This is the third version of this story (vv. 24–37) in the canonical progression of the Quran, and it is interesting to note and consider the similarities and differences among versions. Here the name Isaac is not given (as in 11.71) but only “a knowing boy” (v. 28, as also in 15.51). The wife of Abraham does not laugh and ponder the news of her pregnancy (as in 11.71–72) but seems to cry out and strike herself, calling herself “an old woman, barren” (v. 29). In Sūra 15, the wife is not mentioned.

Why the repetition of stories in the Quran, why the differences in details, and what can readers learn from both, if anything? Muslim commentators have dealt with repetition and differences by claiming that the different versions were revealed to Muhammad at different points in his career. This assumes both that the material has a divine origin and that the Muslim story about Muhammad provides the historical context and chronology of the material.

Non-Muslim scholars have treated repetition of stories and differences between the stories in various ways. Some choose to accept the general framework of the Muslim story of Muhammad, as well as the traditional chronology of the recitations, and then suggest how a prophet story may have developed over the career of Muhammad or in the emergence of the Muslim community.

Other scholars reason that since there is no evidence for the traditional chronology of the material – or for the story of Muhammad – outside of Muslim tradition, the contents of the Quran should be studied closely and reasonable suggestions made about where the material might have come from. For example, John Wansbrough has compared the different versions of the Shu‘ayb story (which he terms “variant traditions”) and suggests that while the differences show literary elaboration of the story, they tell us little about historical development. He speculates that in the process of the Quran’s collection, different versions of such stories, perhaps coming from different regions of the expanding Arab Empire, “were incorporated more or less intact into the canonical compilation” (see Quranic Studies).