I share another installment in this series: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 3.

THE CORRUPT QURAN

Ibn Raja shows extraordinary knowledge and mastery of what the Islamic sources claim in respect to the composition, variations and corruption of the Quran I excerpt pp. 153-173 of David Bertaina’s translation of ibn Raja’s work titled Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ The Fatimid Egyptian Convert Who Shaped Christian Views of Islam. All emphasis is mine.

Chapter 7

[58] Four sections on the meaning of the Qurʾan.¹²⁸

[59] They narrated in their report about their companion [Muḥammad] that the Qurʾan was revealed in seven letters¹²⁹ and each one is completely satisfactory.¹³⁰ He named those seven: Nāfiʿ¹³¹ and Abū ʿAmar¹³² and Ḥamza¹³³ and al-Kisāʾī134 and ʿĀṣim¹³⁵ and Ibn Kathīr136 and Ibn ʿĀmir.¹³⁷

[60] So we say to them: Tell us about [Muḥammad’s] words, “Recite the Qurʾan according to seven letters.” What does he mean by it? Does he mean by that to recite the Qurʾan in the languages of those seven [people]? If they say yes, we reply to them: Then those seven [people], did they live with him and recite to him? They say no, they did not live at his time, but they recite according to their teachers successively reaching back to Muḥammad. Then we say to them: Did their teachers, according to whom [the seven] recite, agree on this version that is in your possession today? If they say yes, then they have lied and the proof regarding that is that the first recitation is different than that of the second.

[61] No one memorized the Qurʾan completely in Muḥammad’s time except ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd¹³⁸ and Zayd ibn Thābit¹³⁹ and ʿUmar¹⁴⁰ and ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.¹⁴¹ They disagreed about ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, for his companions said he [knew] it completely during [Muḥammad’s] life. ʿĀmir [ibn Sharāḥīl] alShaʿbī¹⁴² said: “ʿAlī went to his tomb and he did not [know] the Qurʾan completely.”¹⁴³

[62] Each one of them whom we have named edited a codex in a way [that] does not resemble any other book. As for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, his codex did not have sura “Praise,”¹⁴⁴ and the sura: “Say: I seek protection with the Lord of people,”¹⁴⁵ and the sura: “Say: I seek protection with the Lord of dawn.”¹⁴⁶ Whoever would add them to the Qurʾan, he would accuse them of error and he would throw dirt on the faces of those who would recite them. He would say to them: “You have made a liar of God’s messenger.” So he differed from all of Muḥammad’s companions on this issue. He thought there should be jihad against them while they saw it fit to kill him. But what prevented them from killing him was that their companion [Muḥammad] said: “Whoever wants to hear the Qurʾan in a pure way just as it was revealed, then he should hear it from Ibn Masʿūd’s mouth.”¹⁴⁷ That is what prevented them from killing him.

[63] There were many more things in his codex. All of his companions denied it and rejected its recitation. They even alleged that a camel used to carry his codex. Also, he did not agree with them about the exact words. For instance, [Ibn] Masʿūd would recite, “God took you out from the wombs of your slave girls,” while all of the people recite: “God took you out from the wombs of your mothers.”¹⁴⁸ In addition, he recited: “The mountains were like puffed-up wool [ṣūf ],” while all of the people recited: “like puffed-up dyed wool [ʿihn]” – dyed wool is wool.¹⁴⁹ And Ibn Masʿūd recited: “She prepared for them citrus fruit,” pronounced without doubling, while all of the people recited “banquet” with doubling.¹⁵⁰ And Ibn Masʿūd recited: “Indeed it is up to us to put it together and to recite it [qurʾānahu]. So when you recite it, follow its reading [qirāʾatahu]. Then, its exposition lies with us,” while all of the people recited: “Indeed it is up to us to put it together and to explain it [bayānahu]. So when we recite it, follow its recitation [qurʾānahu]. Then, its exposition lies with us.”¹⁵¹ In addition to these, Ibn Masʿūd was unique in many features [in his codex] that no one follows him on them.

[64] In addition to what has been mentioned, that if he prayed … in bowing and prostrations.¹⁵² That was not confirmed from … [evidence showing that] any of his companions did [that], having a unique distinction.

[65] [Ibn Masʿūd] was one of the worst liars among the people, as reported about him when he saw the people of Zutt¹⁵³ and told them: “Those ones have the most resemblance to those whomI saw with the prophet on the Night of the Jinn.” They said to him: “Didn’t you witness that?” He said: “Nobody witnessed that but me.”¹⁵⁴ It was also reported about him that one day he was sitting with many people and they mentioned the Night of the Jinn. So he said: “By God, no one among us witnessed it with the prophet.” They said to him: “Not even you?” He said: “Not even me.”¹⁵⁵ So he made himself a liar without knowing it. In addition to that, he corrupted the Qurʾan and he changed it and added to it and he lied about their prophet and all of his companions … testified [to that].

Section [1]

[66] As for Zayd ibn Thābit, he took the book with which Muḥammad would pray the end of the morning prayer, and added it to the Qurʾan. The companions rejected that and said: “You have added to the Qurʾan what should not be in it.” But he responded: “Whoever does not say this has lied about Muḥammad.” Then the hostility between him and Ibn Masʿūd continued until the two of them died, because Ibn Masʿūd did not accept in his codex the recitation of sura “Praise”¹⁵⁶ nor sura: “Say: I seek protection with the Lord of people,”¹⁵⁷ and the sura: “Say: I seek protection with the Lord of dawn.”¹⁵⁸ Zayd ibn Thābit had been reciting them and added the morning prayer canon to his codex. Ibn Masʿūd did not think that was proper. And Zayd’s codex contained: “Indeed the hour is coming. I almost have hidden it from myself. So how can I make you know it?” But all of the people deny that and recited: “Indeed the hour is coming. I almost have hidden it” without anything else.¹⁵⁹

Another Section [2]

[67] As for ʿUthmān’s codex, it was reported that when he put it together, he examined it. Then he said: “I saw grammatical mistakes but the Arabs will correct it by practice.” So it was reported from ʿĀʾisha that she said: “ʿUthmān’s codex [contains] many false things.”¹⁶⁰

[68] When ʿUthmān’s codex was completed, he said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd: “Burn your codex and recite from my codex.” So he replied to him: “I am not one who would leave the faith and follow unbelief.” So [Ibn Masʿūd] informed him that his codex [contained] unbelief; consequently, [ʿUthmān] commanded [someone] to jump on [Ibn Masʿūd] and he struck him viciously and fractured two ribs. Each one of them continued to disparage the other until the two of them died.

Another Section [3]

[69] It was reported that Abū Bakr used to recite: “The agony of death brings the truth,” while all of the people recite: “The agonies of death bring the truth.”¹⁶¹ And it was reported about ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, that when one was called to prayer on Friday, he used to recite: “Listen to the reminder of God,” while all of the people recited: “Seek the reminder of God.”¹⁶² With so many differences, if I were to explain them, then it would take a long time.

[70] So those are the first generation and Muḥammad’s own companions, who recited the Qurʾan after him and to whom he completed it for them in his lifetime. They did not agree on a [single] sura or a recitation. One of their codices was carried by a camel, while the other [codex] without [a camel] and some of them would call others unbelievers until all of them died. The people continued to disagree afterwards about the Qurʾan until the time of Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam.¹⁶³ Then he produced for them this book which is in their possession today. He forced it upon the people and burned the other books. We will explain that in [another] place, God willing.

Another Section [4]

[71] When the people agreed about this book, the people of Medina happened to have an imam and he was Nāfiʿ ibn Abī Nuʿaym.¹⁶⁴ For the parsing,¹⁶⁵ he designated this codex and nothing else. The people of Mecca happened to have an imam called Ibn Kathir who differed from Nāfiʿ in the parsing of the Qurʾan. Then the people of Baṣra happened to have another imam called Abū ʿĀmr ibn al-ʿĀlāʾ.¹⁶⁶ They disagree about his name. Some people say his name and his nickname are the same and other people say his name is al-ʿAryānī. He disagreed with whoever came before him about the parsing of the Qurʾan.

[72] ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir¹⁶⁷ and ʿĀṣim¹⁶⁸ and Ibn Ḥamza and al-Kisāʾī¹⁶⁹ could not agree as well about the parsing of the Qurʾan. One would put in the nominative case that which another would put in the accusative, while another would keep it nominative. They did not agree about any of it. What do they want after this disagreement, and what falsehood, after the errors and the grammatical mistakes, have they followed? Indeed, of those seven, each one of them conveyed the Qurʾan according to his own language along with what agreed with the local sedentary Arabs. They knew it according to the language of the one who preceded [him] by articulate Arabs of the pre-Islamic period and their ancient poets. Every one of these seven had many followers to whom they recited in all of these languages. They continued that until other people came after them, and they looked at the well-known Arabic languages which they did not doubt. Those seven above mentioned established them for the people and those who did not know, if it was [not] structurally correct in the language, they would settle it. They would say no recitation or chapter or prayer is acceptable [apart from] it. They selected all of those [matters] on their own.

[73] You should say to them: Tell us now about those seven whom you have followed as an example concerning this recitation. Did your companion [Muḥammad] say to you in the Qurʾan: “You are appointed as successors after me”?¹⁷⁰ And that the seven will come at such-and-such time, naming them: Nāfiʿ and Abū ʿAmar and Ḥamza and al-Kisāʾī and ʿĀṣim and Ibn Kathīr and Ibn ʿĀmir, and you should recite the Qurʾan just as they recite it to you? They will say “No.”

[74] We say to them: We have not found the reason he told you that the Qurʾan was revealed in seven letters of reciting. What did he mean by this? Indeed, one group among them says: The meaning of his statement “the seven letters of reciting” means a promise and threat and Paradise and Hell and fear and covetousness and judgment.

[75] So we respond to them: This is nonsense. Because if it were that, likewise it would be said: the Qurʾan was revealed by seven ways or seven versions or seven characteristics or something like that. Rather he said: “Seven letters of reciting” so this distinguishes between this and that. If they agree with this and they do not respond, then they have been rebuked. Why would you corroborate the Qurʾan with those seven, since they did not recite from their companion [Muḥammad] as they were not from his time or even [the time of] his companions? He did not say to you before death that: “After me, there will indeed be seven men who will recite the Qurʾan in their own language.” Rather, they used their own reasoning and they knew it according to the Arabic language and that upon which some grammarians agreed. But whoever uses the grammar would discover many errors in it that disagreed with the grammar. I have already mentioned that in the Book of Amusing Anecdotes of the Commentators from what I knew of it.¹⁷¹

[76] What is the point of following those unbelievers since they differ from their companion [Muḥammad] and his companions? Why did you set them up as leaders to follow them? If you support everyone who recited to them, and you support their recitation as authoritative, then you should have claimed some correct and others wrong. A sound argument is not found among them about that and they only refer to those seven. So we say to them in truth, we need you to show us the way of reciting in which your prophet used to recite it. It should make sense for you to know that and not lose it. For they only refer to those seven, no one else. Now we say to them, your prophet’s statement in the Qurʾan in surat “al-Ḥijr” has been invalidated: “It is we who revealed the reminder and we will indeed be its guardian.”¹⁷² So tell us, how did he guard it when those [ones] have changed and altered it?

[Chapter 8]

[77] On what they have lost from the Qurʾan.

[78] They transmitted in their authentic hadith reports that many things were lost that we shall mention, God willing. For instance, in sura “Repentance”¹⁷³ its beginning was lost, and they did not know it. They wrote it in the codex without: “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” It is the ninth sura in the Qurʾan after sura “Praise.”¹⁷⁴ The rest of the Qurʾan, in the beginning of every sura, it is written in the book: “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” except sura “Repentance” alone.

[79] He said that Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad [ibn al-Faraj Abū Bakr al-Qammāḥ]¹⁷⁵ reported from Abū Abī Qudayd – Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Khalaf ibn Qudayd,¹⁷⁶ from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd alḤakam¹⁷⁷ from his father, from Mālik ibn Anas,¹⁷⁸ tracing the hadith to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, that he preached to the people at the end of his caliphate. He said: “People, I command you to stone the male and female who commit adultery. For God’s sake, do not forbid that. No one should say we cannot find the stoning verse in the Qurʾan and we cannot find the whipping [verse]. I swear by the one who possesses my soul that it was in the Qurʾan and we recite it on the authority of Muḥammad and it was: ‘The man and woman, as they consummate their lust, stone them absolutely according to God’s word. For God is Almighty and Compassionate’. But they were lost from the Qurʾan.”¹⁷⁹

[80] They also narrated in their authentic hadith that sura “Divorce”180 was equal in length to sura “The Cow,”¹⁸¹ two hundred and eighty-five verses and more. Today it is twelve verses, and its remainder is lost. In addition, sura “The Cow”¹⁸² was numbered to a thousand verses and today it is two hundred and eighty-five verses and its remainder is lost.¹⁸³ Indeed, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb spent twelve years before he mastered it. So when he memorized it, he sacrificed a female camel and he gave it charity. Indeed, they narrate about al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf¹⁸⁴ that he added diacritical pointing to eighty-five verses from the Qurʾan and he added to it similar things of different meaning.¹⁸⁵ He was also the one who [divided] the Qurʾan into tenths and fifths.

[Chapter 9]

[81] On their agreement regarding Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam’s codex.

[82] They narrated [this hadith] in many ways, so there is no point in repeating [all of] them. Among them is the hadith of Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad,¹⁸⁶ from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz,¹⁸⁷ from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal,¹⁸⁸ [from Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna]¹⁸⁹ from Sufyān al-Thawrī,¹⁹⁰ from Nāfiʿ ibn ʿUmar,¹⁹¹ that Muḥammad passed away and there was no codex for the people to read. However, every one of them recited the Qurʾan from his memory. So when Abū Bakr came to power, he said to ʿUmar: “I think it is proper that I get the people to agree upon a single codex.” So he replied to him: “Will we do what Muḥammad never did himself?” He said: “There is no way out of this.” ʿUmar said: “I knew after that, that it was the truth, so I said to him, ‘Do what is required of you’.” So he commanded an announcer to tell the people: “Whoever has any of this Qurʾan, bring it to us.” So one of them would bring the Qurʾan written on a rag, and another would bring it written on pottery, and another would bring it written on a palm cup – meaning a leaf – and another would bring it written on leather. And whoever came [with any piece whatsoever], they took it from him, and made it up together into an acceptable codex. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd did not accept that. So each one of them wrote his own codex. They did not make them public for fear of Abū Bakr. And Abū Bakr wrote [supporting] that codex to the rest of the people and the regions. It was recited during Abū Bakr’s lifetime and the lifetime of ʿUmar.¹⁹²

[83] When ʿUmar was killed, he handed over that codex to Ḥafṣa, while he was crying out in his own blood.¹⁹³ Ḥafṣa was Muḥammad’s wife, so he said to her: “Keep this codex and do not show it to anyone. Someone told me that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Ibn Masʿūd composed two codices and I am afraid that they will reveal these [codices] after [my death] and make this one invalid. So this one will remain in your possession, and if the people disagree about the Qurʾan, then recite from this codex.” When ʿUmar died and ʿUthmān came to power, he issued a different codex than Abū Bakr’s codex. ʿUthmān did not have the same prestige as ʿUmar, so ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib disclosed the codex to his children and his faction.

[84] ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd disclosed a codex, and Zayd ibn Thābit also disclosed his codex. The people used to read in all of these codices. They disagreed about the Qurʾan, to the extent that one man would encounter another man and he would say to him: “I do not believe your part of the Qurʾan.” So all of these codices remained publicly different until Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam’s caliphate. He went to Ḥafṣa, the daughter of ʿUmar – Muḥammad’s wife – and he said to her: “The people have disagreed about the Qurʾan just as you know, so hand over the codex to me which ʿUmar the Commander of the Believers handed over to you, so I can induce the people toward it and I will ban everything else.”¹⁹⁴ She replied: “My father promised God that I should not hand it over to anyone.” So he did not stop until she handed it over to him, after he promised her that he would return it to her. Then he threw it into the fire along with the codices of ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ibn Masʿūd, and Zayd ibn Thābit. He destroyed all of them by fire and produced this codex for the people, which is in their possession until today.¹⁹⁵ Thus, those who did this with their Qurʾan – who are viewed among the rest of their opposing groups as a joke and whimsical – are not concerned with [such a corruption], but rather claim that the Torah and the Gospel have been changed in a particular passage, while they say it is true – and testify through it – in another passage! But they do not comprehend or understand.

128 The Latin version has the title: “On the disciples of Muḥammad and the discordant establishment of the [text of the] Qurʾan.” Although there are no direct parallels or evidence of use of the Letter (Risāla) of the Christian polemicist al-Kindī (early 9th c.), he also critiques the compilation of the Qurʾan as well.

129 This phrase refers to the seven styles, or methods of recitation (‘letter’ indicating each particular method) in which the Qurʾan was said to have been revealed.

130 The Islamic interpreter Ibn Mujāhid (d. 936) discussed the historical development of the Qurʾanic text and used these names as authoritative sources for each of his seven readings of the Qurʾan. See Claude Gilliot, “Creation of a Fixed Text,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Qurʾān, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 41–57, esp. 50–51. On the Islamic justification for seven readings, see Samad, Ibn Qutaybah’s Contribution to Qurʾānic Exegesis, 51–60.

131 Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Naʿīm al-Laythī (d. 785); ei2, 7:878. 132 Abū ʿAmr Zabbān ibn al-ʿAlāʾ (d. 770); EI², 1:105. 133 Ḥamza ibn Ḥabīb (d. 772); EI², 3:155. 134 Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ḥamza al-Kisāʾī (d. 805); EI², 5:174. 135 ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najjūd (d. 745); EI², 1:706.

136 Abū Maʿbad ibn Kathīr (d. 738); EI², 3:817.

137 ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir (d. 736); EI², 3:704.

138 ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (d. 653); EI², 3:873.

139 Zayd ibn Thābit (d. ca. 665) was a scribe and compiler for the Qurʾan according to Islamic tradition. He was said to have edited the text after Muḥammad’s death and played an editorial role in its canonization under the first three caliphs.

140 ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 644) was the second caliph after Muḥammad; EI², 10:818.

141 ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 656) was the third caliph and reputed to have proclaimed an official version of the Qurʾan and ordered others destroyed; EI², 10:946.

142 The Arabic text is probably a corruption of his full name ʿĀmir ibn Sharāḥīl al-Shaʿbī (d. 721 or later), an early narrator of hadith.

143 These figures were important in Islamic accounts concerning the editorial stages of the compilation of the text of the Qurʾan.

144 Here he is referring to Q 1: al-Fātiḥā.

145 Q 114.

146 Q 113.

147 This hadith is found in the Arabic original with English translation in Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Mājah, English Translation of Sunan Ibn Mâjah, 5 vols., ed. Abū Ṭāhir Zubayr ʿAlī Zaʾī (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2007), 1:169 (Book 1, #138). There are several other traditions lauding the readings and codex of Ibn Masʿūd. See for instance al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 5:70–71 (Book 62, #3758, 3760); and 91 (Book 63, #3806). This hadith is also quoted in al-Kindī; see Tartar, “Dialogue islamo-chrétien sous le calife al-Maʾmūn,” 111.

148 Q 39:6. 149 Q 70:9.

150 Q 12:31.

151 Q 75:17–19.

152 In this section the text has several lacunae. However, Ibn Rajāʾ seems to be arguing that Ibn Masʿūd’s method of praying was not the same as other early Muslims, showing there was no consensus or strong memory about the practices of Muḥammad even in matters that were performed daily such as prayer. Perhaps this is a reference to Ibn Mājah, Sunan Ibn Mâjah, 2:60 (Book 5, #890).

153 The Zutt were a nomadic people of northwestern Indian descent who were settled in the Middle East by the Arabs. In this section, Ibn Rajāʾ is arguing that Ibn Masʿūd is an unreliable and contradictory transmitter of traditions about Muḥammad or verses from the Qurʾan. He cites two traditions related to the Night of the Jinn, one of which indicates that he followed Muḥammad there and witnessed some miraculous events, and another account in which he admits he was not there. Ibn Rajāʾ’s larger point is to illustrate the differences among Muslims in reciting the Qurʾan and recording its content in order to demonstrate its human origins.

154 Ibn Rajāʾ took these contradictory accounts from Ibrāhīm al-Naẓẓām as seen in Ibn Qutayba, Taʾwīl mukhtalaf al-ḥadīth, 27; Ibn Qutayba, Traité des divergences, #37e. For allusions to his presence there, see Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abu Dawud, 1:47, 71 (Book 1, #39, 84).

155 In this version, Ibn Masʿūd states he was not present at the Night of the Jinn; see Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abu Dawud, 1:71 (Book 1, #85); and Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 1:562 (Book 4, #1007).

156 Q 1.

157 Q 114.

158 Q 113.

159 Q 20:15.

160 This passage is in reference to the creation of the alleged ʿUthmānic codex, and the comments Ibn Rajāʾ cites are from the fabrication of hostile legends between the Ahl al-Bayt and the Umayyads.

161 Q 50:19.

162 Q 62:9.

163 On Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam (d. 685), the fourth Umayyad caliph, who led another editorial stage in the formation of the text of the Qurʾan see EI², 6:621–623.

164 On Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nuʿaym (Naʿīm) al-Laythī (d. 785), see Sezgin, GAS, 9–10; EI², 7:878.

165 In this section, Ibn Rajāʾ is using iʿrāb to refer to the case endings and noun declensions in the Arabic and how they are vocalized and inflected in the recitation of the Qurʾan.

166 Abū ʿĀmr ibn al-ʿĀlāʾ (d. 771) was a Basran Qurʾan reciter and known as a transmitter of one the seven different versions of the vocalized text.

167 Abū ʿUmar ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir (d. 736), EI², 3:704.

168 ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najjūd (d. 745) transmitted of one of the seven readings of the Qurʾan; EI², 1:706.

169 On al-Kisāʾī, see EI², 5:174.

170 This quotation is not in the Qurʾan because the answer to this rhetorical question is no.

171 See Swanson, “Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ,” 545.

172 Q 15:9.

173 Q 9:1.

174 This is al-Fātiḥa Q 1. Ibn Rajāʾ often denotes sūras by their opening word or phrase.

175 We know that Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Faraj Abū Bakr al-Qammāḥ (fl. 980) and Ibn Qudayd (d. 924) were connected as successive transmitters of Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam’s Futūḥ Miṣr; see Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, The History of the Conquest of Egypt, North Africa and Spain: Known as the Futūḥ Miṣr of Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, transl. Charles Torrey (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922), 10. This passage demonstrates that Ibn Rajāʾ studied with Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Faraj Abū Bakr al-Qammāḥ.

176 ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Khalaf ibn Qudayd (d. 924) was a teacher for the Egyptian historian al-Kindī.

177 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (d. 871) was a Maliki Egyptian jurist and author of the work Futūḥ Miṣr. See Sezgin, GAS, 355–356; EI², 3:674.

178 On Mālik ibn Anas, see Sezgin, GAS, 457–464.

179 A close version of this hadith is found in Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:462–463 (Book 29, #4418). This report is also found in Mālik ibn Anas, Al-Muwaṭṭaʾ: The Recension of Yaḥyā b. Yaḥyā al-Laythī (d. 234/848): A Translation of the Royal Moroccan Edition, ed. Mohammad Fadel and Connell Monette (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019), 712 (Arabic Book 41 Ḥudūd, hadith 1512). This verse is also mentioned by al-Kindī; see Tartar, “Dialogue islamo-chrétien sous le calife al-Maʾmūn,” 115–116.

180 Q 65.

181 Q 2.

182 Q 2.

183 In today’s numbering, Q 2 contains 286 verses.

184 Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī (d. 714); EI², 3:39.

185 The Latin translation conflicts with the Arabic here, stating that al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf “removed/detraxit” 85 verses from the Qurʾan. According to an Islamic hadith report from Ibn Abī Dāwūd (d. 929) in his Kitāb al-Maṣāḥif, he made 11 orthographical changes to the consonantal text. See Omar Hamdan, “The Second Maṣāḥif Project.” The changes are also mentioned in more detail by al-Kindī; see Tartar, “Dialogue islamo-chrétien sous le calife al-Maʾmūn,” 117.

186 I have not identified Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. Possibilities include the Egyptian Shāfiʿī qāḍī Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Kinānī (878– 955), known as Ibn al-Ḥaddād (Sezgin, GAS, 497); and the hadith collector Abū al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (917–1012), known as Ibn Jumayʿ al-Ghassānī, who traveled around Iraq, Syria, Persia, and Egypt (Sezgin, GAS, 220).

187 ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Baghawī (d. 929) is connected with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal as one of his transmitters. See Sezgin, GAS, 175.

188 Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 855) is well-known for his hadith collection known as the Musnad. See Sezgin, GAS, 502–509; EI², 1:272.

189 The transmission line below and dates to suggest that this name was left out accidentally by the scribal transmitter. Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna (d. 811/814) was a Meccan transmitter of hadith found in all six canonical collections. See Sezgin, GAS, 96; EI², 9:772.

190 Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 778); Sezgin, GAS, 518–519; EI², 9:770.

191 On Nāfiʿ ibn ʿUmar, see EI², 7:876.

192 This hadith is close to that narrated in al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6:424–425 (Book 66, #4986).

193 Presumably, this refers to the moments after he was stabbed and just before his death by assassination.

194 Ḥafṣa died in 665, while Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam was caliph 684–685, so the historical dates of this encounter are problematic in the sources.

195 According to the Islamic sources regarding this story, they explain that Abū Bakr and ʿUmar originally asked Zayd ibn Thābit, a former scribe of Muḥammad, to collate together the verses from believers in the community. After their deaths, this collection passed into the possession of Ḥafṣa bint ʿUmar, daughter of ʿUmar and wife of the deceased Prophet. Later, ʿUthmān consulted this collection as the basis for his codex, which was again edited by Zayd ibn Thābit. Then he had all variant versions of the Qurʾan ordered to be burned. Some scholars are dubious of the double collection legend, regarding the ʿUthmānic codex or later as perhaps the earliest attempt at a collection and canonization of a text. The Ḥafṣa codex story is somewhat different in al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6:425–426 (Book 66, #4987). See also Harald Motzki, “Muṣḥaf,” in EQ, 5 vols., ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Leiden: Brill, 2001–2006), 3:463–466; and Marco Schöller, “Post-Enlightenment Academic Study of the Qurʾān,” in EQ, 4:187–208.

It’s time to now proceed to the finale in the series: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 5.

FURTHER READING

THE IMPERFECTLY PRESERVED QURAN

Textual Integrity

The Incomplete and Imperfect Quran

The Compilation and Textual Veracity of the Quran 

Challenge to the Muslims Concerning the Quran [Part 1], [Part 2], [Part 3], [Excursus]

The Irreparable Loss of Much of the Quran

The Quran Testifies To Its Own Textual Corruption

The Seven Ahruf and Multiple Qiraat – A Quranic Perspective

ALLAH’S AMAZEMENT AND LAUGHTER

QURANIC VARIANTS AND PREDESTINATION

A QURANIC VARIANT THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

THE 1924 ARABIC QURAN: AN UNINSPIRED HUMAN COMPILATION

The Third Caliph’s Abuse of the Quran’s Greatest Compiler

This is another installment from a series of posts from the Coptic convert Ibn Raja: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 2.

In this section I quote what this blessed monk wrote in respect to the manner in which Muhammad allegedly received inspiration. Ibn Raja exposes Muhammad as a charlatan who plagiarized what he had been told by the Jews and Christians that learned from.

The following is taken from, David Bertaina’s book Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ The Fatimid Egyptian Convert Who Shaped Christian Views of Islam, pp. 147-153. All emphasis is mine.

[Chapter 6]

[50] On Muḥammad’s claim of how the revelation came to him.

[51] He used to sit in the midst of the people with his companions, and someone would ask him a question. Then he would say: “I don’t know, but now Gabriel will come to me with an answer to your question.” So he would contemplate it for an hour. Then when the answer came he would collapse to the ground and his hands and legs would seize. When they saw him like that, they said: “This is Gabriel talking to him,” so his companions would cover him with their clothing. So he would continue in that state until he would lift his head and he would say: “Where is the questioner?” Then he would reply: “Here I am.” So he would say: “Gabriel came to me with an answer to your question and it is such-and-such.”¹¹¹

[52] Aḥmad¹¹² and al-Ḥusayn told me the truthfulness of that, saying from Yaḥyā¹¹³ from Mālik¹¹⁴ from Nāfiʿ¹¹⁵ from Ibn ʿUmar¹¹⁶ who said:I heard ʿĀʾisha¹¹⁷ say: “I asked Muḥammad and I said to him: how does your revelation come?” So he said: “It comes to me like the sound of a bell. If I see it, I have no control collapsing to the ground just as you see, so sweat would drip in the cold and I would drip sweat.”¹¹⁸

[53] If those who have reason and discernment among the People of the Book thought about this conversation, then its flaws and corruption would be obvious to them. Namely, he alleges that he arose and went to the seven Heavens [the distance] between each Heaven being a five-hundred-year march. He alleged that, among the angels, he saw one who was greater than Gabriel. If I were to explain this to the end, I would take a long time.

[54] [Muḥammad] even said: “I saw one of the angels and he was the size of the world thousands of times over. He was sitting upon his knees crying and the tears were flowing from his eyes to his heel like the Euphrates and the Nile. Then he said to me: ‘Muḥammad, ask God to forgive me’. Then I said to him: ‘You are humiliated?’ He said: ‘What can protect me when God your Lord has created Gehenna?’”¹¹⁹ With lies and many alterations there is no point in me repeating it. If every time [Muḥammad] passed by angelic soldiers, he would ask God to forgive them, and he would pray with them two prostrations and pray for them, then how could he be in the Heavens and witnessing these magnificent groups of angels, and God would give him the ability to speak with them and pray with them? Why when he returned to this world – where the people and his companions and those who doubted him and those who required established proofs and belief which he would report to them – would he look to a single angel and then fall down like a crazed person? No reasonable person would believe or accept this.

[55] There’s no disagreement that the prophet Moses spoke orally to his Lord God. God endowed him with power to endure that. [Muḥammad] alleged that he is better than Moses and all creatures. Whoever is in this rank, can he not endure to look at one angel without falling down like a crazed person?

[56] However, the monk Baḥīra¹²⁰ became associated with him, and he was the first among those who partnered with him. He had knowledge about the reading of the Scriptures so he informed him about that which would be [relevant] for him. He read to him from the earlier Scriptures, then he hoped to take over as leader after him. It is said that he was close to him until the monk Baḥīra died. It is said that he killed him and Phineas¹²¹ the Jew on one night. Salmān the Persian¹²² and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām¹²³ the Jew partnered with him and they converted to Islam and they hoped for the same things as the monk Baḥīra, hoping to take over as leader after him. They read to him from the ancient Scriptures so he grasped them and mastered them. He summarized them using the language of the ancient Arabs and the eloquence of the Quraysh and other Arabs. He gathered in [the Qurʾan] stories and legends of the sects of the prophets and others among the ancients.

[57] Then the Quraysh said: “From where did Muḥammad learn about the ancestors’ stories?” Then Abū Jahl ibn Hishām¹²⁴ and Shayba ibn Rabīʿa¹²⁵ came to him. They said to him: “Muḥammad, from where did you get this knowledge?” He replied: “God revealed it to me.” So they said to him: “Did not ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām the Jew and Salmān teach you about all of this?” He replied to them – between them and him – “No.” As they were sitting, he fell on the ground and his companions came to him. Then they covered him up in their clothes. Then he arose and said: “God gave a revelation to me – responding to your words – that Salmān and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām are teaching me.” They said: “What did he say to you?” Then he recited to them from sura “The Bee”: “We know for certain that they say: ‘It is only a man [that teaches him]’. The language to which they refer is foreign, while this language is clear Arabic.”¹²⁶

Then he said to them: “How can Salmān and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām offer instruction, when one of them is a Persian and the other one is a Hebrew?” They said to him: “Couldn’t they be talking to you in their language, if they interpret it for you, and then you summarize it in your language?” He did not give an answer, so they departed and left him.¹²⁷

111 This account is based upon a hadith about the process by which Muḥammad was said to receive his revelation. See al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6:377, 401–402 (Book 65, #4929, 4953), and 6:452–453 (Book 66, #5044). The eighth-century Byzantine historian Theophanes was one of the first historians to refer to Muḥammad’s revelations as epileptic fits. See Theophanes, The Chronicle Of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine And Near Eastern History, ad284–813, eds. Cyril Mango, Roger Scott, and Geoffrey Greatrex (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 464.

112 I have not identified Aḥmad. Later in the text Ibn Rajāʾ transmits another hadith via Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad al-Naysabūrī. He also transmits another hadith later via Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad.

113 This reference is most likely the Mālikī jurist Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Laythī (d. 848), see EI², 4:87 and 6:744.

114 On Mālik ibn Anas, see Sezgin, GAS, 457–464. 115 Nāfiʿ ibn ʿUmar (d. 735); EI², 7:876.

116 ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 693); ei2, 1:53.

117 ʿĀʾisha (d. 678); EI², 1:307.

118 This comes from a hadith on revelation from al-Bukhārī: Al-Harith bin Hisham asked Allah’s Messenger “O Allah’s Messenger! How is the Divine Revelation revealed to you?” Allah’s Messenger replied, “Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell, this form of Revelation is the hardest of all and then this state passes off after I have grasped what is revealed. Sometimes the angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says.” ʿAishah added: “Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired (divinely) and (noticed) the sweat dropping from his forehead on a very cold day as the Revelation was over.” See al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 1:46 (Book 1, #2).

119 This is a summary from numerous hadiths on Muḥammad’s Night Journey, some of which can be found in al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:272–275 (Book 59, #3207); 5:132–136 (Book 63, #3887); and 9:368–372 (Book 97, #7517).

120 According to Arabic Christian traditions, the monk Baḥīra was a source for passages in the Qurʾan. On these accounts in Syriac and Christian Arabic texts, see Roggema, The Legend of Sergius Baḥīra.

121 According to Ibn Isḥāq’s biography of Muḥammad, Phineas (Finḥāṣ) ibn Azūra was a Jewish rabbi who entered a disagreement with Abū Bakr, resulting in the revealing of Q 3:181 to Muḥammad. But this Phineas is an antagonist not a supporter of Muḥammad. I cannot find other traditions about Phineas as a source for material in Islamic literature.

122 Salmān al-Fārisī (d. ca. 657) was a Persian Christian who converted to Islam. According to Islamic tradition, he is mentioned as a teacher of Muḥammad.

123 ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām (d. ca. 663) was a Jewish rabbi who converted to Islam. See EI², 1:52.

124 Abū Jahl ʿAmr ibn Hishām (d. 624); EI², 1:115.

125 Shayba ibn Rabīʿa (d. 624). Both figures were described as Meccan Quraysh opponents of Muḥammad who died at the Battle of Badr.

126 Q 16:103.

127 This is a retelling of Islamic stories regarding the circumstances of the revelation of Q 16:103. See a list in Burman, Religious Polemic, 273, who notes that the two are not usually put together in the Islamic versions.

With the foregoing in view we are now ready to proceed to the next section: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 4.

FURTHER READING

Source of Muhammad’s Inspiration – Divine or Demonic?

Revisiting the issue of Muhammad and Epilepsy Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3

Sources of the Quran

On The Bible Borrowing Theories Of The Qur’ân: An Authoritative Refutation

Muhammad the Borrower Debate With Saifullah: 1, 2 

Muhammad the Borrower Still! [Part 1], [Part 2]

A Muhammadan Polemicist Disproves the Quran Pt. 1, Pt. 2

Christian Fables That Expose the Fraud of Muhammad

I continue the series that I began here: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 1.

In this post I will be citing from David Bertaina’s work Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ The Fatimid Egyptian Convert Who Shaped Christian Views of Islam, pp. 139-147. Ibn Raja shows that Muhammad was murderous false prophet who imposed his religion by violence and murder. All emphasis will be mine.

[Chapter 4]

[42] On those who converted to Islam for fear of the sword.

[43] Someone told me al-Qasim Muḥammad ibn al-Qurṭī ibn Shaʿbān⁹² reported from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb al-Nasāʾī,⁹³ from Mālik [ibn Anas],94 from Ḥamīd al-Ṭawīl⁹⁵ from Anas ibn Mālik⁹⁶ that Abū Sufyān Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb,⁹⁷ and he was the father of Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān,⁹⁸ that when he converted to Islam, his wife Hind came to him (and she was Muʿāwiya’s mother).⁹⁹ Then she slapped him on the face and she blackened him with soot and she said to him: “Evil old man, you converted to Islam and you left your venerable fathers’ religion.” So he said to her: “Hind, were you not concerned about the sword?”¹⁰⁰ This is one of their nobles and their leaders, who only converted to Islam for fear of the sword.

[44] And Al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (and he is his uncle), Muḥammad’s uncle in Mecca, was brought as a captive on the day of Mecca’s conquering.¹⁰¹ Then he offered him to convert to Islam. So he said to him: “Convert, my uncle.” He replied: “Or else what, nephew?” He said: “I will kill you, my uncle. What will it be, uncle?” He said: “I will say what you want me to say, not with my heart, for fear of the sword.” He replied to him: “No one knows what is in hearts except God. Come on, uncle, and convert.” So he converted at that moment for fear of the sword.¹⁰²

[45] ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib brought ʿAmr ibn Maʿd al-Zubaydī¹⁰³ as a captive to Muḥammad. So he offered him to convert to Islam but he refused. He said to him: “If you do not convert to Islam, I will kill you.” So he replied to him: “You know that I will only convert to Islam for fear of the sword.”

[46] Khāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿa also converted to Islam for fear of the sword.¹⁰⁴ When Muḥammad wanted to conquer Mecca, he decided to come upon them at night so that they would be unaware. So Khāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿa – this one whom we have already mentioned – wrote a letter to the people of Mecca telling them about Muḥammad coming to them. He handed over the letter to a woman and commanded her to rush to Mecca. So she hid the letter in her braid and she set out for Mecca. Then a scout came and informed Muḥammad about it. He commanded ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwām to search for her. The two of them encountered her in a place said to be the Ṣāj mountain pass. They said to her: “Give us the letter which you have with you.” She replied: “I don’t have a letter.” They said: “Hand over the letter or take off your clothes.” When she saw the seriousness of the matter, she handed the letter over to them from her braid. They brought it to Muḥammad and when he read it he said: “What is this, Khāṭib?” So he bowed his head in shame. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: “Will you permit me to cut off this hypocrite’s head? He only converted to Islam for fear of the sword.” But he forgave him and he did not kill him.¹⁰⁵

[47] Now one day, which was a Friday, [Thumāma ibn Ashras] saw the people were heading to prayer.¹⁰⁶ So he said to his entourage and to those who were present: “Look at these cattle, what did this Arab man Muḥammad do to them?” Some of his companions asked him one day saying to him: “Do you think God will punish us since we are not following this one who claims prophethood without proof or sign?” He replied: “No, by God, he will not punish us, but we cannot say anything.”¹⁰⁷

[Chapter 5]

[48] On Musaylima the False Prophet¹⁰⁸ and al-ʿAnsī.¹⁰⁹

[49] It was in [Muḥammad’s] lifetime that two men claimed prophethood for themselves. One of them was Musaylima the false prophet and the other was al-ʿAnsī. The adherents of the two of them and Muḥammad would make the call to prayer upon platforms in their names. Musaylima’s companions would say in their call to prayer that Musaylima was God’s messenger. Muḥammad’s companions would say he was God’s messenger. Al-ʿAnsī’s companions would say that al-ʿAnsī was God’s messenger. As for al-ʿAnsī, Muḥammad captured him during his lifetime and killed him. Musaylima continued his [prophetic] affair through Muḥammad’s entire life. A large number of the Ḥanīfa tribe listened to him. When Muḥammad died and Abū Bakr took over after him, he killed [Musaylima] at the Battle of al-Yamāma. Musaylima the false prophet used to sit in the midst of his companions and beneath his garments were two pigeons.

He put musk and a lot of camphor in their wings and their feathers. Then he would say to whoever was around him: “These are Gabriel and Michael under my garments, saying peace be upon you,” so they would bow to him. Then he would open his belt and the pigeons would fly away. Then some of that perfume would fall upon the people, so they would try to touch him so they would receive his blessing.¹¹⁰

92 Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn Shaʿbān (d. 966) was a tenth-century Egyptian Mālikī jurist known as Ibn al-Qurṭī. One of his known works is on the principles of Islamic law.

93 On Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb al-Shaybānī al-Nasāʾī (d. 915), see Sezgin, GAS, 167–169. Al-Nasāʾī spent time in Egypt and is most famous for his collection of hadith known as the Sunan al-Nasāʾī. It has been translated into English as Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Nasāʾī, English Translation of Sunan an-Nasāʾī (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2007). See also Christopher Melchert, “The Life and Works of al-Nasāʾī,” Journal of Semitic Studies 59 (2014): 377–407; reprinted in Christopher Melchert, Hadith, Piety, and Law: Selected Studies (Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2015), 89–115. 94 Mālik ibn Anas, Sezgin, GAS, 457–464.

95 Ḥamīd al-Ṭawīl (d. ca. 760).

96 Anas ibn Mālik, EI², 1:482.

97 Abū Sufyān Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb (d. ca. 652); EI², 1:151.

98 Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān (d. 680) was the founder of the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus; see EI², 7:263.

99 Hind bint ʿUtba was employed in fabricated stories to defame the Umayyads. See El-Cheikh, Women, Islam, and Abbasid Identity, 17–37. 100 I have not been able to identify the source for this narrative but it is likely a product of Islamic anti-Umayyad legends.

101 Other Islamic sources put his capture at the battle of Badr in 624 or Uḥud in 625. On Ḥamza ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, who became a faithful Muslim according to Islamic lore, see EI² 3:152–154.

102 This account is a Christian interpretation based upon the story of the conversion of al-Muṭṭalib to Islam. See Burman, Religious Polemic, 265.

103 ʿAmr ibn Maʿd al-Zubaydī (d. 642) was a pre-Islamic leader from Yemen, mentioned in Muḥammad’s biography, who later was part of the Islamic conquest of the Middle East. See Guillaume, ed., The Life of Muhammad, 20.

104 Khāṭib (Ḥāṭib) ibn Abī Baltaʿa is known as an early convert who fought at the Battle of Badr. When he learned of Muḥammad’s planned attack on Mecca, he composed a letter to the Quraysh explaining Muḥammad’s intentions. When his letter with a female messenger was discovered, he explained that he was only trying to ensure that his family would be safe and Muḥammad forgave him. According to Islamic tradition, later he wrote a letter to Egypt that resulted in Mary the Copt coming to Yathrib/Medina as a gift for Muḥammad.

105 This accurate retelling (other than the reference to conversion for fear of the sword) is found in the hadith collection of al-Bukhārī and they were said to be the occasion for the revelation of Q 60:1. See al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:154–155 (Book 56, #3007); 5:191–192 (Book 64, #3983); and 6:344–345 (Book 65, #4890).

106 The manuscript is missing some context. However, this passage is taken from Ibn Qutayba, Taʾwīl mukhtalaf al-ḥadīth, 47–48; Ibn Qutayba, Traité des divergences, #55. Ibn Qutayba criticizes the Abbasid Muʿtazilī court theologian Thumāma ibn Ashras (d. 828), commenting: “Let us move on to Thumāma, who was poorly religious, scorned Islam and mocked it, and made his tongue speak like no man would who knew God and believed in Him. This well-known account is preserved: One Friday, he saw people rushing to the mosque, for fear of missing prayer. He said, ‘Look at those cattle! Look at those donkeys!’ Then he said to one of his colleagues: ‘[Look at] what this Arab [i.e., Muhammad] has done done with [these] men’.”

107 Ibn Rajāʾ is commenting on the fact that Thumāma ibn Ashras was said to have held the position that non-Muslims would not be condemned if they did not explicitly reject the revelation of God. Ibn Qutayba barely considered Thumāma a Muslim, and Ibn Rajāʾ exploits this point for his argument.

108 On Musaylima/Maslama ibn Ḥabīb (d. ca. 633), see EI², 7:664; and al-Makin, Representing the Enemy: Musaylima in Muslim Literature (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2010).

109 Al-Aswad ibn Kaʿb al-ʿAnsī (d. 632); EI², 1:728.

110 Ibn Rajāʾ is arguing that the existence of these two pseudo-prophets suggests Muḥammad’s appearance was not unique but part of a prophetic spirit of the place and time, although he does not make this explicit.

We have more from from this blessed Coptic monk in the third part of this series: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 3 .

FURTHER READING

What really happened to the Banu Qurayza

“Kill those who Associate Partners (Mushrikun) Wherever You Find Them!”

Muhammad’s Excessive Cruelty

Muhammad and the Meccans: Who Antagonized Whom?

Muhammad the Antagonist Still!

The Byzantine Christians: Antagonists or Antagonized? Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Addendum

Al Wala’ wa’l Bara’: Islam’s Doctrine of Hate