An Examination and Critique of Some Articles of Qur'anic Encyclopedia by Oliver Leaman on Eve, Sarah, Mary, and Khadijah, Women Attributed to the Prophets

The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia, known as the Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, is the work of American author Oliver Leaman, whose articles cover topics and issues related to the Qur'an and commentators. This encyclopedia, like other works of Orientalists, along with some useful materials, has ideological, jurisprudential, etc. doubts, which make it necessary to study those doubts and answer them. The current paper, through a descriptive and analytical method has examined the doubts about Eve, Sarah, Mary and Khadijah - women attributed to the prophets, which are: The creation of Eve from the left rib of Adam, the restriction of the descendants of Abraham to the children of Sarah, the claim that Hazrat Maryam was married, and the confirmation of the revelation to the Holy Prophet by Khadijah. These doubts are met with criticism, including: The alignment of the creation of Adam and Eve and the rejection of the claim of the creation of Eve from the left rib of Adam, the existence of numerous reasons for the continuation of Abraham's descendants from Isaac and Ishmael, confusion of Qur'anic topics with myth in the story of Mary and the arguments of the verses of Qur'an about no one touching her as an unmarried woman, the falsity of the narrations confirming the revelation to the Prophet through Khadijah.