The claim: "The Qur'an's stories resemble the Torah/Gospel; the Prophet heard and copied them. Even the polytheists said they were 'tales of the ancients' (25:5)."
The Qur'an itself declares the resemblance — but not as "copying"
- The Qur'an does not hide its relation to earlier revelation; it calls itself "confirming (muṣaddiq) what came before and a guardian (muhaymin) over it" (5:48). So the claim of a shared source / confirmation is its own thesis, not a hidden plagiarism.
- "This Qur'an could not be invented; it confirms what came before and explains the Book." (10:37) — resemblance is confirmation.
- The "tales of the ancients" objection is not new; the Qur'an reports and answers it: you cannot bring its like (2:23; 17:88) — even if humans and jinn combined.
An honest limit
Historical-critical scholarship debates intertextual relations (the Bible, apocrypha, late-antique traditions); we do not pretend that is "closed." But the inference "resemblance = copying" is not automatically true: from a shared source, confirmation or independent narration are both possible — which is the Qur'an's own claim. To say "copy" is an interpretation / assumption, not the necessary consequence of resemblance.
Source: Qur'anic verses (M. Okuyan meal). Presented soberly and respectfully, with a text/interpretation distinction.