A Comparative Study of the Story of Saul (Talut) in the Quran and the Old Testament

A comparative study of the story of Saul in two holy texts of the Quran and the Old Testament represents a closer look at these two texts. The criterion of the adaptability of this story in two texts is sanctity, common themes, and the structural and educational differences between the two texts. The scope of this adaptation is the story of the Saul, which has been stated in 6 verses of the second Chapter of the Holy Quran and 654 verses of the Old Testament in 23 Chapters of Samuel 1. The similarities and differences between the two texts are based on two aspects of the literary structure and the intellectual system of the story. Some of the literary components used in two texts, such as the way of expression, the geography of the story, and the ways of characterizing the main character of the story, and using coherent expressions to increase the cognitive and educational messages are comparatively investigated. The findings show that, there is a coherent literary structure and precise characterization, modeling, and cognitive messages in the story of Saul in the Quran. There are also similarities between the intellectual system and the religious foundations of these two texts, but the cognitive effects of the Saul story in the Quran are deeper, more accurate, and more correct in the field of theology. One can say that the logical necessity of the structural and the content superiority of the story of Saul in the Quran is that the Holy Quran contains non-distorted Divine teachings and did not adapt the Bible's common themes.