Tag: islam

THE GOSPEL THAT IS WITH THEM

In this post I will be quoting from a monumental work titled The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary (SQ), produced by a team of credentialed and bonafide Muslim scholars from various academic backgrounds. It was published by HarperOne published in 2015, and its editor-in-chief is renowned Muslim philosopher and Sufi scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

I cite this work in order to show what this team of Muslim scholars/theologians say in regards to the Gospel, which the Quran states was in the possession of the Christians of Muhammad’s day. Bold emphasis will be mine.

Q. 5:66

66 This is one of several verses in this sūrah indicating the importance of Jews and Christians following their own scriptures (see also vv. 44, 47, 68) and suggesting that these scriptures remain a source of spiritual nourishment. “Observing” the Torah and Gospel is understood by some commentators in a limited sense to mean merely upholding the covenant with God established in those scriptures in a general way, which would not preclude Jews and Christians from following the Prophet— indeed, according to some, it would require them to follow the Prophet Muhammad, whom the Quran indicates was inscribed in the Torah and Gospel (R; see 7:157; 61:6). It can also be understood as enjoining them to continue to uphold the rituals and laws prescribed in these scriptures (R) in keeping with the statement in v. 48 that God had prescribed a law and a way for every religious community. Yet, the verse also requires them to observe that which was sent down to them from their Lord. This is understood by many early commentators as referring to the Quran (Q, Ṭ), although some have thought it might be a reference to certain prophetic books, such as the book of Daniel, found in the Hebrew scriptures, but outside of the Torah narrowly defined (Q, R).

For the People of the Book to observe both their own Scriptures and the Quran means, according to some commentators, that Jews and Christians should follow those teachings in the Torah and the Gospel that were either endorsed by the Quran or at least not declared false in it (Ṭ). Had they done this, they would surely have received nourishment from above them and from beneath their feet…

68 As in v. 66, this verse reiterates the importance of Jews and Christians observing both their own scriptures, the Torah and the Gospel, and that which has been sent down unto you from your Lord, which most commentators understand to mean the Quranic message brought by the Prophet (see 5:66; 5:66c). The idea that many of the People of the Book will be increased in rebellion and disbelief echoes v. 64, which indicates that that which has been sent down unto the Prophet will increase some of the People of the Book in “rebellion and disbelief” (see 5:64; 5:64c). Here, as elsewhere, the Prophet is told to grieve not for those who are unresponsive to the Divine message (cf. 5:26; 27:70). Some connect this verse to the injunction to the Prophet in the previous verse to convey that which has been sent down to him, indicating that this message to the People of the Book to follow their own scriptures as well as the Quran was what the Prophet had hesitated or feared to convey (R, Ṭ).

Another reputable Quranic translator, the late Abdullah Yusuf Ali, also pointed to the current New Testament, specifically John’s Gospel, as foretelling Muhammad’s coming:

In this verse is a prefiguring, to Moses, of the Arabian Messenger, the last and greatest of the messengers of Allah. Prophecies about him will be found in the Taurat and the Injil. In the reflex of the Taurat as now accepted by the Jews, Moses says: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me” (Deut. xviii. 15): the only Prophet who brought a Shari’at like that of Moses was Muhammad Al- Mustafa, and he came of the house of Ismail the brother of Isaac the father of Israel. In the reflex of the Gospel as now accepted by the Christians, Christ promised another Comforter (John xiv. 16): the Greek word Paraclete which the Christians interpret as referring to the Holy Spirit is by our Doctors taken to be Periclyte, which would be the Greek form of Ahmad. See Q. lxi. 6. (Footnote: 1127 https://www.alim.org/translation/yusuf-ali/7/)

Q. 7:157

The Prophet is also said here to be inscribed in the Torah and the Gospel, meaning for most commentators that the qualities that identify and describe him as a prophet are mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel (Ṭ). See 61:6, where Jesus says that he brings glad tidings of a Messenger to come after him whose name is Aḥmad — Aḥmad is one of the most often used names of the Prophet in the Islamic tradition (see 61:6c). According to a ḥadīth, the Prophet was described in the Torah with some of the same qualities attributed to him in the Quran, including that he is a giver of glad tidings and a warner, that he does not do evil to those who do evil to him, that he is kind and forgiving, that he is not rude or loud in the marketplace, and that he is a guardian for the unlettered (ummiyūn), here probably referring to the Arabs. The ḥadīth goes on to say that he will cause even those who are astray to utter, “There is no god but God,” and hence open eyes, ears, and hearts (Q, Ṭ). Some commentators mention particular statements in the Torah and Gospel that were interpreted by Muslims as references to the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, including prophecies about the descendants of Ishmael in Genesis 16– 17 and Jesus’ reference to a spiritual “comforter,” the “Paraclete” (Fāraqlīṭ, which was understood to mean Aḥmad), who would come after him and “will speak whatever he hears” (John 16:7–14; Ṭ s).

Q. 61:6

6 A function of every Divine messenger is to confirm the revelations that have come before; thus 6:92 says of the Quran, This is a blessed Book that We have sent down, confirming that which came before it (cf. 35:31; 46:30). That the prophets would confirm one another is said to be part of the primordial covenant that they made with God in 3:81 and 33:7. The prophets’ confirmation of other messengers is also understood to refer to those who would follow them in time, and several verses are interpreted as references to the mention of the Prophet Muhammad in the Old and New Testaments (see 7:157c). The name Aḥmad means “most praised”; it derives from the same root as Muhammad— ḥ-md — and has long been recognized by Muslims as one of the many honorific names given to the Prophet by God Himself. This is based upon a saying of the Prophet: “I have several names: I am Muhammad; I am Aḥmad; I am al-Māḥī (the Effacer) by means of whom God eliminates unbelief.” Many other aḥadīth simply refer to the Prophet as Aḥmad.

Some Muslims have likened Jesus’ reference to Aḥmad here in the Quran to the reference to the Paraclete (Gk. Paraklētos) or Advocate of whom Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John 14:15– 16: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever” (see also John 16:7– 14; Āl, R). Such an interpretation is, however, complicated by the next verse, 14:17, where the Advocate or Paraclete is said to be “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you,” and by 14:26, where the Advocate is again equated with the Holy Spirit.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The scholars of the SQ realize that the only way to take seriously the Quran’s statements in respect to the existence of the Torah and the Gospel at Muhammad’s time is to presume that these terms refer to the Old and New Testaments respectively. At the very least, the Gospel mentioned cannot refer to anything other than the canonical Gospels, such the Gospel of John.

This, therefore, confirms that the author(s) and/or editor(s) of the Muslim scripture had the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in view, since these were the only sacred texts that the Jews and Christians had in their possessions during the reported lifetime of Muhammad.

FURTHER READING

Let the Study Quran Speak! Pt. 1, Pt. 1b, Pt. 2

THE QURAN’S GOSPEL

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

Does the Holy Bible Call Itself the Holy Bible?

Does the Holy Bible claim to be the inspired Word of God?

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 Greek Quran Confirms That Allah Revealed the Holy Bible

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

MATERIAL FOR THE ANDANI DISCUSSION

QURAN MSS & CARBON DATING

I will be quoting from renowned Islamic scholar and Mariologist Stephen J. Shoemaker’s Creating the Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Study, published by University of California Press, Oakland, California 2022, Chapter 3, Radiocarbon Dating and the Origins of the Qur’an. Shoemaker demonstrates why carbon dating is inexact and cannot decisively prove that the oldest extant Quranic MSS, e.g., Birmingham Quran, Sana’a etc., date from before the very end of the seventh century AD. All emphasis will be mine.

As we noted at the end of the preceding chapter, the radiocarbon dating of certain early manuscripts of the Qur’an has become something of a flashpoint in recent studies of the Qur’an.¹ For those who wish to maintain the accuracy of the traditional Sunni account of the Qur’an’s composition, as well as its contrived scholarly offspring, the Nöldekean-Schwallian paradigm, some radiocarbon analyses of these early manuscripts could appear to validate their convictions. Yet at the same time, repeated attempts to date these same early codices have yielded drastically different results in some cases, seeming to indicate that something is not working quite right with this method of dating, at least for parchments from the early medieval Near East. Nevertheless, scholars committed to the traditional narrative of the Qur’an’s origins have fervently upheld the accuracy of those studies favoring their position, while searching out reasons to impugn the results that do not.

The scientific luster of these results can and often does beguile scholars (particularly when the results support their presuppositions), even as it seems increasingly clear that this method is not entirely accurate for dating early Qur’ans, at least not within a range narrower than a century or two. Indeed, scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls faced very similar difficulties when trying to radiocarbon date documents from that collection. A deeper look into the ins and outs of radiocarbon dating can help us to understand why, for the time being at least, radiocarbon dating has not proved a reliable method for determining the date of the Qur’an’s formation. While these methods of scientific analysis are welcome and useful for the contribution that they can bring, they nevertheless have so far failed to deliver any sort of “silver bullet” that can instantly resolve the many complex issues surrounding the early history of the Qur’an. Instead, it seems that for the time being we must continue the hard work of historical-critical analysis, alongside the data from radiocarbon analysis, in order to understand the history of the Qur’an’s composition and canonization. (Pp. 70-71)

The answer would appear to lie in the fact that the original Qur’anic text of the Sanaa manuscript’s erased lower writing is a nonstandard version of the Qur’an that deviates regularly from the received version now identified as the “ʿUthmānic” Qur’an. As such, it is an extremely rare, although not unique, witness to the diverse ways with which the Qur’an continued to circulate still at the end of the seventh century. Efforts have been made to identify the manuscript’s original Qur’an with one of the early Companion codices as described by the later tradition, without much success. Instead, what we have in the undertext of Sanaa 01–27–1 is a witness to a different, early version of the Qur’an.²⁵ Only once the “ʿUthmānic” text had achieved dominance was it erased and replaced with the canonical version of the Qur’an in the middle of the eighth century. Thus, as Déroche concludes, it would appear that noncanonical versions of the Qur’an were still being produced as late as 700 CE and were only eliminated eventually through the efforts of ʿAbd al-Malik and al-Ḥajjāj to establish a particular version of the Qur’an as canonical.²⁶ (P. 77)

… Therefore, given the current state of our knowledge, it remains the fact that the form of the text as written onto the Tübingen parchments corresponds with other Qur’ans from the early eighth century, which bear the hallmarks of production under imperial auspices.⁴⁰

A similar early Qur’an, whose “discovery” was heralded online around the same time as the Tübingen manuscript, has emerged from the Mingana collection at the University of Birmingham. The manuscript had been in the university library’s collection for almost a century at the time (Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572a), overlooked until radiocarbon analysis of a folio, done at Oxford University, dated its parchment to sometime between 568 and 645 CE with a probability of 95.4 percent (1456 BP ± 21; 578–646 CE with IntCal 20).⁴¹ As with the Tübingen manuscript, following the announcement of these results, the press and online media quickly went into a frenzy over this “oldest” witness to the Qur’an, beguiled once again by the supposedly rock-solid scientific evidence of the radiocarbon dating. The only problem is that if we strictly follow the radiocarbon dating, the parchment seems a bit too early for the tradition of an ʿUthmānic collection, if not also for Muhammad’s authorship, at least in the case of earlier dates within the range of possibilities. As Gabriel Reynolds notes, the very early results from the radiocarbon dating of this manuscript would in fact seem to confirm that early datings of folios from the Sanaa manuscript are not, as some have suggested, the result of a “botched job,” but are instead relatively accurate datings of the parchments used in this codex.⁴² The so-called “Birmingham Qur’an” consists in fact of just two leaves from an ancient manuscript that have been bound together with seven leaves from another manuscript. Yet Fedeli, who “discovered” the Birmingham manuscript, has also identified sixteen folios in the Bibliothèque nationale de France from the same early manuscript (MS BnF328c). There are thus eighteen total folios from this early manuscript, and their analysis forms a major part of Fedeli’s dissertation, which convincingly demonstrates that the text written on the parchment seems to be significantly more recent. Indeed, despite being credited with discovering the world’s oldest Qur’an in the press, Fedeli has from the start insisted that this witness to the Qur’an should not necessarily be dated as early as this particular radiocarbon analysis might suggest.⁴³ (P. 80)

Given the state of the Qur’anic text as it was copied onto this manuscript, it seems extremely unlikely that this Qur’an could possibly date to the time indicated by the radiocarbon analysis of the parchment. If we insisted on such a date, between 568 and 645 CE, then we must revise the traditional narrative of the Qur’an’s origins not to a later date, but in the opposite direction, concluding that it took place much earlier than the Nöldekean-Schwallian paradigm would have it. In such a case we must assume that a highly advanced and technical practice of writing was in place well before ʿUthmān (who began to reign in 644 CE), but this is extremely unlikely, as we will see in chapter 5. Likewise, such a dating requires the circulation of even older exemplars that could have been copied by the individual who produced this particular manuscript. This manuscript simply is not a first draft of the Qur’an for reasons that Fedeli has amply demonstrated, and so we cannot imagine that this might somehow be one of ʿUthmān’s initial codices. Yet the possibility of a pre-ʿUthmānic Qur’an leads us in another direction and to another possibility—namely, that the Qur’an, or at least some significant parts of it, is in fact pre-Muhammad. In fact, Reynolds suggested as much following the announcement of the Birmingham Qur’an’s radiocarbon dating.⁴⁷

As Reynolds briefly remarks, there are many elements of the Qur’anic text that early Islamic scholarship simply could not understand, which is rather puzzling if the text had a continuous transmission from Muhammad through the early community. This is particularly so in instances where the meaning of certain words and their vocalization is largely unknown—indeed, sometimes the Qur’an itself does not seem to fully understand some of its own declarations.⁴⁸ James Bellamy convincingly demonstrated in several articles that these passages indicate, at least in some cases, that “there was no oral tradition stemming directly from the prophet strong enough to overcome all the uncertainties inherent in the writing system.”⁴⁹ One could readily understand such ignorance if in fact the Qur’an—at least in some parts—were a much older text that predated Muhammad and his new religious movement, written using language that the members of that movement did not always comprehend. Both Michael Cook and Patricia Crone (as noted already above) have suggested this hypothesis in their more recent works, and it is one that we will return to in the final chapter of this book, when we come to consider the context implied by the contents of the Qur’an.⁵⁰ (Pp. 81-82)

If one is still clinging to some hope that we might be able to find a way out of the messiness of this method, well, things are about to get even more complicated. I know of two instances in which early Islamic documents with known dates were subjected to radiocarbon analysis, and the results were not at all reassuring. Déroche had samples from two dated Qur’ans analyzed by the Lyon lab: one with a known date indicating its production in 1020 CE and the other in 907 CE. The radiocarbon dating of the first Qur’an came in at 1130 BP ± 30 years, or between 871 and 986 CE with a 95 percent probability (774–994 CE with IntCal 20). “The most probable dates,” Déroche further reports, “arranged in decreasing order of probability were 937, 895 and 785AD. The closest result, that is to say 937 AD, is separated by eighty-three years from the date provided by the colophon.” Even if we use the upper limit of the date range—that is to say, 986 CE—the difference still amounts to thirty-four years, around a third of a century.⁶¹For the second Qur’an, the radiocarbon date was determined at 1205 BP ± 30, with a calibrated date of between 716 and 891 CE (704–941 CE with IntCal 20). Déroche identifies the most probable dates, “once again in decreasing order of probability: 791, 806 and 780AD. The most probable result, 791AD, is 116 years earlier than the actual date.”⁶² It is true, however, that in this case the uppermost date is reasonably close to the actual year in which the Qur’an was copied. Nevertheless, absent this specific information regarding its production, we would be very much at sea in dating this Qur’an, and it is certainly quite possible that the parchment used for this codex was a century or so older than the text itself. Or it may be that, again, for whatever reason, something is not working with our calibration of historical C-14 levels.

Fred Donner has also performed similar tests of this method and its accuracy. Although the results have not yet been published, Donner revealed them publicly during the question and answer session at the presidential address for the International Association of Qur’anic Studies in November 2018. Professor Donner was kind enough to allow me to relate the gist of his findings in advance of their pending formal publication.⁶³ He took samples from an undated papyrus, which, based on content, he is quite sure dates to early in the seventh century. He sent samples to two labs. The first one returned a dating in the early 800s CE. The second lab, Oxford, gave a result of 650–700 CE, which is closer to the suspected date, but still a little too late. In light of these results, he sent samples from two dated papyrus letters to the Oxford lab, without revealing that he already knew the dates. One letter was dated to 715 CE, and the other to 860 CE; both samples came back with dates around 780 CE, much too late for the former, while indicating use of an eighty-year-old papyrus in the case of the later. In both instances the radiocarbon date was an altogether inaccurate indicator of the age of the texts in questions, beyond a general dating to the eighth or ninth centuries. And here, once again, we also see dramatically different results obtained from different labs for the same artifact. If this is a method whose results are truly scientific, it seems that the results should be able to be reproduced and replicated with regularity. (86-87)

How any refinements in radiocarbon dating for this region will impact our calibration of the raw radiocarbon dates for the parchments from Sanaa and anywhere else in southern Arabia remains unknown and will likely continue to remain unknown for some time to come. Therefore, it would be prudent to abandon any efforts to assign dates to these materials on the basis of radiocarbon measurements with any greater precision than a century or so for the foreseeable future. Just to give an idea of how much the differing radiocarbon levels from the southern hemisphere that would affect Sanaa seasonally could have an impact on calibration of radiocarbon age to dates CE, we give the dates calculated for each object according to the Northern and Southern hemispheric datasets with a 95 percent probability side by side (see table 4).⁸⁵ In some cases, the differences are relatively minimal, yet in others they are significant. In general, one will note, the concentrations of ¹⁴C in the Southern Hemisphere yield later datings, as is the trend of this calibration dataset. In some cases, the difference is only a couple of decades; in others, dating with the data from the Southern Hemisphere could change the date of an object by a century. We would therefore be wise, I think, to use such data with greater caution than some scholars have hastily proposed and resist the temptation to misuse the method of radiocarbon analysis in attempting to date an object with greater precision than the method can presently provide. Clearly, these are all early manuscripts from the beginnings of Islam: radiocarbon dating affirms this, which we already knew. But what it cannot do, at least not as of yet, is date the text of the Qur’an in these manuscripts with any precision to a time before the very end of the seventh century, at the earliest. (Pp. 92-93)

Therefore, while radiocarbon dating adds an important new tool for studying the early manuscripts of the Qur’an, it must be used with caution, fully acknowledging its limitations and in conjunction with other methods of historical analysis. To invoke the results of radiocarbon dating as if it were the only data that matters is intellectually irresponsible and should be avoided, particularly since we have seen just how complex and often uncertain the process still remains. Indeed, Yasin Dutton similarly observes that a clear tendency can be observed in the results that leans toward dating manuscripts much earlier than otherwise seems to be likely, and he accordingly concludes as follows: “while the technique is broadly useful, it cannot be expected to yield the accuracy of dating that would be important.”⁹¹ And so, it seems, we ourselves are left to conclude that, despite the sensational claims of a few scholars, which have been amplified by the internet, the radiocarbon dating of a number of early Qur’anic manuscripts does not prove the historical accuracy of the Nöldekean-Schwallian paradigm. On the contrary, the convergence of all the presently available evidence—radiocarbon and historical— is not at all incompatible with the Qur’an’s composition into its present form only around the turn of the eighth century under the direction of ʿAbd al-Malik and al-Ḥajjāj; indeed, it would seem to favor this conclusion. (Pp. 94-95)

table 4. Calibrated Dating of Folios from Early Qur’anic Manuscripts in Sana according to Hemispheric Differences

Folio Northern Hemisphere (IntCal20) Southern Hemisphere (SHCal20)

Stanford ’07 (Arizona) 583–670 CE 602–774 CE

01-25-1 fol. 22 (Lyon) 554–645 CE 578–661 CE

01-27-1 fol. 2 (Lyon) 543–643 CE 576–660 CE

01-27-1 fol. 2 (Zürich) 598–649 CE 605–669 CE

01-27-1 fol. 11 (Lyon) 434–603 CE 529–643 CE

01-27-1 fol. 11 (Zürich) 605–660 CE 645–680 or 751–767 CE

01-27-1 fol. 13 (Oxford) 599–655 CE 607–680 or 750–768 CE

01-29-1 fol. 8 (Lyon) 436–640 CE 541–644 CE

01-29-1 fol. 8 (Zürich) 641–669 CE 654–772 CE

01-25-1 fol. 22 (Lyon) 554–645 CE 578–661 CE

01-29-1 fol. 13 (Lyon) 598–665 CE 636–773 CE

01-29-1 fol. 13 (Zürich) 605–662 CE 647–680 or 750–768 CE

Using the data from Marx and Jocham 2019, 216 rather than Robin 2015b, 65, since the former is more recent and gives more precision. (Ibid., p. 92)

FURTHER READING

THE 1924 ARABIC QURAN: AN UNINSPIRED HUMAN COMPILATION

ISLAM’S DEVOLUTION! JEWISH PIGS & APES

The Quran asserts that Allah punished a certain group of Jews by transforming them into apes and pigs:

And ye know of those of you who broke the Sabbath, how We said unto them: Be ye apes, despised and hated! S. 2:65

Shall I tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs for retribution with Allah? (Worse is the case of him) whom Allah hath cursed, him on whom His wrath hath fallen and of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine, and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and further astray from the plain road. S. 5:60

So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed! S. 7:166

AHADITH & SIRAH

The allegedly sound narrations attributed to Muhammad confirm that both he and his followers took these statements literally, meaning, that they actually thought Allah literally, physically changed these rebellious Jews into actually monkeys and swine. All emphasis is mine:

He came to them, and He reminds them of the beginning of their creation when He created them, and what happened to their forefather Adam and how he was dealt with for his disobedience; then He says:¹ ‘O children of Israel,’ addressing the Jewish rabbis, ‘Remember the favour I showed you,’ i.e. My care for you and your fathers, wherewith He delivered them from Pharaoh and his army. ‘And fulfil My covenant’ which I placed on your necks with regard to My prophet Ahmad when he should come to you. ‘I shall fulfil My part of the covenant.’ I shall carry out what I promised you for believing in and following him by removing the bonds and chains which were upon your necks because of the sins which you had committed. ‘And stand in awe of Me,’ i.e. lest I bring down on you what I brought down on your fathers before you—the vengeance that you know of, BESTIAL TRANSFORMATION and the like. ‘And believe in what I have sent down confirming what you already have, and be not the first to disbelieve it’ seeing that you have knowledge which others have not about it. ‘And fear Me and do not mingle truth with falsehood nor hide the truth which you know,’ i.e. do not conceal the knowledge which you have about My apostle and what he has brought when you will find it with you in what you know of the books which are in your hands. ‘Would you tell men to be good and forget to be so yourselves, you being readers of scripture ? Do you not understand?’ i.e. would you forbid men to disbelieve in the prophecy you have and the covenant of the Torah and abandon it yourselves ? i.e. when you deny that it contains My covenant with you that you must pronounce My apostle to be true, and you break My agreement and you contradict what you know to be in My book. (The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, with introduction and notes by Alfred Guillaume [Oxford University Press, Karachi, thenth impression 1995], p. 250)

Abu Huraira reported that Allah’s Messenger said: A group of Bani Isra’il was lost. I do not know what happened to it, but I think (that it underwent a process of metamorphosis) and assumed the shape of rats. Don’t you see when the milk of the camel is placed before them, these do not drink and when the milk of goat is placed before them, these do drink. Abu Huraira said: I narrated this very hadith to Ka’b and he said: Did you hear this from Allah’s Messenger? I (Abu Huraira) said: Yes. He said this again and again, and I said: Have I read Torah? This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of Ishaq with a slight variation of wording. (Sahih Muslim, Book 042, Number 7135 https://sunnah.com/muslim:2997a)

Abu Huraira reported that the rat (is the result of) metamorphosis (of a group of Bani Isra’il) and the proof of this is that when the milk of goat is placed before it, it drinks it, and when the milk of the camel is placed before it, it would not taste it at all. Ka’b said: Did you hear it from Allah’s Messenger? Thereupon he said: Has Torah been revealed to me? (Sahih Muslim, Book 042, Number 7136 https://sunnah.com/muslim:2997b)

Abdullah reported that Umm Habiba, the wife of Allah’s Apostle, said: O Allah, enable me to derive benefit from my husband, the Messenger of Allah, and from my father Abu Sufyan and from my brother Mu’awiya. Allah’s Apostle said: You have asked from Allah about durations of life already set, and the length of days already allotted and the sustenances the share of which has been fixed. Allah would not do anything earlier before its due time, or He would not delay anything beyond its due time. And if you were to ask Allah to provide you refuge from the torment of the HellFire, or from the torment of the grave, it would have good in store for you and better for you also. He (the narrator) further said: Mention was made before him about monkeys, and Mis’ar (one of the narrators) said: I think that (the narrator) also (made a mention) of the swine, which had suffered metamorphosis. Thereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: Verily, Allah did not cause the race of those which suffered metamorphosis to grow or they were not survived by young ones. Monkeys and swine had been in existence even before (the metamorphosis of the human beings). (Sahih Muslim, Book 033, Number 6438 https://sunnah.com/muslim:2663b)

The next hadiths state that Muhammad wasn’t certain which type of land animals were these Jews morphed into. And as some of the previous narrations show, he even thought that at first Allah had transformed them into rats!

28 Foods (Kitab Al-At’imah)

(28) Chapter: Regarding eating mastigure

Narrated Thabit ibn Wadi’ah: We were in an army with the Messenger of Allah. We got some lizards. I roasted one lizard and brought it to the Messenger of Allah and placed it before him. He took a stick and counted its fingers. He then said: A group from the children of Isra’il was transformed into an animal of the land, and I do not know which animal it was. He did not eat it nor did he forbid (its eating).

Grade: SAHIH (Al-Albani)

Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud 3795

In-book reference: Book 28, Hadith 60

English translation: Book 27, Hadith 3786 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/abudawud:3795)

Narrated (Abu Huraira): The prophet said, ‘a group of Israelites was lost. Nobody knows what they did. But I do not see them except that they were cursed and transformed into rats, for if you put the milk of a she-camel in front of a rat, it will not drink it, but if the milk of a sheep is put in front of it, it will drink it.’ I told this to Ka’b who asked me, ‘did you hear it from the prophet?’ “I said, ‘Yes”. Ka’b asked me the question several times; I said to Ka’b, ‘do I read the Taurat (Torah)? (i.e., I tell you this from the prophet).’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 524 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3305)

Here’s the translator to Bukhari, Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan’s footnotes:

[1] It was illegal for the Israelites to eat the meat or drink the milk of camels while they were allowed to eat the meat and drink the milk of sheep. The Prophet inferred from the rats’ habit that some Israelites had been transformed into rats.

[2] Later on the Prophet … was informed THROUGH INSPIRATION about the fate of those Israelites: They were transformed into pigs and monkeys.

Returning to al-Bukhari, we also read:

Narrated Abu ‘Amir or Abu Malik Al-Ash’ari:

that he heard the Prophet saying, “From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful. And there will be some people who will stay near the side of a mountain and in the evening their shepherd will come to them with their sheep and ask them for something, but they will say to him, ‘Return to us tomorrow.’ Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 69, Number 494v https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5590)

Muhammad further believed that on the judgment day Allah would transform Abraham’s pagan father into a hyena who would then be thrown into hell:

Narrated Abu Huraira: The prophet said, ‘On the Day of Resurrection Abraham will meet his father Azar whose face will be dark and covered with dust. (The Prophet Abraham will say to him): “Didn’t I tell you not to disobey me?” His father will reply: “Today I will not disobey you.” Abraham will say: “O Lord! You promised me not to disgrace me on the Day of Resurrection; and what will be more disgraceful to me than cursing and dishonoring my father?” Then Allah will say (to him):’ “I have forbidden Paradise for the disbelievers.” Then he will be addressed, “O Abraham! Look! What is underneath your feet?” He will look and there he will see a Dhabh (an animal,) blood-stained, which will be caught by the legs and thrown in the (Hell) Fire.’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 569 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3350)

Once again, here is what Dr. Khan states in respect to Abraham’s father’s metamorphosis:

[1] Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) father will be transformed into an animal and thrown into the Fire, for his Muslim son’s intercession will not avail, as he was an infidel. Ibrahim (Abraham) then will repudiate his father.

In light of this, it shouldn’t surprise us that Muhammad actually thought that his god would literally change people’s faces into donkeys if they raised their heads in prayers before the imam!

Narrated Abu Huraira: the prophet said, “isn’t he who raises his head before the Imam afraid that Allah may transform his head into that of a donkey or his figure (face) into that of a donkey?” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 11, Number 660 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:691)

Narrated An-Nu’man bin Bashar: the prophet said, ‘straighten your rows or Allah will alter your faces.’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 11, Number 685 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:717)

Once again, we are told by the translator that,

“This is a severe warning, that if you do not straighten your rows [in Salat (prayers)], Allah may change your faces to that of an animal, e.g. donkey, etc. Or make them like the backs of necks, etc. (see Fath Al-Bari, Vol. 2, page 349).”

There’s more:

47 Chapters on Tafsir

(6) Chapter: Regarding Surat Al-Ma’idah

Narrated ‘Ammar bin Yasir: “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘The Ma’idah was sent down from the Heavens with bread and meat. And they were commanded to not be deceitful with it and hide it for tomorrow. So they were deceitful with it and they hid it, so it was raised up in the morning. Then they were transformed into monkeys and pigs.'”

Grade: Da’if (Darussalam)

Reference: Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3061

In-book reference: Book 47, Hadith 113

English translation: Vol. 5, Book 44, Hadith 3061 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3061)

Here is a final example as an added bonus:

Narrated ‘Amr bin Maimun: During the pre-Islamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 58, Number 188 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3849)

THE COMMENTATORS

I now turn to some of Sunni Islam’s greatest expositors:

Q. 2:65

And verily wa-la-qad the lām is for oaths you know that there were those among you who transgressed violated the Sabbath by fishing when We had forbidden you to do so — these were the inhabitants of Eilat — and We said to them ‘Be apes despised!’ rejected and they became so they died three days later. (Tafsir al-Jalalayn https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=2&tAyahNo=65&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)

(And ye know) you indeed know and heard about the punishment (of those of you who broke) who have taken the covenant (the Sabbath) the day of Saturday and this at the time of David (how We said unto them: Be ye apes, despised and hated!) turned into humiliated and base apes. (Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=73&tSoraNo=2&tAyahNo=65&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)

In his Tafsir, Al-‘Awfi reported from Ibn ‘Abbas that he said,

فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ

(We said to them: “Be you monkeys, despised and rejected”) means, “Allah changed their bodies into those of monkeys and swines. The young people turned into monkeys while the old people turned into swine.” Shayban An-Nahwi reported that Qatadah commented on,

فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ

(We said to them: “Be you monkeys, despised and rejected”), “These people were turned into howling monkeys with tails, after being men and women.”

The Monkeys and Swine that exist now are not the Descendants of Those that were transformed

Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Ibn ‘Abbas said, “Those who violated the sanctity of the Sabbath were turned into monkeys, then they perished without offspring.” Ad-Dahhak said that Ibn ‘Abbas said, “Allah turned them into monkeys because of their sins. They only lived on the earth for three days, for no transformed person ever lives more than three days. They did not eat, drink or have offspring. Allah transformed their shapes into monkeys, and He does what He wills, with whom He wills and He changes the shape of whomever He wills. On the other hand, Allah created the monkeys, swines and the rest of the creation in the six days (of creation) that He mentioned in His Book.”

Allah’s statement…

(So We made this punishment an example) means, Allah made the people of this village, who violated the sanctity of the Sabbath…

(an example) via the way they were punished. Similarly, Allah said about Pharaoh…

(So Allah, seized him with punishing example for his last and first transgression) (79:25). Allah’s statement…

(for those in front of it and those behind it) meaning, for the other villages. Ibn ‘Abbas commented, “Meaning, ‘We made this village an example for the villages around it by the manner in which We punished its people.” Similarly, Allah said…

(And indeed We have destroyed towns (populations) round about you, and We have (repeatedly) shown (them) the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) in various ways that they might return (to the truth and believe in the Oneness of Allah ـ Islamic Monotheism)). (46:27)

Therefore, Allah made them an example for those who lived during their time as well as a reminder for those to come, by preserving their story. This is why Allah said…

(and a lesson for Al-Muttaqin), meaning, a reminder. This Ayah means, “The torment and punishment that this village suffered was a result of indulging in Allah’s prohibitions and their deceit. Hence, those who have Taqwa should be aware of their evil behavior, so that what occurred to this village does not befall them as well.” Also, Imam Abu ‘Abdullah bin Battah reported that Abu Hurayrah said that the Messenger of Allah said…

(Do not commit what the Jews committed, breaching what Allah has forbidden, by resorting to the lowest types of deceit.)

This Hadith has a good (Jayid) chain of narration. Allah knows best. (Tafsir Ibn Kathir https://www.alim.org/tafsir/ibn-kathir/?surah=2&ayah=65)

The word ‘sabt’ (sabbath) is derived from sabat which means ‘cutting off’. That is because it was a day of rest, cut off from the rest of the week.

‘You are well aware’ means you recognise them individually and you know the ruling against them. The difference between the terms is that recognition (ma‘rifah) is directed at the essence of what is named and knowledge (‘ilm) is directed at the states of the named. If you say, ‘I recognise Zayd,’ it means him himself, and if you say, ‘I know Zayd,’ it means his states in respect of excellence or imperfection.

An-Nasā’ī related that Ṣafwān ibn ‘Assāl reported that a Jew said to his friend, ‘Let us go to this Prophet.’ His friend said, ‘Do not say “Prophet”! He might hear you. He has four eyes!’ They went to the Messenger of Allah g and asked him for seven clear commandments and he told them: ‘Do not associate anything with Allah; do not steal; do not fornicate; do not kill anyone Allah has made inviolate, unless with a legal right; do not slander an innocent person to a ruler; do not use magic; do not consume usury; do not slander chaste women; and do not turn your backs in retreat when the fighting is fierce; and, as Jews, you have one specially for you: that you do not profane the Sabbath.’ They kissed his hands and feet and said, ‘We testify that you are a Prophet!’ He asked, ‘What prevents you from following me, then?’ They replied. ‘Dāwūd prayed that the line of Prophets would continue to be from his descendants and we fear that if we follow you, the other Jews will kill us.’ At-Tirmidhī transmitted it and said that it is a sound good hadith.

It is possible that the āyah refers to rulings about the Sabbath in general, or it may just refer to the Sabbath on which they caught the fish. The first view is that of al-Ḥasan. Ashhab related that Mālik said, ‘Ibn Rūmān related that a man would take a string and make a loop and throw it down after the fish. One end of the string was tied to a peg. Then he would leave it until Sunday. People were silent at what was done until a lot of fish were caught and they were taken to the markets. The deviants were public about their catch. One group openly forbade them to do that and withdrew, saying, ‘We will not live with you.’ The town was divided by a wall. One morning those who had forbidden them to do what they were doing were sitting in their gatherings and none of the transgressors came out. They said, ‘Something has happened to the people.’ They climbed up the wall to look and there were apes. They opened the gate and went in and the apes went to their kin and smelled their garments and wept. They were told, ‘Did we not forbid you?’ They nodded their heads in agreement. Qatādah said that the children became apes and the old men pigs. Only those who had forbidden them were saved; the rest were destroyed. This will be further discussed in al-A‘rāf.

There are two different positions about whether those transformed had offspring. Az-Zajjāj said that some people say that it is possible that apes are descended from them. Qāḍī Abū Bakr ibn al-‘Arabī preferred that. The majority say that they did not reproduce, and the apes, pigs and other things already existed before that. Those who were transmogrified were destroyed and nothing of them remains because wrath and the punishment smote them. They only lasted three days. Ibn ‘Abbās said that none of them survived more than three days: they did not eat or drink or reproduce. Ibn ‘Aṭiyyah said that it is related and confirmed from the Prophet that those transmogrified did not reproduce, eat or drink, and did not live more than three days.

This is what is sound of both views. Ibn al-‘Arabī and others cite as evidence for the first position the words of the Prophet: ‘A group of the tribe of Israel were lost. It is not known what happened them. I only think that they were turned into mice. Do you not see that they do not drink if camel milk is put in front of them but do drink if sheep’s milk is put in front of them?’ Abū Hurayrah related it in Muslim. There is also the hadith about the lizard which Muslim related from Abū Sa‘īd and Jābir. Jābir said, ‘The Prophet was brought a lizard and refused to eat it, saying, “I do not know. Perhaps it is from one of the generations that were transmogrified.”’ Ibn al-‘Arabī said, ‘We find in al-Bukhārī that ‘Amr ibn Maymūn said, “In the Jāhiliyyah I saw a monkey that fornicated. They stoned it and I stoned it with them.”’ The term ‘fornicated’ is omitted from some variants. Ibn al-‘Arabī said, ‘If it is asked whether animals have knowledge of laws which they inherited from past generations until the time of ‘Amr, we say that that is the case because the Jews altered stoning and Allah wanted it to be carried out on those transmogrified to be a stronger proof against those who denied that and altered it, so that their books, their rabbis and those who had been transmogrified would all bear witness against them and they would know that Allah knows what they conceal and what they make public and that He takes account what they change and alter. The proof will be established against them while they are unaware of that. He will help His Prophet and not help them.’

This is what he says in al-Aḥkām, and there is no proof for any of it. The story of ‘Amr was mentioned by al-Ḥumaydī in Jam‘ bayna-ṣ-Ṣaḥīḥayn: ‘Abū Mas‘ūd ad-Dimishqī recounted that in the two Ṣaḥīḥayn collections ‘Amr ibn Maymūn al-Awdī has a story which Ḥuṣayn related from him. He said, ‘In the Jāhiliyyah I saw a monkey that fornicated. The monkeys gathered around it and stoned it and I stoned it with them.’ That is how Abū Mas‘ūd related it. He did not mention in any place that al-Bukhārī transmitted it in his book. We investigated that and found it in some copies, but not all of them. It is mentioned in the Book of the Jāhiliyyah. The transmission of an-Nu‘aymī from al-Farabrī has nothing about this report about monkeys. It may be one of the insertions into al-Bukhārī. That which al-Bukhārī says in the Tārīkh al-kabīr is: “Nu‘aym ibn Ḥammād told me that Hushaym reported from Abū Balj and Ḥuṣayn that ‘Amr ibn Maymūn said, ‘In the Jāhiliyyah I saw monkeys gathered around a female monkey and they stoned it and I stoned it with them.’” The word “fornicated” does not appear in it. If this transmission is sound, al-Bukhārī transmitted it as evidence that ‘Amr ibn Maymūn was alive in the Jāhiliyyah. His opinion in the Jāhiliyyah is of no importance.’

Abū ‘Umar mentioned ‘Amr ibn Maymūn in al-Istī‘āb and the fact that his kunyah was Abū ‘Abdullāh. He said that he was considered to be one of the great Tābi‘ūn of the Kufans. He said, ‘He is the one who saw the monkey stoning in the Jāhiliyyah if that is sound, because its transmitters are unknown. Al-Bukhārī mentioned it from Nu‘aym from Hushaym from Ḥuṣayn from ‘Amr ibn Maymūn. ‘Abbād ibn al-‘Awwām narrated it from Ḥuṣayn as Hushaym related it. The long story depends on ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Muslim from ‘Īsā ibn Ḥiṭṭān who are not authoritative. A group of the people of knowledge object to relating fornication to those who are not legally responsible and for ḥadd punishments to be carried out on animals. If it were sound, it would apply to men and jinn because both acts of worship are for both of them alone. As for the words of the Prophet, ‘I only think that they were turned into mice’ and ‘Perhaps it is from one of the generations that were transmogrified,’ and the like, this is only suspicion and fear of mice, lizards and other things being transmogrified. This was conjecture on his part before the revelation that Allah did not allow them to reproduce. When this was revealed, he was no longer afraid of that. He knew that lizards and mice were not transmogrified. Then, when someone asked him whether or not apes and pigs were transmogrified, he said, ‘Allah does not destroy a people or punish a people and then give them offspring. Apes and pigs existed before that.’ This is a clear sound text that ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd related and Muslim transmitted in the Book of the Decree. Texts confirm that lizard was eaten in his presence and on his table without him objecting to it. It is related from Mujāhid in the commentary on this that only their hearts were transformed and their mouths were like those of apes. As far as I know, no one else has said this. (Tafsir al-Qurtubi: Juz’ 1: Al-Fātiḥah & Sūrat al-Baqarah 1-141, translated by Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley [Diwan Press, 2019], Volume 1, pp. 296-300)

Note carefully what al-Qurtubi states in respect to the view held by Mujahid that the Jews’ transformation is metaphorical. Mujahid was the only one that he knew which held such a view!

Q. 5:60

Say ‘Shall I tell you shall I inform you of what is worse than the followers of that about which you are spiteful by way of reward requital from God? They are those whom God has cursed whom He has removed from His mercy and with whom He is wroth and some of whom He has turned into apes and swine by transformation and those who worship the false deity Satan by obeying him the particle minhum ‘some of whom’ takes into account the potentially plural import of the particle min ‘those whom’ and in what precedes minhum ‘some of whom’ the singular form of min is taken into account; a variant reading has ‘abuda al-tāghūt as the genitive of an annexation ‘abud being a variant plural of ‘abd; the accusative ending of ‘abuda is because the clause is a supplement to al-qirada ‘apes’ and these were the Jews. They are worse situated makānan is for specification for their abode shall be the Fire and further astray from the even way’ from the path of truth al-sawā’ originally means al-wasat ‘middle’; the use of sharrun ‘worse’ and adallu ‘further astray’ is intended to counter their saying ‘We know of no religion worse sharrun than yours’. (Tafsir al-Jalalayn https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=5&tAyahNo=60&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)

Cursed were the disbelievers of the Children of Israel by the tongue of David when he invoked God against them and they were transformed into apes — these were the people of Eilat — and by Jesus son of Mary when he invoked God against them and they were transformed into pigs — they were the ones who ate at the Table cf. Q. 5115 below — that cursing was because of their disobedience and their transgression. (Ibid., Q. 5:78 https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=5&tAyahNo=78&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)

Allah then revealed about their saying: “we do not know any religious community that is more disfavoured than Muhammad and his Companions”, saying: (Shall I tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs) that which is worse than what you told Muhammad and his Companions (for retribution with Allah) for him who is going to be punished by Allah? (Worse (is the case of him) whom Allah hath cursed) imposing on him the capitation tax, (him on whom His wrath hath fallen! Worse is he of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes) in the time of the Prophet David (and swine) in the time of Jesus, after eating from the table that Allah sent from heaven, (and who serveth idols) soothsayers and devils; or he whom Allah has made the worshipper of the devil, idols and soothsayers. (Such are in worse plight) worse in works in this world and worse in status in the Hereafter (and further astray from the plain road) the road of guidance. (Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=73&tSoraNo=5&tAyahNo=60&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)

(Those of the children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David) through David’s supplication against them they became apes, (and of Jesus, son of Mary) and through Jesus’ supplication against them they became swine. (That) curse (was because they rebelled) on the Sabbath and upon eating from the table which was sent from heaven (and used to transgress) by killing the prophets and declaring to be lawful their indulgence in sin. (Ibid., Q. 5:78 https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=73&tSoraNo=5&tAyahNo=78&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)

(those of whom He transformed into monkeys and swine,) as we mentioned in Surat Al-Baqarah (2) and as we will mention in Surat Al-A’raf (7). Sufyan Ath-Thawri narrated that Ibn Mas’ud said, “Allah’s Messenger was asked if the current monkeys and swine were those whom Allah transformed. He said,

إنَّ اللهَ لَمْ يُهْلِكْ قَوْمًا، أَوْ لَمْ يَمْسَخْ قَوْمًا فَيَجْعَلَ لَهُمْ نَسْلًا وَلَا عَقِبًا، وَإِنَّ الْقِرَدَةَ وَالْخَنَازِيرَ كَانَتْ قَبْلَ ذلِكَ

(Allah never destroyed a people by transforming them and making offspring or descendants for them. The monkeys and swine existed before that.)” This was also recorded by Muslim… (Tafsir Ibn Kathir https://www.alim.org/tafsir/ibn-kathir/?surah=5&ayah=59)

“Allah’s curse is on the Jews. The Jews are the brothers of monkeys.” (Tafsir al-Qurtubi: Sūrat al-Mā’idah, translated by Aisha Bewley [Diwan Press, 2021], Volume 6, p. 198)

“This contains the permission to curse unbelievers even if they are the sons of the Prophets. Noble lineage does not prevent the curse on them. ‘On the tongues of Dawud and that of ‘Isa, son of Maryam’ means in both the Psalms and also the Gospel, which were pronounced by the tongues of those two Prophets. That means that they were cursed in those two Books. Mujahid and ad-Dahhak said that their cursing took the form of their transformation into monkeys and pigs. Abu Malik said, ‘Those who were cursed on the tongue of Dawud were transformed into monkeys and those who were cursed by ‘Isa were transformed into pigs.’ Ibn ‘Abbas said that those cursed by Dawud were those who violated the Sabbath and those cursed by ‘Isa were those rejected the Table after it descended…” (Ibid., Q. 5:78, pp. 212-213)

This is a promise from Allah in response to the request of ‘Isa as ‘Isa responded to the request of the Disciples. This confirms that He sent it down as His promise is true. The people denied it and disbelieved after it was sent down and so they were transformed into monkeys and pigs. Ibn ‘Amr said, ‘the people with the worst punishment on the Day of Rising will be the hypocrites and those who rejected among the people of the Table and the people of Pharaoh as Allah says here.’ (Ibid., Q. 5:115, p. 321)

Ath-Tha‘labi said, ‘It remained set up, with people eating from it, until afternoon and then flew upwards. So the people ate from it and then it returned to heaven with the people looking at its shadow until it covered them. At the end of forty days, Allah Almighty revealed to ‘Isa: “‘Isa! Dedicate this table of Mine to the poor rather than the wealthy.” So the wealthy objected to that and were hostile towards the poor. They objected and made others object. Allah said, “‘Isa! I will seize them by My Sign.” In the morning thirty-three of them had turned into pigs, eating filth and searching out garbage when they were used to eating good food and sleeping on soft beds. When the people saw that, they gathered to ‘Isa, weeping, and the pigs came and knelt at ‘Isa’s feet, weeping, their eyes overflowing with tears. ‘Isa recognised them and said, “Are you not so-and-so?” It would indicate with its head, unable to speak. They remained like that for seven days, and some say four days. Then Allah called ‘Isa to take their souls and no one knew where they went. Did the earth swallow them or what happened to them?”…

At-Tirmidhi mentions in his chapters of tafsir that ‘Ammar ibn Yasir reported that the Messenger of Allah said, ‘The Table descended from heaven with bread and meat and they were commanded not to act treacherously or store up for the next day, but they acted treacherously and stored up and removed some for the next day and so they were transformed into apes and pigs.’ Abu ‘Isa said, ‘This hadith was related from Abu ‘Asim and more than one person from Qatadah from Khillas from ‘Ammar ibn Yasir mawquf. We only know it as marfu’ from al-Hasan ibn Qaza’ah. Humayd ibn Mas’adah related something similar from Sufyan ibn Habib from Sa’id ibn Abi ‘Arubah and did not make it marfu’. This is sounder than the hadith of al-Hasan ibn Qaza‘ah. We do not know of any marfu‘ hadith. (Ibid., p. 324)

Q. 7:166

And when they disdained to desist from that which was prohibited to them We said to them ‘Be apes despised!’ abased and they became so this is an explication of what preceded with regard to the details of their ‘grievous chastisement’. Ibn ‘Abbās said ‘I do not know what befell the group that abstained’. ‘Ikrima said ‘That group was not destroyed because they had been averse to what the others did and had said ‘Why do you preach admonition …’ Al-Hākim reported in a hadīth that he ‘Ikrima referred this opinion to Ibn ‘Abbās who was delighted by it. (Tafsir al-Jalalayn https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=7&tAyahNo=166&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)

I could have easily multiplied the number of Sunni expositors who all confirm the literal, physical metamorphosis of a certain group of Jews into pigs and monkeys, but the foregoing should be more than sufficient to affirm to the unbiased reader that Muhammad erroneously thought that his deity physically transformed certain humans into animals.

Hence, instead of evolution Muhammad taught devolution!

FURTHER READING

Legends, Myths and Fables incorporated into the Qur’an

Badawi’s Misinformation and Misquotations [Part 3], [Part 4]

SHIA ISLAM ON THE GOSPEL

In this post I will be citing specific narrations taken from the Shia hadith collections in respect to the existence and identity of the Gospel, which the Quran states was given to Jesus and which is said to have been in the possession of the Christians at Muhammad’s time. These collections can be accessed here: Thaqalayn.

Kitāb al-Zuhd

Book 2, Chapter #10

Humility and Arrogance

Ḥadīth #5

محمد بن سنان عن بسطام الزيات عن أبي عبد الله عليه السلام قال: لما قدم جعفر بن أبي طالب من الحبشة قال لرسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله أحدثك يا رسول الله: دخلت على النجاشي يوما من الأيام وهو في غير مجلس الملك وفى غير رياشه وفى غير زيه فهييته بتحية الملك وقلته له: يا أيها الملك مالي أراك في غير مجلس الملك وفى غير رياشه وفى غير زيه؟ فقال: انا نجد في الإنجيل من أنعم الله عليه بنعمة فليشكر الله ونجد في الإنجيل ان ليس من الشكر لله شئ يعدله مثل التواضع وانه ورد على في ليلتي هذه ان ابن عمك محمد صلى الله عليه وآله قد أظفره الله بمشركي أهل بدر فأحببت ان اشكر الله تعالى بما ترى

5. Muḥammad ibn Sinān narrated from Bisṭām al-Zayyāt, from Abū ʿAbdillāh who said, “When Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib returned from Abyssinia, he said to the Messenger of Allah (ṣ), ‘Should I tell you about something that happened, O Messenger of Allah? I went to visit al-Najāshī one day and found that he was neither seated on his royal throne nor was he dressed in his kingly attire, and he appeared different than he normally would. So I greeted him the way kings are greeted and said to him, “O king, why is it that I see you seated in a different place, dressed in different apparel, and having an altered appearance?” He replied, “Verily we find in the Gospels: whoever is given a blessing by Allah, let him show gratitude to Allah [for that blessing]. We also find in the Gospels: there is no form of gratitude to Allah which is comparable to humility. And verily I have received word on this night that my cousin Muḥammad has been granted victory by Allah over the polytheists at Badr, so I wanted to thank Allah, the Exalted, in the way that you see.”’”

Al-Tawḥīd

Book 2, Chapter #37

There is no god but the One God

Ḥadīth #1

1. My father said: Ahmad ibn Idris and Muhammad ibn Yahya al-`Attar said, on the authority of ‫‪Muhammad ibn Ahmad, on the authority of Ibrahim ibn Hashim, on the authority of ‫‪Muhammad ibn Hammad, on the authority of al-Hasan ibn Ibrahim, on the authority of Yunus ‫‪ibn `Abd al-Rahman, that Hisham ibn al-Hakam related the story of the Catholicos, primate of the Armenian church of the Christians, who was named Burayhah, and had been the Catholicos for seventy years. He used to research Islam, and sought to debate those Muslims who were familiar with the Christian gospels, and who were familiar with the Messiah, his attributes, arguments, and signs…

Then they both departed together until they arrived at Medina. The woman was with them. They both wanted to see Abu `Abd Allah. However, they met Musa ibn Ja`far, so Hisham related to him the account. When he finished, Musa ibn Ja`far said: “O Burayhah! How is your knowledge of your Book (the Bible)?” He answered, “I am knowledgeable of it.” The Imam asked, “How is your faith in its interpretation?” He replied. “I am confident that I am knowledgeable about it.” The reported says: Musa ibn Ja`far began reading the Bible. Burayhah responded, “The Messiah must have read like this, and no one has read this recitation but the Messiah.” Burayhah then said: “I have been seeking you or someone like you for the past fifty years.”

The reporter says: Therefore, he embraced Islam and so did the woman, and both were expediently faithful. The Hisham, Burayhah, and the woman entered the presence of Abu `Abd Allah. Hisham related the account and the discussion that took place between Musa and Burayhah. Thus Abu `Abdillah read: Offspring one of the other; and Allah is Hearing, Knowing. So Burayhah asked, “May I be your ransom! How do you view the Torah, the Bible and the Books of the Prophets?” Abu `Abdillah replied: “We are their Heirs. We read them the way they were originally read, and we convey them as they were originally conveyed. Verily, Allah does not place a Proof [hujjat] on His earth who, when questioned about something, answers: `I do not know.’”

Al-Tawḥīd

Book 2, Chapter #65

A Session of al-Ridha with Theologians from Among the Rhetoricians and Various Religions about Unity in the presence of al-Ma`mun

Ḥadīth #1

“… Al-Nawfali added, ‘The Imam then smiled, and told me, “O Nawfali! Do you fear that they will defeat my arguments?” Al-Nawfali said: “No, by Allah! I have no worries about you. Allah willing, I hope that Allah will make you victorious over them!” The Imam asked again, “O Nawfali! Would you like to know when Al-Ma`mun will regret his actions?” He answered, “Yes.” The Imam said: “When he hears me argue with the people of the Torah quoting their own Torah, with the people of the Gospel quoting their own Gospel with the people of the Psalms quoting their own Psalms, with the Sabians in their own Hebrew language, with the Zoroastrian priests in their own Persian, with the Romans in their own Latin, and with the rhetoricians using their very own languages. So, if I close the avenues of argument in the face of each arguing party and disprove his claim, making him renounce his statement from its onset and referring to my own statement, then al-Ma`mun will realize that he has not achieved what he aspires to achieve. It is then that he will feel regret. And there is no power and no strength save in Allah, the Most High, the Most Great…”’”

Ḥadīth #2

“… O `Ali! Your mention is in the Torah, and the mention of your Shi`a was in all goodness before they were created; and it is the same in the Gospel, so ask the people of the Gospel and the People of the Book about Iliya and they will inform you of what you [already] know of the Torah and the Gospel and that which Allah gave you from the knowledge of the Book. Surely, the people of the Gospel magnify Iliya, yet they do not recognize him, nor do they recognize his Shi`a; but they will recognize them by what they find in their books…” (Al-Amālī, Book 1, Chapter #83, The Eighty-Third Assembly, the Assembly of Friday, the Fourteenth of Rajab, 368 AH.)

Ḥadīth #1

… When `Ali assumed the Caliphate and the people pledged their allegiance to him, he went out to the Mosque turbaned in the turban of the Messenger of Allah, cloaked in the cloak of the Messenger of Allah (s), wearing the sandals of the Messenger of Allah, and equipped with the sword of the Messenger of Allah. So, he climbed the pulpit and sat upon it masterfully. Then, he folded his hands and placed them under his stomach. Then, he said: O people! Ask me before you lose me. This is the vessel of knowledge. This is the saliva of the Messenger of Allah. This is the sustenance that the Messenger of Allah has sustained me with. Ask me, for I have the knowledge of the former and latter peoples. By Allah, if a cushion were folded for me, I could give judgments to the people of the Torah with their Torah until the Torah is made to say: “`Ali has spoken the truth and he has not lied. He has given you judgments by that which Allah has revealed”; and I could give judgments to the people of the Gospel with their Gospel until the Gospel is made to say: “`Ali has spoken the truth and he has not lied. He has given you judgments by that which Allah has revealed”; and I could give judgments to the people of the Quran with their Quran until the Quran is made to say: “`Ali has spoken the truth and he has not lied. He has given you judgments by that which Allah has revealed.” If it were not for one verse in the Book of Allah, I could have informed you of what was, what will be, and what is, until the Day of Resurrection; and it is this verse, “Allah erases what He wishes and confirms, and with Him is the Mother of the Book.” (13:39)

Then, he said: Ask me before you lose me, for by Him who split the seed and gave life, if you were to ask me about any verse – whether it were revealed in the night or revealed in the day, in Mecca or in Medina, while travelling or while present; whether it is abrogating or abrogated, decisive or allegorical; or about its interpretation or its exegesis – I would have informed you of it. So, a man named Dha`lab, who had a sharp tongue, who was eloquent in speech, and who had a bold heart, said: Ibn Abi Talib has risen to a difficult station, so I will embarrass him today in my questions posed to him. So, he said: O Amir al-Mu’minin! Have you seen your Lord? So, he said: Woe to you, Dha`lab, I am not one who would worship a Lord that I haven not seen. He said: So, how did you see Him? Describe Him to us. He said: Woe to you! Eyes do not see Him by way of sight, but rather, hearts see Him by the realities of faith. Woe to you, Dha`lab, surely, my Lord is not described with proximity, nor with movement, nor with stillness, nor with standing – standing physically – nor with coming, nor with going. He is the Most Subtle of the subtle, but He is not described with subtlety. He is the Most Great of the great, but He is not described with greatness. He is the Most Grand of the grand, but He is not described with grandness. He is the Most Majestic of the majestic, but He is not described with difficulty. He is kind in mercy, but He is not described with gentleness; the Protector, but not [gained] through worship. He perceives, but not through touching. He speaks, but not through pronouncement. He is in the things, but not interwoven, and He is outside of them, but not contrasting. He is above everything, and nothing is to be said to be above Him. He is in front of everything, but He is not to be said to be in front. He is inside the things, but not like a thing inside another thing. He is outside the things, but not like a thing outside another thing.

So, Dha`lab fell unconscious. Then, [he awoke] and said: By Allah, I have never heard an answer like this. By Allah, I will not repeat [a question] like it. Then, he said: Ask me before you lose me. So, al-Ash`ath b. Qays went to him and said: O Amir al-Mu’minin! Why is the jizya taken from the Zoroastrians when no Book was revealed to them and no prophet was sent to them? So, he said: O Ash`ath! Allah revealed a Book to them and sent a prophet to them. They had a king who was drunk one night. He called his daughter to his bed and had intercourse with her. When he awoke, his people had heard what had happened and had gathered at his door. So, they said: “O king! You have dirtied our religion and you have destroyed it. Get out, so that we may purify you by establishing the penalty on you.” So, he said to them: “Gather and listen to my words. If there is no way out for me, then do as you wish.” So, they gathered. So, he said to them: “Do you know that Allah did not create a creation more noble than our father Adam and our mother Hawwa’?” They said: “You have spoken the truth, king.” He said: “Did he not marry his sons to his daughters, and his daughters to his sons?” They said: “You have spoken the truth. This is the religion.” So, they contracted [marriages] based on that. So, Allah erased knowledge from their hearts and raised the Book from them, so they became disbelievers who enter the Fire without judgment – and the hypocrites are in a more severe condition than them. So, al-Ash`ath said: By Allah, I have never heard an answer like this. By Allah, I will not repeat [a question] like it.

Then, he said: Ask me before you lose me. So, a man from the furthest end of the Mosque came to him, leaning on a staff. He did not stop surpassing the people until he came close to him and said: O Amir al-Mu’minin! Lead me to a practice which, if I did it, Allah would deliver me from the Fire. So, he said to him: Listen, so-and-so, then understand, then ascertain. The world is upheld by three: a speaking scholar whose knowledge is acted upon, a wealthy person who is not stingy in his wealth with the people of the religion of Allah, and patient poor person. If the scholar hides his knowledge, and the wealthy becomes stingy, and the poor person is not patient, then at that will be woe and devastation. At that, those that know Allah will know that the abode will revert to its incipience – meaning, to disbelief after faith. O asker! Do not be deceived by the number of mosques, nor by the gatherings of people who are united in their bodies but disunited in their hearts. O people! Surely, there are only three types of people: the ascetic, the hedonist, and the patient. As for the ascetic, he is not gladdened by anything of the world that comes to him, nor is he saddened by anything of the world that misses him. As for the patient, he wishes for it (the world) in his heart, but when he comes by anything of it, he avoids it because he knows its evil consequences. As for the hedonist, he does not mind taking it lawfully or unlawfully.

He said: O Amir al-Mu’minin! What is the sign of the believer in that time? He said: He looks to what Allah has obliged him and he fulfills it, and he looks to what is contrary to it and dissociates from it, even if it is beloved and near to him. He said: You have spoken the truth, by Allah, O Amir al-Mu’minin. Then, the man disappeared, and we did not see him. The people went out looking for him, but they did not see him. So, `Ali smiled on the pulpit and said: What are you doing? This is my brother al-Khidr. Then, he said: Ask me before you lose me. So, no one went to him. So, he praised Allah and commended Him, blessed His Prophet (s), then said to al-Hasan: O Hasan! Stand, climb the pulpit, and speak, so that Quraysh are not ignorant of you after me, lest they say: “Al-Hasan has not beautified (yuhsin) anything.” Al-Hasan said: O father! How can I climb [the pulpit] and speak when you are among the people listening and watching? He said: May my mother and my father be your sacrifice! I will hide myself from you, so you will neither hear nor see me. So, al-Hasan climbed the pulpit, praised Allah in an eloquent and honourable way, blessed the Prophet and his Family briefly, then said: O people! I heard my grandfather the Messenger of Allah (s) say: “I am the City of Knowledge and `Ali is its Gate. A city can only be entered by its gate.” Then, he descended; and `Ali leapt toward him, embraced him, and held him to his chest. Then, he said to al-Husayn : O my son! Stand, climb the pulpit, and speak, so that the Quraysh are not ignorant of you after me, lest they say: “Al-Husayn b. `Ali has no insight in anything”, and so that your words may follow your brother’s. So, al-Husayn climbed, praised Allah and commended Him, blessed His Prophet and his Family briefly, then said: O people! I heard the Messenger of Allah say: “Surely, `Ali is the City of Guidance. Whoever enters it is saved, and whoever turns away from it is destroyed.” So, `Ali leapt toward him, embraced him, and held him to his chest. Then, he said: O people! Bear witness that these two are the younglings of the Messenger of Allah (s) whom he entrusted to me, and I am entrusting them to you. O people! The Messenger of Allah (s) will question you regarding them. (Al-Amālī, Book 1, Chapter #55, The Fifty-Fifth Assembly, the Assembly of Friday, the Fourth of the Month of Rabi` al-Akhir, 368 AH.)

Here’s the final example:

The Imam said: When he hears me argue with the people of the Torah quoting their own Torah, with the people of the Gospel quoting their own Gospel with the people of the Psalms quoting their own Psalms, with the Sabians in their own Hebrew language, with the Zoroastrian priests in their own Persian, with the Romans in their own Latin, and with the rhetoricians using their very own languages. So, if I close the avenues of argument in the face of each arguing party and disprove his claim, making him renounce his statement from its onset and referring to my own statement, then al-Ma`mun will realize that he has not achieved what he aspires to achieve. It is then that he will feel regret. And there is no power and no strength save in Allah, the Most High, the Most Great. On the following day, al-Fadl ibn Sahl went in a hurry to see the Imam and told him, “May I be your ransom! Your cousin is waiting for you. The people have gathered together. When will you go to him?” Al-Rida told him, “You go ahead, Allah willing, I will come to you.” Then he made ablutions for praying, drank some sawiq, quenched us from it as well, and then we all left. When we reached al-Ma`mun’s place, the meeting was full of people. Muhammad ibn Ja`far, some of the Talibites and Hashimites, and the Commanders of the Army were among those present. When al-Rida entered, al-Ma`mun stood up, Muhammad ibn Ja`far, and all the Hashimites who were present there, also stood up for him. The Imam and alMa`mun sat down while all the people were still standing, until al-Ma`mun ordered them to sit down. Al-Ma`mun talked to the Imam for a while. Then al-Ma`mun turned to the Catholicos and said: “O Catholicos! This is my cousin `Ali ibn Musa ibn Ja`far. He is one of the children of Fatimah, the daughter of our Prophet, and `Ali ibn Abu Talib . I would like you to debate with him, but be fair with him.” The Catholicos said: “O Commander of the Faithful! How can I argue with a man who argues with me using a Book I reject, and who believes in a prophet who I do not believe in? Al-Rida told him, “O Christian! Will you accept to debate with me if I present proofs from your Gospel?” The Catholicos answered, “How could I reject the words of the Bible? I swear to God that I will accept your arguments, even if I dislike them.” Al-Rida told him, “Ask whatever you wish, and you shall receive an answer.” The Catholicos said: “what is your opinion about the Prophethood of Jesus and his Book? Do you deny either one of them?” Al-Rida said: I accept the Prophethood of Jesus. I accept his Book. And I accept what he taught his nation, and what was accepted by his disciples. However, I reject the Prophethood of any Jesus who has not professed the Prophethood of Muhammad, his Book, and what he taught his people. The Catholicos said: “Two witnesses are required to validate a testimony. Is that correct?” The Imam said: “Yes.” The Catholicos Archbishop said: “if that is the case, I challenge you to select who witnesses who are neither Muslim nor Christian, but who do not reject the Prophethood of Muhammad. Likewise, you may ask a similar question from people other than our own nation.”

Al-Rida said: “O Christian! Now you are speaking fairly. Do you accept a just person who was given preference (over others) by the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary?” The Catholicos replied, “Who is the just one? Name him for me.” The Imam said: “What is your opinion of John al-Daylami?” The Catholicos responded, “Bravo! Bravo! You have mentioned the person most loved by the Messiah.” The Imam said: Then I ask you to swear by God, and tell me whether or not the Bible says that John said: `The Messiah has informed me of the religion of Muhammad, the Arab, and has given me the glad tidings about him who will be (a Prophet) after him. Therefore, I have the glad tidings of him to the disciples and they believed in him.’ The Catholicos said: “John did quote this from the Messiah. He did give the glad tidings concerning the coming of a Prophet, his Household, and his Successor. He has not specified when this would happen, and has not named them so that we could identify them.” Al-Rida said: “If we bring someone here who can recite the Bible, and he recites to you Muhammad’s name, his Household, and his nation, will you believe in him?” The Catholicos replied, “What a sound suggestion!” Al-Rida turned to Nestus the Roman, and asked him, “have you memorized the third Book of the Bible?” He answered, “I have thoroughly memorized it.” Then the Imam addressed the Catholicos and said: “Can you recite the Bible?” The Catholicos said: “Yes, of course.” The Imam said: “Then I will recite to you (some verses from) the third Book. If Muhammad, his Household , and his nation were mentioned in it, then bear witness! And if they have not been mentioned therein, then do not bear witness.” Then the Imam recited to him some of the verses of the third Book until he reached the reference to the Prophet. He stopped reading and said: “O Christian! I challenge you to swear by the Messiah and his mother. Have you realized that I have knowledge of the Bible?” He replied, “yes.” The Imam recited to him some verses from the third Book concerning the reference to the Prophet, his Household, and his nation. Then the Imam said: O Christian! What do you think now? These are the words of Jesus, the son of Mary. If you deny what the Bible says, then you will deny both the Jesus and Moses. If you deny them, then it is incumbent to kill you for blasphemy against your Lord, your Prophet, and your Book. The Catholicos said: “I do not deny the clear things in the Bible. On the contrary, I profess them.”

The Imam asked others who were present, “Bear witness to his profession.” Then the Imam said to the Catholicos, “O Catholicos! Ask me any other question that you wish to ask.” The Catholicos asked, “What about the disciples of Jesus, the son of Mary? How many were they? And tell me about the scholars of the Bible. How many were then?” Al-Rida said: You have found the expert! As for (the number of) the disciples, they were twelve men. The best and the most learned of them was Aluqas (Luke). As for the (number of) Christian scholars, there were three men: John (Yohanna), `the great’ at Aj, John at Qirqisiya, and john al-Daylami at Zijan, who made reference to Prophet Muhammad, his Household and his nation. It is he who gave glad tidings to the nation of Jesus and the Children of Israel about him. The Imam added, “O Christian! By Allah, we believe in Jesus, who believed in Muhammad. We have nothing against Jesus except for his weakness and the paucity of his fasting and prayer. The Catholicos replied, “By Allah, you have corrupted your knowledge! You affair has become weak! I though that you were the most learned of the Muslims!” Al-Rida asked, “Why?” The Catholicos said: “You said that Jesus was weak in fasting and prayer when, in fact, he never broke fasting during the day, and never slept during the night. He always fasted during the day, and he always prayed throughout the night.” Al-Rida said: “For whom did he fast and pray?” The Catholicos did no answer, not knowing what to say. Al-Rida said: “I want to ask you a question.” The Catholicos said: “Ask. I will respond if I have the answer.” Al-Rida asked, “Why do you deny that Jesus gave life to the dead with the permission of Allah, the Mighty and High?” The Catholicos said: “I deny that because whoever is able to give life to the dead, and to heal the blind and the leprous is a Lord worthy of service.” Al-Rida said: Very well. However, Elijah [al-Yasa’] performed the same miracles as Jesus did. He walked on water, gave life to the dead, and healed the blind and the leprous Why did his nation not adopt him as a Lord? Why did no anyone worship him as a god other than Allah? The Prophet Ezekiel [Hizqil] did just what Jesus did. He gave life to thirty-five men sixty years after their death. Then the Imam turned towards the Head of the Rabbis and asked him, O Head of the Rabbis! Do you find the following about some of the youth of the Children of Israel in the Torah? When Nebuchadnezzar [Bakht Nasr] invaded Jerusalem, he enslaved the Children of Israel and brought them to Babylonia. Then Allah, the Mighty and High, sent al-Yasa` from them, and he gave life to them. This is in the Torah. No one but an unbeliever of you would deny it. The Head of the Rabbis said: “I have heard about this and know it.” The Imam said: “You have spoken the truth.” Then the Imam said: “O Jewish man! See if I read from the following Book of the Torah properly.” The Imam then recited some of the verses from the Torah for us. The Jewish man, who was surprised at hearing how the Imam was reciting the Torah, kept moving his body.

He then faced the Christian and asked, “O Christian! Were these words revealed before Jesus or were they revealed after him?” The Catholicos answered, “They were revealed before him.” Al-Rida said: The people of Quraysh gathered around the Messenger of Allah and asked him to give life to their dead. He sent along `Ali ibn Abu Talib with them and told him, “go to the cemetery, and loudly call the people about whom they have asked, say, “O so and-so, so-and-so, etc.” Tell them, “Allah’s Messenger Muhammad says, `Rise with the permission of Allah, the Mighty and High’ Then they all rose and brushed off the dust from their heads.” The people from the tribe of Quraysh walked towards them and asked them about their affairs. They told them that Muhammad has been raised as a Prophet. The people who had risen from the dead said: “We wish we had lived in his age and believed in him!” He healed the blind, the leprous, and the insane. He spoke with the beasts, the birds, the jinn, and demons. Still, we do not adopt him as a Lord other than Allah, the Mighty and High. We do not deny the miracles of the prophets. Since you have adopted Jesus as a Lord, why do you not adopt al-Yasa` and Hizqil as lords, for they performed the same miracles as did Jesus, the son of Mary, such as giving life to the dead? Moreover, thousands of the Children of Israel left their homeland in fear of death due to the plague. Allah made them die immediately. The people of the village build a fence around them, and left them there until their bones decayed. One of the prophets of the Children of Israel passed by, and he was amazed when he saw so may decayed bones. Allah, the Mighty and high, revealed to him, “Would you like Me to bring them to life so that you can admonish them?” The Prophet said: “Yes, O Lord!” Then Allah, the Mighty and High, revealed to him, “Then call them.” He said: “O decayed bones! Rise with Allah’s permission.” They all rose while brushing off the dust from their heads.” Likewise when Abraham, the friend of the Most Compassionate, took the birds, cut them into pieces, and put each piece on a mountain top. He called out to them and they came towards him. Also Moses the son of `Imran, his companions, and seventy of the men whom he had chosen went to the mountain. They told Moses, “You have seen Allah. So show Him to us like you have seen Him.” Moses told them, “I have not seen Him.” But they said: “We shall never believe in you until we see Allah manifestly.” A thunderbolt struck them, and burned them all up. Only Moses survived. Moses said: `O my Lord! I chose seventy men from among the Children of Israel and brought them to the mountain. Shall I return by myself? How shall my people believe what I must tell them? If You desired You could have destroyed al of us long before. Would you destroy us all for the deeds of the foolish ones among us?’ Then Allah, the Mighty and High, gave life to them after their death. You cannot deny all these things which I have told you, for the Torah, the Bible, the Psalms and the Qur’an have mentioned them. If all those who gave life to the dead, healed the blind, the leprous and the mad, were adopted as lords other than Allah, then you should also adopt them as Lords. O Christians! What is your opinion? The Catholicos said: “Yes. You are right. There is no god but Allah.”

Then the Imam turned towards the Head of Rabbis and told him. O Jewish man! Turn to me. Swear to me by the Ten Commandments which were sent down to Moses, the son of `Imran, that the following statement about the Prophet Muhammad and his nation is not found in the Torah: When the people of the last nation, who are followers of the Rider of the Camel, who glorifies the Lord enormously, new glorification in new churches (implying mosques), then let the Children of Israel flee towards them and their dominion so that their hearts may be tranquil, since there will be swords in their hands with which they will take revenge on the unbelievers around the globe. Is this not written in the Torah? The Head of the Rabbis said; “Yes, we have found that written in this manner.” Then the Imam asked the Catholicos, “O Christian! How is your knowledge of the Book of Sha`ya? He answered, “I know it letter by letter.” Then the Imam asked them both, “Do you know that the following statement is made by him, `O people! I have seen the picture of the Donkey. He was wearing gowns of light. And I have seen the Rider of the Camel, who is as bright as the moon.’” They answered, “Verily, Sha`1ya did say that!” Al-Rida said: O Christian! Do you know that Jesus said: `I am going to my Lord and your Lord, and the Paraclete [farqilita] is coming who shall testify to my truth just as I testified for him, and he shall explain everything to you, and he shall be the one to expose all the sins of nations, and he shall be the one to smash down the pillars of unbelief?’ The Catholicos said: “We accept whatever you cite from the Bible.” The Imam said: “O Catholicos! Have you found this in the Bible?” The Catholicos said: “Yes.” Al-Rida said: “O Catholicos, when you lost the first Bible, with whom did you find it?”

The Catholicos said: “We only lost the Bible for one day. Then we found it fresh (in its original state). John and Matthew brought it back to us.” Al-Rida asked him, How little you know of the Bible and its scholars! If what you say is correct, then why do you have so many disputes between yourselves regarding the Bible? The source of controversy lies in the Bible which you have IN YOUR HANDS TODAY. Had it been the same as the first Bible, there would be no dispute over it, However, I will prove this for you myself. Know that when the first Bible was lost, the Christians gathered around their scholars and said to them, `Jesus the son of Mary has been killed, and we have lost the Bible. You are the scholars. What do you have?’ Luke, Mark and John told them, `We have memorized the Bible. Do not worry about it. Do not forsake the churches. We will recite each Gospel of the Bible for you on each Sunday until we put it all together.’ Then Luke, Mark, John and Matthew gathered together and put together this Bible after you had lost the first one. These four students were of the first students. Did you know that?” The Catholicos said: “I did not know this before. Now I have learned it from you due to your noble knowledge of the Bible. I heard things from you which I knew deep down, and which my heart acknowledges to be the truth. As a result, I have grown in understanding.” Al-Rida said: “Do you accept the evidence I have presented?” The Catholicos said: “I completely accept the evidence as correct, and bear witness that it is true.” Al-Rida then told al-Ma’mun, his family, and the others who were present, “Be witnesses to this.” They said: “We bear witness.” Then the Imam told the Catholicos, I swear by the Son and his Mother to tell us whether you know that Matthew said the following, `The Messiah is the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Isaac, the son of Jacob, the son of Yehuda, the son of Khadrun.’ Mark said the following regarding the lineage of Jesus, the son of Mary, `He is Allah’s Word placed in the human body. So it turned into the human form.’ Moreover, Luke said: `Jesus the son of Mary and his mother wee humans made of flesh and blood. Then the Holy Spirit entered into them.’ Testify as well that Jesus said the following about himself, `O disciples! I will tell you the truth. No one will ascend to Heaven, except for him who descends there from, except for the Rider of the Camel, the Seal of the Prophets, for he will ascend to the Heavens, and then will descend therefrom. What do you have to say about that? The Catholicos said; “These are the words of Jesus. We do not deny them.” Al-Rida said: “If so, what do you say about the testimonies of Luke, Mark and Matthew regarding Jesus and the lineage they attributed to him?” The Catholicos said: “They ascribed likes to Jesus.” Al-Rida said: “O people! Did he not just bear witness that they (Luke, Mark and Matthew) are the Scholars of the Bible, and what they said was the truth?” The Catholicos said: “O Scholar of the Muslims! I would like you to excuse me from discussing about these men.” Al-Rida said: “Fine, I will excuse you from that, O Christian! Ask me whatever you wish to ask.” The Catholicos said: “Let someone else ask you questions. By Jesus, I did not think that there was a scholar like you among the Muslims.”

Al-Rida turned towards the Head of the Rabbis and said: “Will you ask me questions or should I ask?” The Head of the Rabbis said: “I will ask. However, I will not accept any proofs from you except those from the Torah, the Bible, the Psalms of David, or the Scriptures of Abraham and Moses.” Al-Rida said: “Do not accept any of my proofs unless they are from the Torah as expressed by Moses, the son of `Imran, the Bible as expressed by Jesus, the son of Mary, or the Psalms of David as expressed by David.” The Head of the Rabbis said: “How can you prove the Prophethood of Muhammad?” Al-Rida said: “Moses, the son of `Imran, Jesus, the son of Mary and David, the Vicegerent of Allah on the Earth, have testified to his Prophethood.” The Head of the Rabbis said: “Provide evidence of the testimony of Moses, the son of `Imran.” Al-Rida told him, O Jewish man! Do you know that Moses said the following to the Children of Israel, `A prophet will come to you from among your brethren. Believe in him, and obey him.’ Do you know that the Children of Israel have no brethren other than the Children of Ishmael? Do you know about the ties of kinship between Israel and Ishmael and the relationship that existed between them from the past through Abraham? The Head of the Rabbis said: “These are the words of Moses. I do not deny them.” Al-Rida asked him, “Has any Prophet other than Muhammad come from among the brethren of the Children of Israel?” He replied, “No.” Al-Rida said: “Is this not correct in your opinion?” The Head of the Rabbis said: “Yes, but I want you to prove its correctness from the Torah.” Al-Rida asked him, “Do you deny that the Toray says the following to you? `There came light from Mount Sinai. Light shined upon us from Mount Sa`ir and it became apparent to us from Mount Faran.’” The Head of the Rabbis said: “I am familiar with these words, but I do not know what they mean.” Al-Rida said: I will inform you about them. What is meant when it says `There came light from Mount Sinai` is a reference to the revelations of Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, to Moses on mount Sinai. And what is meant when it says, `Light shined upon us from Mount Sa`ir’ is a reference to the mountain upon which Allah, the Mighty and High, sent revelations of Jesus, the son of Mary. Jesus was on that mountain. And what is meant when it says, `and it became apparent to us from Mount Faran.’ Faran is a mountain that is one day away from Mecca. As you and your friends said: the Prophet Sha`ya has said in the Torah that `I have seen the picture of the Rider of the Donkey. He was wearing gowns of light. And I have seen the Rider of the Camel, who is as bright as the moon.’ Who is the Rider of the Donkey? Who is the Rider of the Camel? The Head of the Rabbis said: “I do not know who they are.” The Imam said: “The Rider of the Donkey is Jesus, and the Rider of the Camel is Muhammad. Do you deny that this is from the Torah?” The Head of the Rabbis said: “No, I do not deny that.” Then al-Rida said: “Do you know the Prophet Hayqua?” The Head of the Rabbis said: “Yes, I know him.” The Imam said: He said the following which your Book has also stated, `Allah brought down the Bayan from Mount Faran. The heavens are filled with the praise of Ahmad and his nation. He will lead his troops at sea just as he carries them on land. He will bring us a new Book after the destruction of the Holy House (in Jerusalem).’ Did you know the, and do you believe in it? The Head of the Rabbis said: “In fact, the Prophet Hayquq has said this. I will not deny his words.

Al-Rida said: David said in his Psalms which you have also read, `O my Allah! Appoint him who will establish the practice after the cessation (of the prophets). Did you know of any prophet other than Muhammad who has established the practice after the end of the period of prophecy? The Head of the Rabbis said: “this is what David said. We do not deny it. However, he was referring to Jesus, as it was with him that the age of prophecy came to a close.” Al-Rida told him, ‘You are wrong. In fact, Jesus endorsed the practices [sunnah] of the Torah until Allah raised him up to Himself. It is written in the Bible. The son of the pious woman will go, and the Paraclete will come after him. It is he who will preserve the bonds, explain everything to you, and testify to my truth just as I testified for him. I have brought you the examples, and he will bring you the interpretations. Do you believe that this statement is in the Bible? The Head of the Rabbis said: “Yes.” Al-Rida replied to him, “O the Head of the Rabbis! I want to ask you about your Prophet Moses.” The Jewish man said: “He brought miracles which the prophets before him had not brought.” The Imam asked, “Could you give me an example?” The Head of the Rabbis replied, “He split the sea, turned the cane into a slithering serpent, made springs gush from stones, showed his hand white and shining to the onlookers, and other signs the like of which other creatures were unable to bring.” Al-Rida replied to him, “You are right. They are proofs of his Prophethood. He brought the like of which other creatures were unable to brig. Is it obligatory on you to believe in whoever claims Prophethood, and performs something which all other creatures are unable to perform?” The head of the Rabbis said: “No, since there is no one like Moses considering his position near his Lord and his closeness to Him. It is not incumbent upon us to profess the Prophethood of whoever claims it, unless he brings us miracles similar to those brought by Moses. The Imam said: Then how come you admit the Prophethood of the other prophets who preceded Moses who did not split the sea; nor did they make twelve springs gush forth from the stones, nor did they show a white shining hand as Moses did, nor did they turn the came into a slithering serpent. The Jewish man replied: I told you that if they performed miracles as evidence for their Prophethood which all other creatures were unable to perform, and if they brought something the like of which Moses had brought, or they followed what Moses had brought, then it is incumbent upon us to believe in them.

Al-Rida replied to him, “O Head of the Rabbis! What has prevented you from professing (the Prophethood of) Jesus, the son of Mary? Jesus brought the dead to life, healed the blind and the leprous, made birds formed of clay and breathed life into them with Allah’s permission.’” The Head of the Rabbis said: “It is said that he did that but we did not see it.” Al-Rida said: “Have you seen the miracles performed by Moses? Have you not received the news by way of Moses’s closest trustworthy companions who said he did them?” The Head of the Rabbis said: “Yes. That is so.” The Imam said: “Well. The news about the miracles of Jesus, the son of Mary, have reached you in a similar fashion. Why then did you acknowledge Moses and believe in him, but you did not believe in Jesus?” The Head of the Rabbis did not answer. Al-Rida said: The same is true about Muhammad and his miracles. The same is true about any other prophet appointed by Allah. One of the miracles of Muhammad was that he was a poor hired shepherd. He had not been taught anything. He did not have any teachers. However, the Qur’an which he brought contains the stories of the prophets and the associated news letter by letter. It has narrated news of the past, and the things to come in the future all the way up until the Day of Resurrection. The Qur’an provided information about what people did in hiding or in their homes. The Prophet brought innumerable miracles. The Head of the Rabbis said: “Neither the account about Jesus nor that about Muhammad is considered correct by us. It is not permissible to admit their Prophethood through what is not correct.” Al-Rida (AS said: “Has the witness who testified for Jesus and Muhammad then given false testimony?” The Head of the Rabbis did not answer him.

Then the Imam called the Zoroastrian High Priest. Al-Rida said to him, “Let me know about Zoroaster who considered himself to be a prophet. What is your proof of his Prophethood?” The Zoroastrian High Priest said: “He performed miracles which no one ever had performed before him. Of course, I have not seen him, but the stories of our ancestors tell us that he made legitimate for us things which others had not made legitimate. Therefore, we follow him.” The Imam asked, “You believed in the stories which came to you about him, so you followed him, did you not?” He replied, “Yes.” The Imam said: This is the case with all other nations. Stories came to them about what the prophets had accomplished, and what Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad had all brought to them. So why did you not believe in any of these prophets, having believed in Zoroaster through the stories that came to you about him saying that he brought forth what others did not? The Zoroastrian High Priest froze in his place. Then al-Rida said: “O people! If any of you is opposed to Islam, and wants to ask me any questions, then they should ask me and not be shy.” `Imran the Sabian, who was an expert in theology, stood up and said: O Scholar of the people! I would not have asked you any questions if you had not invited me to ask. I have been to Kufa, Basra, Syria, and Algeria. There I have met many theologians. However, none of them have been able to establish for me the proof that there is One who has no second other than Him, and that he is One Sole Being. Will you permit me to ask you this question? Al-Rida said: “If `Imran the Sabian is present among the people here, it must be you.” He said: “Yes. It is I.” The Imam said: “O `Imran! Ask, but I advise you to be fair. Avoid vain talk and nonsense.”…

`Imran asked, “O my Master! By means of what can we recognize Him>” Al-Rida said: “By means of other than Him.” `Imran asked, “What is other than Him?” Al-Rida said: “His Will, His Name, His Attribute, and everything else that was created, has emerged and is managed (by Him).” `Imran said: “O my Master! Then what is He?” The Imam replied, “He is Light. That means that He guided His Creatures from among the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth. You have no rights incumbent upon me more than my professing His Unity to you.” `Imran said: “O my Master! Was He not silent before creating the creatures, and then He spoke?” Al-Rida said: Silence does not exist unless there is some utterance before it. An example of this is that it is not said that the lamp is silent and does not utter; not is it said that the lamp shines, implying that it want to do something to us. The light shining from the lamp is not considered to be the act of the lamp. It is not something separate from the lamp. Therefore, when it is illuminating us we say that it was lit for us, by which we found our way around. Through this example you can find what you are after and become enlightened in your affairs. `Imran said: “O my Master! I though that the Ever-Existent changed His State through the act of creation.” Al-Rida said: O `Imran! You claim that the Ever-Existent Being can change in some way as a result of His Action. O `Imran! Have you ever seen that the changes in fire change it? Have you ever seen heat burn itself? Have you ever seen an eye see itself? `Imran said: “No, I have not. O my Master! Will you let me know whether He is in the creatures or the creatures are in Him?” Al-Rida said: O `Imran! He is greater than that. He is not in the creatures; not are the creatures in Him. He is Exalted above that. I will teach you what you do not know. There is no power and no strength save Allah. Tell me about the mirror: are you in it or is it in you? O `Imran! If neither one of you are in the other; then, how can you see your reflection in it? `Imran said; “Through the light between me and the mirror.” Al-Rida said: “Can you see more light in the mirror than what you perceive with your own eyes?” He answered, “Yes.” Al-Rida said: “Then show it to us!” It was then that the man was too baffled to say a word. The Imam said: “I do not see the light except that it leads to both of you, the mirror and yourself, without being in either one of you. There are many more examples which the ignorant simply cannot comprehend. Allah is the highest such example.”

Then the Imam turned to al-Ma`mun and told him, “It is time to pray.” `Imran said: “O my Master! Do not interrupt my questions since I am feeling inclined towards you in my heart.” Al-Rida said: “We will pray and come back.” Then the Imam stood up. Al-Ma`mun got up as well. Al-Rida prayed inside and the people prayed outside, led by Muhammad ibn Ja`far. Then the Imam came out, returned to the meeting called out to `Imran, and said: “O `Imran! Ask your questions.” `Imran said: “O my Master! Will you let me know whether the Unity of Allah, the Mighty and High, is perceived through reality or through description?”

Al-Rida said: Certainly, Allah is the Only Initiator and the first Ever-Being. He has always been One without anything to accompany Him. He is the Peerless, and there is no second with Him. He is neither definite nor indefinite. He is neither decisive nor allegorical. He is neither mentioned nor forgotten. No name can describe Him. Time cannot measure His beginning. And time cannot measure His End. He has not been standing upon anything else, nor will He be standing upon anything. There is nothing which supports Him. There is nothing on which He leans. He has all these attributes before creating anything, when there was nothing but Him. Whatever you attribute to Him will be originated attributes which are the only means for understanding Him, which anyone possessing understanding can comprehend. Know that innovation, will, and intent are different words that express the same meaning. His foremost innovation, intent and will were the letters which He established as the origin of everything, the evidence for all perceived things, and the separator for all vague things. Everything was separated by these letters; thing such as the names for right and wrong, action and object, meaning and meaningless. All affairs were run based on them. He did not establish any limited meaning for them other than what they were themselves when He originated the letters. He did not establish for them any existence other than themselves since they were originated via innovation. Light is Allah’s first action. He is the Light of the heavens and the earth. It was through that action that the letters became object. They are the letters upon which speech is based. Expressions are all from Allah, the Mighty and High, who taught them to His Creatures. There are thirty-three letters. Twenty-eight of them are the letters on which the Arabic language is based. Twenty-two of Twenty-eight letters show the letters of the Assyrian and Hebrew languages. Five of them were separated, and are in the rest of the languages of non-Arabs in the regions. These are the five letters which were separated from the twenty-eight letters. Therefore, there are thirty-three letters. It is not permissible to mention more about them than what we have mentioned regarding these fie letters which were separated.

He then established the letters after counting them and numbering them as His own action, like the Word of the Mighty and High: `Be,’ and it is. Here `be’ refers to His Creation, and `what is created’ refers to the creature. Thus, the first creation by Allah, the Mighty and High, is innovation which has neither weight nor any movement. It is neither heard nor does it have color or touch. And the second thing that was created are the letters which have neither weight nor color. They are neither heard nor described. They are not visible. The third creature includes all the various kinds of things which are perceptible, touchable, tasteable, and visible. Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, existed before innovation as there has been nothing before the Mighty and High, and nothing with him. Innovation was created before the letters were created, and the letters do not indicate anything other than themselves. Al-Ma`mun asked, “How come they do not indicate anything other than themselves?” Al-Rida said: “Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, never combines any of them together unless to mean something, When He combines several letters together, say four, five or six or more, He uses them to originate a new meaning which did not exist before.” `Imran asked, “How can we understand them?” Al-Rida said: This is how it can be understood. When you only want to refer to the letters and not anything else, you mention them one by one and say, a b c d … to the end. Here you find no meaning in them other than themselves. But when you put several letters together by construct names and attributes for a meaning which you have in mind. They will not demonstrate the meaning for which they were intended. Did you understand this? `Imran said: “Yes.” Al-Rida said: Know that an attribute cannot be without what it describes. Also, a name cannot be without a meaning. A limit cannot be without the limited. All attributes and names indicate perfection and existence. They do not indicate encompassment, as the limits do. Limits make squares, make triangles, and make hexagons. Verily, the recognition of Allah, the Mighty and High, is perceived by attributes and names, not by limits such as length, width, smallness, largeness, color, weight, and the like. No such limits are applicable to Allah, the High and the All-Holy, so that His creatures could recognize Him by recognizing themselves. This is certain as I said: but the attributes of Allah, the Mighty and High, prove Him. He can be understood through His Names. He can be reasoned upon by referring to His creatures. A true seeker does not need to see Him with his own eyes, hear Him with his own ears, touch Him with his own hands, or encompass Him with his own heart. Were it not the case that His attributes proved Him, Exalted is His Praise, and His Names denoted Him, it was not possible for the taught knowledge of the creatures to perceive Him. Then the creatures would have worshipped His Names and Attributes instead of His meaning. Were it any different, the only worshipped one would have been other than Allah, the Exalted, since his Attributes and Names are other than Him. Did you understand?” `Imran said: “Yes, my Master, Please tell me more.” (Al-Tawḥīd, Book 2, Chapter 65, A Session of al-Ridha with Theologians from Among the Rhetoricians and Various Religions about Unity in the presence of al-Ma`mun)

FURTHER READING

THE QURAN’S GOSPEL