Peshitta Text and
Syriac Christian: A Note for Dialogue between Christian and Islam
Translated by: Rudolf A.Luhukay
Jewish
in the Arabic land had read their Torah in Hebrew. Whereas they knew an oral
tradition to interprete definite portions of Torah in Aramaic. The interpretor
was called "Mathurqemanin" then their commentary was called Targum. The Aramaic
Targum plenty times was read within Synagogue and then they translate it into
Arabic. Sometimes the Jewish make a satire story from the Targum into Aramaic
then they sold the story. Probably this condition arose a critical of Al Qur'an
within Surah Al-Baqarah 2:78-79.
Whereas in the Christian environment there is no a proof that an Arabic Gospel
was exist before Islam. An Arabic Gospel at first time was made by Patriarkh
Syria, Mar Yuhanna Abu Sedra (640 A.D) and it was translated from
Aramaic/Syriac. So that's why actually as a fact that it is not a direct
critical of Al-Qur'an to the written text of Christian source. Mostly the
critical of Islam to the Christian was based on an oral tradition, such as
Christian "Targum" in Arabic which content from apochrypal sources.
A reference and a critical source of Islam both in the Qur'an and in the Hadits
mostly it was based on Ethiopic Christian, Copts, and even heresies of Christian
around Mecca with their own oral tradition. Yet, most of their reference come
from Syriac Christian. Arthur Jeffrey, in his book under title,"Foreign
Vocabulary of the Qur'an" recorded,"but there is only one exactly thing, that
Christendom which was recognized among the Arabic pre-Islam is Syriac Christian
style [1].
Ibnu Ishaq an historian Moslem make a record of this fact. Such as, the visited
of Najran's Christian to meet Mohammed where they were Shalat within Prophet's
Mosque toward to the east direction. All of this record could be traced back
from Syriac Christian [2].
Another story said that at the time of Hudaibiyah's Convenant of Suhcil bin 'Amr
in the name of Quraish people had rejected the form that was offered by Islam
and a convenant letter: "Bismillahirahmanirrahim" (in the name of Allah,
ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim)and then they suggested the other form which is more neutral
:"Bismika Allahuma" (in the name of Yours, ya Allah). Here the term "Allah" was
accepted but the term Ar-Rahman was rejected. Why ? because they had considered
that the term "Ar-Rahman" as foreign deity. It seem the Arabic word Ar-Rahman is
a loan word from Syriac terminology "Rahmana" [3].
A degree which was dedicated to Jesus Christ/Isa Al-Masih (cf. Ambonese word for
Jesus "tete manise" ).
The term "Hanef" within Al-Qur'an came from Syriac. And the name for Jesus is
called Isa also a pronuciation of eastern Aramaic for Yeshu'a/Jesus. There is a
fact which was founded at Dir in Syria under the name "Isaniyah" (the follower
of Isa) [4]
which came from the birth of year of Mohammed (571 A.D). While the term Masih
ad-Dajjal in Islamic eschatology that refer to the Anti-Christ and it came from
Peshitta Bible in Mathew 24:24 :
"Nqumun ge'ir mshiha
Dagala wa Nebiya d'kaddavta"
Because the Anti-Christ/Mshiha Dagala and their false
Prophets will coming up. [5]
And then there's much
terminologies of prayers within Islam. Maybe it could be understood better from
Syriac background. For example the term "Tahlil", "Alhamdulillah",
"Subhanallah", and much more. The roots of the word coming from Aramaic/Syriac.
Include 'adab of worship with stand up, kneeling down, and bow within
Shalat/Prayers and the tradition of reading Bible with "Tartil" and the art of
caligraph. All of these show us that the paralellisation each other is so close,
which it wasn't exist in any churches tradition in the middle east at present
day.
Literature:
1. Arthur Jeffrey, Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an
(Lahore: Al-Biruni, 1977), p.19
2. abu Muhammad 'Abdu Al-Malik bin Hisyam Al- Muafiri,
As Sirah An-Nabawiyah. Juzz I-II (Adimasyq: dar
al-Khair, 412H/1992M), p. 162-163.
3. Jeffrey, p.140
4. Geofrrey Parinder, Jesus in The Qur'an (Oxford
University Press, 1977), p.17
5. Peshitta Qyama Hadatta ha Ktaba Dadyateqa Hadatta
(Yerusalem: The Bible Society on Israel and the
Aramaic Scriptures Research Society in Israel, 1986)
Source: Peshitta Text and Syriac Christian: A Note for
Dialogue between Christian and Islam, Bambang
Noorsena, Mei 29th, 2001.
