5. THE ISRĀ’ĪLIYYĀT IN THE COMMENTARY OF THE QUR’ĀN
AND THE ḤĀDĪTH (1)
AND THE ḤĀDĪTH (1)
The term isrā’īliyyāt (إسْرَائيِلِيَّات) is the plural form of isrā’īliyyah (إسْرَائِيلِيّهَ) meaning “a story or an
incident reported from an Israeli origin”, namely, Ya‘qūb (his other name), son
of Isḥāq (Isaac), son of Ibrāhīm (Abraham), the father of the Twelve Tribes.
They are called in the Qur’ān Banī Isrā’īl (the Children of Israel), but
they are also called “the Jews.”[1]
The term isrā’īliyyāt (إسْرَائيِلِيَّات) is usually translated as Jewish
Legends. But scholars of tafsīr (Qur’ānic exegesis) and Ḥadīth include
any ancient legend derived from Jewish, Christian or any other. Some of them
even include what the enemies of Islam interpolated in the tafsīr or Ḥadīth
which has no basis from ancient source, but rather stories invented by
enemies of Islam. Their intention was to spoil the Muslims’ belief, such as the
story of Satanic verses and the story of the Prophet’s marriage with
Zaynab bint Jaḥsh. Since both stories are very important for us to know, they
are as follows:
A.
Satanic Verses Incident
This story was mentioned by many among mufassirīn (commentators
of the Qur’ān) as Qiṣṣat al-Gharānīq (the Story of the Cranes) among
them are as follows:
Ibn Kathīr: Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr
said: The Messenger of Allah s.a.w. cited sūrat al-Najm (Q. 53). “By
the star when it sets! Your companion has not erred or gone astray, and does
not speak from mere fancy…” When he
reached أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ اللَّاتَ وَالْعُزَّى. وَمَنَاةَ الثَّالِثَةَ الْأُخْرَى (النجم:19-20)
“Have
you then considered Al-Lāt, and Al-‘Uzzā (two idols of the pagan Arabs). And Manāt
(another idol of the pagan Arabs), then other third? (Q. 53:19-20). He
said: Then Satan put into his mouth تِلْكَ الغَرَانِيْقُ العُلَى
وإنّ شَفَاعَتَهُنَّ لَتُرْتَجَى “These are the high-flying
cranes and their intercession is to be hoped for.”[2]
Ibn Kathir mentions various isnāds (chains of transmitters) of this
story, but almost all of them are mursal (without mention the companions
of the Prophet), or considered unacceptable.
This story of the cranes was not found
in the authentic books, neither in the six collection of Ṣaḥīḥ (sound
traditions) of the Sunnī, nor the Shi’it sources, for they are, as al-Marāghī
put it in his Tafsīr: “These traditions are undoubtedly a fabrication of the
heretics and foreign hands, and have not been found in any of the authentic
books.” Moreover, as al-Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ
put it, the incident contradicted the doctrine of ‘iṣmah, the divine protection
of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) from
mistakes.
This is the view of
the majority of Muslim scholars, such as Abū Bakr Ibn al-‘Arabī, al-Qurṭubī,
al-Alūsī, al-Albānī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, and Muhammad ‘Abduh. Fakhr al-Dīn
al-Rāzī reported that Ibn Khuzaymah said that the story was an invention of the
heretics, and that al-Bayhaqī stated that the narration of the story was
unreliable as the integrity of its narrators was questionable. Muhammad Abduh
states that the term al-gharānīq (الْغَرَانِيْق), the plural of al-ghurnūq (الْغُرْنُوْق) and al-gharnīq (الْغَرْنِيْق) is the name of a black or white water bird, and sometimes
figuratively means a handsome blond youth. It has never been describe as the
gods or the goddess worshiped by the pagan Arabs, neither in their poetry,
speeches, nor in their tradition.
According to Ibn Ḥajar this story could have a basis, but in different
version. It is true that the Prophet did prostrate, but not to the idols. He
continued reading till the end of the sūrat al-Najm where he was ordered
to do so. Allah said: فَاسْجُدُوا لِلّه وَاعْبُدُوا (النجم: 62) “So,
fall you down in prostration to Allah and worship Him (Alone).” The
idolaters prostrated with him, until they found out that his prostration was to
Allah, not to the idols to which they did. There
is also a story stating that instead of the Prophet, it was Satan who imitated
the voice of the Prophet (ﷺ) cited the Satanic verses. The Makkan idolaters, thinking that
it was the voice of the Prophet, were very happy and joined him prostrating. Al-Walīd
ibn al-Mughīrah (in another report, Umayyah ibn Khalaf), being too old to
prostrate, put dust in his palm and prostrated to it.[3] Based on the above verses, it is impossible
that the Prophet had been tricked by Satan by citing the Satanic verses
mentioned above.
Inspired by this “story of the
Cranes” in 1988 Salman Rushdie published his novel
entitled The Satanic Verses. It contains some fictionalized allusions to
Islamic history where derogatory terms are used: such as: Mahound, (a conjurer,
a magician and a false prophet, yet these remarks are made by a drunken
apostate) for Muhammad (ﷺ); Jahilia for the holy city of Makkah; Saladin (the great
Muslim hero of the Crusades) for a devil; Ayesha (the wife of the Prophet) for
a fanatical Indian girl who leads her village on a fatal pilgrimage; the
prostitutes at the brothel of the city of Jahilia have the same name with the
Prophet’s wives who are viewed by Muslims as “Mothers of the believers;” Abraham
is called a "bastard" for casting Hagar and Ishmael in the desert.
The book also criticized Islam for having too many rules and seeking to control
every aspect of life. The publishing of the book was protested by Muslims
around the world, that Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa sentencing
Rushdie to death, saying that the book is a blasphemy towards Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and his wives.
B.
The Prophet’s Marriage to Zaynab
There were fabricated stories
about the Prophet’s marriage to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh, his own first cousin, in
order to attack his character. According to Shaykh Muhammad Abu Zahrah, the
story was invented by John of Damascus in the ‘Umayyad period. Then it spread
among the tābi‘i tābi ‘īn and was
attributed to Qatādah. Al-Ṭabarī in his Tafsīr mentioned it, as we know
that he put anything in it without having any time to select what is true or
false, genuine or fabricated. The ṣaḥābah never mentioned it, and no
sound ḥadīth reported it.
The story said that
one day the Prophet went over to see Zayd, but he was not at home. While he was
outside, he saw Zaynab’s shape of her body through window or the door, and
exclaimed, “Glory be to Allah the Great, Glory be to him Who overrule the
hearts”, heard by her. Zayd her husband after being told what had happened went
to the Prophet and told him that he would divorce her if he liked her, but the
Prophet refused and told him to keep her.
In another story, the Prophet
visited Zayd’s house and saw Zaynab busy making some food, and exclaimed, “Glory
be to Allah, The Creator, Glory be Allah” and went out. When Zaynab
told Zayd what had occurred, he suggested divorcing her, so that she could
marry the Prophet, but she refused, as the Prophet might have no intention to
marry her.
These and similar stories are baseless, fabricated and
fictitious to smear the impeccable character of the Prophet. Here are some
commentaries of Muslim scholars:
(a)
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi (1903 – 1979): Zaynab was never a stranger to the
Prophet (ﷺ), that he would never fall in love with
her at first sight. She was his first cousin, the daughter of his paternal
aunt, Umaymah, daughter of Abdul Muṭṭalib, and had known
her from her childhood to her youth. A year earlier, he had persuaded her to
marry Zayd to demonstrate practically the equality of the Quraysh and liberated
slaves as human beings. The marriage ended with divorce, as she never reconciled
herself to her marriage with a liberated slave. So, the Prophet married her in
5 AH.
(b) Muḥammad Ḥusayn Haykal
(1888–1956): Abdullah ibn Jahsh refused the Prophet’s request to let his sister
Zaynab, the Hāshimī Quraysh noble girl to marry Zayd, the Prophet’s former slave
whom he set free and adopted as his son. It was a great shame for the Arabs in
general, and even unthinkable, that the daughters of the aristocracy to marry
their slaves, even though they had become free. But the Prophet (ﷺ) wanted to wipe out these racial discrimination and class
distinctions and to educate people to the truth that there is no superiority of
one person over the other except with virtue. (Qur’ān, 49:13)
But when it was revealed that the
Prophet(ﷺ) had to be obeyed, they both Abdullah and
Zaynab agreed. The revelation was as follows: “No believer, whether man or
woman, has freedom to choose otherwise than as Allah and His Prophet have
resolved in any given case. To do so is to disobey Allah and His Prophet, to
err and fall into manifest misguidance.”(Qur’ān, 33:36)
The marriage between Zayd and Zaynab
did not go well, as she continued to feel the gap between her belonging to an
aristocracy and his being a former slave. He complained to the Prophet(ﷺ), but the Prophet (ﷺ) told him
to keep her. But, as Zayd was unable to bear her false pride any longer, he
divorced her.
The Prophet (ﷺ) was ordered by Allah to marry Zaynab to break the Arab
tradition of prohibiting from marrying the former wife of one’s adopted son, as
for them an adopted son is like a real son. In Islam an adopted son remains the
son of his real parents. Blood relationship will never be cut through adoption.
This marriage between Zayd and Zaynab as well as between the Prophet and Zaynab
is the breaking of ancient Arab tradition through practice, and at the same
time applying the Islamic teachings: the quality of man before Allah, and the
nature of adoption, namely, blood relationship will never be cut off through
adoption.
These two fabricated stories are
included among the isrā’iliyyāt (Jewish legends), although they are not
invented by them, but by the enemies of Islam.
(CIVIC, 28 April,
2017)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري (ت. 310/922 (
تفسير القرطبى (611 -
671 هـ / 1214 - 1273 م(
تفسير ابن كثير (ت.
774/ 1373 (
الذهبي, الدكتور محمد
حسين. الإسرائيليات في التفسير و الحديث. القاهرة: مكتبة وهبة, 1411هـ ـ
1990 م.
Zayd, Zaynab and Muhammed: Fabrications And
Lies, by Kaleef K. Karim (By Discover The Truth • August 18, 2016)
(https://discover-the-truth.com/2016/08/18/zayd-zaynab-and-muhammed-fabrications-and-lies/)
[1] See, for example, Q. 5:78; 17:4, and 27:76
[2] There are at least nineteen various versions of this
Satanic Verses indicating its being fabricated, and they are almost similar in
meanings, as follows: (1) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , وَأنَّ
شَفَاعَتَهُنَّ لَتُرْتَجَى . (2) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , وَإِنَّ
شَفَاعَتَهُنّ لَتُرْجَى . (3) تِلْكَ
اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , وَأنَّ شَفَاعَتَهُنّ تُرْتَجَى. (4) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , وَإِنَّ
شَفَاعَتَهُنّ لَتُرْجَى .(5) تِلْكَ الْغَرَانِيقُ الْعُلى , وَشَفَاعَتُهُنَّ
تُرْتَجَى . (6) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , مِنْهَا
الشَّفَاعَةُ تُرْتَجَى . (7) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى ، مِنْهَا
الشَّفَاعَةُ لَتُرْتَجَى . (8) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى ، منهنّ
شَفَاعَةٌ تُرْتَجَى. (8) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى ، مِنْهُنّ شَفَاعَةٌ
تُرْتَجَى . (9) أُولئِكَ
اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , وَأنَّ شَفَاعَتَهُنّ لَتُرْتَجَى . (10) إنَّ تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى ،
مِنْهَا الشَّفَاعَةُ تُرْتَجَى .
(11) وَإنَّهُنَّ لَمِنَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى
. وَإِنَّ
شَفَاعَتَهُنَّ لَهِيَ الَّتِي تُرْتَجَى .
(12) وَإِنَّهَا لَمِنَ الْغَرَانِيقِ الْعُلَى
, فَإِنَّ شَفَاعَتَهَا هِيَ الْمُرْتَجَى .
(13) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى ، عِنْدَهَا
الشَّفَاعَةُ تُرْتَجَى . (14) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى ، عِنْدَهَا
شَفَاعَةٌ تُرْتَجَى . (15) تِلْكَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , مِنْهَا
الشَّفَاعَةُ تُرْتَجَى . (16) وَهِيَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , شَفَاعَتَهُنّ
تُرْتَجَى .(17) تِلْكَ إِذَنْ هِيَ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى , تِلْكَ
إِذَنْ شَفَاعَةٌ تُرْتَجَى . (18) وَإِنّ شَفَاعَتَهَا لَتُرْتَجَى, وَإِنَّهَا
لَمَعَ الْغَرَانِيقِ الْعُلَى . (19) وَإنَّهُنَّ اْلغَرَانِيْقُ اْلعُلَى, وَإِنَّ
شَفَاعَتَهُنّ لَهِيَ الَّتِي تُرْتَجَى
. There are
four more variant readings not included here, as they are all written شَفَاعَتُهُمْ in
masculine gender - rather than شَفَاعَتُهُنّ in
feminine gender - which might have been misprinted. Following the Kufan school
and the Qur’anic script it is written اْلعُلَى (such
as Q. 20:4 وَالسَّماواتِ الْعُلى) rather than the Baṣran school and modern standard Arabic الْعُلا.
[3] There are many Qur’anic verses indicating that the
Story of the Cranes were fabricated, among which are: Q. 16:99-100; 15:42;
26:221-222; 14:22; 53:3-4, and 41:41-42
