Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth
Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth
Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth
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164 The <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Muhammad</strong><br />
when Jesus, Son <strong>of</strong> Mary, was cited as an example thy people laughed<br />
thereat'i 1 i.e. they rejected your attitude to what they say.:<br />
Then He mentions Jesus, Son <strong>of</strong> Mary, and says, 'He was noihing but a<br />
slave to whom We showed favour and made him an example to the children<br />
<strong>of</strong> Israel. If We had wished We could have made from you angels to act<br />
as vice-regents in the earth. Verily, there is knowledge <strong>of</strong> the [last] hour,<br />
so doubt not about it but follow Me. This is an upright path,' i.e. the<br />
signs which I gave him in raising the dead and healing the sick, therein is<br />
sufficient pro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> the knowledge <strong>of</strong> the hour. He says: 'Doubt not about<br />
it, but follow Me. This is an upright path.'<br />
Al-,Akhnas b. Shariq b. 'Amr b. Wahb al-Thaqafi, ally <strong>of</strong> B. Zuhra, was<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the leaders <strong>of</strong> his people who was listened to with respect, and he<br />
used to give the apostle much trouble and contradict him, so God sent<br />
238 down about him: 'Do not obey every feeble oath-taker, slanderer, walking<br />
about with evil tales" as far as the word I zanfm'. 3<br />
He did. not say zanim in the sense <strong>of</strong> 'ignoble' to insult his ancestry,<br />
because God does not insult anyone's ancestry, but he confirmed thereby<br />
the epithet given to him so that he might be known. Zanim means an<br />
adopted member <strong>of</strong> the tribe. AI-Khatim al-Tarnimi said in pagan days:<br />
An outsider whom men invite as a supernumerary<br />
As the legs are useless additions to the width <strong>of</strong> a pelt.<br />
AI-Walid said: 'Does God send down revelations to <strong>Muhammad</strong> and<br />
ignore me, the greatest chief <strong>of</strong> Quraysh, to say nothing <strong>of</strong> Abu Mas'ud<br />
'Amr b. 'Umayr al-Thaqafi, the chief <strong>of</strong> Thaqif, we being the great ones <strong>of</strong><br />
Tii'if and Mecca /' So God sent down concerning him, so I am told,<br />
'They said, ifthis Quran had been revealed to a great man <strong>of</strong>the two towns,'<br />
as far as,the words, 'than what they amass'.4<br />
Ubayy b. Khalaf b. Wahb b. J:Iudh.fa and 'Uqba b. Abu Mu'ayt were<br />
very close friends. Now 'Uqba had sat and listened to the apostle and when<br />
Ubayy knew <strong>of</strong> that he came to him and said, 'Do I hear that you have sat<br />
with <strong>Muhammad</strong> and listened to him 1 I swear I will never see you or<br />
speak to yo,! again (and he swore a great oath) if you do the sarne again,<br />
or if you do not goand spit in his face.' 'Uqba, the enemy <strong>of</strong> God, actually<br />
did this, God curse him. So God sent down concerning the pair <strong>of</strong> them,<br />
1 Sura 43. 57.<br />
:z A difficult phrase. $adda with the preposition min means 'to laugh immoderately or to<br />
make a loud noise', With 'an it means 'to turn away from'. But these tWo prepositions are<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten interchangeable. Ibn Is!;laq's explanation <strong>of</strong> the passage is that the fact that Christians<br />
pray to Jesus is no justification for the polytheism <strong>of</strong> the Meccans, as the latter argued, for<br />
Christians perverted the messageJesus brought. When Jesus is adduced as an example (<strong>of</strong><br />
one who called an evil people to God) the Meccans rejected <strong>Muhammad</strong>'s attitude towards<br />
him in what they said; but this exegesis is not sound. The Sura is perfectly consistent in<br />
showing how prophets were sent to erring peoples and were laughed at. Cf. v. 47: The<br />
Meccans laugh when Jesus is meptioned because his worship would seem to justify their<br />
worshipping several gods. The citatjon which follows shows where in <strong>Muhammad</strong>'s opinion<br />
they were wrong. I.I. has adopted the reading yt1ludduna (so Nifi', I. 'Amir, andal:'Kisi'i)<br />
instead <strong>of</strong> the commoner ytl/idduna.<br />
3 Sura 68. 10-13. . .. Siira 43. 30.<br />
The <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Muhammad</strong> 16 5<br />
'On the day that the sinner bites his hands, saying, would that I had chosen<br />
a path With the apostle,' as far as the words 'a deserter <strong>of</strong> men'.I<br />
, Ubayy took to the apostle an old bone, crumbling to pieces, and said,<br />
<strong>Muhammad</strong>, do yo~ allege that God can revivify this after it has decayed I'<br />
Then he crumbled It m, hiS hand and blew the pieces in the apostle's face.<br />
The apostle answered: Yes, I do say that. God will raise it and you, after 239<br />
you have become hke thiS. Then God \\ill send you to Hell.' So God<br />
revealed co~cerning him, j He gave us a parable, and he forgot that he was<br />
created, sa~m~, who will. revivify bones which are rotten? Say, He who<br />
gave them hfe m the first mstance will revivify them. He who knows about<br />
all creation, who has made for you fire from the green wood and 10 you<br />
kindle flame from it.'2 ' ,<br />
There met the apostle, as he was going round the Ka'ba, so I have been<br />
told,' AI-Aswad b. al-Mugalib b. Asad b. 'Abdu'l-'Uzz. and al-Walid b.<br />
al-Mughira and Umayya b. Khalaf and al-'As b. W.'il al-Sahmi men <strong>of</strong><br />
reputation among their people. They said: '<strong>Muhammad</strong>, co~e let us<br />
wors~ip what.yo~ worship, and you worship what we worship. You and<br />
we Will c?mbme ~n the matter. If what you worship is better than what<br />
we worship we Will take a share <strong>of</strong> it, and if what we worship is better than<br />
what you worship, you can take a share <strong>of</strong> that.' So God revealed concerning<br />
them, 'Say, 0. disbelievers, I do not worship what you worship,<br />
and you do not worshIp what I worship, and I do not worship what you<br />
WOrs41p, and ~ou'4d? not worship what I wors~ip; you have your religion<br />
and I have mme, I.e. If you Will only worship God on condition that I<br />
wo.rs.hip what y?U worship, I have no need <strong>of</strong>you at all. You can have your<br />
religIOn, all <strong>of</strong> it, and I have mine.<br />
(T. Now the apostle was anxious for the welfare <strong>of</strong> his people, wishing T. 119'<br />
to attract them as far as he could. It has been mentioned that he longed for<br />
a way to attract them, and the method he adopted is what Ibn Hamid told<br />
me that Salama said M. b. Ishaq told him from Yazid b. Ziy'd '<strong>of</strong> Medina<br />
fro'," M. b. Ka'? al-Qur"1'i: Whe.n the apostle saw that his people turned<br />
thelr backs on him and he was pamed by their estrangement from what he<br />
brought them from God he longed that there should come to him from<br />
God a message that would reconcile his people to him. Because <strong>of</strong> his<br />
love for his people and his anxiety over them it would delight him if<br />
the obstacle that made his task so difficult could be removed' so that<br />
he meditated on the project and longed for it and it was dear to hi~. Then<br />
God sent down 'By the star when it sets your comrade errs not and is not<br />
deCeived, he speaks not from his own desire' and when he reached His<br />
word s ' Have you thought <strong>of</strong> al-L~t and al-'Uzz' ' and Man.t the third the<br />
other',! Satan, when he was meditating upon it, and desiring-to bri~g'it<br />
1 S - •<br />
ura 25· 29· . :& Sura 36. 78.<br />
)' Ta. I1?~. I2 glve~ the authorities for this tradition as 1.1. from Safid b. Mini, a freed~<br />
man <strong>of</strong> Abu I-Bak~tart. There are a few verbal discrepancies: the Meccans say, 'If what<br />
you have brought 18 better than what we have ... and if what we have is better than whit<br />
you have', &c. .. sUra 109. 5 sUr'" 53. 1-30.