The late renowned Islamic scholar Alfred Guillaume wrote a booklet on a manuscript find, which was kept in the Qarawiyun library at Fez and numbered 727. This manuscript (ms.) contains a report of a person who had heard the lecture of Ibn Ishaq on the life of Muhammad.

Ibn Ishaq is the Muslim who had written a biography on Muhammad in the eighth century AD titled Sirat Rasulullah, which Guillaume has translated into English.  This biography was subsequently edited and purged by Ibn Hisham in the ninth century (c. 830 AD).

The importance of this ms. can be seen from the fact that it confirms that Ibn Ishaq did in fact narrate the event of Satan inspiring Muhammad to recite lines praising the three pagan goddesses of the Quraysh al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat. Unfortunately, Ibn Hisham expunged this report from his editorial reworking of Ibn Ishaq’s sirah.

This lapse into blatant idolatry on Muhammad’s part, where he was duped by Satan to commit the unforgiveable sin of shirk (cf. Q. 2:22; 4:48, 116), was later corrected and the lines abrogated by “Gabriel” who had informed him that Allah had not “revealed” these words to his “messenger.”     

I quote from Guillaume’s booklet which mentions these details:

The Verses Inserted in the Koran at the Instigation of Satan

Ms. fo. 56b; T. pp. 1192f.; S. p. 229; I.H. p. 241; L. p. 165

There can be little doubt that Ibn Hisham cut out some of the text which came to him because he gives no reasons for the sudden conversion of the people of Mecca and leaves it unexplained. The full story hitherto has been known only from Tabari who quoted Ibn Ishaq on the authority of Salama. In that version it is made clear that it was the prophet’s desire to end the estrangement between him and his people and to make it easier for them to accept Islam that prompted him yield to the suggestion of Satan and add the words “These are the exalted cranes (gharaniq) whose intercession is to be hoped for” (or, in another version, “approved”).

The MS. agrees with Salam’s report from Ibn Ishaq that the emigrants returned from Abyssinia because they heard of the conversion of Quraysh in consequence of the concession to polytheism, but strangely enough it does not quote the offending words. Presumably they were deliberately omitted and readers must have known what they were because otherwise the narrative is unintelligible. Two verses are referred to, but the second is not quoted. In view of its interest I give a translation of the MS.: “(The emigrants) remained where they were until they heard that the people of Mecca had accepted Islam and prostrated themselves. That was because the chapter of The Star (53) had been sent down to Muhammad and the apostle recited it. Both Muslim and polytheist listened to it silently until he reached his words ‘Have you seen (or, “considered”) al-Lat and al-Uzza?’ They gave their ear to him attentively while the faithful believed (their prophet). Some apostatized when they heard the saj’ of the Satan and said ‘By Allah we will serve them (the Gharaniq) so that they may bring us near to Allah’. The Satan taught these two verses to every polytheist and their tongue took them easily. This weighed heavily upon the apostle until Gabriel came to him and complained to him of these two verses and the effect that they had upon the people. Gabriel declined responsibility for them and said ‘You recited to the people something which I did not bring you from God and you said what you were not told to say’. The apostle was deeply grieved and afraid. Then God sent down by way of comfort to him: ‘Never did we send an apostle or a prophet before you but when he wished Satan cast a suggestion into his wish’ as far as the words ‘Knowing, Wise’” (Sura 22, 51).¹  

Ibn Kathir gives a fantastic reason for the conversion of the Meccans and says that Ibn Ishaq’s tradition is not sound. He says that he himself has not quoted the story of the gharaniq because there might be some who heard it for the first time and would not able to take a right view of it.

Suhalyi with his customary honesty makes no bones about it. He says that the cause of the return of the emigrants was as we have heard, and he also tells us that besides Ibn Ishaq, Musa ibn ‘Uqba handed on this tradition. He says that traditionists reject this hadith, and those who accept it have ways of explaining it. One of these, he says, namely that Satan spoke the words which were broadcast through the town but the apostle did not utter them, would be excellent were it not for the fact that the tradition asserts that Gabriel said to Muhammad “I did not bring you this.” (Guillaume, New Light on the Life of Muhammad [Manchester University Press], pp. 38-39; emphasis mine)

FURTHER READING

How the Incident of the “Satanic Verses” Exposes Muhammad as an Accursed False Prophet Pt. 1, Pt. 2

THE FRAUD THAT IS ALI ATAIE: THE SATANIC VERSES PT. 1, PT. 2, PT. 3, ADDENDUM

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