CONTRADICTIONS GALORE

As I stated previously, Ibn Raja’s knowledge and mastery of the Islamic sources are simply amazing. This will be further confirmed here by his awareness of all the irreconcilable contradictions within the Quran and hadith literature. The following quotes are taken from David Bertaina’s book Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ The Fatimid Egyptian Convert Who Shaped Christian Views of Islam, pp. 213-241, 285-291, and 307-309. All will be emphasis mine.

Chapter 18

[135] On the Qurʾan’s contradiction; some verses contradict each other.

[136] He said to them in many places in the Qurʾan: “We have indeed created the Heavens and the earth.” So he started with the creation of Heaven before the earth. If he didn’t say anything more specific about the creation of the Heavens and the earth, then this sentence would have many ways to fully inflect it, regarding the words’ and languages’ meanings. Either he created the earth before Heaven or he created Heaven before the earth or he created the two of them at the same time and as one word. But he said something else so his mistake became clear. He said in sura “The Snatchers”: “Are you a more difficult creation or is Heaven? He built it. He raised its roof and He fashioned it. He darkened its night and He brought forth its morning light. After that He spread the earth.”²⁹² So he clarified for them that God created Heaven, then He created the earth after it. Then he said after that in sura “Ḥāʾ Mīm Prostration” what contradicts that. He said: “Say: Do you indeed [disbelieve] in the one who created the earth in two days and attribute equals to Him? That is the Lord of the worlds. He placed on it firm mountains above it, and He blessed it and decreed for it its sustenance in four days equally for those who ask. Then He went up to Heaven while it was smoke. He said to it and to the earth, ‘Come willingly or by coercion’. They said, ‘We have come willingly’.”²⁹³ So this verse contradicts the one that came before [in my example]. Then he said in sura “The Cow”: “He is the one who created for you all of [that which] is on the earth. Then He went up to Heaven, and made them into seven Heavens.”²⁹⁴ He also started with the earth’s creation in this sura. He said in sura “Qāf”: “We did indeed create the Heavens and earth and what is between them in six days, while no tiredness touched Us.”²⁹⁵ How strange is this! He is saying in another place that God created Heaven before the earth, with one remark contradicting the other. Verses are contradicted by [another] verse.

[137²⁹⁶] He said in sura “The Heights”: “We will surely question those to whom it was sent, and We will surely question the messengers.”²⁹⁷ He said in surat “al-Ḥijr”: “So by your Lord, We will surely question all of them about what they were doing.”²⁹⁸ So these two verses show that questions [regarding judgment] are inevitable for all creation, including a prophet, and those who fear [God], and unbelievers. Then he contradicted that, when he said in sura “Certainly the Believers have succeeded”: “When the horn is blown, there will be no relationship between them that day, nor will they ask about one another.”²⁹⁹ He said in sura “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Those who exchange God’s covenant and their oaths for a small price will have no share in the hereafter, and God will not speak to them or look at them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will he purify them.”³⁰⁰ What does this statement have to do with his words: “So by your Lord, we will surely question all of them about what they were doing,” meaning the believers and the unbelievers. This is an inconsistency and a contradiction; a verse contradicted with another.³⁰¹

[138] He said in sura “Mary”: “Every one of you will come to it. It is your Lord’s inevitable decree” – meaning Gehenna – “then we will save those who feared God [and leave] the wrongdoers on their knees within it.”³⁰² This verse shows that for all creatures it is inevitable that they will bow before Gehenna and see it. He saves those who are God-fearing and he leaves the wrongdoers in it for a while. In addition to that, they have a well-known hadith from their prophet that said: “It is inevitable that all creatures will bow to Gehenna, from an angel close [to God] to a prophet sent with a message. Even if someone on the Day [of Resurrection] has done the righteous works of seventy prophets, he should still think that he will not be saved from the fire of Gehenna.”³⁰³ Then he contradicted that when he said at the end of sura “The Prophets”: “[For] the ones who have received the best outcome from Us; those ones are far removed from [Gehenna]. They will not hear its sound.”³⁰⁴ What does this remark have to do with his statement, “Every one of you will come to [Gehenna]. It is your Lord’s inevitable decree”? He alleges that these are God’s words to him, and that God said to him: “Every one of you will come to it” – meaning him, and his companions, and all creatures. In addition to that is the hadith which we have already mentioned. What a great difference between these words and his statement: “Those ones are far removed from [Gehenna]. They will not hear its slightest sound.” This is a contradiction and an inconsistency; one verse contradicts another verse, and the consensus, and what is clear.

[139] He said in sura “The Cow”: “Remember when we said to the angels, ‘Bow before Adam’. So they bowed, except for Iblīs.³⁰⁵ He refused and became arrogant.”³⁰⁶ He repeated that in many places in the Qurʾan. That demonstrates that Iblīs was one of the angels. That is accepted as true by all people without a doubt. There is no disagreement that he was an angel. But he contradicted that and he disagreed with the consensus and what is clear. For he said in sura “The Cave”: “[Remember] when we said to the angels, ‘Bow to Adam’. They bowed except for Iblīs. He was from the jinn and disobeyed his Lord’s command.”³⁰⁷ That Iblīs would be from the jinn is clearly impossible to everyone. Rather, Iblīs was among the angels and among their greatest noble ones. Suppose Iblīs was from the jinn, and he was not among the angels, and God commanded the angels to bow to Adam – according to your impossible claim – so therefore all of the angels bowed and Iblīs did not bow. There was no blame in his refusing to bow, since he was not an angel. If he bowed with the angels, he would have been a sinner doing something other than what he was commanded. Because, God commanded the angels to bow and they did so while Iblīs was not commanded to bow, since he was not from the angels. You have ascribed injustice to God for his anger against Iblīs, because we do not see what necessitates his anger as you say. This is a contradiction and an inconsistency; one verse contradicts another verse.

[140] He said in sura “The Bees”: “God commands justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression.”³⁰⁸ Then he contradicted this remark when he said in sura “The People of Israel”: “When We want to destroy a city, We command its prosperous”³⁰⁹ – meaning its nobles and those who possess wealth – “to act sinfully within it. So the verdict is confirmed upon it, and We destroy it completely,” so they came to an end. He says in one place that God commanded justice and charity. He says in [another] place that God made a command to act sinfully. Many of the Qurʾan’s leading scholars vehemently denied this verse, because the verse guides him to a different meaning. Namely, [they] read it: “When We want to destroy his city, We give authority to its prosperous ones,” derived from the word for an emir. It means: “When We want to destroy his city, We bring authority to its kings. If they became emirs and were unjust in their emirate, then We would destroy them and We would make them perish.” Only one person made this reading, and no one else, and no one agreed with him about this verse. He said in sura “The Heights”: “When they commit a sinful act, they say: ‘We found our fathers doing it, and God commanded us to do it’. Say: ‘God does not command sinful acts. Do you say about God that which you do not know?’”³¹⁰ A verse is contradicted with the hadith and those who listen and reason.

[141] He said in sura “The Moon”: “The Hour has come near and the moon has split.”³¹¹ The commentators agreed about this verse that one night he was sitting with his companions, and he looked at the moon and its circular shape was divided. His companions said to him: “Muḥammad, show us a sign that we might be amazed by it.” So he looked up to the sky and he pointed at the moon with his index and middle finger. Then he said to it: “Split, moon.” Then it split in two, so one half fell upon Abū Qubays Mountain and another part [fell] upon the Red Mountain.³¹² These are two mountains in Mecca and Mecca is between them in the middle. However, the two of them were named “the interior of Mecca.” When they saw the moon had fallen from the sky upon the two mountains, they were amazed at that.³¹³ He mentioned that in the Qurʾan; he said: “The Hour has come near and the moon has split.”³¹⁴

[142] This is one of the greatest lies and untruths. If that were true, then it would not have been hidden from all creatures, not from the Christians and the Jews and the rest of the religious groups. Rather, if that were the case, then people would have mentioned it in their books and that which is clear in [Muḥammad’s] biography. In addition, that would have been famous for everyone who is devoted to knowledge of the stars and [their] orbits, and especially the Hindus and the Sabians who are the masters of this science. But we have not seen even one of those [groups] mention it. It was not communicated in the reports that any of your opponents converted to Islam when that happened. Since a number of gullible and ignorant people had converted to Islam without him showing them a sign, then it should seem to require that many people would have converted to Islam at that time. But we don’t see that, and no poet mentioned that in verses of praise or ridicule. This is a lie and impossible and the statement is refuted.

[143] Another proof testifying that it is a lie and impossible is what al-Ḥasan ibn Rashīq al-ʿAskarī³¹⁵ reported to me [from] Abū Bishr al-Dūlābī³¹⁶ from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shaybānī al-Nasāʾī³¹⁷ from Qutayba ibn Saʿīd,³¹⁸ [from] Mālik,³¹⁹ from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa³²⁰ from his father³²¹ that he said: “I asked Ibn ʿAbbās³²² and I said to him: ‘Tell me about this moon and how big it is’. So he said: ‘I heard Muḥammad say that this moon was eighteen times as big as the entire world’.”³²³ Think about it, my brother – may God help you – this impossibility has no truth to it. They allege that the moon was eighteen times as long as the whole world. They allege that it fell between two [mountains] – upon Abū Qubays Mountain and the Red Mountain, and they are in Mecca. How can these two mountains encompass this great moon which is eighteen times as big as the whole world? If they reflect on this, then [this argument] would be convincing for them. One verse [of the Qurʾan] is contradicted by the hadith and logical analogy.

[144] He said in sura “The Cow”: “How can you not believe in God when you were dead and He brought you to life; then He will cause you to die, then He will bring you back to life.”³²⁴ These words say that God created all people from the children of Adam and that He caused them to die and He brought them back to life, and this is among its best words, there is no doubt about it.³²⁵ But a hadith emerged that contradicted this verse. It was what Sufyān al-Thawrī³²⁶ reported from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa³²⁷ from his father,³²⁸ from ʿĀʾisha that she said: I heard Muḥammad say: “Every one of the children of Adam, when he dies, two angels will come to him at the hour when people finish burying him and go away from him. The name of one of them is Munkar and the other one is Nakīr.³²⁹ They will seize the dead by the beard and if she was a woman, seize [her] by her bangs. They seat them while wearing the shroud. God will give his soul back to him so he will live just as he used to. The two of them will say to him: ‘Who is your Lord and who is your prophet and what is your religion?’ So if he says: ‘God is my Lord and Muḥammad is my prophet and Islam is my religion’, the two of them will open a window at his head which leads to Paradise. The two of them will say to him: ‘Smell the fragrance of the living Paradise and its breeze and enjoy its food and drink and pleasant things until the Day of Resurrection’. And if he said to the two of them: ‘I don’t recognize them or what you are saying and I don’t know’, then they will strike him, which will send that one down [the length of] seven earths. Then the two of them will bring him up and open [a window] at his head which leads to Hell. They will say to him: ‘You will remain in this state until the day – the Day of Resurrection’.”

[145] These are impossible words, and it contradicts the Qurʾan, because he said: “You were dead and He brought you to life; then he will cause you to die, then he will bring you back to life.”³³⁰ He only mentioned one death in the Qurʾan, nothing else. He said in this hadith that we reported that he lives after his death in order to be questioned by the two angels. Then he dies another death, then he lives on the Day of Resurrection. He said in sura “The Smoke”: “They will not taste death except for the first death.”³³¹ He should have said: “Except the first two deaths.” This is a contradiction from his statement and an inconsistency.³³²

[146] Stranger than that is his statement that the two angels open a window at the head of the dead which leads to Paradise. They say to him: “Smell the fragrance of Paradise and its breeze and enjoy its food and drink and pleasant things until the Day of Resurrection.” According to reason and logic, how can he open a window on earth connected to Paradise when you don’t know Paradise’s location? You can’t find a place for it. Because he said to you in the Qurʾan in sura “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Paradise [is] as wide as the Heavens and earth.”³³³ So how can it be either on earth or in Heaven? If the seven Heavens³³⁴ are its width, then what about [its] length? How can a dead [man], who is a discarded corpse after his bones have decomposed and been burned,³³⁵ be able to eat and drink and smell and enjoy pleasant things? What does he smell when his two nasal passages become pus and his eyes are drooped and his joints are disconnected and he becomes clay? How can people eat and drink in their tombs? If that were the case, then they are not dead. If you say that the spirit eats in Paradise and drinks and enjoys things, then that would be better for your lies. How can you say that, when he said to you in sura “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Do not think of those who have been killed in the way of God are dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, rejoicing in what God has bestowed upon them of His favor.”336 So he taught you that the bodies of the martyrs will eat with their Lord and receive provision, and that your dead who are on earth will [not] eat and drink in their tombs.

[147] He made it lawful for you in the Qurʾan to wear whatever adornments you would like and eat delicious things. He said in sura “The Heights”: “Say: Who has forbidden God’s adornment which he has produced for his servants and the delicious things of provision?”³³⁷ He commanded you to fast a month each year. He permitted for you to eat during [Ramaḍān] from sunset to sunrise. A group of you in the school of al-Aʿmash³³⁸ say they think that a fasting person can eat until the imam finishes the morning prayer. If a man were to eat at the morning prayer and at sunset, then what is left for fasting? What does God gain in this worship? However, God commanded the people to fast in order to be rewarded after severe thirst and hunger, in order to perfect the reward and recompense for them. Your companion [Muḥammad] commanded you to have breakfast and dinner while fasting and he assured you about that. He encouraged you to have the evening meal even saying to you: “Eat the evening meal, even if it is a part of a date.”³³⁹

[148] Then he commanded you to have sex during fasting and he encouraged you to do that. He said in sura “The Cow”: “It has been permitted for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sex]. They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them. God knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He accepted your repentance and forgave you.”³⁴⁰ Then Muḥammad said further: “have sex with them and seek that which God has written for you.”³⁴¹ And he – Muḥammad – assures and says to make sure not to leave them in the month of Ramaḍān. Then he said to you that in Paradise you will have sex with wide-eyed virgins.³⁴² He mentioned that in sura “Yāʾ Sīn” when he says: “The companions of Paradise, that Day, will be busy in their rejoicing.”³⁴³ Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī³⁴⁴ was asked and it was said to him: “What makes them busy that day?” He said: “Sexual intercourse.” It was reported from him further that he said: “The length of the clitoris of the virgins is a sizable distance. God lengthened the penis of every one of them on the Day of Resurrection so that its length would be so sizable that he is not able to hold it. Then God would employ seventy Christians and Jews to carry his penis.”³⁴⁵ If its length is sizable, then God should employ the people of his own religion to carry it, since they have more right to be employed than Christians and Jews. Such minds that would accept this are worldly minds. How ridiculous! In which book did he find this, and which prophet before him mentioned that to his community like him! He alleges that he is the best of the prophets so that his works are an example. Which prophet would permit that for his community like him? He alleges that he is the best of the prophets and their most favored.

[149] If we mentioned the works of earlier prophets and the accounts of their struggles in worship and what they required of themselves, including sorrows and hardship in this world, and its delight, then it would take me a long time. It was reported about John the son of Zechariah – and he is the best of the prophets and their own final one – that he did not marry any woman during his life nor did he eat bread and his food was only what came from the earth – not including grass – until he met God.³⁴⁶ He called him “The Child” in the commentary on the Qurʾan. [Muḥammad] did not take even one of those prophets as an example in his actions. Besides that, he commanded you to eat the good things of this world. He commanded [you to eat] breakfast and dinner while fasting and he commanded you to have sex during [Ramaḍān]. He urged you to have sex with your wives during it. Despite that, he considers this month more important than the rest of the months. For he said to you that in it is a night called the “Night of Power”: “It is greater than a thousand months, and the angels and the Spirit were revealed during it.”³⁴⁷ So he should have revered this month by abstaining from sex in it. He should have urged you to exert yourself in worship and he should not have urged you to eat and have sex. He did not revere the month under any circumstances, not in [eating] food nor in drink nor in having sex.  

[150] And he said to you that while you are in the tombs you will eat and in Heaven you will eat and that you will have sex in Paradise. Suppose that when you have sex, you get your wife pregnant and she would give birth. I wish I knew if you could have sex with those virgins in Paradise, but what about your wives who are with you in this world? If they attain Paradise who will have sex with them? But, by my life, the Qurʾan did not explain anything whatsoever about having sex with them in Paradise. It did not say to you that you would have sex with [your wives] and it did not mention that you would only have sex with virgins with dark eyes. If your wives were the ones in Paradise and they did not have someone to have sex with them, then a great pleasure would be taken away from them, since all of the pleasures would be for you in having sex. Because it was reported that he said: “Most endearing to me in your world are three [things]: women, fragrances, and [God] made prayer the apple of my eye.”³⁴⁸ So he listed women first, because for him that was the greatest pleasure. He listed fragrances second, and he placed prayer last among all of these, although for you, prayer is the pillar of the religion. He made it what someone would use to get closer to God. Then shouldn’t he place that above women and fragrances?

[151] And this argument, were I to finish it, would require a number of justifications which would take a long time to explain. Such minds that do not use this common sense are feeble minds. As for me, I would prefer not to mention anything about this ignorance. I don’t want whoever reads this book of mine among our Christian brothers to listen to that. Rather, I have clarified their blindness and their ignorance, and I have made that demonstrable by [the assistance of] God. One verse is contradicted by the hadith and by insight.

[152] He said in “They ask you” in sura “The Heights”: “They ask you about the Hour, when will it arrive? Say: ‘Its knowledge is only with my Lord, none will reveal its time except him’”³⁴⁹ – meaning the time it comes. He also said in sura “Luqmān”: “God has knowledge of the Hour.”³⁵⁰ Then it was reported about [Muḥammad] in the book of Abū Maʿmar³⁵¹ that he said: “One hundred years from now not a soul will remain upon the surface of the earth.”³⁵² Not one of his companions doubted that the resurrection would be in one hundred years. This is impossible and has no truth to it, because we have passed four hundred years and people increase more than ever.³⁵³ This is an inconsistency and a contradiction; one verse contradicted by another verse.

[153] He said in sura “The Light”: “And marry the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male slaves and female slaves. If they are poor, God will enrich them from his favor.”³⁵⁴ He commanded them not to abstain from marriage for fear of poverty. Whoever among them was poor should marry and seek a means of living. He asks God for God to enrich him from his favor. Then he said immediately after this verse – contradicting the first verse – “Let them who do not obtain the means of marriage, abstain from sex until God enriches them from his favor.”³⁵⁵ So he commanded them not to marry while poor. No one should go for it unless he is serious and has the means. How can this prohibition be reconciled with the first recommendation? This is an inconsistency and a contradiction; some verses contradict each other and logical analogy.

[154] [He said] in sura “The Cattle”: “Whoever comes [at the Hour] with a good work, then he will have ten times its like [to his credit].”³⁵⁶ Then he contradicted that in sura “Sheba” when he said: “For them there will be the double reward for what they did, and they will be safe in the upper chambers [of Paradise].”³⁵⁷ How is this remark like the first one? This is a contradiction and an inconsistency; some verses contradict another verse and logical analogy.

[155] He said in sura “The Cow”: “And Abraham instructed his sons and Jacob, [saying]: ‘My sons, God has chosen for you this religion, so do not die except while you are Muslims’.”³⁵⁸ In addition, he said in this sura: “Or were you witnesses when death approached Jacob, when he said to his sons, ‘What will you worship after me?’ They said: ‘We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac – one God. We are Muslims (to him)’.”³⁵⁹ He said in “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a Gentile Muslim. He was not one of the polytheists.”³⁶⁰ He said in sura “The Pilgrimage”: “[It is] the religion of your father, Abraham. He named you ‘Muslims’ before [in former Scriptures].”³⁶¹ He said in sura “The Table”: “[Remember] when I revealed to the disciples: ‘Believe in me and in my messenger [Jesus]’. They said: ‘We have believed, so bear witness that we are Muslims’.”³⁶² So he taught them that the disciples [of Jesus Christ] were Muslims. In the Qurʾan there are many examples like this so there is no point in repeating all of it. He taught them that all of the prophets and the angels and the messengers [and] whoever came before among the martyrs and righteous and our Lord Christ and the disciples, every one of them was a Muslim.³⁶³ Then he contradicted that and he made a liar of himself in his statement when he said in sura “The Cattle”: “Say: I have been commanded to be the first who became Muslim.”³⁶⁴ So he said in the first remark that whoever came before him preceded him into Islam. Yet he said in this place that he was the first to enter Islam. This is a contradiction and an inconsistency.

[156] It should be the case that if the prophets who came before him were Muslims, and then he came later with what they had brought, then he should have followed their methods and their ways. We don’t see him take even one thing as an example which they had done. Moses used to observe the Sabbath, and your companion did not observe it. The Torah forbids the eating of many types of cattle. Your prophet has commanded in the Qurʾan to eat all kinds of creatures and other things. He only forbade for you blood and carrion and pork flesh and whatever is slaughtered without [invoking] God. Didn’t you hear his words in sura “The Cattle”: “Say: I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it is carrion or blood or pork flesh – it is impure – or it is [slaughtered in] disobedience, without [invoking] God.”³⁶⁵ So this verse permits you to eat all things, except for what the Qurʾan forbids you, such as strangled animals, beaten animals, fallen animals, and animals that died fighting, and what lions eat.

[157] But this is different from what is in the Torah. If Moses came to the people of Israel with Islam, then your prophet should have used the actions of the Muslims who came before him as an example, and permit what they permitted and forbid what they forbade. We don’t see him acting like they did or anything of it. So now, he deviates from all of the prophets, and he brought laws different than theirs, and traditions that did not conform with their traditions. Don’t you hear his statement in sura “The Table”: “To each of you we prescribed a law and a method”?³⁶⁶

[158] So he has now made his statement a lie that all of the prophets [and] the people were Muslims. He claimed about Moses and his people in sura “Jonah” that they were Muslims. He said: “Moses said: ‘My people, if you have believed in God, then rely upon Him, if you would be Muslims’.”³⁶⁷ His statement suggested that Moses’ people were Muslims. Then he contradicted that and he claimed that they were Jews in sura “The Heights.”³⁶⁸ That was when he said: “And Moses chose from his people seventy men for Our appointment. And when the earthquake seized them, he said: ‘My Lord, if You had willed, You could have destroyed them before, as well as me. Would You destroy us for what the foolish among us have done? This is only Your trial by which You send astray whom You will and guide whom You will. You are our Protector, so forgive us and have mercy upon us; You are the best of forgivers. Decree for us in this world what is good and in the Hereafter; indeed, we have turned toward You’,”³⁶⁹ – this means “to become Jews.”³⁷⁰ This is the way that all of the commentators interpreted it: al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī,³⁷¹ Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn,372 and Abū al-ʿĀliya al-Riyāḥī,³⁷³ and al-Badīʿ ibn al-Yusr,³⁷⁴ and Mujāhid,³⁷⁵ and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ,³⁷⁶ and ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Khurāsānī,³⁷⁷ and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār.³⁷⁸ So he was inconsistent in his statement about the companions of Moses when he said in one place that they were Muslims, and he said in another place that they were Jews. He said in another place that he was the first to submit to Islam. This is an inconsistency; one verse is contradicted by the hadith and logical analogy.

[159] He said to them in the Qurʾan that God said to him: “Muḥammad, say: ‘I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak, from the evil of that which he created, and from the evil of darkness when it settles, and from the evil of those who blow in knots’,”³⁷⁹ and they are the sorcerers.³⁸⁰ So he was commanded to seek refuge from sorcerers. Then you reported about him that the Jews did sorcery on him. They put a bewitchment on him at the well of Dhū Arwan, until he saw in a dream [the angels Michael and Gabriel] telling him that he was bewitched and they showed him where his bewitchment was located. So he sent ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to that well in which the Jews put his bewitchment. So he took an image out of it that looked like Muḥammad pricked full of needles. Every time ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib would take out one of the deeply set needles, Muḥammad found the pain reduced. When ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib finished taking out the needles, Muḥammad stood up as if he had been freed from a deathly illness.³⁸¹

[160] Then you reported about him that he died while bewitched, or it is said that he was poisoned by a Jewish woman, and that she poisoned him in a vein named the aorta. The poison reached his heart and he died.³⁸² How can it happen as you say, that sorcery would work on God’s messenger? Sorcery is indeed an act of demons and he says in the Qurʾan: “Falsehood cannot approach it, from before it nor from behind it.”³⁸³ Adding to that is his statement that God put His hand between his shoulders, yet sorcery, which is the work of demons, would work on him! How can you allege he has God’s protection and His strength? Adding to that is your report that when he awoke or went to bed, he would have seventy kinds of angels with him protecting and guarding him.³⁸⁴ We cannot find all of this truthful; rather, we found the truth of its falsehood. God is more exalted than placing His hand upon something or guarding something or commanding the angels to preserve something, and sorcery, which is the work of demons, would work on it. This is an inconsistency and a contradiction.

292 Q 79:27–30.

293 Q 41:9–11.

294 Q 2:29.

295 Q 50:38.

296 The main point of the argument here is to claim that in some verses the judged will be able to speak and in other passages that they will not be able to speak on Judgment Day. The Latin translation provides several examples prior to the beginning of this section, quoting Q 77:35–36; 39:31, 23:65, and 37:27. Then it joins the Arabic text at this point.

297 Q 7:6.

298 Q 15:92–93.

299 Q 23:101.

300 Q 3:77.

301 There is a large section in the Latin translation (9.4–9.8) that is not in the Arabic manuscript. For this material, see Burman, Religious Polemic, 308–315. To summarize: 9.4: a criticism of fasting during Ramaḍān (Q 5:97); 9.5: a criticism of comparing God to the firmament of the sea (Q 31:31); 9.6: a criticism of the concept that there are hours and day and night in heaven (Q 19:62; 11:107); 9.7: a criticism of the concept that spiritual angels were to worship the physical (and thus inferior) Adam (Q 7:11, 7:37–38); 9.8: a criticism of Muslims for mistakenly believing that Christians worship Mary as part of the Trinity (Q 5:116) and worship their priests and monks as gods (Q 9:31). Given the fact that these passages are found in the Latin translation and also addressed by Riccoldo da Monte di Croce (d. 1320) in his work Contra legem Sarracenorum, these sections were undoubtedly part of the original Arabic text.

302 Q 19:71–72.

303 This hadith seems to echo the punishment threat in Q 9:80 that even if one asks for forgiveness seventy times it will not necessarily be given to them on the Day of Resurrection. While Ibn Rajāʾ seems to quote from a Shīʿī source he was reading, I have not located its origin. A similar Shīʿī hadith notes that even if a man has accomplished the work of seventy prophets, then his work still may not be sufficient to survive judgment because of the severity of what happens on the Day of Resurrection.

304 Q 21:101–102.

305 Iblīs is a name given to the Devil, and is a transliteration from Ethiopic via the Greek diabolos.

306 Q 2:34.

307 Q 18:50.

308 Q 16:90.

309 Q 17:16.

310 Q 7:28.

311 Q 54:1.

312 Abū Qubays is a mountain in Mecca located nearby the Kaʿba and was also said to have been the location for the origin of the Black Stone. The Red Mountain is located on the opposite side, according to Ibn Rajāʾ, who had visited Mecca on pilgrimage.

313 On the moon splitting hadith, see Juynboll, ECH, 483–484. See also al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6:327–328 (Book 65, #4864–4868); and Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 7:201–203 (Book 50, #7071–7079).

314 Q 54:1.

315 On al-Ḥasan ibn Rashīq al-ʿAskarī, see Sezgin, GAS, 201–202.

316 On Abū Bishr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād al-Dūlābī, see See Sezgin, GAS, 172; EI², 8:516.

317 On Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shaybānī al-Nasāʾī, see Sezgin, GAS, 167–169. 318 Qutayba ibn Saʿīd al-Shāmī (d. 854) is mentioned as a hadith teacher for al-Nasāʾī; Sezgin, GAS, 167; EI², 7:691.

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

320 Hishām ibn ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 763); Sezgin, GAS, 88–89.

321 ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 712) was Hishām’s father; Sezgin, GAS, 278–279.

322 ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās (d. 686); EI², 1:40.

323 Ibn Rajāʾ is certainly quoting a hadith from a written source, but I have not identified its origin.

324 Q 2:28.

325 This passage is an allusion to Psalm 104:29–30.

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

327 Hishām ibn ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 763); Sezgin, GAS, 88–89.

328 ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 712); Sezgin, GAS, 278–279.

329 These two angels, known as the “Denied” and the “Denier” are tasked with questioning the souls of the departed after death. During this intermediate state between death and the final resurrection and judgment (barzakh), the angels question the dead and the believers are sent to the pleasures of heaven and the unbelievers receive the punishment of hell, as explained by Ibn Rajāʾ. These traditions are found in the hadith collections, such as al-Tirmidhī, Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī, 2:443–444 (Book 8, #1071). See also Juynboll, ECH, 459 and “Munkar wa-Nakīr,”EI², 7:576–577.

330 Q 2:28.

331 Q 44:56.

332 The argument is somewhat different in Ibn Qutayba, Taʾwīl Mushkil al-Qurʾān, 22. In this passage, the critic asks how can he exclude people who died in this world from their stay in Heaven.

333 Q 3:133.

334 Medieval Christians and Muslims both believed in the existence of seven heavens, e.g., Q 41:12. Paul mentions being caught up to the third heaven in 2Corinthians 12:2–4.

335 The word is unclear in the Arabic text but “burned” appears in the Latin translation.

336 Q 3:169–170.

337 Q 7:32.

338 Sulayman ibn Mihrān al-Aʿmash (d. 765); ei2, 1:431.

339 On the origin of this hadith, (“So save yourself from the Fire even with half a date”), see al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 9:365 (Book 97, #7512); and Juynboll, ECH, 109, 498.

340 Q 2:187.

341 Q 2:187.

342 These wide-eyed virgins of Paradise are the “houris” referenced in Q 44:54, 52:20, 55:72, and 56:22.

343 Q 36:55.

344 On al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728), see Sezgin, GAS, 591–594; EI² 3:247–248.

345 This legend is not found in the canonical editions of the hadith but was most likely the product of an interpretation of Q 2:187 attributed to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. There is little reason to doubt that Ibn Rajāʾ is drawing from an Islamic source as other Christian apologists referenced this report as a carnal description of heaven.

346 The phrase means “until he died.”

347 Q 97:3–4.

348 The hadith is attributed to ʿĀʾisha as: “Most endearing to me in this world are women and perfume, but my solace lies in prayer.” For more on its appearances in Islamic sources, see Juynboll, ECH, 75.

349 Q 7:187.

350 Q 31:34.

351 On Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā (d. 824), see EI², 1:158.

352 For more on this hadith, see Juynboll, ECH, 28; and al-Tirmidhī, Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī, 4:299– 300 (Book 31, #2250–2251).

353 According to the Hijra calendar, 400 AH began in August 1009. This reference to four hundred years since the life of Muḥammad therefore suggests that Ibn Rajāʾ composed his work ca. 1009–1012 under the reign of the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim (d. 1021).

354 Q 24:32.

355 Q 24:32.

356 Q 6:160.

357 Q 34:37.

358 Q 2:132.

359 Q 2:133.

360 Q 3:67.

361 Q 22:78.

362 Q 5:111.

363 As a response to critiques, medieval Muslims interpreted the Qurʾan to indicate that all pre-Islamic biblical figures were Muslims or righteous Gentiles (ḥunafāʾ).

364 Q 6:14. 365 Q 6:145.

366 Q 5:48.

367 Q 10:84.

368 Q 7.

369 Q 7:155–156.

370 Ibn Rajāʾ contends that the Qurʾan recalls how Moses and the Israelites repented and asked God for forgiveness, and that in this context the Arabic words hudnā ilayka means that they turned to Judaism, and did not become Muslims, as suggested in other passages.

371 Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728); Sezgin, GAS, 591–594; EI² 3:247–248.

372 Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn (d. 728); Sezgin, gas, 633.

373 Abū al-ʿĀliya al-Riyāḥī (d. 708); Sezgin, GAS, 34; EI², 1:104.

374 al-Badīʿ ibn al-Yusr (d. 712).

375 Abū al-Ḥajjāj Mujāhid ibn Jabr (d. 722) of Mecca was known for his use of Christian and Jewish sources for his commentary. See Sezgin, GAS, 29.

376 Abū Muḥammad ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ (d. ca. 732); Sezgin, GAS, 31; EI², 1:730.

377 ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Muslim al-Khurāsānī (d. ca. 753/7); Sezgin, GAS, 33.

378 ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār al-Hilālī (d. 722); EI², 4:369.

379 Q 113:1–4.

380 The interpretation of these people as sorcerers is confirmed in the commentary tradition such as in the analysis of Q 113:4 by al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī, 24:749–751.

381 This legend is found in a number of early Muslim commentaries on Q 113 and the hadith collections. See Juynboll, ECH, 198–200. According to Burman, Religious Polemic, 337: “The kernel of the story is that a Jew named Lubīd ibn al-Aʿṣām (or his daughters) once bewitched (saḥara) Muḥammad in a manner very similar to the one described here – including the use of needles and a well – and for this reason God revealed these two sūrahs, the reciting of which cured Muḥammad.”

382 For this account see al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī, 8:124: “The Messenger of God said during the illness from which he died – the mother of Bishr b. al-Barāʾ had come in to visit him – ‘Umm Bishr, at this very moment I feel my aorta being severed because of the food I ate with your son at Khaybar’. The Muslims believed that in addition to the honor of prophethood that God had granted him the Messenger of God died a martyr.”

383 Q 41:42. Ibn Rajāʾ interprets this passage not in reference to scripture, as it appears, but to Muḥammad – falsehood cannot approach him from the front or back.

384 See Q 8:9: “When you appealed to your Lord for help, He answered you: ‘I will aid you with a thousand angels in a file’.” The canonical hadith and commentaries make the claim he was watched over by an angel in reference to Q 111. They also mention seventy thousand angels watching over the sick due to prayer. See Juynboll, ECH, 55.

Chapter 29⁴⁷⁵

 [220] On verses contradicting others and the hadith.

[221] He said to them in sura “The Cow”: “They ask you about alcohol and gambling. Say: ‘In them is great sin, yet [some] benefits for the people’.”⁴⁷⁶ The word “gambling,” in their view, [refers to] “betting.” He said that alcohol is beneficial to people for diseases that afflict them, such as for treatments that they had no choice but to add wine to them. However, what is the point of gambling, that he gave you some license in it? How does gambling benefit bodies for medicine and treatments, such as alcohol’s benefit? This is stupidity and lack of discernment in one who would make gambling’s benefit equivalent to alcohol’s benefit.

[222] He said in sura “The Heights”: “Say: My Lord has indeed forbidden immoralities – what is apparent of them and what is concealed – and sin.”⁴⁷⁷ He taught them in his statement about alcohol and gambling that they are a sin and sin is forbidden. He said in sura “The Table”: “Rather, alcohol, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone altars, and divining arrows are defilement from Satan’s work, so avoid it.”⁴⁷⁸ So he taught them in what came prior in this sura that it is forbidden and he commanded them to avoid it.

[223] Then he said to them in sura “The Bees” what contradicts all of this. It is his statement: “And from the fruits of the palm trees and grapevines, you shall take an intoxicant and good provision.”⁴⁷⁹ So he praised alcohol to them in this sura and presented it as a good thing for them. He commanded them to make use of it because he said “you shall take” and this is a command. After he commanded them, then he said “an intoxicant and good provision.” But this contradicted what preceded about forbidding it for them. He said in sura “The Cattle” what proves to them that it is not forbidden, when he says: “Say: I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it, unless it is carrion or blood or pork flesh – it is impure – or it is [slaughtered in] disobedience, without [invoking] God.”⁴⁸⁰ So he taught them that its taste was clearly permissible for the people, except for blood and carrion and pork flesh and whatever was sacrificed to something other than God [i.e., idol sacrifices]. [The term] “tasting,” in their view, includes eating and drinking. So he prohibited it for them in [some] places, and he permitted it for them in [other] places. This is a contradiction and a disagreement with that.

[224] You reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd that he said: “I was with Muḥammad during some of his travels and the time of prayer came. He commanded me to bring him something to cleanse with. So I said: ‘Is alcohol [acceptable]?’ He replied: ‘Alcohol is good and water is pure’. So he used it to cleanse for prayer. Then I said to him: ‘What do you say about drinking it, God’s Messenger?’ He replied: ‘It is permitted and allowed; there is no problem with it, unless [drinking] leads you to mixing [with women] and reprehensible deeds’.”⁴⁸¹

[225] You report from your prophet that he abluted and prayed with it. As for your ignorant ones, if one of them spills wine upon his clothing, it is not permitted for him to pray in it, until he would soak it with water.⁴⁸² The most ignorant among them are not convinced by that demonstration or examining it in detail. They did not act according to the Qurʾan, nor in taking their prophet as an example in using [alcohol] to cleanse for prayer. Not all Muslims forbid alcohol. But Abū Ḥanīfa – and his name is al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit⁴⁸³ – and he is the jurist of the Iraqi people, he did not forbid that as long as its drinker did not become drunk from it.⁴⁸⁴ As for drunkenness, it is forbidden according to him. This ruling is considered trustworthy and closer to hitting the mark than his opponents’ opinion.

[226] Following him about his ruling is Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan,⁴⁸⁵ and Abū Yūsuf al-Qādī,486 and Shurāḥbīl ibn Abī Yaman,⁴⁸⁷ and Sufyān al-Thawrī,⁴⁸⁸ and Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna,⁴⁸⁹ and Yaḥyā ibn Aktham al-Qāḍī,⁴⁹⁰ and Ḥammād ibn [Abī] Sulaymān,⁴⁹¹ and al-Aʿmash,⁴⁹² and Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind,⁴⁹³ and the rest of the Iraqi people, and whoever agrees with their rulings. It was reported from another source that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb used to drink [alcohol] and he condoned whoever permitted its drinking using the verse which was mentioned in sura “The Bee”⁴⁹⁴ and the verse which is in sura “The Cattle.”⁴⁹⁵ The hadith and the previously mentioned [examples] were contradicted by what came after it, which was his statement: “Do not come to prayer when you are drunk until you know what you are saying.”⁴⁹⁶ This is a contradiction and an inconsistency, a verse is contradicted by logical analogy

475 This chapter is about alcohol and gambling in the Qurʾan and contends that Muslims apply inconsistent legal rulings regarding alcohol consumption. The fact that alcohol was being consumed by Muslims is assumed by Q 4:43 that forbids praying while drunk.

476 Q 2:219.

477 Q 7:33.

478 Q 5:90.

479 Q 16:67.

480 Q 6:145.

481 The source of this account, except for the final statement of permissibility for wine, is found in Ibn Mājah, Sunan Ibn Mâjah, 1:306–307 (Book 1, #384–385). There are other hadith accounts that wine can be mixed with water for ablutions prior to prayer. See for instance the examples in Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abu Dawud, 1:71–72 (Book 1, Chapter 42 “Wuḍūʾ using al-Nabīdh,” #84, 86).

482 The rule that a Muslim should not pray in clothing that has been dirtied comes from a number of hadith accounts.

483 On Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit (d. 767), the founder of the Ḥanafī school, see Sezgin, GAS, 409–419; EI², 1:123.

484 According to the Ḥanīfī school, alcohol derived from grapes or dates was forbidden. However, alcohol from other sources such as honey, barley, wheat, or millet would be acceptable since they are not khamr or nabīdh. Even wine (nabīdh) was permitted for medical necessity. Clearly this understanding was exercised at the time at which Ibn Rajāʾ was writing and continues to be a point of dispute even today among Muslims. See “Khamr,” EI² 4:994–996.

485 Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī (d. 805); Sezgin, GAS, 421–433.

486 Abū Yūsuf al-Qādī (d. 798); Sezgin, GAS, 419–421.

487 Shurāḥbīl ibn Abī Yaman (d. 741); Sezgin, GAS, 279.

488 On Sufyān al-Thawrī, see Sezgin, GAS, 518–519; EI², 9:770.

489 On Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna, see Sezgin, GAS, 96; EI², 9:772.

490 On Yaḥyā ibn Aktham al-Qādī (d. 857), see Wafik Nasry,“Abū Qurrah, al-Maʾmūn and Yaḥyā ibn al-Aktham,” Parole de l’Orient 32 (2007): 285–290.

491 Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān (d. 738); Sezgin, GAS, 404–405.

492 Sulaymān ibn Mihrān al-Asadī al-Aʿmash (d. 765); ei2, 1:431. 493 Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind (d. 754/5 or 756/7); EI², 1:104. 494 Q 16:67.

495 Q 6:145.

496 Q 4:43.

[An Addition]

[251] “Verses contradicted by other verses” was found at the end of that [work].

[252] He said in sura “Mary” – and it [begins] “kāf, haʾ, yāʾ, ʿayn, ṣād” – “When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be’, and it is.”⁵¹⁴ Then they came up with its opposite; they said: “God has set a seal upon their hearts.”⁵¹⁵ In addition: “We have placed over their hearts coverings, lest they understand it.”⁵¹⁶ Their claim is that they only worship him and between [this statement and] his setting a seal upon their hearts, there is a great inconsistency. In addition, “They say: God has taken a son. Exalted is He! Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the Heavens and the earth. All are devoutly obedient to Him.”⁵¹⁷ Then they came up with what contradicted that, since they said they strayed from their way: “Perish the man; how unbelieving is he.”⁵¹⁸ So where did the straying and the unbelief come from, if all of them were devoutly obedient to Him? Verses are contradicted by other verses.

[253] They said: “And the soul and He who proportioned it, and inspired it to its wickedness and its righteousness,” in sura “The Sun.”⁵¹⁹ In addition: “Whoever God guides – he is the guided; and whoever He sends astray – it is those who are the losers.”⁵²⁰ In addition: “Whoever God sends astray – there is no guide for him. And He leaves them in their transgression, wandering blindly.”⁵²¹ In addition: “He guides whoever He wills and He leads astray whoever He wills.”⁵²² In addition: “And if We had willed, We could have given every soul its guidance, but the word from Me will come into effect, [that]I will surely fill Gehenna with jinn and people all together.”⁵²³ So this tells that He is the one who inspired them to wickedness and righteousness, and He is the one who leads them astray and He is the one who guides and that if He [only] wants, then He guides.

[254] Praise is due to Him, glory forever, Amen.

The Exposer’s Book in Truth and its testimony is finished and completed. Many thanks be to God, the possessor of might and power, forever and ever unto the ages of ages. Amen, Amen, Amen.

514 Q 19:35.

515 Q 2:7.

516 Q 18:57.

517 Q 2:116.

518 Q 80:17.

519 Q 91:7–8.

520 Q 7:178. 521 Q 7:186.

522 Q 35:8; however, this citation reverses the phrasing of Q 35:8.

523 Q 32:13.

FURTHER READING

Logical Consistency (no contradictions within the Qur’an).

A LIST OF QURAN CONTRADICTIONS, PT. 2

QURANIC ERRORS AND SHIRK GALORE!

THE CONTRADICTIONS OF SUNN ISLAM’S SAHIH NARRATIONS

The Sirah and Ahadith: The Foundation of the Quran

The Manifold Contradictions of the Quran

A Quran Blunder: The Days and Order of Creation

Allah, Adam, and the Angels

Allah’s Violation of His Own Teachings Pt. 1

Is Satan an angel or a jinn?

Does Allah command to do evil? 

Quran Inconsistency: Does Allah sanction and permit lust or not?

Who Was the First Muslim? 

Will people stay in Hell forever, or not?

Will all Muslims go to Hell?

QURAN ONLY DILEMMA: HOW MANY PATHS TO PARADISE?

To Intercede or Not To Intercede? – That is the Question! 

How the Islamic Doctrine of Intercession undermines Allah’s Omniscience

Abrogated Verses Of the Quran

Abrogation in the Koran

The Problem of Abrogation in the Quran

Abolishing what Satan proposes? — A Fresh Look at the Reason for Abrogation in the Quran

Muhammad and the Splitting of the Moon

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

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

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

What makes Ibn Raja’s refutation so remarkable is that he employs the very same Quranic texts, ahadith and objections which Christian apologists employ till this very day. Ibn Raja’s polemic illustrate the old adage that there truly is nothing new under the sun.

In this post I will be excerpting the segment of Ibn Raja’s appeal to the Quran in defense of the preservation of the Torah and the Gospel. I will be citing from David Bertaina’s translation titled Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ The Fatimid Egyptian Convert Who Shaped Christian Views of Islam (Arabic Christianity: Texts and Studies, 4) (English and Arabic Edition), published by Brill in 2022, pp. 113-121. All emphasis will be mine.

Chapter 2

[16] The refutation against whoever says that the Torah and the Gospel have been altered.³⁵

[17] Suppose someone says: “Moses brought news about him in the Torah, and Christ brought news about him in the Gospel, but you altered the Gospel and corrupted it, and likewise the Jews altered the Torah and changed it.”³⁶ We answer them about that saying to them: “When do you claim the Torah and the Gospel were altered?”

[18] Now if one of them says: “The Torah was altered after Moses’ death and the Gospel after Christ’s ascension,” then this is the Qurʾan’s answer which annuls it clearly, because it claims about God that he said in the Qurʾan in sura “Jonah”: “If you are in doubt about what we have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you.”³⁷ If what he says about altering the Torah and the Gospel is true – and they are lies – then he has brought an accusation against God for commanding [Muḥammad] to ask the liars. How can those intellectuals not comprehend this clear impossibility! For he claims that God informed him that the Torah had been altered after Moses and likewise the Gospel, and they are lies. Then after that he brought an accusation against God for commanding [Muḥammad] that if he was in doubt about what He revealed to him, [then] he should ask those who were reading the Scripture before him, and they are the Christians and the Jews. How can it be that, according to him, they are liars at the beginning of the conversation and they are telling the truth at the end of the conversation!

[19] How can one who proclaims prophethood express doubt in God with these false assertions which he claims, since he says: “I am the master of the children of Adam, among the prophets and martyrs and the righteous.”³⁸ And were it not for him, “God would not have created the Heavens or the earth or anything between them.”³⁹ What was added to his claims was that he ascended to seven Heavens, [and the distance] between each Heaven was a five-hundred year march.⁴⁰ He saw some of the miracles in it, which I will mention in my book in another place, God willing. How can [Muḥammad], who was in this glorious state, and the angels and the messengers appeared to him, and he spoke to God directly, and [God] put his hand between his shoulders until [Muḥammad] felt its coolness in his chest⁴¹ – according to his impossible allegation – have had doubts about God? If he did not believe all of this, and his soul was not comforted until God commanded him to ask the liars to remove his doubts at that time, then this is weakness and ignorance. If these [Jews and Christians] were not liars but they were telling the truth, and it was for their sincerity that [God] commanded him to ask them so it would strengthen his weak soul at that time, then why did he associate them with lying and [claim] that they altered what they embrace from the Torah and the Gospel?

[20] There is a proof even better than this which demonstrates the confusion of his claims, where it says in sura “The Table”⁴² that the Jews appealed to him for a legal decision. That matter was before Abū Hurayra⁴³ – whose name was ʿAbd Shams or it is said ʿAbd Nahm⁴⁴ or it is said “Grasshopper” – whom Muḥammad appointed to judge between the people. So the Jews opposing each other came to him. He said: “I cannot judge between you until I ask Muḥammad,” so he went to him. Then he said to him: “The Jews have come as litigants and I will not judge between them without your permission.” He said to him: “God has revealed to me in sura “The Table” concerning the Jews, saying, ‘If they come to you, then judge between them or turn away from them. If you turn away from them, they will never harm you at all. If you judge between them, judge with equity, for God loves those who act with equity. How can they ask you for judgment when they have the Torah and God’s judgment is in it?’”⁴⁵ Muḥammad had already testified to that, namely that the Torah had God’s judgment in his time and that it was not altered. So if you claim that it was altered after Moses’ death, then you have made God into a liar in his words. It already mentioned in Muḥammad’s time that [the Torah] contains God’s judgment as well. So now, your claim that the Torah and the Gospel are altered is invalidated.

[21] Another proof is where it says in surat “al-Ḥijr”: “It is we who revealed the reminder and we will indeed be its guardian.”⁴⁶ For you, the Torah and the Gospel are the revealed reminder.⁴⁷ If that has been altered, then it has nullified God’s protection for them. You made a liar of God in his statement, “We will indeed be its guardian.”⁴⁸ If that [Scripture] was not altered, and you returned to the truth and would yield to it, then [you would acknowledge that] we did not find any mention of your companion in it nor that which can establish the proof of his prophethood or anything else; only what our Lord Christ says in the pure Gospel, where he says: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their actions.”⁴⁹ The exalted and elevated one also said in the Gospel that on the Day of Resurrection, the false prophets will say to him: “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name?” Then he will declare to them, “Truly I tell you, I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”⁵⁰ And he said – exalted be his name – in another place: “Do not follow the religion of the Ḥunafāʾ⁵¹ and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans.” He told us that the religion of the Ḥunafāʾ is like the Samaritans’ religion, and he told us to be wary of the religion of the Ḥunafāʾ just as he told us to be wary of the Samaritans’ and Jews’ religions.

[22] Adding to that, he told us that John the son of Zechariah was the seal of the prophets.⁵² There is no prophet after him, because the prophets are twenty-four in number, the first of them was Moses and the last of them was John the son of Zechariah. Some of these prophets talked to God directly, and some of them received [God’s message] through his pure angels, and some of them spoke through the Holy Spirit. They foretold the incarnation of our Lord Christ from the pure Virgin, and her pregnancy with him and her birth-giving and his life with the people, and what happened to him from his enemies the accursed Jews, from his crucifixion and his death and his piercing and his burial and his resurrection and his ascension. Every one of them foretold what God favored him with, which was perfectly complete, and they did not contradict one another. The blessed and exalted one accomplished these things one after another in order to fulfill all of the prophecies.

[23] An example of that is if a king wanted to march, his troops would go before him. So they would announce that the king is going to come after them. When they march all together, the king would come after them and confirm that their statement was true. In the same fashion, all the prophets prophesied about our Lord Christ. Then he came after them so he confirmed their prophecies. Then the prophecies ceased after him. No prophet will appear with a sign or a proof except for the false prophets about whom our Lord Christ informed us.

35 This verse and the theme of corruption (taḥrīf) became part of an extensive discussion in the hadith and fiqh literature on the permissibility of consulting the People of the Book regarding their sources, doctrines, and laws.

36 The Islamic claim that the Bible originally had references to Muḥammad which Jews and Christians subsequently altered in their texts is found in places such as Q 61:6 and Q 26:196–197. Muslims believed Muḥammad was referred to as the prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15, the camel rider in Isaiah 21:7, and the Advocate/Paraclete mentioned in John 14–16.

37 Q 10:94. Throughout the treatise, Ibn Rajāʾ uses the first line of a sura for its title.

38 This reference is based upon a hadith on the authority of Abū Hurayra on the virtues of Muḥammad: “I will be the leader of the sons of Adam on the Day of Resurrection.” See the Arabic text and English translation in Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: English Translation of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 7 vols., ed. Abū Ṭāhir Zubayr ʿAlī Zaʾī, Nasiruddin Khattab, Huda Khattab, and Abū Khalīl (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2007), 6:134 (Book 43, #5940). The hadith is also found in the collection (Arabic text and English translation) of Abū Dāwūd, English Translation of Sunan Abu Dawud, 5 vols., ed. Abū Ṭāhir Zubayr ʿAlī Zaʾī (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2008), 5:195 (Book 39 #4673).

39 Q 32:4.

40 The scribe notes that this incident is alluded to in al-Mirāj Q 17:1. This topic is analyzed in chapter 30 later.

41 He is referring to a hadith relating a dream Muḥammad had in which this event took place, according to Ibn ʿAbbās. See al-Tirmidhī, Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī, 5:540–541 (Book 44, #3233). See also the text and translation in Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, English Translation of Musnad Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal, 3 vols., ed. Nasiruddin Khattab and Huda Khattab (Riyadh: Darussalam, 2012), 3:238–239 (#3484).

42 Q 5.

43 On Abū Hurayra al-Dawsī (d. 678/681), see EI², 1:129.

44 Both manuscripts give his nickname as ʿAbd al-Fahm, or “Servant of Understanding.”

45 Q 5:42–43.

46 Q 15:9.

47 The title of al-dhikr given to earlier scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel as a “recollection” or “remembrance” that the Qurʾan recalls in its verses is well known. See for instance Griffith, The Bible in Arabic, 54–96.

48 The Latin version also adds: “Therefore God always preserved the testimony of His scripture among His faithful before Muḥammad and will preserve it incorrupt after. Indeed how could the Christians and the Jews, who oppose each other in the extreme – both the former and the latter – everywhere have falsified their holy scripture in the same way (and these falsifiers before God stand in the hatred of Muḥammad), while dispersed throughout the world by the decree of the centuries? For either this happened secretly, and some codex would have remained intact, or it was publicly well-known, and these things would not have been concealed from the histories of the nations.” See Burman, Religious Polemic, 254–257.

49 Matthew 7:15.

50 Matthew 7:22–23.

51 Matthew 10:5. The Arabic word ḥunafāʾ has a double meaning here. It refers to pagan religions of the ancient gentiles, but also refers in coded terms to Muslims.

52 Note that Ibn Rajāʾ appropriates this Islamic title for Muḥammad (khātam al-anbiyāʾ) for use in his Christian theological argument.

Here are the passages which Ibn Raja cites to show how the Quran confirms the textual incorruptibility and authority of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures:

Listeners for the sake of falsehood! Greedy for illicit gain! If then they have recourse unto thee (Muhammad) judge between them or disclaim jurisdiction. If thou disclaimest jurisdiction, then they cannot harm thee at all. But if thou judgest, judge between them with equity. Lo! Allah loveth the equitable. How come they unto thee for judgment when they have the Torah, wherein Allah hath delivered judgment (for them)? Yet even after that they turn away. Such (folk) are not believers. Lo! We did reveal the Torah, wherein is guidance and a light, by which the prophets who surrendered (unto Allah) judged the Jews, and the rabbis and the priests (judged) by such of Allah’s Scripture as they were bidden to observe, and thereunto were they witnesses. So fear not mankind, but fear Me. And barter not My revelations for a little gain. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are disbelievers. And We prescribed for them therein: The life for the life, and the eye for the eye, and the nose for the nose, and the ear for the ear, and the tooth for the tooth, and for wounds retaliation. But whoso forgoeth it (in the way of charity) it shall be expiation for him. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are wrong-doers.

And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah – a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil). Let the People of the Gospel judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are evil-livers.

And unto thee have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between them by that which Allah hath revealed, and follow not their desires away from the truth which hath come unto thee. For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto Allah ye will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ. S. 5:43-48

And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read the Scripture (that was) before thee. Verily the Truth from thy Lord hath come unto thee. So be not thou of the waverers. S. 10:94

Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian. S. 15:9

And here all the places where the Holy Bible is called the reminder (al-dhikr):

And We sent not (as Our messengers) before thee other than men whom We inspired – Ask the followers of the Remembrance if ye know not! – S. 16:43

And We sent not (as Our messengers) before thee other than men, whom We inspired. Ask the followers of the Reminder if ye know not? S. 21:7

And verily we have written in the Scripture, after the Reminder: My righteous slaves will inherit the earth: S. 21:105

And We verily gave Moses the guidance, and We caused the Children of Israel to inherit the Scripture, A guide and a reminder for men of understanding. S. 40:53-54

All quranic citations are taken from Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall’s version.

I have more from Ibn Rajal in the next part: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 2.

FURTHER READING

What the Qur’an says about the Bible (overview page)

The meaning and implications of Sura 10:94 and Sura 15:9

Muhammad the compromiser and doubter

Muhammad the Compromiser and Doubter 

Sura 10:94 and Muhammad’s doubts 

Does the Quran confirm the Bible and the Canonical Gospels?

The Quran’s Confirmation of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures

Does Taurat Refer Only to the Revelation Given to Moses?

The Muhammadan Fraud That Was Ahmed Deedat: Which Bible?

THE QURAN’S CONFIRMATION OF THE HOLY BIBLE REVISITED

AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO MUSLIMS CONCERNING THE BIBLE

NOTES FOR THE LIVESTREAM ON ADNAN RASHID AND HIS MISUSE OF Q. 5:48

Refuting One Muhammadan’s Rabbit Trails

THE QURAN’S GOSPEL

THE GOSPEL THAT IS WITH THEM

THE QURAN ON INSCRIPTURATION

MATERIAL FOR THE ANDANI DISCUSSION

A Docile Beast Falsifies the Quran: How A Sheep Trumped Allah and His “Messenger”!

The Hadith of the Goat and Adult Suckling

For instance, Muhammad forbade Ali from marrying other women since it angered and hurt his daughter Fatima:

9 The Chapters on Marriage

(56) Chapter: Jealousy

It was narrated that Mishwar bin Makhramah said:

“I heard the Messenger of Allah when he was on the pulpit, say: ‘Banu Hisham bin Mughirah asked me for permission to marry their daughter to ‘Ali bin Abu Talib, but I will not give them permission, and I will not give them permission, and I will not give them permission, unless ‘Ali bin Abu Talib wants to divorce my daughter and marry their daughter, for she is a part of me, and what bothers her bothers me, and what upsets her upsets me.”

Grade: Sahih (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 1998

In-book reference: Book 9, Hadith 154

English translation: Vol. 3, Book 9, Hadith 1998 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/9/154)

Fatima herself went to her father to complain about his empathy towards her feelings in order to manipulate him to stop Ali from take another spouse:

9 The Chapters on Marriage

(56) Chapter: Jealousy

‘Ali bin Husain said that Miswar bin Makhramah told him that:

‘Ali bin Abu Talib proposed to the daughter of Abu Jahl, when he was married to Fatimah the daughter of the Prophet. When Fatimah heard of that she went to the Prophet, and said: “Your people are saying that you do not feel angry for your daughters. This ‘Ali is going to marry the daughter of Abu Jahl.” Miswar said: “The Prophet stood up, and I heard him when he bore witness (i.e., said the Shahadah), then he said: ‘I married my daughter (Zainab) to Abul-As bin Rabi’, and he spoke to me and was speaking the truth. Fatimah bint Muhammad is a part of me, and I hate to see her faced with troubles. By Allah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah and the daughter of the enemy of Allah will never be joined together in marriage to one man.” He said: So, ‘Ali abandoned the marriage proposal.

Grade: Sahih (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 1999

In-book reference: Book 9, Hadith 155

English translation: Vol. 3, Book 9, Hadith 1999 (https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/9/155)

And yet Muhammad had no qualms in gratifying his sexual desires by taking multiple women, even ones who shamefully offered themselves to him for the sole purpose of having sex with them:

O Prophet, We have made lawful for thee thy wives whom thou hast given their wages and what thy right hand owns, spoils of war that God has given thee, and the daughters of thy uncles paternal and aunts paternal, thy uncles maternal and aunts maternal, who have emigrated with thee, and any woman believer, if she give herself to the Prophet and if the Prophet desire to take her in marriage, for thee exclusively, apart from the believers — We know what We have imposed upon them touching their wives and what their right hands own — that there may be no fault in thee; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. Thou mayest put off whom thou wilt of them, and whom thou wilt thou mayest take to thee; and if thou seekest any thou hast set aside there is no fault in thee. So it is likelier they will be comforted, and not sorrow, and every one of them will be well-pleased with what thou givest her. God knows what is in your hearts; God is All-knowing, All-clement. S. 33:50-51 Arberry

This caused specific Muslim women such as Aisha to frown upon these females for having no class or respect for themselves for boldly proposing to Muhammad:  

Thabit said:

“We were sitting with Anas bin Malik, and a daughter of his was with him. Anas said: ‘A woman came to the Prophet and offered herself to him. She said: “O Messenger of Allah, do you have any need of me?”‘ His daughter said: ‘How little modesty she had!’ He said: ‘She was better than you, because she wanted (to marry) the Messenger of Allah, and she offered herself to him.”

Grade: Sahih (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 2001

In-book reference: Book 9, Hadith 157

English translation: Vol. 3, Book 9, Hadith 2001 (https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:2001)

And:

9 The Chapters on Marriage

(57) Chapter: The woman who offered herself (in marriage) to the Prophet

It ‘was narrated from Hisham bin ‘Urwah, from his father that ‘Aishah used to say:

“Wouldn’t a woman feel too shy to offer herself to the Prophet?” Until Allah revealed; “You (O Muhammad) can postpone (the turn of) whom you will of them (your wives), and you may receive whom you will.” She said: “Then I said: ‘Your Lord is quick to make things easy for you.”‘

Grade: Sahih (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 2000

In-book reference: Book 9, Hadith 156

English translation: Vol. 3, Book 9, Hadith 2000 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:2000)

65 Prophetic Commentary on the Qur’an (Tafseer of the Prophet)

(7) The Statement of Allah the Most High: “You (O Muḥammad) can postpone (the turn of) whom you will of them (your wives), and you may receive whom you will. And whomsoever you desire of those whom you have set aside (her turn temporarily), it is no sin on you (to receive her again)…” (V.33:51)

Narrated Aisha:

I used to look down upon those ladies who had given themselves to Allah’s Messenger and I used to say, “Can a lady give herself (to a man)?” But when Allah revealed: “You (O Muhammad) can postpone (the turn of) whom you will of them (your wives), and you may receive any of them whom you will; and there is no blame on you if you invite one whose turn you have set aside (temporarily).’ (33.51) I said (to the Prophet), “I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires.”

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 4788

In-book reference: Book 65, Hadith 310

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 6, Book 60, Hadith 311 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4788)

The following report from Aisha highlights the pain and disappointment that Muhammad’s wives felt due to his selfish pursuit of multiple women for the sole gratification of his sexual lusts:

65 Prophetic Commentary on the Qur’an (Tafseer of the Prophet)

(7) The Statement of Allah the Most High: “You (O Muḥammad) can postpone (the turn of) whom you will of them (your wives), and you may receive whom you will. And whomsoever you desire of those whom you have set aside (her turn temporarily), it is no sin on you (to receive her again)…” (V.33:51)

Narrated Mu`adha:

`Aisha said, “Allah’s Messenger used to take the permission of that wife with whom he was supposed to stay overnight if he wanted to go to one other than her, after this Verse was revealed:– “You (O Muhammad) can postpone (the turn of) whom you will of them (your wives) and you may receive any (of them) whom you will; and there is no blame on you if you invite one whose turn you have set aside (temporarily). (33.51) I asked Aisha, “What did you use to say (in this case)?” She said, “I used to say to him, “If I could deny you the permission (to go to your other wives) I would not allow your favor to be bestowed on any other person.”

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 4789

In-book reference: Book 65, Hadith 311

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 6, Book 60, Hadith 312 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4789)

Muhammad was truly a vile, womanizing sexual deviant and false prophet who failed to practice what he preached.

FURTHER READING

Muhammad’s Inconsistency (in making laws binding upon the Muslim community but granting exceptions to himself)

The Prophet of Sensuality and Inconsistency

Muhammad the Womanizing Sensualist

Muhammad’s Christian Sex-Slave

Muhammad’s Adulterous Lust for a Married Woman

Was Mariya the Wife or Concubine of the Prophet?

More of Muhammad’s Inconsistencies

Muhammad’s Multiple Marriages: A Dawagandist Seeks to Defend the Indefensible

Muhammad’s Multiplicity of Marriages

An Examination of Muhammad’s Marriage Privileges

Muhammad and the treatment of wives

Never Shall He Be Satisfied: Responding to one Muslim Polemicist’s Defense of Muhammad’s Multiple Marriages

(9) Chapter: The permissibility of Nabidh so long as it has not become strong and has not become intoxicating

Ibn ‘Abbas reported that Nabidh was prepared for Allah’s Messenger in the beginning of the night and he would drink it in the morning and the following night and the following day and the night after that up to the afternoon. If anything was left out of that he gave it to his servant, or gave orders for it to be poured out.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2004a

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 100

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4971 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2004a)

Ibn ‘Abbas reported that Nabidh was prepared for Allah’s Messenger in the waterskin, Shu’ba said:

It was the night of Monday. He drank it on Monday and on Tuesday up to the afternoon, and If anything was left out of it he gave it to his servant or poured it out.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2004b

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 101

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4972 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2004b)

Ibn Abbas reported that raisins were steeped in water for the Messenger of Allah and he would drink it on that day and on the next day and on the following day until the evening of the third day. He would then order it to be drunk by (other people) or to be thrown away.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2004c

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 102

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4973 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2004c)

Ibn Abbas reported that Nabidh was prepared from raisins for Allah’s Messenger in the waterskin and he would drink it on that day and on the next day and the day following and when It was the evening of the third day, and he would drink it and give it to (his Companions) and if something was left over, he threw that away.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2004d

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 103

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4974 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2004d)

Yahya Abu ‘Umar al-Nakhai reported that some people asked Ibn Abbas about the sale and purchase of wine and its commerce. He asked (them):

Are you Muslims? They said, Yes. Thereupon he said: Its sale and purchase and its trade are not permissible. They then asked him about Nabidh and he said: Allah’s Messenger went out on a journey and then came back and some persons amongst his Companions prepared Nabidh for him in green pitcher, hollow stump and gourd. He commanded it to be thrown away, and it was done accordingly. He then ordered them (to prepare it.) in a waterskin and it was prepared in that by steeping raisins in water, and it was prepared in the night. In the morning he drank out of that and on that day and then the next night, and then on the next day until the evening. He drank and gave others to drink. When it was morning (of the third night) he commanded what was left of that to be thrown away.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2004e

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 104

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4975 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2004e)

Thumama (i. e. Ibn Hazn al-Qushairi) reported:

I met ‘A’isha and asked her about Nabidh (that was served to the Holy Prophet). ‘A’isha called an Abyssinian maid (servant) and said: Ask her (about it) for it was he, who prepared the Nabidh for the Messenger of Allah. The Abyssinian (maid-servant) said: I prepared Nabidh for him in a waterskin in the night and tied its mouth and then suspended it; and when it was morning he (the Holy Prophet) drank from it.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2005a

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 105

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4976 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2005a)

‘A’isha reported:

We prepared Nabidh for Allah’s Messenger in a waterskin, the upper part of which was tied and it (the waterskin) had a hole (in its lower part). We prepared the Nabidh in the morning and he drank it in the evening and we prepared the Nabidh in the night, and he would drink it in the morning.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2005b

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 106

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4977 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2005a)

Sahl b. Sa’d reported that Abu Usaid al-Sa’idi invited Allah’s Messenger to his wedding feast, and his wife had been serving them on that day while yet a bride. Sahl said ‘ Do you know what she served as a drink to Allah’s Messenger? She steeped the dates in water during the night in a big bowl, and when he (the Holy Prophet) had eaten food she served him this drink.

Reference: Sahih Muslim 2006a

In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 107

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 4978 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/muslim:2006a)

Umar, Muhammad’s companion, father-in-law and Islam’s second caliph, actually loved this drink:

45 Madina

Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said from Abd ar- Rahman ibn al-Qasim that Aslam, the mawla of Umar ibn al-Khattab informed him that he had visited Abdullah ibn Ayyash al-Makhzumi. He saw that he had some nabidh with him and he was at that moment on the way to Makka. Aslam said to him, ”Umar ibn al-Khattab loves this drink.” Abdullah ibn Ayyash therefore carried a great drinking bowl and brought it to Umar ibn al-Khattab and placed it before him. Umar brought it near to him and then raised his head. Umar said, “This drink is good,” so he drank some of it and then passed it to a man on his right. When Abdullah turned to go, Umar ibn al-Khattab called him and asked, “Are you the person who says that Makka is better than Madina?” Abdullah said, “I said that it was the Haram of Allah, and His place of security, and His House was in it.” Umar said, “I am not saying anything about the House of Allah or His Haram.” Then Umar repeated “Are you the person who says that Makka is better than Madina?” He replied, “I said that it was the Haram of Allah and His place of security, and His House was in it.” Umar said, “I am not saying anything about the House of Allah and His Haram.” Then Abdullah left.

Sunnah.com reference: Book 45, Hadith 20

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 45, Hadith 21

Arabic reference: Book 45, Hadith 1620 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/malik/45/20)

Yahya related to me from Malik from Rabia ibn Abi Abd ar-Rahman that Abu Said alKhudri returned from a journey and his family gave him some meat. He asked whether it was meat from the sacrifice. They replied that it was. Abu Said said, “Didn’t the Messenger of Allah forbid that?” They said, “There has been a new command from the Messenger of Allah since you went away.” Abu Said went out and made enquiries about it and was told that the Messenger of Allah had said,” I forbade you before to eat meat of the sacrifice after three days, but now eat, give sadaqa and store up. I forbade you before to make nabidh (by soaking raisins or dates in water), but now make nabidh, but remember every intoxicant is haram. I forbade you to visit graves, but now visit them, and do not use bad language.”

Sunnah.com reference: Book 23, Hadith 8

USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 23, Hadith 8

Arabic reference: Book 23, Hadith 1038 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/malik/23/8)

To top it off, Muhammad even used Nabidh to perform ablution!

1 Purification (Kitab Al-Taharah)

(43) Chapter: Wudu’ Using An-Nabidh

Narrated Abdullah ibn Mas’ud:

AbuZayd quoted Abdullah ibn Mas’ud as saying that on the night when the jinn listened to the Qur’an the Prophet said: What is in your skin vessel? He said: I have some nabidh. He (the Holy Prophet) said: It consists of fresh dates and pure water.

Sulayman ibn Dawud reported the same version of this tradition on the authority of AbuZayd or Zayd. But Sharik said that Hammad did not mention the words “night of the jinn”.

Grade: Da’if (Al-Albani)

Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud 84

In-book reference: Book 1, Hadith 84

English translation: Book 1, Hadith 84 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/abudawud:84)

(37) Chapter: Performing ablution with Nabidh

It was narrated from ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud that:

On the night of the jinn, the Messenger of Allah said to him: “Do you have water for ablution?” He said: “No, I have nothing, but some Nabidh in a vessel.” He said: “Good dates and pure water (i.e. there is no harm from the mixing of the two).” So he performed ablution with it.

This is the narration of Waki’.

Grade: Da’if (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 384

In-book reference: Book 1, Hadith 118

English translation: Vol. 1, Book 1, Hadith 384 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:384)

It was narrated from ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abbas that:

On the night of the Jinn the Messenger of Allah said to Ibn Mas’ud: “Do you have water?” He said: “No, only some Nabidh in a large water skin.” The Messenger of Allah said: “Good dates and pure water.” (i.e. there is no harm from the mixing of the two.) Pour it for me.” He said: “So I performed ablution with it.”

Grade: Da’if (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 385

In-book reference: Book 1, Hadith 119

English translation: Vol. 1, Book 1, Hadith 385 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:385)

Ironically, the Shia sect along with the consensus of Sunni scholars and three of their four main schools (madhahib) of jurisprudence (e.g., Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) consider Nabidh as coming under the prohibition of wine and intoxicants, and therefore forbid its consumption. The only Sunni school which permits it is the Hanafi madhab:    

It can easily be seen that the difficulty in this matter was caused by two circumstances. People were accustomed to prepare from all kinds of dates, from raisins and other fruits, drinks which only became inebriating if they were preserved for a long time and probably also if they were prepared after special methods. Where was the line of demarcation between the allowed and the prohibited kind? Several collections of traditions went so far as to mention nabidh among the drinks prepared by Mohammed’s wives and drunk by him (Muslim, Ashriba, trad. 79-89; Ahmad, 1. 232 sq., 240, 287, 320 sq., 336, 355, 369, 372; ii. 35 iii. 304, 307, 313 sq., 326, 379, 384 etc.). Abu Da’ud (Ashriba, bab 10) and Ibn Madja (Ashriba, bab 12) have preserved a tradition on this subject which is instructive. I translate Ibn Madja’s version: Says A’isha: “We used to prepare nabidh for the Apostle of Allah in a skin; we took a handful of dates or a handful of raisins, cast it into the skin and poured water upon it. The nabidh we prepared in this way in the morning was drunk by him in the evening; and when we prepared it in the evening he drank: it the next morn-jug.” In another tradition of the same bab Ibn Abbas says that the Prophet used to drink this nabidh even on the third day; but what was left then was poured out.

All this could, however, not persuade the majority of the faqih’s to declare nabidh allowed; three of the madhab’s as well as the Shi’a prohibit the use of nabidh. The Hanafi school, on the other hand, allows it, when used with moderation, for medicinal purposes, etc.

It would take us too far to give here a detailed survey of the opinions of the faqih’s of the madhhab’s it would be superfluous, to some extent at least, because the more important differences regard chiefly nabidh only. The following rapid survey is based on the Fatawa ‘Alamgiri, vi. 604 sqq. (cf. Sha’rani’s Mizan, Cairo 1279, p. 192 sq.).

Allowed according to the idjma is every non-fermented, sweet drink.

Prohibited (haram), according to the idjma, are wine and sakar of every kind. As to the wine there are six cases: to drink it in any quantity or to make use of it is haram; to deny this is kufr; to buy, sell, present it, etc., is haram; no responsibility (diman) rests on him who spoils or destroys wine (mutlifha); whether wine is a possession (mal) is an unsettled point; it is nadjis just as blood and urine; who drinks any quantity of it is liable to punishment.

Several kinds of products prepared by means of grapes (badhik, munassaf , etc. are prohibited according to the majority of the faqih’s.

Allowed, according to the majority of the faqih’s are tila’ (vide supra) or muthallath and nabidh from dates with the restrictions mentioned above. So is juice from grapes when the process of cooking has made to evaporate two-thirds. (Wine in Islam; bold emphasis mine)

What this means is that, according to the Shia and majoriy of the Sunni ulema, Muhammad was a hypocrite who didn’t practice what he preached since he allowed himself and his companions to consume a fermented drink, which for all intents and purpose is no different than wine.

For a more thorough, detailed discussion on this point make sure to read the following: WINE CONSUMPTION: MUHAMMAD FINDS A LOOPHOLE!

FURTHER READING

Muhammad’s Inconsistency (in making laws binding upon the Muslim community but granting exceptions to himself)

The Quran’s Prohibition of Intoxicants

Wine: Good or bad? 

Fully Detailed Or Incomplete? 

Satan’s Handiwork in Allah’s Garden?

Muhammad’s Incorporation of Satan’s Handiwork

More of Shabir Ally’s Lies Exposed Pt. 1, Pt. 2

For instance, a man beat his wife so badly that he broke her arm in the process:

13 Divorce (Kitab Al-Talaq)

(734) Chapter: Regarding Khul’

Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu’minin: Habibah daughter of Sahl was the wife of Thabit ibn Qays Shimmas. He beat her and broke some of her part. So she came to the Prophet after morning, and complained to him against her husband. The Prophet called on Thabit ibn Qays and said (to him): Take a part of her property and separate yourself from her. He asked: Is that right, Messenger of Allah? He said: Yes. He said: I have given her two gardens of mine as a dower, and they are already in her possession. The Prophet said: Take them and separate yourself from her.

Grade: SAHIH (Al-Albani)

Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud 2228

In-book reference: Book 13, Hadith 54

English translation: Book 12, Hadith 2220 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/abudawud:2228; bold, capital and underline emphasis mine)

And:

27 The Book of Divorce

(53) Chapter: The ‘Iddah Of A Woman Separated By Khul’

Ar-Rubayy’ bint Mu’awwidh bin ‘Afra’ narrated that Thabit bin Qais bin Shammas hit his wife and broke her arm –her name was Jamilah bint ‘Abdullah bin Ubayy. Her brother came to the Messenger of Allah to complain about him, and the Messenger of Allah sent for Thabit and said: “Take what she owes you and let her go.” He said: “Yes.” And the Messenger of Allah ordered her to wait for one menstrual cycle and then go to her family.

Grade: Hasan (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan an-Nasa’i 3497

In-book reference: Book 27, Hadith 109

English translation: Vol. 4, Book 27, Hadith 3527 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/nasai:3497; bold and underline emphasis mine)

Despite the fact that Muhammad forced the man to divorce his wife for breaking her arm, this doesn’t imply that Muhammad condemned such excessive beating of women altogether. There are plentiful hadiths where either Muhammad himself or his followers inflicted harsh beatings on their women, to the extent that some of these wives ended up with physical bruises/marks on their bodies.

For instance, Muhammad physically hit his child-bride on her chest, which caused her great pain:

Muhammad b. Qais said (to the people): Should I not narrate to you (a hadith of the Holy Prophet) on my authority and on the authority of my mother? We thought that he meant the mother who had given him birth. He (Muhammad b. Qais) then reported that it was ‘A’isha who had narrated this: Should I not narrate to you about myself and about the Messenger of Allah? We said: Yes. She said: When it was my turn for Allah’s Messenger to spend the night with me, he turned his side, put on his mantle and took off his shoes and placed them near his feet, and spread the corner of his shawl on his bed and then lay down till he thought that I had gone to sleep. He took hold of his mantle slowly and put on the shoes slowly, and opened the door and went out and then closed it lightly. I covered my head, put on my veil and tightened my waist wrapper, and then went out following his steps till he reached Baqi’. He stood there and he stood for a long time. He then lifted his hands three times, and then returned and I also returned. He hastened his steps and I also hastened my steps. He ran and I too ran. He came (to the house) and I also came (to the house).

I, however, preceded him and I entered (the house), and as I lay down in the bed, he (the Holy Prophet) entered the (house), and said: Why is it, O ‘A’isha, that you are out of breath? I said: There is nothing. He said: Tell me or the Subtle and the Aware would inform me. I said: Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He STRUCK ME ON THE CHEST WHICH CAUSED ME PAIN, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you? She said: Whatsoever the people conceal, Allah will know it. He said: Gabriel came to me when you saw me. He called me and he concealed it from you. I responded to his call, but I too concealed it from you (for he did not come to you), as you were not fully dressed. I thought that you had gone to sleep, and I did not like to awaken you, fearing that you may be frightened. He (Gabriel) said: Your Lord has commanded you to go to the inhabitants of Baqi’ (to those lying in the graves) and beg pardon for them. I said: Messenger of Allah, how should I pray for them (How should I beg forgiveness for them)? He said: Say, Peace be upon the inhabitants of this city (graveyard) from among the Believers and the Muslims, and may Allah have mercy on those who have gone ahead of us, and those who come later on, and we shall, God willing, join you. (Sahih Muslim, Book 004, Hadith Number 2127)

Another woman was beaten so badly that she had a bruise on her body, which was greener than the green veil she was wearing!

Narrated ‘Ikrima: Rifa’a divorced his wife whereupon ‘AbdurRahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi married her. ‘Aisha said that the lady (came), wearing a green veil (and complained to her (Aisha) of her husband and showed her a green spot on her skin caused by beating). It was the habit of ladies to support each other, so when Allah’s Apostle came, ‘Aisha said, “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women. Look! Her skin is greener than her clothes!” When ‘AbdurRahman heard that his wife had gone to the Prophet, he came with his two sons from another wife. She said, “By Allah! I have done no wrong to him but he is impotent and is as useless to me as this,” holding and showing the fringe of her garment, ‘Abdur-Rahman said, “By Allah, O Allah’s Apostle! She has told a lie! I am very strong and can satisfy her but she is disobedient and wants to go back to Rifa’a.” Allah’s Apostle said, to her, “If that is your intention, then know that it is unlawful for you to remarry Rifa’a unless Abdur-Rahman has had sexual intercourse with you.” Then the Prophet saw two boys with ‘Abdur-Rahman and asked (him), “Are these your sons?” On that ‘AbdurRahman said, “Yes.” The Prophet said, “You claim what you claim (i.e. that he is impotent)? But by Allah, these boys resemble him as a crow resembles a crow.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 72, Number 715 http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=72&translator=1&start=0&number=715)

Here’s another English version of this narration:

5487. ‘Ikrima related that Rifa’a divorced his wife and then ‘Abdu’r-Rahman ibn az-Zubayr al-Qurazi married her. ‘A’isha said that she [came] wearing a green veil (khimar) and complained to her and showed her some greenness [from bruising] on her skin. The women at that time used to help one another. When the Messenger of Allah came, ‘A’isha said, “I have never seen any woman endure what the believing women endure! Her skin is greener than her clothes!” ‘Abdu’r-Rahman heard that she had gone to the Messenger of Allah so he came with two of his sons by another woman. She said, “By Allah, I have no wrong action in respect to him, but he is of no more use to me than this,” and she took hold of the fringe of her garment. ‘Abdu’r-Rahman said, “By Allah, she lies, Messenger of Allah! I am completely strong and potent enough, but she is disobedient and wants to go to Rifa’a!” The Messenger of Allah said, “If that is the case, you are not lawful to him (or proper for him, i.e. Rifa’a) until ‘Abdu’r-Rahman has experienced your sweetness.” He saw the two boys with him and asked, “Are these your sons? “Yes,” he answered. He said, “This is someone about whom you claim what you claim, but, by Allah, they resemble him as a crow resembles another crow!” (Aisha Bewley, The Sahih Collection of al-Bukhari, Chapter 80. The Book of Dress; bold emphasis mine)

Note carefully what Aisha says here. Muhammad’s child bride basically acknowledges that female Muslims were being oppressed and treated more severely than any other women that she knew of. Also note that instead of reprimanding the husband for hitting his wife so severely so as to bruise her body, Muhammad was more upset over the woman’s accusation that her husband was impotent!

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only time that Muhammad condoned and even sanctioned the beating of women. In the following narrative a man beats his wife for praying too much and Muhammad says nothing to rebuke him!

Narrated AbuSa’id al-Khudri:

A woman came to the Prophet while we were with him.

She said: Apostle of Allah, my husband, Safwan ibn al-Mu’attal, BEATS ME when I pray, and makes me break my fast when I keep a fast, and he does not offer the dawn prayer until the sun rises.

He asked Safwan, who was present, about what she had said. He replied: Apostle of Allah, as for her statement “he beats me when I pray”, she recites two surahs (during prayer) and I have prohibited her (to do so).

He (the Prophet) said: If one surah is recited (during prayer), that is sufficient for the people.

(Safwan continued:) As regards her saying “he makes me break my fast,” she dotes on fasting; I am a young man, I cannot restrain myself.

The Apostle of Allah said on that day: A woman should not fast except with the permission of her husband.

(Safwan said:) As for her statement that I do not pray until the sun rises, we are a people belonging to a class, and that (our profession of supplying water) is already known about us. We do not awake until the sun rises. He said: When you awake, offer your prayer.

Grade: SAHIH (Al-Albani)

Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud 2459

In-book reference: Book 14, Hadith 147

English translation: Book 13, Hadith 2453 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/abudawud/14/147; bold, capital and underline emphasis mine)

The next citation is quite interesting since it shows that there were times when Muhammad and Allah were at odds with each other:

(Men are in charge of women…) [4:34]. Said Muqatil: “This verse (Men are in charge of women…) was revealed about Sa‘d ibn al-Rabi‘, who was one of the leaders of the Helpers (nuqaba’), and his wife Habibah bint Zayd ibn Abi Zuhayr, both of whom from the Helpers. It happened Sa‘d HIT HIS WIFE ON THE FACE because she rebelled against him. Then her father went with her to see the Prophet. He said to him: ‘I gave him my daughter in marriage and he slapped her’. The Prophet said: ‘Let her have retaliation against her husband’. As she was leaving with her father to execute retaliation, the Prophet called them and said: ‘Come back; Gabriel has come to me’, and Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse. The Messenger of Allah said: ‘We wanted something while Allah wanted something else, and that which Allah wants is good’. Retaliation was then suspended”. Sa‘id ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Zahid informed us> Zahir ibn Ahmad> Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn Junayd> Ziyad ibn Ayyub> Hushaym> Yunus ibn al-Hasan who reported that a man slapped his wife and she complained about him to the Prophet. Her family who went with her said: “O Messenger of Allah! So-and-so has slapped our girl”. The Prophet kept saying: “Retaliation! Retaliation! And there is no other judgement to be held”. But then this verse (Men are in charge of women…) was revealed and the Prophet said: “We wanted something and Allah wanted something else”. Abu Bakr al-Harithi informed us> Abu’l-Shaykh al-Hafiz> Abu Yahya al-Razi> Sahl al-‘Askari> ‘Ali ibn Hashim> Isma‘il> al-Hasan who said: “Around the time when the verse on retaliation was revealed amongst the Muslims, a man had slapped his wife. She went to the Prophet and said: ‘My husband has slapped me and I want retaliation’. So he said: ‘Let there be retaliation’. As he was still dealing with her, Allah, exalted is He, revealed (Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other…). Upon which the Prophet said: ‘We wanted something and my Lord wanted something different. O man, take your wife by the hand’”. (‘Alī ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi, Asbab al-Nuzul https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=86&tSoraNo=4&tAyahNo=34&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2; bold, capital and underline emphasis mine)

Pay careful attention to the fact that this commentary plainly says that Q. 4:34 was “revealed” to justify and permit men to slap their wives in their faces, which refutes the oft-repeated lie that Islam forbids men from hitting their womenfolk severely, especially in their faces.

Muhammad’s own son-in-law and first cousin, Ali ibn Abu Talib, was another women beater. Here’s what he did to Aisha’s slave girl:

“As for ‘Ali he said: ‘Women are plentiful, and you can EASILY change one for another. Ask the slave girl; she will tell you the truth.’ So the apostle called Burayra to ask her, and ‘Ali got up and gave her A VIOLENT BEATING, saying, ‘Tell the apostle the truth’, to which she replied, ‘I only know good of her…’” (The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, with introduction and notes by Alfred Guillaume [Oxford University Press, Karachi, Tenth impression 1995], p. 496; bold and capital emphasis mine)

Ali not only severely beat women he also didn’t have a very high opinion of them since he felt they were quite expendable, easily replaceable!

To make matters worse, another of Muhammad’s companions had the reputation for being such a great woman beater!

Fatima bint Qais reported that her husband divorced her with three, pronouncements and Allah’s Messenger made no provision for her lodging and maintenance allowance. She (further said): Allah’s Messenger said to me: When your period of ‘Idda is over, inform me. So I informed him. (By that time) Mu’awiya, Abu Jahm and Usama b. Zaid had given her the proposal of marriage. Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: So far as Mu’awiya is concerned, he is a poor man without any property. So far as Abu Jahm is concerned, he is A GREAT BEATER OF WOMEN, but Usama b. Zaid… She pointed with her hand (that she did not approve of the idea of marrying) Usama. But Allah’s Messenger said: Obedience to Allah and obedience to His Messenger is better for thee. She said: So I married him, and I became an object of envy. (Sahih Muslim, Book 009, Number 3526 https://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=009&translator=2&start=0&number=3526)

And:

Fatima bint Qais reported: My husband Abu ‘Amr b. Hafs b. al-Mughira sent ‘Ayyish b. Abu Rabi’a to me with a divorce, and he also sent through him five si’s of dates and five si’s of barley… Thereupon Allah’s Apostle said: Mu’awiya is destitute and in poor condition and Abu’l-Jahm is very harsh with women (or he beats women, or like that), you should take Usama b. Zaid (as your husband). (Sahih Muslim, Book 009, Number 3527)

Finally:

Sunan Ibn Majah

The Chapters on Marriage

It was narrated that: Abu Bakr bin Abu Jahm bin Sukhair Al-Adawi said: “I heard Fatima bint Qays say: ‘The Messenger of Allah said to me: “When you become lawful, tell me.” So I told him.’ Then Muawiyah, Abu Jahm bin Sukhari and Usama bin Zaid proposed marriage to her. The Messenger of Allah said: ‘As for Muawiyah, he is a poor man who has no money. As from Abu Jahm he is a man WHO HABITUALLY BEATS WOMAN. But Usamah (is good).’ She gestured with her hand, saying: ‘Usamah, Usamah?’ The Messenger of Allah said to her: ‘Obedience to Allah and obedience to His Messenger is better for you.’ She said: ‘So I married him and I was pleased with hm.’”

Grade: SAHIH (Darussalam)

English reference: Vol. 3, Book 9, Hadith 1869

Arabic reference: Book 9, Hadith 1942 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/urn/1261870; capital and underline emphasis mine)

Instead of reprimanding Abu Jahm for beating women and for being harsh with them, Muhammad simply mentions these negative qualities in order to dissuade Fatima from marrying him!

As if this wasn’t disgusting enough, Muhammad expressly prohibited his followers from questioning a man who beats his wife:

9 The Chapters on Marriage

(51) Chapter: Hitting women

It was narrated that Ash’ath bin Qais said: “I was a guest (at the home) of ‘Umar one night, and in the middle of the night he went and hit his wife, and I separated them. When he went to bed he said to me: ‘O Ash’ath, learn from me something that I heard from the Messenger of Allah” A man should not be asked why he beats his wife, and do not go to sleep until you have prayed the Witr.”‘ And I forgot the third thing.”

Grade: HASAN (Darussalam)

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 1986

In-book reference: Book 9, Hadith 142

English translation: Vol. 3, Book 9, Hadith 1986 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1986; bold, capital and underline emphasis mine)

FURTHER READING

Muhammad and Wife Beating Pt. 1

Did Muhammad Permit Women to be Beaten and Mistreated?

ISLAM: THE RELIGION OF RAPE & ADULTERY

ALLAH’S MISOGYNY AND ABUSE OF WOMEN

Muhammad the Womanizing Sensualist

MUHAMMAD’S UNJUST AND IMMORAL RULES ON ADULTERY

Did You Know That Muhammad Was A Misogynist?

Never Shall He Be Satisfied

Muhammad’s Treatment of Sauda Bint Zamah

Sauda bin Zam’ah

On the other hand, there have been other Islamic groups (such as the Shia) that reject this assertion, arguing, instead, that the Quran is a part of creation. They argue that the Quran was brought into existence, and therefore has a beginning.   

The evidence of the Quran itself supports the latter position, since we find plentiful verses which speak of Allah making or creating the Muslim scripture.

Note, for instance, the following ayat:

We have made it (jaalnahu) a Qur’an in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand (and learn wisdom). S. 43:3 Y. Ali

Here’s how one lexicon defines the verb jaal:

Jiim-Ayn-Lam = He made a thing, he created/brought into being/existence. He made to be/become/constitute. He made to be in a altered state/condition. He pronounced a thing by a true judgement/decision/legal ordinance, his judgement. Described them as females, pronounced them to be females, He made known/plain, He exalted/ennobled/called/named (as in a nation) He inserted a thing into a thing (Ex: They put their fingers into their ears) He put into the heart/mind, He appointed/assigned/stipulated to give wages/pay/stipend. He set about/began/commenced/commenced/took to/betook himself to, doing such a thing; He persisted, a piece of rag with which a cooking pot is put down from the fire, short palm trees/shoots/offsets. (Project Roots List http://www.studyquran.co.uk/10_JIIM.htm; emphasis mine)

In fact, this specific Arabic term is used synonymously and/or interchangeably with the verb for create, khalaq, just as we see in the case of the next verse:  

Praise be God, Who created (khalaqa) the heavens and the earth, and made (wa’jaala) the darkness and the light. Yet those who reject Faith hold (others) as equal, with their Guardian-Lord. S. 6:1 Y. Ali  

Therefore, the Islamic text itself states plainly that it is something which Allah created/made. Nor is this the only place where it states this:

And thus have We, by Our Command, sent inspiration to thee: thou knewest not (before) what was Revelation, and what was Faith; but We have made (jaalnahu) the (Qur’an) a Light, wherewith We guide such of Our servants as We will; and verily thou dost guide (men) to the Straight Way, – S. 42:52 Y. Ali

Elsewhere, the Quran speaks of Allah making it a clear revelation:

Alif Lam Ra (This is) a Book, whose verses are made decisive (ohkimat), then are they made plain (thumma fussilat), from the Wise, All-aware: S. 11:1 Shakir

So have We made (yassarnahu) the (Qur’an) easy in thine own tongue, that with it thou mayest give Glad Tidings to the righteous, and warnings to people given to contention. S. 19:97 Y. Ali

A Book of which the verses are made plain (fussilat), an Arabic Quran for a people who know: S. 41:3 Shakir

And if WE had made it (jaalnahu) a Qur’an in a foreign tongue, they, surely, would have said, `Why have not its verses been made clear (fussilat)? What! a foreign tongue and an Arab Prophet?’ Say, `It is a guidance and a healing for those who believe.’ But as to those who believe not, there is a deafness in their ears and to them it is blindness. They are, as it were, being called from a far-off place.  S. 41:44 Sher Ali

And We have indeed made (yassarna) the Qur’an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition? S. 54:17 Y. Ali

The question that arises is, how can an uncreated word/revelation be made anything? For it to be made into something implies that it didn’t always exist in that condition, and, therefore, cannot be without a beginning.

To make matters worse, the Muslim scripture speaks of that which existed before it:

Thus do We relate to thee some stories of what happened before: for We have sent thee a Message from Our own Presence. S. 20:99 Y. Ali

We did indeed aforetime give the Book to Moses: be not then in doubt of its reaching (thee): and We made it (wa’jaalnahu) a guide to the Children of Israel. S. 32:23 Y. Ali

Note how the same verb jaal is employed for the composition/compilation of the revelation give to/through Moses.

And:

The Unbelievers say of those who believe: “If (this Message) were a good thing, (such men) would not have gone to it first, before us!” And seeing that they guide not themselves thereby, they will say, “this is an (old,) falsehood!” And before this (qablihi), was the Book of Moses as a guide and a mercy: And this Book confirms (it) in the Arabic tongue; to admonish the unjust, and as Glad Tidings to those who do right. S. 46:11-12 Y. Ali

Again, there can be no “before” when speaking of an uncreated reality/entity. Thus, if the Quran were beginningless then there could be nothing that was before it, since it would atemporal, i.e., without any temporality/time.

These are just some of the many texts which show that, contrary to Sunni beliefs, the Muslim “revelation” is not an uncreated attribute of the Islamic deity.

FURTHER READING

BUKHARI & THE UNCREATED QURAN

THE UNCREATED CREATED QURAN

The Quran As A Model For the Incarnation and Hypostatic Union Pt. 1

Revisiting The Issue of the Uncreated Quran Pt. 1

ETERNALLY CREATED TABLETS?

 THE TALKING QURAN: UTHMAN IBN FAROOQ’S LIES EXPOSED

MUHAMMADAN JALAL’S CENTENARIANITY EXPOSED

DEBATE CHALLENGE TO MUSLIM METAPHYSICIAN PT. 2

A Critique of Shabir Ally’s Debate Tactics Pt. 2a, Pt. 2b

 The following post is taken from Islam Question & Answer (IslamQA): How Tall Was Adam? All emphasis is mine.

How Tall Was Adam?

 20612

Publication: 28-02-2003

Views: 245550

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Question

In saheeh al-Bukhari hadith No. 246, Prophet Muhammad states that Adam was created 30m in height. I cannot understand and imagine this, can you please explain this to me?

Summary of answer

1- A Muslim is obliged to believe in every idea for which there is evidence in the Quran or the Sunnah. 2- The basic principle is to accept the absolute power of Allah. 3- Allah created Adam and he was sixty cubits tall. For more, please see the detailed answer.

Answer

ContentsRelated

• How tall was Adam (peace be upon him)?
• Is belief in the unseen an article of faith?
• Belief in the Omnipotence of Allah 

Praise be to Allah.

How tall was Adam?

This hadith was narrated by Abu Hurayrah from the Prophet who said: 

“Allah created Adam and he was sixty cubits tall. Then He said, ‘Go and greet those angels and listen to how they greet you, for that will be your greeting and the greeting of your progeny.’ He said, ‘Al-salamu ‘alaykum (Peace be upon you).’ They said, ‘Al-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmat-Allah (Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah).’ So they added the words ‘wa rahmat Allah.’ And everyone who enters Paradise will be in the form of Adam. People kept on growing smaller until now.” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 3336; Muslim, 7092) 

According to a version narrated by Muslim: “Everyone who enters Paradise will be in the form of Adam who was sixty cubits tall. People kept growing smaller until now.” 

With regard to the words of the Prophet, “People kept growing smaller until now,” al-Hafiz ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bari (6/367): “This means that in every generation people grew shorter than the previous generation, and continued to grow shorter until the time of this ummah, then they stayed like that.” 

The Muslim is obliged to believe in every idea for which there is evidence in the Quran or sahih Sunnah from the Messenger of Allah. Imam al-Shafi’i said: “I believe in Allah and in that which came from Allah in the sense meant by Allah. I believe in the Messenger of Allah and in what came from the Messenger of Allah in the sense meant by the Messenger of Allah.” See al-Irshad Sharh Lam’at al-I’tiqad, p. 89. 

So the believer is required to believe with firm faith in everything that we are told by Allah and by the Prophet, if it is proven to be soundly reported from him. He must believe in it with firm faith that leaves no room for the slightest doubt. He must accept it in general and specific terms, whether he understands it or not and whether he finds it strange or not, because not understanding something that is proven in a sound report does not mean that it did not happen. All that means is that he cannot comprehend this particular issue. Allah has commanded us to believe in everything that He tells us and everything that His Prophet tells us. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): 

“Only those are the believers who have believed in Allah and His Messenger, and afterward doubt not but strive with their wealth and their lives for the Cause of Allah. Those! They are the truthful” [al-Hujurat 49:15]

Is belief in the unseen an article of faith?

Part of faith is belief in the unseen (al-ghayb). The hadith we are discussing here comes under this heading. Allah praises those who believe in the unseen, as He says (interpretation of the meaning): 

“Alif-Lam-Mim. [These letters are one of the miracles of the Quran and none but Allah (Alone) knows their meanings.]

This is the Book (the Quran), whereof there is no doubt, a guidance to those who are Al-Muttaqun [the pious believers of Islamic Monotheism who fear Allah much (abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds which He has forbidden) and love Allah much (perform all kinds of good deeds which He has ordained)].

Who believe in the Ghayb[the unseen].” [al-Baqarah 2:1-3]

Belief in the Omnipotence of Allah 

You should note that Allah is Able to do all things. Just as He is able to create man in the form that he appears in now, He is also able to create man in a larger or smaller form. 

If this is difficult for you to understand, then think of the dwarves that we see, who are child-sized men. If this can happen, then why could the opposite not happen, namely a man being sixty cubits tall? In the history of mankind there have been giants as the archaeologists tell us. 

The basic principle here is to accept the absolute power of Allah and to accept what He tells us and what His Messenger tells us, and to say what those who are well versed in knowledge say: 

“We believe in it; the whole of it (clear and unclear Verses) are from our Lord.”  [Al ‘Imran 3:7 – interpretation of the meaning].

We ask Allah to show us the truth as true and help us to follow it, and to show us falsehood as false and help us to avoid it. 

For more about some issues related to Prophet Adam, please see these answers:  8492 , 20652 , 4622 , and 170025 .

And here’s another IslamQA post on this issue:

Man was created tall then he kept getting shorter until now

 22058

Publication: 24-03-2002

Views: 38898

en

Question

Was man short at the time of Adam then he gradually grew taller, or was it the other way round? May Allah reward you with good.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

Allah created Adam sixty cubits tall, then mankind gradually grew shorter until they stopped and remained as they are now. The evidence for that in the Sunnah is the hadeeth of the Prophet: “Allah created Adam sixty cubits tall, then mankind kept getting shorter until now.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3326; Muslim, 2841). Ibn Abi Haatim narrated with a hasan isnaad from Ubayy ibn Ka’b that the Prophet said: “Allah created Adam a tall man with a lot of hair on his head, as if he were a tall palm tree.”

 Al-Haafiz ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Baari:

“‘Mankind kept getting shorter until now’ means that each generation grew shorter than the generation before, and that decrease in height ended with this ummah, and that is how they stayed.”

Conveniently, IslamQA do not quote Ibn Hajar’s candid admission that Muhammad’s claim that Adam was created 90 feet tall was a problematic issue that he did not know how to explain:

“What is problematic here is what is observable today of the archaeological remains of previous nations, such as those of Thamud, since the size of their houses does not give the impression that they were exceptionally tall, as this would imply. Furthermore, it is obvious that they lived a long, long time ago, and the time between them and Adam was less than the time between them and those at the beginning of this nation. To date, I have not been able to explain this problem.” (Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al Bari) (Man was created tall then he kept getting shorter until now.; emphasis mine)  

FURTHER READING

UNVEILING ALLAH’S PHYSICAL CLONE