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"Those Are The High Flying Claims"
"Those Are The High Flying
Claims"
M S M Saifullah,
Qasim Iqbal, Mansur Ahmed & Muhammad Ghoniem
© Islamic
Awareness, All Rights Reserved.
Last Modified:
23th August 1999
Assalamu-`alaikum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
1. Introduction
We would like to discuss some of the claims of a Christian
missionary concerning the so-called 'Satanic verses'. The gist of the missionary's
argument is in the last paragraph, which we have divided into various points
for the sake of refutation:
But, to repeat, Rushdie did not originate the satanic
verses. Nor did Jews, Christians or other non-Muslims. The sources for the satanic
verses, at-Tabari and Ibn Sa'd, are reputable Muslim sources for early Quranic commentary
and Islamic history. Muslims today who simply dismiss the account of these writers
as fabricated and unhistorical must at least answer the question why such reputable
persons would fabricate it. The question is not new. But, it seems, a serious Muslim
response is hard to find.
We agree that Salman Rushdie did not originate the
so-called 'Satanic' verses. In the Islamic sources the whole saga is known as Hadith
al-Gharaniq al-cUla; therefore neither are the Islamic sources responsible
for such a theatrical title. Who then coined the term 'Satanic verses'? As the tradition
of defamation against Islam demonstrates, it could only have been Christian missionaries.
Indeed, it was an English missionary, the belligerent Sir William Muir, who fashioned
the term 'Satanic verses'.[1]
The word Maometis means The number of the
beast, i.e., 666, by which Muhammad(P) was known in the Middle Ages. The names Mahoun and
Mahound refer to Muhammad(P), imagined by credulous Europeans to be a pagan God.
These derogatory names were concocted by "love-thy-neighbor", "turn-thy-cheek"
Christians who maintained an open policy of defamation against Islam and Muhammad(P)
throughout the Middle Ages. Apparently, this policy still exists today, though in
a more sophisticated apparatus.
Now let us address the statements from the Christian
missionary:
The sources for the satanic verses, at-Tabari and Ibn
Sa'd, are reputable Muslim sources for early Quranic commentary and Islamic history.
Where do Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d.
310/923) and Ibn Sa'd claim to be the sources of the so-called 'Satanic verses'?
It is precisely the opposite. They have only transmitted the story as it was transmitted
to them. Al-Tabari mentions the so-called 'Satanic verses' story[2]
in his Tarikh as well as an important set of statements in the introduction
of his book, which states:
Let him who examines this book of mine
know that I have relied, as regards everything I mention therein which I stipulate
to be described by me, solely upon what has been transmitted to me by way of reports
which I cite therein and traditions which I ascribe to their narrators, to the exclusion
of what may be apprehended by rational argument or deduced by the human mind, except
in very few cases. This is because knowledge of the reports of men of the past and
of contemporaneous views of men of the present do not reach the one who has not witnessed
them nor lived in their times except through the accounts of reporters and the transmission
of transmitters, to the exclusion of rational deduction and mental inference. Hence,
if I mention in this book a report about some men of the past, which the reader of
listener finds objectionable or worthy of censure because he can see no aspect of
truth nor any factual substance therein, let him know that this is not to be attributed
to us but to those who transmitted it to us and we have merely passed this on as
it has been passed on to us.[3]
Thus, al-Tabari faithfully displayed
these accounts in the exact manner through which he received them. Can he then be
held liable if any objectionable accounts should arise? To translate this into laymen's
terms, al-Tabari has simply refused accountability by avoiding the task
of historical criticism. Therefore, any spurious accounts are not to be attributed
to him.
This would not be difficult to understand, given
the fact that the so-called 'Satanic verses' were transmitted from al-Waqidi
to Ibn Sa'd. Ibn Sa'd (d. 230/845), who was the secretary of al-Waqidi
(d. 207/823), also assumed the role of a mere transmitter by citing the text and
its isnad. Concerning the two historians, al-Waqidi and Ibn Sa'd, the
contemporary scholar, Tarif Khalidi, says:
For it is clear that Waqidi is in fact
the senior partner. Ibn Sa'd, known of course as 'katib al-Waqidi', was a secretary-editor
of his master and of the materials he had assembled and then amplified.[4]
In other words, neither al-Waqidi nor
Ibn Sa'd were eye-witnesses to the revelation of 'Satanic verses'; they were simply
the transmitters.
It is also worthwhile to mention that:
... Waqidi was attacked for loose isnad
usage by strict practitioners of Hadith...[5]
Claiming that the issue of so-called 'Satanic verses'
incident is true just because al-Tabari or Ibn Sa'd mentioned them amounts
to a deliberate distortion of the facts.
Now we will address the issue of why Muslims today
simply dismiss the account mentioned by these two writers. To begin with, Muslims
exegetes in the past have dismissed these accounts, too. This is not something new.
Michael Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, writing on the issue of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses
as well as the Islamic account of the so-called 'Satanic' verses, say (and notice
their curious argument):
The story that Muhammad could have
used the Satanic suggestion is rejected by almost all exegetes, but the fact
that the story persists as a subject of exegetes' discussions is testimony to the
reality of the temptation both for Muhammad and for later Muslims in their own struggles
with such "Babylons" as London, New York, Paris, or Hamburg.[6]
Since the story is rejected by almost all the exegetes,
are the Muslims not justified in dismissing the account related to the so-called
'Satanic verses'?
One is also tempted to add the research done by Orientalists
like John Burton, who instead of parroting Muir and Watt, concluded with an original
argument:
There existed therefore a compelling
theoretical motive for the invention of these infamous hadiths. If it
be felt that this has now been demonstrated, there should be no further difficulty
in suggesting that those hadiths have no historical basis.[7]
From here, let us move on to the Muslim argument
against the so-called 'Satanic' verses.
2. 'Satanic' Verses & The Muslim Argument
In this section, we will examine the Christian missionary's
complaint:
But, it seems, a serious Muslim response is hard to find.
One really wonders if this missionary has even
read any literature, both modern as well as old, on this subject. We have seen
above that according to Michael Fischer and Mehdi Abedi almost all the Islamic
exegetes have rejected the story of so-called 'Satanic' verses. They have not
just rejected it without giving their reasons! In the modern literature, there
is a copious amount of work done by Muslims dealing with the 'Satanic verses'.
Notable among them are the two books of Abu A'la Mawdudi Tahfim al-Qur'an
(1972) and Sirat-i Sarwar-i
'Alam (1979), which critically examines
all the aspects of the story and evaluates the writings of early Muslim scholars
on this subject quite thoroughly. One is also tempted to mention the works of
Sayyid Qutb (Fi Zilal
al-Qur'an) and M. H. Haykal (The Life Of Muhammad).
Zakaria Bashier, in his book, The
Makkan Crucible, deals with the issue
quite thoroughly.[8]
Also mentioned in Appendix 2 in his book is an article The 'Satanic' Verses And The Orientalists (A Note On The
Authenticity Of The So-Called Satanic Verses).[9] This
is a revised version of the article that was published in the journal, Hamdard Islamicus.
We reproduce the article below with minor modifications.
Al-Tabari, Ibn Sa'd
and some other Muslim writers have mentioned (though they vary considerably in the
matters of detail) that Prophet Muhammad(P),
under Satanic inspiration added two verses to Surah an-Najm [53], which are
as follows:
These are the high-flying ones,
whose intercession is to be hoped for!
The Prophet(P), it is alleged, recited these along with other verses of
Surah an-Najm in the prayer. The idolators of Makkah who were present in the
Ka'bah at that time joined him in the prayer because he praised their deities and
thus won their hearts. The story afterwards reached Abyssinia where the Muslims,
persecuted by the Makkan infidels, had earlier migrated and many of them returned
to Makkah under the impression that the disbelievers no longer opposed the Prophet(P) and the Islamic movement. The story also says that the angel
Gabriel came to the Prophet(P) the same evening and told him about the mistake
he had committed by reciting verses which were never revealed to him. This naturally
worried the Prophet(P) and made him apprehensive. 'Admonishing'
the Prophet(P), God revealed the following verses of Surah
al-Isra' which read:
And their purpose was to tempt thee
away from that which We had revealed unto thee, to substitute in our name something
quite different; (in that case), behold! they would certainly have made thee (their)
friend! And had We not given thee strength, thou wouldst nearly have inclined to
them a little. In that case We should have made thee taste an equal portion (of punishment)
in this life, and an equal portion in death: and moreover thou wouldst have found
none to help thee against Us!
[Qur'an 17:73-75]
This made the Prophet(P) feel very guilty until God revealed the following consoling
verse of Surah al-Hajj:
Never did We send a messenger or
a prophet before thee, but, when he framed a desire, Satan threw some (vanity) into
his desire: but Allah will cancel anything (vain) that Satan throws in, and Allah
will confirm (and establish) His Signs: for Allah is full of Knowledge and Wisdom. [Qur'an 22:52]
This is the gist of the story mentioned
by al-Tabari and some other writers that has been used by the Christian
missionaries. The story would, among other things, imply that the Prophet(P) and his Companions(R) took the 'Satanic' verses as a true revelation
from God, otherwise nobody would have accepted them.
Let us now examine the story and
its contents in the light of internal and external evidence and evaluate it on the
basis of criteria of historical criticism. In doing so, first of all one has to find
out the chronological sequence in the story and establish whether or not all its
details relate to one period and are interconnected. Special attention should be
devoted to determining the periods of revelation of the three verses mentioned in
the report, which will validate or falsify the episode.
It can easily be gleaned from the
story that the incident of reciting the 'Satanic' verses and the consequent prostration
of the disbelievers in the Ka'bah happened after the first batch of Muslims had migrated
to Abyssinia. This migration, according to all the reliable sources, occurred in
the month of Rajab of the fifth year of the Prophetic call or about eight years before
the Hijrah to Madinah. Therefore, the incident must have happened close to
this date and not long after the migration to Abyssinia.
The verses of Surah al-Isra'
(17:73-5) which were revealed, according to the story, to 'admonish' the Prophet(P) for allegedly reciting the 'Satanic' verses, in fact were
not revealed until after the event of the Mi'raj. The Mi'raj or the Ascent
of the Prophet(P), according to historical sources, occurred
in the tenth or eleventh year of the Prophetic call, i.e., two or three years before
the Hijrah to Madinah. If this is so, then it implies that the 'Satanic' verses
were not detected or for some reason no mention was made about the alleged interpolation
of the verses for five or six years and only afterwards was the Prophet(P) admonished for it. Can any sensible person believe that
the interpolation occurs today, while the admonition takes place six years later
and the abrogation of the interpolated verses is publicly announced after nine years.
The relevant verse of Surah al-Hajj (22:52) according to the commentators of
the Qur'an was revealed in the first year of Hijrah, i.e., about eight
to nine years after the incident and about two and a half years after the so-called
admonition of the Prophet(P) (17:73-5). Can anybody who knows about
the Qur'an, its history and revelation, understand and explain how the incident
of interpolation was allowed to be tolerated for six years and also why the offensive
'verses' were not abrogated until after nine years?
The implication of this argument
is that since the abrogating verses were revealed nine years after the original event,
that would mean that for nine years Muslims had been asking Lat, Manat and
Uzza for intercession! In other words outright idolatry resulting from compromised
monotheistic beliefs. It is therefore quite pretentious to suggest any historicity
in the notion that Muslims had been asking Lat, Manat and Uzza for intercession over
the span of almost a decade.
Watt's theory is that
... the earliest versions do not specify
how long afterwards this (abrogation) happened; the probability is that it was weeks
or even months.[10]
is nothing but a hypothesis. Had
he investigated the chronology of the three revelations relative to the story, he
could not possibly have missed the facts related above.
Let us now turn to some internal
evidence. It has been said in the story that the 'Satanic' interpolation occurred
in Surah an-Najm (53:19) which delighted the idolators present in the Ka'bah
and as a gesture of friendship and good-will, they all bowed down with the Prophet(P). In order to comment on the story it would seem necessary
to read the verses in the Qur'an, adding the alleged 'Satanic' verses, and
find out what is actually meant to be conveyed here. It would read as follows.
Have ye seen Lat and 'Uzza, And another,
the third (goddess), Manat? [These
are the high-flying ones, whose intercession is to be hoped for!] What! for you the male sex, and for Him, the
female? Behold, such would be indeed a division most unfair! hese are nothing but
names which ye have devised,- ye and your fathers,- for which Allah has sent down
no authority (whatever). They follow nothing but conjecture and what their own souls
desire!- Even though there has already come to them Guidance from their Lord! [Qur'an 53:19-23]
If one reads the bold part of the
alleged Satanic verses quoted above, one fails to understand how God on the one hand
is praising the deities and on the other hand discrediting them by using the subsequent
phrases quoted above. It is also difficult to see how the Quraysh leaders drew the
conclusion from this chapter that Muhammad(P)
as making a conciliatory move and was adopting a policy of give and take.
Drawing the conclusions from various
reports connected with the story, Watt suggests that
... at one time Muhammad must have publicly
recited the Satanic verses as part of the Qur'an; it is unthinkable that the
story could have been invented later by Muslims or foisted upon them by non-Muslims.
Secondly, at some later time Muhammad announced that these verses were not really
part of the Qur'an and should be replaced by others of a vastly different import.[11]
Watt's suggestion that Muhammad(P) replaced the 'Satanic' verses with some others of a vastly
different import is pure speculation. If one takes the 'Satanic' verses to be true,
it would imply that the verses to be found in 53:19f. were not revealed in the same
period. Watt's suggestion also implies that Muhammad(P) and his followers read the 'Satanic' verses in place of or
in addition to the verses found in the Qur'an for 'weeks and even months' and
that when Muhammad(P) later realized that these verses could not
be correct, then the true version and continuation of the passage was revealed to
him. This supposition is again pure speculation and is not based on any historical
data. The story which we have summarized in the beginning suggests that Muhammad(P) did not realize his fault until God admonished him six
years later and that the matter was rectified perhaps another two and a half
years after. In the meantime the Muslims were supposedly asking Allat, Manat
and Uzza for intercession! Had the genuine state of affairs truly been this ridiculous,
it would have been impossible for Muhammad(P)
to have maintained such a loyal following.
It is obvious that Watt and other
Orientalists accept part of the story and reject the related parts along with
their destructive implications, apparently because they are unable to find any
link or sequence. Had there been any element of truth in the story, it could
have caused a great scandal against Islam and the Prophet(P)
and every detail of this scandal must have found its place in the hadith
literature. Why is the authentic hadith collection conspicuously silent
about the scandalous part of the story? Does it not lead to the conclusion,
contrary to the established fact, that hadith literature itself is very
defective as it failed to record such an important event which led the Prophet(P) and his Companions(R) to read 'Satanic' verses for weeks, months
or perhaps even years without realizing the error, all the while asking for
the intercession of Lat, Manat and Uzza? In fact, al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud,
Nasa'i and Ahmad b. Hanbal all record the story, but only to the
extent that was true. They all mention that the Prophet(P) did recite Surah an-Najm and that, at the end when he
prostrated, the idolaters present were so overawed that they also joined him
in prostration. These leading Muhaddithun do not mention the blasphemous
story which other sources have recorded.
3. Conclusions
It is quite clear that the nature of the
story is absurd and it cannot stand the external and internal criticism. It
is even clearer from the Qur'an that it is not possible for the Prophet(P) to accept anything in the Qur'an from
any external source. If this is so, then how can one take seriously, let alone
believe in the so-called story of the 'Satanic' revelation? This is why the
leading traditionalists and the exegetes in Islam have regarded this story as
malicious and without foundation.
It is unfortunate that an eminent
historian like al-Tabari mentioned this story in his Tarikh al-Umam wal-Muluk and did not make any comment on its authenticity except
to mention that he had faithfully transmitted whatever he received. Although
there is great advantage in such a methodology (See reference 2 above) there
are also risks. Unscrupulous people, i.e., the Christian missionaries, may take
advantage of this and try to concoct something as they indeed did in the fabrication
of the malicious story of the 'Satanic' verses.
The fact that al-Tabari,
Ibn Sa'd and others have recorded this story in their works does not prove that the
story itself is true. The missionary entertains a challenge to the Muslims:
Muslims today who simply dismiss the
account of these writers as fabricated and unhistorical must at least answer the
question why such reputable persons would fabricate it. The question is not new.
But, it seems, a serious Muslim response is hard to find.
What the fellow is desperately pleading
for is the source of the story. We have already witnessed that neither al-Tabari
nor Ibn Sa'd is responsible for producing these stories. While the missionary himself
conveniently attributes the accounts of al-Tabari and Ibn Sa'd with
historical legitimacy, at least with regards to this particular incident, he is directing
a sort of challenge to the Muslims who reject the historicity of the account. Thus,
if the Muslims, not to mention Orientalists, dismiss the story as having no historical
basis, then the missionary demands to know where the story came from, i.e. who is
the individual responsible for concocting such an outlandish story. Somehow, he feels
as though this is an uncomfortable question. However, an answer to this silly challenge
is, what does it matter what the source is of such an absurd rumour? Rumours with
even the most powerful effects of credulity have rarely seen their source discovered.
Yet, we are not aware of any Muslims that actually believe the aforementioned story,
and this position is cogently justified on the grounds of rigorous historical criticism.
However, episodes of fabulous rumors followed by a credulous following are quite
common outside the history of Islam. For example, it was rumoured that Jesus(P) traveled to India. It was rumoured that St. Matthew actually
wrote the Gospel According to St. Matthew. It was rumoured that Islamic fundamentalists
were responsible for the Oklahoma bombing. It was rumoured that UFOs visited Roswell,
New Mexico. However, just because we do not know the individuals responsible for
these rumours, does this mean that the rumours are true? Is the absence of an identified
source of these rumours supposed to be construed as some sort of threat? The naïve
implications of this method of inquiry should bring shame upon anybody who entertains
them.
Finally, in light of the above, it
can quite effortlessly be concluded that the Christian missionaries' attempt to answer to the inimitability
of the Qur'an, by building upon the poor scholarship of a fellow missionary,
is thus nothing other than a product of gross ignorance and sheer tomfoolery.
And Allah knows best!
Related Articles
Muhammad(P)
& Lies
References
[1] Z. Bashier, The Makkan Crucible, 1991 (Revised Edition), The Islamic Foundation, p. 185
(See footnote 9).
[2] Abu Ja`far
Muhammad bin Jarir al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Tabari: Tarikh al-Umam
wal-Muluk, 1997, Volume
I, Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, Beirut (Lebanon), p. 550.
[3] Ibid., p. 13.
[4] T. Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought In The Classical Period, 1994, Cambridge University Press, p.
47.
[5] Ibid., p. 48.
[6] M. M. J. Fischer & M.
Abedi, "Bombay Talkies,
The Word And The World: Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses",
Cultural Anthropology,
1990, Washington, Volume 5, No. 2, p. 127.
[7] J. Burton, "Those Are The High-Flying Cranes", Journal
Of Semitic Studies,
1970, Volume 15, No. 2, p. 265.
[8] Z. Bashier, The Makkan Crucible, Op Cit., pp. 171-176.
[9] Ibid., p. 223.
[10] W. M. Watt, Muhammad At Mecca, 1960, Oxford University Press, p. 103.
[11] Ibid.
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