A Critical Examination of Firestone’s Theory of Evolution Regarding the Story of Abraham in the Quran and Exegetical Traditions

As the founder of monotheistic religions, Abraham holds a special status among the followers of the three Abrahamic faiths. Consequently, affiliation with him has always been a means of asserting legitimacy and a source of pride for these religions. The efforts of the adherents of these three faiths to claim an Abrahamic identity for themselves while denying it to others have given rise to extensive theological and historical debates. For instance, Firestone, a Jewish scholar of Middle East studies, examines the story of Abraham in the Quran and Jewish sources, attempting to portray him solely as the forefather of the Israelite nation. He further accuses Islam of appropriating Abraham’s persona to legitimize itself. This study adopts a fundamental, library-based, analytical, and critical approach to elucidate Firestone’s theory. By referencing the Torah and Quranic exegeses, it assesses the validity of his arguments and methodology. The findings of this research indicate that while Firestone accuses Islamic sources of being weak, he neither provides sufficient and solid evidence for this claim nor offers any critical evaluation of Jewish sources. Instead, he implicitly regards them as authoritative and definitive in contrast to Islamic sources, including the Quran itself.