Qisas al-Anbiya' (al-'Ara'is)

A book of the stories of the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an, written by Abu Ishaq Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Thaʿlabi al-Nisaburi ¹. The author died in 427 AH ². The book begins with an introduction on the wisdom in God's telling of the reports of earlier peoples, then presents cosmology, and then opens the stories of the prophets with the story of Adam. The edition examined here has not yet been verified, and every citation in it refers to the page number of the scan.

The author lists five purposes for God's telling of the reports of earlier peoples to the Prophet ﷺ. The first is that it is evidence of his prophethood, since he was unlettered and had not received knowledge from a teacher, so believers accepted what he reported and stubborn opponents denied it. The second is that he should have the noble messengers as a model. The third is to strengthen his heart and inform him of his station. The fourth is instruction through the mention of the prophets, their enemies and their outcomes. The fifth is that the memory of the righteous should remain alive after their death ^{3 4}.

The first sections run from page 4 to page 23. They present the beginning of the creation of the earth, its boundaries, its days and its names, then the heavens, their substances, their form and their names, and then the creation of the sun and the moon and the reports connected with them ^{5 6}.

The story of Adam begins on page 24 and ends at the start of the story of Noah on page 54. The section contains sections on the creation of Adam from clay, the breathing in of the spirit, the creation of Eve, the test of the tree, the descent, and the story of his two sons, Qabil and Habil ^{7 8}.

Pages 47 to 54 have not yet been read in detail in this batch, so no rulings on them are presented here.

• The author transmits many reports from the Companions, the Successors and the people of the Book without checking their chains in this section. The status of each needs a second source before it is presented as historical fact ⁹.
• The author gives an opinion from Jaʿfar al-Sadiq on the marriages of the children of Adam. It is presented here attributed to him, and not as the teaching of the Sunni school ¹⁰.
• The book mentions a report that the prophets were created from the light of the Prophet Muhammad. It is presented as a report in the book, and the question is one debated among scholars ¹¹.
• The verses attributed to Adam in lament for his son are noted in the footnote as spurious, and that is the editor's comment, not the author's ¹².
• The printed page numbers of the book do not consistently match the scan markers, so only the scan markers are used in citations.