The Call for Help
from the Quraysh to the Jews
The Qur’an was delivering a series of attacks on the
beliefs, worship rituals and religious concepts of the Quraysh
and the Prophet (sws) was communicating these in totality to
his followers. The Quraysh tried to find convincing answers
to the questions raised and thus to satisfy the people, but
they soon realized that their efforts were puny in front of
the majesty of the divine text. They sent one of their
leaders, Nadr ibn Harith to the Jewish elders of Madinah to
convince them to resist the Prophet (sws) and to give the
Quraysh some additional information which they could use as a
reference against the Qur’an. The Jews had so far either
remained indifferent, or given some occasional advice to their
Makkan friends that they used to raise as objections, but
after Nadr ibn Harith’s visit, were fully mobilized. This is
the reason why there is little mention of the People of the
Book during the early days of Prophethood in the Qur’an, but
the activities of these enemies of Islam has been disclosed
openly in later years. This shows that these people were not
only fully aware of the message of the Prophet (sws), but they
provided the Quraysh with the necessary moral, intellectual
and political support to stand up to him.
The purpose of Nadr ibn Harith’s mission appears to be to
assess the views of the People of the Book about the Prophet (sws):
was he really a prophet as he claimed, or was he merely
attempting to impose upon them by declaring himself as one?
What were the signs by which a prophet could be recognized?
How should they behave towards him? It is obvious that the
birth of the promised prophet among the Quraysh was an event
that must have been highly vexatious for the People of the
Book. They knew from the predictions contained in the holy
books that a great prophet was to arrive, and they had
assigned expectations of rewards from God and power over other
nations of the world to him. They had hoped that the last
prophet would be from the long line of prophets, within the
Israelites. It was a faint hope because the predictions made
by earlier prophets were not specific about the promised
prophet being from the Israelites.
The Jews had always viewed the Ishmaelites with contempt,
so news of the last prophet from their people was not a happy
one for them. On the other hand, it was a fact that the
Quraysh were the leaders of the Arabs, and if the Prophet (sws)
was to be resisted openly, it was likely that the innate
nationalism of the Arabs might have made them resentful. The
People of the Book seem to have planned with great care. They
adopted a two-fold strategy during the Makkan phase. One was
to keep a watchful eye on how the new prophet hood stages
developed, and the other to incite the Quraysh to act against
the message of the Qur’an, but refrain from becoming one of
the parties as far as possible.
Objections on the
Qur’an being a Wahi
Whenever the Prophet (sws) presented a message of the
Qur’an, he clarified that it was a wahi from God and that he
had been ordered to communicate it to the people. The People
of the Book at first tried to convince the Quraysh that anyone
who made such a claim was false because there was no reason
for God to send his wahi through a human being. The Qur’an
itself revealed this villainy thus:
And they did give true appreciation to Allah when they said:
“Allah did not reveal to a human being anything.” Say: “Who
revealed the Scripture that Moses brought as light and
guidance to the people? You [Jews] make it into pages,
disclosing [some of] it and concealing much. And you were
taught that which you knew not - neither you nor your
fathers.” Say: “Allah [revealed it].” Then leave them in their
[empty] discourse, amusing themselves. (6:91)
It is surprising that they thought of such a meaningless
objection since their own identity was based on the fact they
could understand and recognize wahi and spiritual
revelations. They were probably trying to take advantage of
the naiveté and lack of knowledge of matters related to wahi.
This is why the Qur’an asked about the source of the Book
(Torah) that was revealed to Moses (sws). If mankind needed
divine guidance at that time, did it not need it now? Had God
retired from His responsibility to guide human beings? If the
people to whom the Torah had come had decided to hide parts of
the revealed message, would God leave his creation to falter
in the dark? These claimants of God consciousness understood
Him so poorly, that they neither knew His attributes, nor were
they aware of His graciousness and blessings.
The other ludicrous objection raised by the People of the
Book was that the language of all divine revelations was
Hebrew; all earlier books were sent down in that language,
whereas the Qur’an was in Arabic. Had it been really from God,
it would have been in Hebrew. After all, God would not change
His language with the passage of time. The Qur’an answered
thus:
And if We had
made it a non-Arabic Qur’an, they would have said: “Why are
its verses not explained in detail [in our language]? Is it a
foreign [recitation] and an Arab [messenger]?” Say: “It is,
for those who believe, a guidance and cure.” And those who do
not believe – in their ears is deafness, and it is upon them
blindness. Those are being called from a distant place.
(41:44)
In other words, if the audience was Hebrew speaking, the
heavenly books were in Hebrew; the addressees of the Qur’an
were Arabs, thus it was revealed in Arabic. Had it not been
so, no one would have understood it, and people would have
objected to the sense of having a divine Book in a non Arabic
language for Arabs. The reality is that the People of the Book
had shut their eyes to the guidance given to them in their own
Books, and had become habituated to darkness. Now that they
were faced with the light of the Qur’an, they were blinded by
its brightness and could not bear to open their eyes. Would
they prefer to turn a deaf ear to the Prophet’s message, and
be called by God’s steward on the Day of Judgement to answer
for their refusal to pay heed to God’s instructions, and thus
taken towards hell?
The Accusation of
Support from People of the Book
The People of the Book faced a challenge when the Qur’an
presented facts that were already given in their own books.
When this happened, they would say that Muhammad (sws) was
compiling the Book (the Qur’an) with help from some members of
their own group. They worded this accusation vaguely so that
it would not be possible for anyone to probe deeply enough.
They would claim that some people gave a few sentences in
writing to Muhammad (sws) which he read out, and this process
continued throughout the day. Incidentally, the people who
were close to the Prophet were non-Arabs, and they were the
ones mentioned in this connection. The Qur’an commented:
And We
certainly know that they say: “It is only a human being who
teaches the Prophet.” The tongue of the one they refer to is
foreign, and this Qur'an is [in] a clear Arabic language.
(16:103)
Before making such a baseless claim, they should have at
least considered the power, majesty and flawlessness of the
language of the Qur’an. Could a non-Arab ever produce such
text? If this was a human effort, why had the Quraysh failed
to produce a similar sample from the People of the Book by
using their vast resources?
There is another aspect which completely destroys the view
that some People of the Book may have supported the Prophet (sws)
in creating the Qur’an. If this were the truth, the Qur’an
would have followed the Torah. When copying something, a
clever person would never take the risk of creating something
untested, because people could refuse it immediately. The
Qur’an did not give importance to its conformity with what had
been stated in the Torah. Instead, it stated the truth. The
result is that themes evolved naturally in the Qur’an, whereas
this is not evident in the Torah. At places, the Qur’an has
corrected the Torah, assuming an authoritative position. Why
would a few members of the People of the Book have done this
for the Prophet (sws)? There are some topics discussed by the
Qur’an that were not included in the Torah at all. Who brought
these in?
The same centuries old objection of assistance from the
People of the Book is still raised by some Western
Orientalists. This objection remains clouded with the same
vague claims even after much research. After spending
considerable resources, Western scholars have not succeeded in
identifying factual, evidence based arguments in support of
their accusations. Their intellect does not seem to have risen
above that of the Quraysh, or of the People of the Book, at
the time of Prophethood. The Qur’an had managed to remove
doubts from the minds of its detractors, and they became its
avid followers subsequently, but some Western Orientalists
still believe that they can prove it to have been written by a
man. Observe the helplessness of William Muir, when he refers
to various probabilities in a manner that leaves the process
of research lamenting itself!
The general
outline of the Christian story in the Coran, having a few
salient points in accordance with the Gospel and the rest
filled up with wild marvels, is just such as we might expect
an enquiring Jew to learn from the traditions amongst the
lower classes in Judea. Something might be learned too from
the Christian slaves of Mecca; but they had generally been
carried off from their homes in boyhood, and would remember
little more than a few Scripture stories, with perhaps some
fragments of the creed. Either the Jew or the Christian may
also have heard the opening of the Gospel of Luke, and
communicated to Mahomet the outline of the births of John and
Jesus, which he transferred to the Coran. It is also possible
that someone may have repeated to Mahomet from memory, or read
to him from a manuscript, the verses of the Gospel containing
these details;-but this is mere conjecture.
As far as the presence of the People of the Book in Makkah
is concerned, Jews and Christians were not strangers in the
city. Khadijah’s uncle, Warqah ibn Nawfal read the Bible in
its original language; Zayd ibn ‘Amr ibn Tufayl, Salman Farisi
and Abu Fakihah Rumi were Christians. The Prophet’s adopted
son, Zayd belonged to the Banu Kalab, among whom Christianity
was well known. It is a historic fact that the elite elders of
the Jews were friends with leaders of the Quraysh. Some
influential Jews had come from Madinah to Makkah and had
settled here. The Jewish leader, Ka‘ab ibn Ashraf used to stay
in Makkah for several weeks. Quraysh leaders travelled to
Madinah and stayed at the Jew Banu Nadir’s place.
The People of the Book may or may not have participated in
the pilgrimage rites during the hajj during the times of the
Prophet (sws), but their presence in the congregation at this
time is indicated in history. Western Orientalists have stated
that once the Prophet (sws) listened to the speech of the
archbishop of Najran, Quss ibn Sa‘idah at Mina. It was not
possible for Jews and Christians to ignore this national
gathering of the Arabs that was also the centre of trading,
social and economic activity.
Was the presence of Jews and Christians in Makkah and its
environs sufficient evidence of their assistance to the
Prophet (sws) in writing the Qur’an is something a reasoning
mind cannot accept. Here are a few arguments in support of
this:
1. The research undertaken by Orientalists on the presence
of Jews and Christians shows them to be mainly slaves or
labourers. The level of knowledge they had could not have been
adequate enough to be considered representative of that of the
People of the Book. The Qur’an conducts a wide ranging debate
into both the history and beliefs of these groups which would
not have been possible based on information gleaned from
hearsay. The Qur’an has also corrected the wrongly held
beliefs of both the Jews and Christians.
How could the followers of other faiths be instrumental in
setting up a parallel religion, similar to their own? Why
would they have thus harmed their own interests? One can
understand their resistance, but it is difficult to comprehend
that they would have provided their help to the Prophet (sws).
At the time of prophet hood, his was a single voice. Taking
his side and standing with him was an action likely to put
one’s life in danger. How would the Jews and Christians have
benefitted from helping him? There was nothing they were to
gain from this act. In later years, both the groups fought
bloody battles with the Muslims. Why would they have been so
supportive of Islam during its earlier phase?
2. The Qur’an does not contain too much content
about the people of the Book. Even if one assumes that the
part that relates to them had been prepared with help from
them, who provided the assistance to write up the remaining
part that is six or seven times as large? The question still
remains: who wrote the Qur’an? It is surprising that our
intellectuals claim that scores of writers together cannot
produce a play of the calibre of a Shakespearean one, which
was, after all, the product of a human mind; similarly they
find it difficult to imagine that a team of scientists could
be behind the genius of Einstein who came up with his
revolutionary Theory of Relativity. But it is relatively easy
to spread such nonsense about the Qur’an, of which not a
single verse could be created over centuries that it was
written by Muhammad (sws), with help from a few Jews and
Christians. This is despite knowing that the Prophet (sws) was
never anyone’s student, and he was completely illiterate.
The Qur’an’s point of view is that as an argument for the
prophet hood of Muhammad (sws), it is enough to recognize the
fact that he had neither read any of the earlier books, nor
did he know how to write, and yet he was suddenly and very
eloquently able to communicate similar themes, and had full
knowledge of what had happened to nations and prophets
hundreds and thousands of years ago.
And you did
not recite before it any scripture, nor did you inscribe one
with your right hand. Otherwise the falsifiers would have had
[cause for] doubt. (29:48)
It follows, therefore, that the presence of the People of
the Book in or around Makkah is of no consequence as far as
the revelation of the Qur’an is concerned.
The Objection of
Differences between the Qur’an and Ancient Books
When the Jews and Christians saw that the new Prophethood
relied upon the Qur’an, which was communicated to the people
as a divine revelation and they were automatically impressed
by its content, they adopted the stance of pitching the
earlier books against the Qur’an. When the Torah was already
available, they said, there was no need for a new book. In
answer to this, the Qur’an put forward the attitude they had
taken towards the Torah:
Just as We had revealed [scriptures]
to the separators Who have made the Qur'an into portions.
(15:90-91)
This is a reference to the Jews when they divided the
Torah into sections so that they could hide some parts and
reveal others. The result was that the entire message was not
accessible to all people. Jewish scholars made changes in the
Torah according to their whims and kept the common man away
from the God given guidance it provided. At this act of the
Jewish scholars, Jesus (sws) is known to have said that light
is given to be placed on the sconce so that it could
illuminate its surroundings, not to be covered with darkness.
Because of this act of the Jews, some parts of the Torah were
destroyed, and a stage was reached when it was completely
lost. It was then recompiled through memory. Thus, at the time
of revelation of the Qur’an, what was available with the Jews
in the name of the Torah were a collection of some
contradictory and debatable narratives. Even today, a reading
of the Torah gives a sense of a narrator explaining something
in his own words. There are only a few places where one can
feel the grandeur and majesty of a heavenly text. If, after
this despicable treatment the Jews had accorded to the Torah,
God had not arranged for an alternative guidance for his
servants, they would have suffered greatly.
To support this argument, the Jews put forward their
concern about instructions in the Qur’an about eating and
drinking being different from those in the Torah. For example,
the instruction related to the Sabbath which was a basic tenet
of Judaism had been totally neglected in Islam. Had the Qur’an
been a heavenly book, it would have had the same instructions
as those in the Torah. God would not change his injunctions
with the passage of time. Hence, they said, the Qur’an was
only a fabricated text. To this, the Qur’an explained thus:
God has sent down His law (shari‘ah) for mankind in a
sequential and phased manner. This step wise strategy now
demands that His instructions shall no longer be valid for a
particular nation, but for all human beings, and shall be
according to human nature. The instructions in the Qur’an were
according to the progeny of Abraham (sws), whereas those in
the Torah held some consideration of the characteristics of
the Jews. The latter had imposed some laws upon themselves,
and God retained these upon them as a form of punishment. The
Jews were so headstrong that they had to be brought under
control by bringing them under additional restrictions.
However, they were promised that when the last Prophet (sws)
came, he would relieve them of these burdens. Hence, now the
Qur’an was removing the additional instructions of the
shari‘ah given in the Torah, and removing the constraints that
the Jews had been living under so far.
Demand for Miracles
In addition to objections related to wahi and the Qur’an,
the people of the Book also raised the issue of miracles. The
prophets who had come amongst the Israelites had demonstrated
miracles as proof of their divine messages, and their take was
that a prophet could be identified only through the miracles
that he was capable of. Hence if Muhammad (sws) was a true
prophet, he should show them some miracles. The Qur’an
answered that the real need was for people to listen carefully
with an open mind to the prophets, and enable themselves to
heed the voice of their inner conscience. If people kept their
reason locked up, it was useless to show them miracles of any
kind. The history of the Israelites is witness to the fact
that Moses (sws) showed nine grand miracles to the Pharaoh at
his demand, but because the latter was mentally not ready to
listen and accept, he accused Moses (sws) of magic.
And We had
certainly given Moses nine evident signs, so ask the Children
of Israel [about] when he came to them and Pharaoh said to
him: “Indeed I think, O Moses, that you are affected by
magic.” (17:101)
It was clarified through the Prophet (sws) that God had
given him the Book which reflected and highlighted the true
nature of mankind, and presented its message through
reasoning. This was the miracle Book that was evidence of his
Prophethood. If they used their intellect and listened to
their conscience, they would believe in the divinity of his
message. However, it seems that the Jews and Christians did
not abandon their position even after this clarification. They
insisted that an angel should descend from the heaven,
carrying pure and untouched papers as the divine message, that
would contain clear and consistent instructions and the papers
should not have been touched by any human hand or by any jinn.
Only then would they believe the Prophet (sws). The Qur’an
said:
Those who
disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the
polytheists were not to be parted [from disbelief] until there
came to them clear evidence – A Messenger from Allah, reciting
purified scriptures within which are correct writings.
(98:1-3)
Possibly the driving force behind this demand may have been
the fact that the Ten Commandments of the Torah were revealed
to Moses (sws) directly in a written form, and a group from
Israelites were witness to this. The Qur’an always discouraged
people from making such demands and asked them instead to
concentrate on using their intellect to ponder over the
arguments and evidence presented.
Questions to Test
The Qur’an is witness, and it is borne out by historical
facts that both Christians and Jews had raised some questions
for the Quraysh that were related to the relatively less well
known aspects of their history in order to, in their view,
expose the claim of the Prophet (sws). They were under the
impression that he would not be aware of these details, and if
he did try to make these up, this would give them the
opportunity to come out as the winning party and declare that
he was airing false stories. He presented fictionalized
statements and had no divine basis for his claims. However,
the Qur’an answered their questions in depth, and also chided
them for treating these events as mere stories and their
failure to learn and correct their mistakes from them. The
Qur’an presented these events of their history in their true
perspective. Thus the questions that were raised to tease the
Prophet (sws), created an opportunity for the Quraysh to
criticize him and test his prophet hood claim turned into a
training tool for the faithful and a prediction of dire
consequences for the Quraysh. Three of such questions were
related to Ashab-i Kahf (People of the Cave), Zulqarnayn and
the settlement of Israelites in Egypt.
The Ashab-i Kahf were people who belonged to followers of
the true Christian faith. God had put them under a long spell
of sleep which was in itself a miracle for other Christians.
Some Christians considered this a gift from their spiritual
leaders and others believed that it was a manifestation of the
greatness of God as a result. On demand from the People of the
Book, the Qur’an related this incident and highlighted the
fact that the People of the Cave were a few young men who were
firm believers in the Oneness of God and demonstrated their
dislike of the polytheism their nation had fallen into. When
they publicly denounced the gods of their nation, the latter
could not tolerate their open rebellion. Fearing for their
lives, the young men left their city and hid in a cave where
God decided to bestow upon them a special status, as a
testimony for their nation, due to their integrity and honesty
of purpose. He put them to sleep, and their faithful dog kept
a watch over them at the cave’s entry. During this time, the
number of people who believed in One God increased
continuously, and a time came when they were in majority. God
awakened the young men, now that the same nation that was
after their blood had developed feelings of veneration and
esteem for them. Whereas it was initially fond of shows to
celebrate idol worship, now it wanted to erect a mosque in
memory of the People of the Cave. This incident was very
inspiring for the Muslims who had suffered greatly at the
hands of the Quraysh in Makkah. They realised that as a
consequence of their honest sacrifices, God would show them
His glory in the form of victory. They would, however, have to
demonstrate a great deal of determination and firm
resolution. The Qur’an therefore, lighted up a forgotten
chapter of people who had followed the right path, so that
others could take a lesson and follow in their footsteps.
The Jews were interested in the conquests of Zulqarnayn
(Torah’s Khawras), and they considered him their king who had
done them a great favour. Khawras had freed them from the
slavery of Romans, and had rebuilt Jerusalem for them.
Answering a question from the Jews about Khawras, the Qur’an
highlighted the aspect of his personality that focused on his
complete belief on God and the Day of Judgement, despite being
the conqueror of most of the known land in the world. He
protected himself from arrogance and oppression and was a very
close friend of those he ruled over. He considered it his duty
to redress their concerns, sought the ability to seek and find
truth in others and facilitated them on choosing the right
path. The message that the Qur’an spelt out, contained within
the story of Zulqarnayn, was not only a lesson for the Jews,
but also for the cruel and oppressive leaders of the Quraysh.
The Qur’an related the story of the entry of the Israelites
into Egypt in a very interesting manner, and highlighted the
majesty of God that revealed itself in this at every stage.
Prophet Jacob and his children belonged originally to Canan.
Prophet Joseph, his son, was the most beloved and very honest
and truthful. His half brothers held a special grudge against
him. In order to separate the son from his father, they took
him to the forest and put him inside a well. As far as they
were concerned, they had forsaken him for good. A tribe of the
Ismaelites was passing through and stopped by for water. They
dug Prophet Joseph out, took him to Egypt and sold him there
as a slave. The buyer was a senior officer at the royal court
and treated him as a son. He also entrusted him with all his
responsibilities. Those were the days of slavery, and some
royal women had him thrown into prison without reason, but he
gained release in a most unexpected and God given manner.
Subsequently, he gained access to the king and obtained wide
ranging control over the country’s production resources. Egypt
went through a severe famine, and his long range planning came
in very useful during these trying times. Canan was also
facing a similar situation, and when his brothers heard of his
fame in managing the crisis, they came to Egypt to obtain
grain. Here they came face to face with Joseph who recognized
them and loaded them with whatever they wanted. It was much
later that the brothers came to know that the person to whom
they owed so much was their brother. They asked him to forgive
them, accepting that they were the wrong doers, and that God
had rewarded Joseph for his good conduct. At this stage,
Joseph called his entire family from Canan to Egypt. The
comparison between this narrative with the role that the
Quraysh were playing vis a vis Prophet Muhammad (sws) was
evident. By relating this matter, the Prophet (sws) was
consoled that his path was difficult and full of troubles, but
God would show His miracles and throw his adversaries at his
feet, in the same way that Joseph’s brothers fell at their
honourable brother’s. Nothing is impossible for God.
The Debate over
Details of Prophets
One way to hurt an enemy is to attempt to lower the worth
of the attributes and qualities that he is claiming over
others, so that people at large begin to have doubts about
him. The Jews used this strategy. They talked about the
qualities of the Israelites, to lessen the Prophet’s impact.
The purpose was to shake those who were leaning towards Islam,
claiming that the Prophet did not have any of the features
that earlier prophets had. Thus, Muslims would be engaged in a
useless debate, and would lose sight of their real goal. They
would also gain by creating prejudices amongst the Muslims.
The Qur’an warned the Muslims that this was a satanic attempt
to confuse and entangle them. They were told to protect
themselves from this, and not to say anything that may be
untruthful about prophets. They were also told to highlight
the specific features of the Prophet’s personality, but to
remember at the same time that other prophets also possessed
distinctive characteristics, which they could not deny:
And your Lord
is most knowing of whoever is in the heavens and the earth.
And We have made some of the prophets exceed others [in
various ways], and to David We gave the book [of Psalms].
(17:55)
Making Fun of
Qur’anic Guidance
The People of the Book taught the Quraysh ways and means to
taunt the Prophet (sws) and also criticized and made fun of
the teachings of the Qur’an, in which they included the
Idolaters. They said that such ludicrous teachings could not
have come from God, and so must be made up by this individual
who claimed to be a prophet. The description of the Day of
Judgement was chosen for ridicule in particular. For example,
when the Qur’an said that God had assigned 19 angels for the
oversight of Hell, and that a cactus tree would grow from the
base of hell, the fruit of which would be given as food to the
dwellers there, The Jews ridiculed this, and spread their
propaganda against it among the Idolaters. They said that they
did not believe that it served any purpose for God to send
such messages. It must be Muhammad (sws) who was spreading
such impossible things. Had the Idolaters said this, they
could have been excused, because they were unaware of any
heavenly book. But the Jews had been exposed to divine
messages, and it was an unforgivable crime for them to talk in
such a manner. They should have verified the message of the
Qur’an because they had the secret of heavenly knowledge, but,
by decrying it, they brought ill fate to themselves and were
also the cause of misleading others. When the Qur’an explained
the number of angels guarding Hell, it explained its reasons
by referring to this attitude of the Jews:
And We have not
made the keepers of the Fire except angels. And We have not
made their number except as a trial for those who disbelieve -
that those who were given the Scripture will be convinced and
those who have believed will increase in faith and those who
were given the Scripture and the believers will not doubt and
that those in whose hearts is hypocrisy and the disbelievers
will say: “What does Allah intend by this as an example?” Thus
does Allah leave astray whom He wills and guides whom He
wills. And none knows the soldiers of your Lord except Him.
And mention of the Fire is not but a reminder to humanity.
(74:31)
It was the misfortune of the People of the Book that, they
were unable to derive the guidance that these teachings aimed
to provide.
(Translated by
Nikhat Sattar)
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