Hanif hilal biography of abraham

The word hanif which occurs twelve times in the Koran - ten times in its singular, and twice in its plural form - is puzzling, and the manner of its use is also puzzling.

Moslem tradition tells of various individuals who were hanifs. Western scholars have been critical of these stories, and rightly so. But though various theories have been put forward as to their real identity, no satisfactory solution of the problem has yet been given.

Biography of isaac

One hesitates to add to the ink which has already been spilt over the question, but a solution on somewhat new lines has lately suggested itself to me, which seems worthy of a short explanation.

The suggestion came to me from reading a discussion of the word hanif in a thesis by Dr.

Arthur Jeffery, of Cairo, on The Foreign Vocabulary of the Koran - a valuable work which it is to be hoped may soon find a publisher. Dr. Jeffery there makes it clear that the derivation of the word from the native Arabic hanafa', to