6. THE ISRĀ’ĪLIYYĀT IN THE COMMENTARY OF THE QUR’ĀN
AND THE ḤĀDĪTH (2)
AND THE ḤĀDĪTH (2)
Compared to the
Christians, the Jews have more interaction and connection with Muslims than the
Christians and have richer culture. They have more efforts to damage and to
distort the beauty of Islam. The person who was more responsible for this
distortion was ‘Abdullah ibn Saba’ and many of his followers who pretended to
be Muslims, in order to destroy Islam from within by means of spreading the isrā’īliyyāt
in the tafsīr of the Qur’ān and in the Ḥadīth. Their
enmity of the Jews towards Islam is mentioned in the Qur’ān, as follows:
لَتَجِدَنَّ أَشَدَّ النَّاسِ
عَدَاوَةً لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا (المائدة:82)
Verily, you will
find the strongest among men in enmity
to the believers (Muslims) the Jews and those
who are
al-mushrikūn [i.e., idolaters, polytheists,
pagans,
disbelievers in the
Oneness of Allah]…(Q. 5:82)
The Jews took refuge to the Arabian Peninsula
especially in great number in 70 CE fleeing from the torture of the Roman
Emperor Titus.[1]
They took with them their culture based on their religious books with their
commentaries. They inherited this culture successively from one generation to
another from their prophets and rabbis. In the meantime the pre-Islamic Arabs
used to travel to Syria in summer and to Yemen in winter where they made
contact with Jews in these two places and learned their culture.
At the
advent of Islam where Madinah as its capital many Jewish tribes had occupied
some areas in that city and around it. They were: Banī Qaynuqā‘, Banī Qurayẓah,
Banī al-Naḍīr, the Jews of Khaybar, Taymā’, and Fadak. Interaction between the
Jews and the Muslims, especially the Prophet (ﷺ) took place.
The Jews came to the Prophet (ﷺ) to ask him
some questions, either to challenge him, to test him for his claim of
prophethood, and the Prophet offered them to accept Islam. The interactions and
dialogues between Muslims and the Jews resulted with the conversion of some of
them into Islam, such as: ‘Abdullah ibn Sallām, Ka‘b al-Aḥbār, and ‘Abdullah
ibn Ṣūrī (Ṣūryā), although it was said that he became apostate later to
Judaism. They were very knowledgeable about Jewish culture.
The effect of this interaction
was that many people became influenced by the Jewish culture. Some historians,
such as al-Ṭabarī in his Tārīkh, mentioned the history of the Children
of Israel and their prophets as well as events and incidents among them which
had no basis.
One example of this
baseless story is that the belief of the Saba’iyyah, the follower of ‘Abdullah
ibn Saba’, that ‘Ali r.a. was not killed, but was lifted to heaven, like
Jesus a.s., whereas the person who was killed was a satan who looked
like ‘Ali, and like Jesus he would descent to the world to revenge against his
enemies. Just like the false claim of the Jews and the Christians that Jesus
had died, so was the claim of the Nawāṣib who hated ‘Ali and the
Khawārij who deserted him. Such baseless legends would damage the belief of
Muslims, so that the enemy of Islam would claim that Islam was based on superstition.
How these Jewish legends penetrated
into the tafsīr and the Ḥadīth was this. They passed through two
stages: (1) narrative stage, and (2) compilation stage. In the narrative stage,
the Prophet (ﷺ) talked to
his ṣaḥābah (companions) on various topics, including his commentary on Qur’ānic
verses. The ṣaḥābah reported them to the next generation, the tābi‘īn,
and they, in turn reported them to their next generation, tābi‘ī al- tābi‘īn. They reported, not only what the Prophet (ﷺ) had stated, but also the statements of the ṣaḥābah or
the tābi‘īn whether they were dealing with tafsīr or religious
matters.
In the time of the ṣaḥābah the
reports they received were
accepted
easily, but in the time of the tābi‘īn, especially after the fitnah (dissension)
in 41 AH where the Muslims became divided into Shī‘āh, Khawārij and Ahl
al-Sunnah invented lies about the sayings of the Prophet (ﷺ) were made, people started asking the source of their
statements, unless they were reported by those who were well-known for their
strong memory and honesty. Sanad (chains of transmitters) of ḥadīth
is extremely important through which the soundness or unsoundness of a ḥadīth
will be known.
Some ṣaḥābah who were
eager to know the details of what the Qur’ān had mentioned briefly, asked the converted
Jews like Ka‘b al-Aḥbār who might have knowledge of its details in the Torah.
In the time of the tābi‘īn a group of mufassirīn (Qur’ān
commentators) would like to fill the gap in the tafsīr with what they
found in the isrā’īliyyāt so that we find it full of foolish,
ridiculous and ugly stories attributed to Qatādah (d. 117 AH/ 735), and Mujāhid
(d. 104/722). In the time after the tābi‘īn
the isrā’īliyyāt were randomly
accepted and included in the commentary of the Qur’ān even those considered by
many people a kind of superstition.
The compilation
stage started at the end of the first century and the second century AH where
the compilation of tafsīr and Ḥadīth were started at the same
time. It was the order of the caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz to compile in the
whole country all sound ḥadīths and tafsīr from the Prophet (ﷺ) as well as the ṣaḥābah and the tābi‘īn. The
compilers also recorded the sanad (chains of transmitters) of these ḥadīths
and put a special chapter on tafsīr in this collection of ḥadīths.
The sanad is extremely important, that without it would cast doubt
on the genuineness of a report or a ḥadīth.
In this period of compilation
the isrā’īliyyāt were hardly included except if they were not
contradictory to a legal text, and some where reported from the Prophet, like
those reported by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ and others. After the
separation of the tafsīr from the Ḥadīth in compilation, many tafsīr
compilers included many isrā’īliyyāt with their sanads where many of them were foolish and
ridiculous. They thought that as long as the sanad in included, they
were no longer responsible to verify the genuineness or the fabrication of the
report. Scholars of Ḥadīth in the past used to say مَنْ أَسْنَدَ لَكَ
فَقَدْ حَمَلَكَ “Whoever furnishes you
with chains of transmitters he has given you a burden (to verify the report)”,
and Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 31/651-2) was one of them. His Tafsīr is a
warehouse full of ḥadīths, stories, isrā’īliyyāt with sanads, a
challenge for scholars to verify, which one is genuine from the invented one
through investigating its sanad.
The widely spread
of the isrā’īliyyāt among Muslims are based on two main factors: the
enemies of Islam and the story tellers. The enemies of Islam, the Jews among
them, despite their efforts fight Islam and to stop people from following it
they failed. As Islam became stronger, they resorted to deception: they
pretended to be Muslims; they exploited Muslims emotion and love for the
Prophet’s family (ahl al-bayt), they shed crocodile tears in sorrow of
what they called the injustice towards them; they exaggerated their
appreciation and reverence towards them, until they reached the level of
prophethood or even more. They described Abū Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān usurpers
of the caliphate which should have been the right of ‘Alī and his descendants
after him. They invented strange ḥadīths and strange stories, most of
them from Jewish origins. Because of their good expression they twisted easily
the story, then they announced it to people until it spread out, and someone
attributed it to the Prophet.
The second factor in
the spread of the isrā’īliyyāt among Muslims are the
tales of story-tellers (quṣṣāṣ). They disturbed some scholars and
rulers, so that they drove them away from the mosques, and prohibited people
from listening to them. ‘Ali did it, so was ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar who asked the
police to drive them away from the mosque. The ‘Abbasi caliph al-Mu‘taḍid and
other rulers knew the danger of these story-tellers to their faith.
The examples of tales of the story-tellers are as follows:
When the caliph
‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān asked the people of Syria who was the most
knowledgeable person among the people of Iraq, they said it was ‘Āmir al-Sha‘bī
(d. 100/718). One day al-Sha‘bī entered a
mosque. Beside him an old man with a dense beard was sitting surrounded by
people. He started telling people, that it was narrated by So-and-so from
So-and-so that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that
Allah created two horns (bugles); for every horn there will be two blows: a
blow for making people unconscious, and a blow for the their resurrection. Al-Sha‘bī
could not control himself and lightened his prayer. Then he left and said to
the old man: “O Shaykh! Fear Allah, do not lie to us! Allah created one horn
only, and two blows: one is for making people unconscious, and another one is
for their resurrection.” The old man said to him: “O you immoral person!
So-and-so reported to me from So-and-so, and you disprove me!” Then he took his
sandal and hit him with it, followed by people. They stopped from hitting him
only when he swore that Allah created thirty horns, and for every horn there
will be one blow. When he returned to Damascus he visited ‘Abd al-Malik ibn
Marwān who asked him to relate to him the strangest thing he had seen in his
travel. When he told him what had happened to him, he laughed until he hit his
legs.
It was reported by
al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) from Ja‘far ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭayālisī
the following story: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn prayed in al-Ruṣāfah mosque in Baghdad. Then a
story-teller stood up and said: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855) and Yaḥyā ibn
Ma‘īn (d. 233/847-8) told us and said: ‘Abd al-Razzāq reported to us from
Ma‘mar from Qatādah from Anas (d. 93/712) who said, the Messenger of Allah s.a.w.
said: “Whoever says that there is no god but Allah, Allah will create from every word a bird, its beak is made of
gold, its feathers are made of small pearls (corals)…” It took him about twenty papers to finish his
story.
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Yaḥyā ibn
Ma‘īn looked at each other. “Did you ever report something like this?” asked Aḥmad.
“By Allah, I have never heard something like this before,” answered Yaḥyā.
When the man sat down Yaḥyā
asked him: “Who related to you this hadīth? He said: “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal
and Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn.” So he said: “I am Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn and this is Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.
We have never heard this from the hadīth of the Prophet, and if is a
lie, it must have been from other people, not from us.” He asked, “Are you Yaḥyā
ibn Ma‘īn?” “Yes,” answered Yaḥyā. He said: “I kept hearing that Yaḥyā ibn
Ma‘īn is stupid, it did not happen except right now.” “How do you know that I
am stupid?” asked Yaḥyā. He said, “It is as if there are no Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn and
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in the world other than both of you. I have written ḥadīths
from seventeen Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn.” Then they let him go.
When a story-teller
was criticized by his friend for eating while walking in the street and seen by
people, he answered: “They are not human, they are cow and donkeys. To prove
what he had said, he called people to listen to him. When they gathered
together he told them: “O people, the Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘Whoever
can touch the top of his nose with the tip of his tongue he will enter
Paradise.’” Then everybody tried to touch the top of his nose with the tip of
his tongue.
“You see, I have told you so,”
said the story-teller.
(CIVIC, 5 May, 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(AD_70)
[1]In 70 CE Caesar Titus besieged and conquered
Jerusalem. The Jewish historian said that 1.1 million people were killed, the
majority of them were Jewish, and 97,000 were captured and enslaved. Many of
them fled to areas around the Mediterranean.
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