5.27 – Recite to them the story of Adam’s two sons in truth
The lack of the names of Adam’s sons in this short homily on a story familiar from the Bible (vv. 27–31; Genesis 4) is typical of the quranic style and raises interesting questions about the audience of this recitation – and indeed about the reciter. Are the names not given because the reciter did not know them or because the reciter assumed that his audience knew the names? If the audience indeed already knew the names, is this a clue about the audience?
The “raven” in this story is a good example of a detail not present in the Bible but found in Jewish rabbinic writings (Midrash Tanḥuma, Jerusalem Targum on Genesis 4:8; Pirqē de-Rabbī Elī‘ēzer).