Koran and Agada: The Events at Mount Sinai

In rebuking the Jews of his day for their failure to recognize him as the prophet of God, Mohammed often reminds them of their similar attitude of unbelief and rebellion against the prophets of former days, especially against Moses. These homilies of rebuke, addressed to the Jews and based on evidence from their own Scripture, form a literary feature of the Koran, particularly characteristic of the Medina suras. To be sure, Mohammed considers himself not the founder of a new religion but rather a protagonist of the age-old religion of the Book, the religion of Abraham and Moses. This conception remains manifest through the entire period of his prophetic activity-a period comprising the last twenty years of his life. He sees himself as a warner to all the world, and his mission is no more to proclaim the truth to the pagan Arabs than it is to confirm and to verify the truth to the Jews and the Christians, who had obtained it "before." No wonder, therefore, that the word of God that had been revealed to the "people of the Book" is forever reflected in his own revelations and referred to as an