robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

what, then, does the “them” refer? Any answer would be pure conjecture.
Nonce Words
There is more that makes the Qur'an incomprehensible. A number of words in the Qur'an simply don't
make any sense: Not only are they not Arabic words, but they also have no meaning in any known
language. Islamic scholars who have translated the Qur'an into other languages for the purposes of
proselytizing and to aid non-Arabic-speaking Muslims have generally agreed on the meaning of these
words; often, however, this agreement is simply a matter of convention, without any grounding in
linguistic analysis. And sometimes there is no agreement at all. For example, the historian and Qur'anic
scholar Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari (839–923) details three different definitions, supported by twentyseven
witnesses through different chains of transmission, circulating among Islamic authorities for the
word kalala in Qur'an 4:12. It is not clear, in a passage that is foundational for Islamic law regarding
inheritance, whether this word refers to the person who has died or to his heirs—a crucial distinction. 23
Some words have no clear referent. In Qur'an 2:62 and 5:69, salvation is promised to those who
believe in the Qur'an, as well as to Jews, Christians, and Sabians. Muslim exegetes identify the Sabians
as the followers of the Israelite King David. The word Sabians means “Baptizers.” 24 The Qur'an
identifies David as a prophet, and Allah gives him the book of Psalms (4:163). The Sabians are thus
supposed to be followers of David and readers of the Psalms for whom baptism was a central ritual. But
the only Sabians of whom something is known historically, the Sabians of Harran, did not practice
baptism or notably revere the Psalms. There is no record independent of Islamic literature of any group of
Sabians that actually did do those things. Thus the actual recipient of the Qur'anic promise of salvation
remains unclear. 25
The Qur'an also coins such terms as Sijjin, which appears in 83:7–9: “Nay, the Book of the libertines is
in Sijjin; and what shall teach thee what is Sijjin? A book inscribed.” Sijjin is not an Arabic word; nor is
it a recognizable word from any other language. Even this brief Qur'an passage is bewildering, as Sijjin is
first identified as the place where the “Book of the libertines”—apparently the record of the evil deeds of
the damned—is stored (it is “in Sijjin”) and then, almost immediately afterward, as that record itself
(Sijjin is “a book inscribed”). 26 Perhaps Sijjin is a larger written record of which the “Book of the
libertines” is only a part—but that is just the sort of intellectual contortions that the Qur'an forces the
attentive reader into.
A similar word is sijill in Qur'an 21:104: “On the day when We shall roll up heaven as a sijill.”
Arberry translates sijill as a “scroll…rolled for the writings.” Pickthall translates the word as “a written
scroll,” and that is the accepted understanding today—perhaps owing to its similarity to Sijjin, which the
Qur'an identifies as “a book inscribed.” But sijill could also be a proper name, or something else
altogether. 27 Arthur Jeffery, author of the important book The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an, notes
that the meaning of sijill was “unknown to the early interpreters of the Qur'an.” He adds, “Some took it to
be the name of an Angel, or of the Prophet's amanuensis.” 28 The fourteenth-century Islamic scholar Ibn
Kathir reflects the confusion in his commentary on the passage:
What is meant by Sijill is book. As-Suddi said concerning this Ayah: “As-Sijill is an angel who is entrusted with the records; when