1
6. THE ISRĀ’ĪLIYYĀT IN THE QUR’ĀN 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: َّ )28:ِينَّأَ ْش َر ُكواَّ(المائدة ََّ ِينَّآ َم ُنواَّ ْال َيهُو ََّدَّ َوالذ ََّ اسَّ َع َد َاوةََّّلِلذ َِّ لَ َت ِجدَنََّّأَ َشدََّّالن 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 ( )ﷺtook place. 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.
2
The Jews came to the Prophet ( )ﷺto 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 ( )ﷺtalked 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 ( )ﷺhad 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
3
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 ( )ﷺwere 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 ( )ﷺas 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
4
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 َّ ك َّ َف َق ْد َ ََمنْ َّأَسْ َن َد َّل ََّ َ“ َح َملWhoever furnishes you with chains of transmitters he has ك 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 albayt), 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
5
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. 011/718). 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 ( )ﷺsaid 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-Ruṣāfahَّmosqueَّin 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.
6
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 َّ المكتبةَّالشاملة َّ (288/001َّ.تفسيرَّالطبريَّ(ت َّ (َّم0870َّ-َّ0801َّ/ََّّهـ170َّ-َّ100(َّتفسيرَّالقرطبى َّ (َّ0070َّ/771َّ.تفسيرَّابنَّكثيرَّ(ت ََّّمكتبة:َّالقاهرة.َّاإلسرائيلياتَّفيَّالتفسيرَّوَّالحديث.َّالدكتورَّمحمدَّحسين,الذهبي .َّم0221َّهـَّـ0100َّ,وهبة https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(AD_70)