A student of Albert Schweitzer and Martin Werner (1887–1964), he attempted to demonstrate the textual link between pre-Islamic Christian hymnody in the Middle East and the composition of the Qur'an.
In early post-prophetic times mushrikun was reinterpreted from its original meaning to become "idolators" or "pagans".
According to Alan Dundes, in 1970 Luling submitted a doctoral dissertation which suggested that the Quran "contained evidence of traces of poetic strophic" (i.e. verse-repeating or chorus form, .. a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music, as opposed to "through-composed" where new music written for every stanza) texts.
Dundes writes that Lüling's view was "not in accord with orthodox Islamic tradition", and by 1972, "he was officially dismissed" from the University of Erlangen, where he had submitted his thesis.
A lawsuit filed to overturn the dismissal carried on for six years but "did not succeed in reversing the university's action".