The Cool Fruits or Eternal Sons; A Critique on Christoph Luxenberg’s Syriac-Aramaic Reading of “Wildan Mukhalladun” in the Quran

The term “Wildan” appears six times in the Quran, with two instances specifically referring to the eternal sons who serve the inhabitants of Paradise. In these two verses, “Wildan” is described as “Mukhalladun,” implying their eternity. Islamic scholars unanimously agree that “Wildan Mukhalladun” refers to the eternal sons in Paradise who serve its inhabitants, although there are differing interpretations regarding its specifics. In the year 2000, an individual named Christoph Luxenberg published a book titled “The Syriac-Aramaic Reading of the Quran; An Attempt at Deciphering the Language of the Quran.” In this book, Luxenberg claimed that Muslims had a mistaken interpretation of “Wildan Mukhalladun.” He argued that Quranic vocabulary borrowed from other languages, especially Syriac-Aramaic, and to understand verses containing these terms, one must interpret them based on Syriac-Aramaic. He altered many letters and dots of the words and created new meanings, claiming to unveil secrets within the Quranic verses. He misunderstood the meaning of “Wildan Mukhalladun” as “cool grapes” based on his Syriac reading instead of “eternal sons.” This research examines the words “Wildan” and “Mukhalladun” structurally and semantically across Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic references through a comparative historical study. The results demonstrate that the root “WLD” exists in all branches of Semitic languages, sharing significant structural and semantic similarities, not only disapproving Luxenberg’s claim but also agreeing with the perspective of Islamic scholars.