Is the character of Luqman, peace be upon him, adapted from the Assyrian sage Ahikar, who lived in the seventh century BC, especially with the similarity between them in wisdom and in offering admonition to a son, and given the existence of an ancient Aramaic text that speaks of Ahikar on Elephantine Island, which was a Jewish colony at the time, even though Ahikar was a pagan?

Ahiqar is a figure renowned for wisdom in the scriptures of the People of the Book, and wisdom attributed to him has been found on papyrus. Some claim there is a similarity between the wisdom of Luqman and Ahiqar, exploiting this to criticize the Qur’an. This claim is false for several reasons: First, the earliest text of Ahiqar's wisdom dates back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE, which is after Islam, making the possibility of Ahiqar quoting from the Qur’an greater. Second, there is no chain of narration (isnad (definition)) proving that these sayings genuinely belong to Ahiqar. Third, the definitively proven word of Allah cannot be challenged by unreliable reports. Fourth, agreement may occur between the sayings of wise individuals; many of these wisdoms pertain to ethics and manners that sound human nature accepts. Finally, Ahiqar belongs to a pagan environment, whereas Luqman in the Qur’an calls for the monotheistic worship of Allah, leaving no room for comparison between the two.