur‟anic expression in this form has certainly no parallel in the previous systems, though the prototype of the concept of the God‟s creation with His word can be found in the Babylonian, Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean literatures. The Qur‟an is the Word of God, and God has undoubtedly expressed it with the cultural language of the world that has been recognized and experienced throughout history. The Qur‟an did not teach any of its teachings with the concepts that mankind has not had any form of it in his historical mind or has not somehow been familiar with it in any way.