بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
42:23 ذَٰلِكَ الَّذِي يُبَشِّرُ اللَّهُ عِبَادَهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ۗ قُل لَّا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا إِلَّا الْمَوَدَّةَ فِي الْقُرْبَىٰ ۗ وَمَن يَقْتَرِفْ حَسَنَةً نَّزِدْ لَهُ فِيهَا حُسْنًا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ شَكُورٌ
That is what Allah gives glad tidings to His servants who believe and do righteous deeds. Say. “No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin”, and if any one earns any good, We shall give him an increase of good in respect thereof, for Allah is Forgiving, Appreciative.
Quran asks the Prophet (pbuh) to declare that he does not want any return for his services of conveying message of Allah, except that the people love the near ones and do good with them.
After getting this order to love their kinship and as the prophet for Muslims is above their own nafs/soul and his wives are their mothers (33:6) therefore they naturally love prophet’s kinship as well. After seeing this order in Quran, will it be permissible for people to speculate and pass judgments about Prophet’s kinship i.e his near ones, friends and relatives on the basis of history, while Quran orders are for all eternity. A most treacherous plot, Satan can devise here, is for people to segregate his kinship into good and bad people and then start revering the good people in an extreme way and start hating the rest of his kinship, or may be out-casting them from prophet’s kinship according to sectarian history books. In order to hate some of prophet’s close ones, e.g friends and relatives and even his wives, people have to give preference to history over Quran. However, beware in the Hereafter they will be judged by Quran alone. No history book will be available on the Judgment day for them to prove what they were doing was right.
39:69 وَأَشْرَقَتِ الْأَرْضُ بِنُورِ رَبِّهَا وَوُضِعَ الْكِتَابُ وَجِيءَ بِالنَّبِيِّينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَقُضِيَ بَيْنَهُم بِالْحَقِّ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ
And the earth will shine with the Light of its Lord: The Book will be placed; the prophets and the witnesses will be brought forward and a just decision pronounced between them; and they will not be wronged (in the least).
When Allah declares that the wives of the Prophet are mothers of the believers ,this command is for all times, past and future. Believers are asked not even to utter slightest disrespect to their parents (17:23). Had it been the case that some wives of the Prophet would corrupt (God Forbid) later on, then Allah by His knowledge of future should have known that and therefore would not have given this command in His Book for all eternity to believers to respect prophet’s wives as their mothers .
33:6 النَّبِيُّ أَوْلَىٰ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ مِنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ ۖ وَأَزْوَاجُهُ أُمَّهَاتُهُمْ
The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers……..
17:23 وَقَضَىٰ رَبُّكَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوا إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا ۚ إِمَّا يَبْلُغَنَّ عِندَكَ الْكِبَرَ أَحَدُهُمَا أَوْ كِلَاهُمَا فَلَا تَقُل لَّهُمَا أُفٍّ وَلَا تَنْهَرْهُمَا وَقُل لَّهُمَا قَوْلًا كَرِيمًا
Your Lord has decreed that you serve none but Him, and that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor.
People should reject these corrupted stories and books which demean Prophet’s relatives and friends. We definitely have to give preference to Book of Allah over hisory books. No history or narration can be given preference over Quran’s orders as per below Ayat.
45:6 تِلْكَ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ نَتْلُوهَا عَلَيْكَ بِالْحَقِّ ۖ فَبِأَيِّ حَدِيثٍ بَعْدَ اللَّهِ وَآيَاتِهِ يُؤْمِنُونَ
Such are the Ayats of Allah, which We rehearse to you in Truth; then in what Hadith/narration they will believe after Allah and His Ayas?
The people calling themselves Muslims should not follow the footsteps of Satan (2:168) as Satan practice is to make comparisons on the basis of criteria which is not in Quran. So, Muslims should not make comparisons between prophet dear ones on the basis of history.
Notes:
- As the status of Prophet’s wives is higher than other Muslim women, therefore Allah warns them that their punishment, if they do wrong will be double than normal. This is the same case with Prophet. As His position is higher and exemplary therefore if he does wrong, similarly. his punishment will be double as well. This concept is stated in below Ayas:
33:30 يَا نِسَاءَ النَّبِيِّ مَن يَأْتِ مِنكُنَّ بِفَاحِشَةٍ مُّبَيِّنَةٍ يُضَاعَفْ لَهَا الْعَذَابُ ضِعْفَيْنِ ۚ وَكَانَ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسِيرًا
O Wives of the Prophet! If any of you were guilty of evident indecent conduct, the Punishment would be doubled to her, and that is easy for Allah.
17:73-75 وَإِن كَادُوا لَيَفْتِنُونَكَ عَنِ الَّذِي أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ لِتَفْتَرِيَ عَلَيْنَا غَيْرَهُ ۖ وَإِذًا لَّاتَّخَذُوكَ خَلِيلًا وَلَوْلَا أَن ثَبَّتْنَاكَ لَقَدْ كِدتَّ تَرْكَنُ إِلَيْهِمْ شَيْئًا قَلِيلًا إِذًا لَّأَذَقْنَاكَ ضِعْفَ الْحَيَاةِ وَضِعْفَ الْمَمَاتِ ثُمَّ لَا تَجِدُ لَكَ عَلَيْنَا نَصِيرًا
They had almost led you (the Prophet) away from what has been revealed to you, that you may invent things about Us besides those revealed, then they would have taken you as friend. And If We had not kept you steadfast you had almost leaned towards them. In that case We would have made you taste a double punishment of life and a double of death, and then you would not have been able to find a helper against Us for yourself.
2. A question to ponder. If Salman Rushdie writes now a book about Islamic History and Tasfseer of Quran, how many of the Muslims will give credence to this book? Obviously, no one, as we know that his belief are deviant because he is the author of the book ‘Satanic verses’. Then how come we give credence to the writers of Islamic history books who are the authors of the original ‘Satanic verses’? The earliest two Islamic history books on which all later history books are based, are by authors (Tabari and Ibne Ishaq), who happen to be, also the writers of ‘Satanic verses’. See link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic Verses)
This gives some food for thought, should we believe in the history of Islam from writers who had such type of faith about Messenger of Allah (pbuh).
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī
His most influential and best known works are his Qur’anic commentary known as Tafsir al-Tabari and his historical chronicle Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (History of the Prophets and Kings), often referred to Tarikh al-Tabari.
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses
The Satanic Verses incident, known as qissat al-gharaniq (Story of the Cranes), is the name given to the occasion on which the Islamic Prophet Muhammad is said to have mistaken the words of “satanic suggestion” for divine revelation.[1]
Narratives involving the alleged verses (or verse) can be read in, among other places, the biographies of Muhammad by al-Wāqidī, Ibn Sa’d (who was a scribe of Waqidi) and Ibn Ishaq (as reconstructed by Alfred Guillaume),[2] as well as the tafsir of al-Tabarī. The majority of Muslim scholars have rejected the historicity of the incident on the basis of their weak isnads (chains of transmission) and the incompatibility of the incident with the theological doctrine of ‘isma (Prophetic infallibility, divine protection of Muhammad from mistakes).[1][3] Non-Muslim scholars have largely accepted the historicity.[4]
The first use of the expression ‘Satanic Verses’ is attributed to Sir William Muir (1858).[5] The plural “verses” is usually employed even though the passage in question is only six words in Arabic.
Basic narrative[edit]
See the complete text of Tabarī’s account below
There are numerous accounts reporting the alleged incident, which differ in the construction and detail of the narrative, but they may be broadly collated to produce a basic account.[6] The different versions of the story are all traceable to one single narrator Muhammad ibn Ka’b, who was two generations removed from biographer Ibn Ishaq.[2] In its essential form, the story reports that Muhammad longed to convert his kinsmen and neighbors of Mecca to Islam. As he was reciting these verses of Sūrat an-Najm,[7] considered a revelation from the angel Gabriel,
Satan tempted him to utter the following line:
-
These are the exalted gharāniq, whose intercession is hoped for. (In Arabic تلك الغرانيق العلى وإن شفاعتهن لترتجى.)
Allāt, al-‘Uzzā and Manāt were three goddesses worshipped by the Meccans. Discerning the meaning of “gharāniq” is difficult, as it is a hapax legomenon (i.e. only used once in the text). Commentators wrote that it meant the cranes. The Arabic word does generally mean a “crane” – appearing in the singular as ghirnīq, ghurnūq, ghirnawq and ghurnayq, and the word has cousin forms in other words for birds, including “raven, crow” and “eagle”.[8]
http://sunnah.org/wp/2014/01/20/z/
3. Al-Tabari (d. 310) said in his commentary entitled Jami` al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an (30 vols.) Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1405/1985, reprint of the Bulaq 1322-1330/1904-1911 ed. vol. 17:
[p. 186] The sayings concerning the interpretation of the verse:
{ Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allah abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allah establisheth His revelations. Allah is Knower, Wise} (22:52):
It was said that the reason for which this verse was revealed upon the Messenger of Allah – Allah bless and greet him – is that the devil had interjected upon the Prophet’s tongue – Allah bless and greet him – during some of his recitation of the Qur’an as it had been revealed to him by Allah, something which Allah had not revealed. Then this bore heavily on Allah’s Messenger – Allah bless and greet him – who became despondent, whereupon Allah Almighty comforted him by revealing to him the above….
[Then al-Tabari proceeds to narrate reports to that effect, all of them weak, but the collective weight of which suggests authenticity as stated by Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (see below).]
[p. 190] The gist of the interpretation of the verse is: “We never sent before you any Messenger nor Prophet except that, when he uttered Allah’s Book in recitation, or discoursed and spoke, the devil interjected something into what he uttered of Allah’s Book in recitation or into his discourse and speech, { But Allah abolishes that which the devil interjects} , i.e. He removes whatever suggestion the devil interjects upon the Prophet’s tongue and nullifies it.”
[Al-Tabari goes on to state that the verses that follow make explicit the fact that the reason for this incident was to test the belief of those who harbored a disease in their hearts and increase the belief of those who were rightly-guided – and this test continues until our time:
22:53 { That He may make that which the devil proposeth a temptation for those in whose hearts is a disease, and those whose hearts are hardened. Lo! the evil-doers are in open schism.}
22:54 { And that those who have been given knowledge may know that it is the truth from thy Lord, so that they may believe therein and their hearts may submit humbly unto Him. Lo! Allah verily is guiding those who believe unto a right path.}
22:55 { And those who disbelieve will not cease to be in doubt thereof until the Hour come upon them unawares, or there come unto them the doom of a disastrous day.}
22:56 { The Sovereignty on that day will be Allah’s. He will judge between them. Then those who believed and did good works will be in Gardens of Delight,}
22:57 { While those who disbelieved and denied Our revelations, for them will be a shameful doom.} ]
3. There are myths in history which are quite popular that for a certain period of time some members very close to prophet’s family were defamed (Tabarra) systematically by Governments of that time. However, while we cannot vouch whether this historical account is true or not what we can vouch by observing that some people still try to defame some of the prophets friends and family even his wives till this date while lamenting that bad people used to defame Ahle-bait in earlier times under the reign of a certain ruler.
4. Labeled Muslim say that they believe in Quran therefore, they believe in Ayat 46:9 قُلْ مَا كُنتُ بِدْعًا مِّنَ الرُّسُلِ وَمَا أَدْرِي مَا يُفْعَلُ بِي وَلَا بِكُمْ ۖ إِنْ أَتَّبِعُ إِلَّا مَا يُوحَىٰ إِلَيَّ وَمَا أَنَا إِلَّا نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ
which asks Messenger to declare that he does not know what will be done with himself and you people, however, on the basis of history they also believe at the same time that the Messenger (pbuh) gave glad tidings to 10 companions for the Jannat in their life times. Then again they believe in Quran in Ayat 4:93 وَمَن يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًا مُّتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاؤُهُ جَهَنَّمُ خَالِدًا فِيهَا وَغَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَعَنَهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُ عَذَابًا عَظِيمًا which categorically states that whoever kills a believer intentionally will definitely be sent to Hell for all eternity, but then on the basis of history they also believe that out of these 10 companions who were given glad tiding of Jannat, some of them fought with each other later on and even physically killed each other. Therefore, an important point to heed is that the basis of belief/Iman should be Allah’s Book and not the history books.
Topics from The Book (Al-Kitab) 