Mawlana Furati. Kitab Kurq Su’al (Book of the Forty Questions) ‘[Prophet Muhammad’s Response to the Jews of Medina’](?).

Framed by the 40 questions the Jews of Medina are said to have asked Muhammad, the present work is a collection of Quran-inspired folk tales imparting Islamic wisdom. According to Islamic tradition, upon reaching Medina, Muhammad was quizzed by the elders of the city’s Jewish community, eager to discover whether the self-proclaimed prophet was the Messiah they had been waiting for. The questions they asked had been passed down for generations, and contained within them the breadth and depth of Man’s essence, capacity and potential. While the elders were impressed with Muhammad’s answers, most of them still rejected his message, ultimately provoking the Prophet’s wrath. Little is known for certain about the compiler, Mevla Furati/Firaqi. Said to be a Sufi sheikh from Kutahya, Turkey, he favored the simplicity of personal connections over the intensity of academic rigor. His family originally hailing from beyond the Zagros mountains of Persia, Furati was exposed to folk tales from across a great breadth of Muslim land. Furati’s direct approach and preference for simplicity is evident in the language he employs in his work here.