Sealing and the Root kh-t-m in the Qur'ān and pre-Islamic Christian Literature: On the "Seal of the Prophets" and Disbelievers Having "Seals on Their Hearts and Hearing"

Abstract

This study examines two Qur'anic concepts expressed through the root kh-t-m: "the seal of the prophets"and disbelievers "having seals on their hearts and hearing"in light of pre-Islamic Christian and particularly Syriac literature. It suggests that both concepts entered the Qur'ān via the Syriac cognate of kh-t-m, h-t-m, albeit in different ways: whereas Syriac interpretations of Isaiah 8:16, Daniel 9:24, Matthew 5:17-18, and Luke 24:44, found in the Diatessaron, the Peshitta, and works of Syriac theologians, informed the Qur'anic conception of "the seal of the prophets,"it was the Syro-Hexapla that inspired the concept of disbelievers being sealed by adopting a minority rendering of Isaiah 8:16 from the Septuagint. The study then proposes that the Qur'anic notion of "sealing the prophets"has a legal dimension, and that the Qur'ān positions Muhammad as the great lawgiver prophet, ending the line of the prophets who are the recipients of God's covenants and "laws."Muhammad taking on such a role provides him a position comparable to Jesus's role in the Syriac texts. Moreover, the study demonstrates that discussion of disbelievers "having seals on their hearts and hearing"with the Biblical precursor of disbelievers being sealed fits neatly into the broader context of the Qur'ān, when several phrases with Biblical antecedents become a part of the Qur'anic discourse.