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The Ten Wise Jews: The Source Of The Qur'an?
The Ten
Wise Jews: The Source Of The Qur'an?
M S M Saifullah
& Muhammad Ghoniem
© Islamic
Awareness, All Rights Reserved.
First Composed:
12th November 2000
Last Updated:
17th November 2002
Assalamu-alaikum wa rahamatullahi
wa barakatuhu:
1. Introduction
It has been claimed
by the Christian missionaries that there are several accounts originating from Jewish
and Christians sources which claim that Muhammad(P) was instructed by Jewish scholars.
In a predictable, heedless fashion,
the Christian missionaries have attempted to discredit the religion of Islam by alleging
that the Prophet Muhammad(P) was actually aided by Jewish scholars in the
composition of the Holy Qur'an. To support such a claim, they point to accounts by
Jewish and Christian sources. The missionaries write:
The Christian account comes from Theophanes who died
around AD 818. This text pre-dates Ibn Hisham's biography of Muhammad (AD 834) as
well as the Traditions which date between 2 and 3 centuries after the death of Muhammad.
This claim, along with the rest of
the anti-Islamic theories in the missionary treasure chest, should be brought under
the light of objective analysis. In this paper, we intend to examine this claim.
We will also address the question of the Jewish source of this story and a related
one about the "mysterious letters" in the Qur'an, which were alleged to
have been inserted by Jewish scholars.
2. Theophanes' Account:
What Is The Date Of Its Composition?
The Christian missionaries' have claimed
that Theophanes' account
pre-dates Ibn Hisham's biography of Muhammad (AD 834)
as well as the Traditions which date between 2 and 3 centuries after the death of
Muhammad.
As usual, there are no specific references
supplied to support this view. The only general reference that is given as a "source"
is that of a book by R. G. Hoyland, Seeing
Islam As Others Saw It.[1] Let us now examine this single reference provided
by the missionaries to see what it says about Theophanes' account.
Hoyland begins the section "Jewish Texts"
by saying that:
Ibn Ishaq
lists eight more [Jews] who "took refuge in Islam," but only
"hypocritically professed it." On the basis of these and other narratives,
Jewish polemicists elaborated accounts of how Muhammad had been instructed
by Jewish scholars.[2]
From the very start, we can immediately
see problems with the missionary theory. Rather than discovering an original source,
we find that these "Jewish polemicists" took the work of Ibn Ishaq
and perverted one of his accounts into a clever, anti-Islamic polemic. What then
are we to make of the account by Theophanes? Hoyland informs us that:
Since the legend [of the ten rabbis]
is in Theophanes, it must have arisen earlier than the ninth century, and most
probably in the second half of the eight century when the biography of Muhammad
has already become largely standardized.[4]
In other words, the work of Theophanes
itself is dependent of Islamic sources, presumably the biography of the Prophet Muhammad(P)
by Ibn Ishaq (d. 150 AH / 767 CE). Ibn Ishaq was responsible
for writing a systematic the biography of Prophet(P). More significant, however, is the fact that
the legend of the Jews mentioned by Theophanes clearly post-dated writing of the
first biography of the Prophet Muhammad(P). Moreover, S. Shtober informs us that:
Theophanes composed his chronicles between
the years A.D. 810-814.[5]
At this point, it is important to establish
a very significant fact. Ibn Ishaq died in 150 AH / 767 CE, long before
Theophanes was to compose his work between 810-814 CE. It is true that Ibn Ishaq's
biography of the Prophet Muhammad(P) was later transmitted by Ibn Hisham,
albeit in an abridged form. However, for the missionaries to claim that because Theophanes'
work preceded that of Ibn Hisham's biography of the Prophet Muhammad(P)
is to ignore the early date of Ibn Ishaq's work, an embarrassing point
that easily and ultimately jerks the rug from beneath the missionaries' feet.[6] Deplorably, the missionaries have deceptively tried to hide this point, only to falsely claim
that Theophanes' account "predates Ibn Hisham's biography of Muhammad"
(NB: even the "source" of the missionaries, i.e., Hoyland's book Seeing Islam As Others Saw
It, mentions Ibn Ishaq
listing eight more Jews; see ref. 2 above).
3. The Jewish Accounts:
Date Of Composition And Their Historicity
Let us now address the Jewish sources
of the story of the"ten wise Jews". The first Jewish attestation to this
story is found embodied within a Hebrew anti-Karaite treatise. This was published
by Jacob Mann along with detailed commentary.[7,8]
To the discredit of the missionaries, this Jewish text is dated to the first half
of the 10th century CE.[9] Now
we come to the treatise's history. We read:
The acceptance of Islam by these
10 elders is supposed to have been for "the purpose of saving God's people so
that he (Muhammad) should not harm them by his false charges." But this
is belied by his [i.e., the author
of this polemical treatise] attacks
on the Jews of Madinah and Haibar. Thus the whole episode lacks the
historical basis; it is rather a later legend.[10]
As if this is not sufficient, Mann
went on to say that in this polemical treatise:
There is a peculiar story of the relations
of a certain Abu Bakr (perhaps a confusion with the first Caliph Abu
Bakr), the son of the (Babylonian?) Exhilarch, with the prophet. Banished to Persia,
this Abu Bakr converted the inhabitants of 60 cities to Islam. All
such stories are apparently the reflection of a vague notion current in Jewish circles
concerning the Jewish share in the evolution of the new religion and the personal
contacts of some Arabian Jews with its founder.[11]
The story of the "ten wise Jews"
also exists as an independent entity in Judeo-Arabic literature and is similar to
the Hebrew anti-Karaite treatise. It was published by J. Leevan and the manuscript
dates from the twelfth century.[12] Leevan comments along the same lines as Mann.
Concerning the alleged verses produced by the "ten wise Jews" for the Qur'an,
Leevan says:
Our fragment not only gives us the full
number but also produces the alleged verses of these Companions of Mohammed [i.e., the "ten wise Jews"]. There is one disappointment to the record.
The quotations that are alleged to come from the Koran are not actually to be found
there.... The whole style of the Arabic, so awkward and cumbrous and ungrammatical,
is against it [i.e., the Qur'an]. The objections of the style also militate against
the probability that these verses are derived from Hadith literature.
I may also add that I have not been able to trace any of the verses in the Hadiths.
The evidence points very strongly to the fabrication of these verses by the author,
or to so gross a distortion of the original sources that it may be considered to
amount to fabrication.[13]
In short, the story of "ten wise
Jews" aiding the Prophet Muhammad(P) in the composition of the Qur'an is a fabrication
and lacks an historical basis.
4. The Case Of The
"Mysterious Letters"
The case of the "mysterious letters",
allegedly inserted by the ten "wise" Jewish rabbis, is perhaps the most
amusing part of this whole affair. Mann says:
The elders are stated to have composed
the Kur'an, each inserting his name in a Sura in such a manner as not to arouse suspicion.
In the 2nd Sura (the Cow) they even managed to introduce a sentence: "thus did
the Jewish sages counsel the wicked ALM"; the last word may be taken as a reference
to a false prophet. In the Judeo-Arabic account there is given a string of verses,
supposedly to be found in this Sura, the first letters of which make up the above
sentence. However, we seek in vain for them in the present text of Sura II.
The only connection may be found in the symbolic letters A L M at the beginning of
this Sura (as well as several others) which would stand for ALM in the above sense.
But altogether this stratagem, which our author designates as "a great secret",
cannot of course be given any credence.[14]
It can't be given any credence even
using linguistic analysis. This is because this whole stratagem is based on an arbitrary
choice of consonants to fit a pre-conceived notion, thereby indicating a poor grasp
of Hebrew and Arabic etymology. The letters Alif, Lam and Mim
are supposed to have been included with insertion of the sentence as we read above:
"thus did the Jewish sages counsel
the wicked ALM"
According to the Jewish legend, this
sentence was written in the Qur'an. However, this sentence is nowhere to be found
in the Qur'an! Further, in the Qur'an, when one reads "Alif. Lam.
Mim" the Lam and Mim are to be read with
the diacritical madda that hovers above each letter, as can be seen below
This diacritical madda results
in the prolongation of the consonants Lam and Mim as opposed
to ALM where it is absent; thus preserving the status quo of "mysterious letters".
Another instance of these "mysterious
letters" inserted by "Jewish wise men" are the letters "Kaf. Ha. Ya. `Ain. Sad."
"Thus did advise" (kakhah
ya'asu) produces the letters khy's which is found in the
beginning of Chapter xix.[15]
Kaf. Ha. Ya. `Ain. Sad is represented in Qur'anic Arabic as such:
The diacritical madda on top
of Kaf, cAin and Sad complicates
the case for "kakhah ya'asu". It is further complicated by the fact
that there is no "kh" sound in Kaf.
Ha. Ya. cAin. Sad! While such an excercise in basic
Arabic pronunciation might seem rather mundane, even pointless to an Arabic-speaking
schoolboy, it is nonetheless necessary to demonstrate the fallacy in the missionaries'
theory. On this note, we would advise the missionaries to study basic Arabic before
setting themselves up for the usual embarrassment.
Let us now move on to the case of
Ha. Mim.
"the wise men" (hakhemê)
gives hm of xli-xlvi.[16]
Ha.
Mim is represented as:
Here again, we see the diacritical
madda above of Mim. For those who are unfamiliar with the
Arabic language, it might be insightful to learn that without diacritical marks,
Arabic is only read with consonants. The Arabic language is based on a tri-lateral
root structure. In examining the root of
a word, the distracting diacritical marks are removed and only the consonant
letters are left. For example, the word "hakhemê"
(the Arabic equivalent is from the root h.k.m) has Ha,
Kaf and Mim not
Ha and Mim. The root letters simply do not match,
as was the case with Kaf. Ha. Ya. `Ain.
Sad, showing a clear arbitrary nature of the Jewish polemicist's
hypothesis.
A most amusing example of this utter
incompetence with basic Arabic can be found in the story behind Ya.
Sin, written in the Qur'an as:
It is said that:
"of Israel" (yisra'êl)
becomes ys of xxxvi.[17]
The word Isra'il is composed
of Alif, Sin, Ra and Lam.
As one can see Ya. Sin is way off the mark!
In summary, there is no linguistic
or historical foundation behind the "the great secret" of the ten "wise"
Jews.
This would also seem to be a good opportunity to
point out the impoverished understanding of medieval Jewry in Semitic languages,
both Arabic and their own Hebrew. It
was the Arab grammarians who were credited for understanding the aspects of Hebrew
grammar:
Jewish scholars in Arab lands for the
first time in history acquired the tools for proper contextual study of the scriptures.
Islam had spread the tenets of rationalism, mediating in part the philosophical teachings
of classical Greece.[18]
In addition, Arab grammarians had
developed a systematic method for analyzing the style and the structure of classical
Arabic, the language of the Koran. This enabled them not only to interpret the Koran
but also to compose new works in the strict standards of the classical idiom.[19]
Jews in Arab lands had the potential
to become comparative semitic linguists.[20]
Jews who studied Arabic language and
literature, as well as other academic disciplines, learned the new linguistic science
and desired to exploit it in their exegesis of the Bible and the analysis of Hebrew
grammar. Only those who knew Arabic grammar developed the proper understanding of
the Hebrew verb as the stem built upon three consonants. Hebrew verb stems in
which the letters alef, vav and yod appear for example, do not display these weak
consonants in all forms. These weak consonants do appear in the various forms of
Arabic verb, However, Jewish scholars with linguistic sophistication realized that
the weak consonants were part of the Hebrew verb even where they are not evident.
Jewish exegetes, such as those in France, who did not read Arabic, failed to comprehend
the triconsonantal basis of the Hebrew verb-stem and as a result, confused certain
stems and misinterpreted them. C'est la vie. Characteristic of the Spanish Jewish
scholars was their superior interest and training in linguistic analysis, a benefit
of having grown up in an Arabic milieu.[21]
His [Rabbi
Saadiah] Arabic translation of the
Bible, however continues in use as the official version of Jews from Arab lands.
It is also a mine of original insight into the meaning of difficult Hebrew words
and phrases in the Bible, of which the modern scholars have barely taken advantage.[22]
It is indeed amusing to learn of
the medieval Jewish hostility to Islam, especially since Jewish grammarians owe their
understanding of their own language to Arab grammarians and lexicographers. We are
reminded of the "Golden Age" of the Jews in Muslim Spain, when the influence
of Arabic literature, poetry, and grammar influenced the Jews to write their greatest
works of literature.
5. Tafsir Of
The Verse 16:103
And finally let us now move over
to the exegesis (tafsir) of the verse 16:103.
We know indeed that they say, "It
is a man that teaches him." The tongue of him they wickedly point to is notably
foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear.
This verse was used by the missionaries
in a subtle way to show that Prophet(P) was taught by someone; the "ten wise
Jews" in the present case. Let us now examine the case using the tafsir
of the Qur'an. Ibn Kathir says in his tafsir:
We know indeed that they say, "It
is a man that teaches him." The tongue of him they wickedly point to is notably
foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear.
The Almighty narrates the lies and
false accusations made by the pagans according to whom a man taught Muhammad
the Qur'an that which he is reciting to us. Saying so, they point to a foreign
man who lived among them, a servant of some clan in Quraysh who used to trade
near al-Safa and maybe the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to sit
with him and talk to him. This person had a foreign tongue and could not speak
Arabic or he knew little Arabic just enough to answer basic questions when
necessary. Therefore, the Almighty said in answer to their false accusations:
"The tongue of him they wickedly point to is notably foreign, while this
is Arabic, pure and clear" refering to the Qur'an, i.e., "How can
the one who brought this Qur'an in such a pure language and beautiful style
and full of meaning whose fullness exceed every book revealed to the Children
of Israel, how can such a man learn from a foreigner (who cannot speak)? No
one with the slightest amount of brains could make such a claim. Muhammad
Ibn Ishaq Ibn Yasar said in al-Sirah:
The Prophet, peace be upon him, according to what I heard, used to sit at
al-Marwah at the hut of Christian boy called Jabr who was the slave of Banu
al-Hadrami. Therefore, Allah revealed "We know indeed that
they say, "It is a man that teaches him." The tongue of him they
wickedly point to is notably foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear"
and so told cAbdullah
Ibn Kathir, and according to `Ikrimah and Qatadah his name was Ya`ish. Ibn Jarir said: Ahmad Ibn Muhammad al-Tusi
told me, Abu `Amir told us,
Ibrahim Ibn Tahman narrated to us from Muslim Ibn `Abdillah al-Mila'i from Mujahid from Ibn
`Abbas his saying: The Prophet, peace be
upon him, used to teach a slave boy(??) in Makkah called Bil`am
whose tongue was foreign. The pagans used to see the Messenger of God, peace
be upon him, enter his place and leave it, so they said that Bilcam
taught him. Therefore, Allah revealed the verse "We know indeed that
they say, "It is a man that teaches him". The tongue of him they
wickedly point to is notably foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear".
Al-Dahhak Ibn Muzahim said: [the
one meant] is Salman al-Farisi,
which is a weak statement because this verse is Meccan while Salman embraced
Islam in Madinah. `Ubaydullah Ibn Muslim said: We had two Roman
slave boys/servants who used to read a book of theirs in their tongue, and
the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to pass by them, stop by and listen to
them, so the pagans said: he learns from them. Therefore, Allah revealed this
verse. Al-Zuhri narrated from Sa`id Ibn al-Musayyab: The pagan who made
this claim is a man who used to write the Revelation for the Messenger of
God, peace be upon him, but later he quit Islam and made such a false claim,
shame on him.
It is quite obvious that this verse
has nothing to do with the "ten wise Jews".
To complete the
argument we should also add the uninformed view held by Abraham Geiger who claimed
that the man mentioned in the verse 16:103 is none but cAbdullah ibn Salam, one of the earliest Jewish
converts to Islam. Jacob Lassner
comments about this claim of Geiger concerning the man mentioned in verse 16:103:
Clearly, the verse begs for explication.
Who, if anyone, is the alleged teacher and what is the foreign tongue referred to
by the polytheists in their vain attempt to discredit Allah's chosen messenger and
his divinely inspired preaching? Geiger, who in his matter sides with the polytheists
in denying that Muslim scripture is God's revealed word, understood the verse as
showing "plainly that this man was a Jew." The foreign tongue was presumably
Hebrew and/or Jewish Aramaic. Turning then to the later Qur'an commentary,
he asserts that his (own intuitive) understanding of the text is in fact supported
by the Muslim commentators, who "take this view [of the polytheists] and indeed
think that it was [a reference] to Abdallah ibn Salam."
But it hardly follows that the Qur'anic
verse refers explicitly to such a rabbi or indeed to any other teacher of Jewish
descent. Nor is there a compelling reason to believe that the traditions, which Muhammad
was accused of having learned, were understood by Muslims as having originally been
in Hebrew or Aramaic. Nor, for that matter, do Muslim exegetes unequivocally link
the mysterious informant of Qur'an 16:105 [a clear misprint for 16:103!]
with Geiger's favored candidate Abdallah ibn Salam.[23]
It is interesting to see that nowhere is Geiger's
"intuitive" understanding of the verse 16:103 supported by any Muslim commentaries.
It was simply his assumption to further a pre-conceived argument.
Further Lassner says:
Nevertheless, Qur'anic evidence cited
by Geiger for the historicity of Abdallah ibn Salam and, beyond that, his alleged
role in instructing the Prophet, is anything but convincing.[24]
That sums up the
case quite well.
Conclusions
From the time of antiquity, Jewish
and Christian hostility towards Islam had resulted in some rather bitter and creative
polemics. The story of "ten wise Jews" playing a role in the composition
of the Holy Qur'an has a very mythical, entertaining quality to it. However amusing
these legends may seem to us today, it is even more amusing to see Christian missionaries
dutifully parroting these claims without any scholastic abandon. One would imagine
that even mischief-making has its limitations. Whether or not these missionaries
actually took such legends seriously, their allegations have been proven utterly
baseless. On three accounts, that of historical, linguistic and exegetical analyses,
the theories are rendered absurd.
References
[1]
R. G. Hoyland, Seeing
Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey And Evaluation Of Christian, Jewish And Zoroastrian
Writing On Early Islam, 1997, The Darwin Press, Inc.: Princeton (New
Jersey).
[2]
Ibid., p. 505.
[3]
H. Hirschfeld, "Historical
And Legendary Controversies Between Mohammad And The Rabbis",
The Jewish Quarterly
Review, 1898, Volume 10, pp.
100-116. Hirschfeld relies solely on Islamic sources for the discussion.
[4]
Hoyland, Seeing
Islam As Others Saw It, Op.Cit, p. 508.
[5]
S. Shtober, "Muhammad
And The Beginning Of Islam In The Chronicle Sefer Divrey Yoseph",
in M. Sharon (ed.), Studies
In History And Civilization In Honour Of Professor David Ayalon,
1986, Cana: Jerusalem & E. J. Brill: Leiden, p. 349 (footnote 8).
[6]
See the entry "Ibn Ishaq"
in Encyclopaedia
Britannica
available online.
[7]
J. Mann, "An
Early Theologico-Polemical Work",
Hebrew Union
College Annual, 1937-1938,
Volume XII-XIII, pp. 411-459.
[8]
J. Mann, "A
Polemical Work Against Karaite And Other Sectaries",
The Jewish Quarterly
Review (NS), 1921-1922, Volume
XII, pp. 123-150.
[9]
J. Mann, "An
Early Theologico-Polemical Work",
Hebrew Union
College Annual, Op.Cit.,
p. 432. Hoyland puts the composition around late ninth to early tenth century; Seeing Islam As Others Saw
It, Op.Cit., p. 506.
[10]
Ibid., p. 421.
[11]
Ibid., pp. 421-422.
[12]
J. Leevan, "Mohammed
And His Jewish Contemporaries",
The Jewish Quarterly
Review (NS), 1925-1926, Volume
XVI, p. 399.
[13]
Ibid., p. 400.
[14]
J. Mann, "An
Early Theologico-Polemical Work",
Hebrew Union
College Annual, Op.Cit.,
pp. 420-421.
[15]
Hoyland, Seeing
Islam As Others Saw It, Op.Cit., p. 508.
[16]
Ibid.
[17]
Ibid.
[18]
Barry W Holtz (Ed.), Back
to the Sources: Reading The Classic Jewish Texts: The First Complete Modern Guide
To The Great Books of Jewish Tradition: What They Are And How To Read Them, 1992, Simon and Schuster, p. 221.
[19]
Ibid., p. 222.
[20]
Ibid.
[21]
Ibid.
[22]
Ibid., pp. 222-223.
[23]
J. Lassner, "Abraham
Geiger: A Nineteenth-Century Jewish Reformer On The Origins Of Islam", in M. Kramer (ed.), The Jewish Discovery Of Islam: Studies In
Honor Of Bernard Lewis, 1999,
The Moshe Dayan Center For Middle Eastern & African Studies: Tel Aviv University,
p. 119.
[24]
Ibid., pp. 118-119.
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