Muhammad's Mission: Religion, Politics, and Power at the Birth of Islam 9783110674989, 9783110674644

Citation preview

Tilman Nagel Muhammad’s Mission

Tilman Nagel

Muhammad’s Mission Religion, Politics, and Power at the Birth of Islam Translated by Joseph S. Spoerl

The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International – Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society VG WORT and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association).

ISBN 978-3-11-067464-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-067498-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-067507-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2020933593 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover: Folio from the so-called Blue Qur‘an (sura 30:28–32), Fatimid artwork, detail. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011). CC BY 2.5 Typesetting: 3w+p GmbH, Rimpar Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com

I owe deeply felt gratitude to my beloved wife, who deleted excessive material, relentlessly criticized inadequate formulations, again and again expressed her confidence in me, and counseled patience in the face of hostility from various directions. Tilman Nagel

Contents Introduction

1

Chapter : 9 Mecca Islam, a “Religion of the Desert”? 9 10 Mecca: A Place with No Secure Basis for Life Settlement on Holy Ground 12 15 On the History of War in Pre-Islamic Mecca Peaceful Attempts to Extend the Influence of Mecca Chapter : The “Year of the Elephant” 19 19 The Fame of ‘Abd al-Muttalib Byzantines and Sassanids 21 The Quraysh Clans and Great-Power Politics

16

24

Chapter : 29 Purity Traditions Regarding the Beginning of the Revelations 29 Ritual Purity in Pre-Islamic Mecca 31 33 The Years before the Beginning of the Revelations On the Content of the Oldest Revelations 36 Chapter : The “Lord of the Dog Star” 40 40 From the “Highest Lord” to Allah, the One The Miraculous Signs of the One 43 Allah’s Causal Power and the Meaning of the Rites 46 The Material of the Koranic Teachings 49 The Truthfulness of Allah’s Messenger

44

Chapter : The “Satanic Verses” 53 A Hanif Predecessor of Muhammad 53 The Beginning of Muhammad’s Conflict with the Meccans Muhammad and the Migrations to Ethiopia 60

56

VIII

Contents

Chapter : Moses and Pharaoh 64 64 Muhammad, a Magician Muhammad’s Claim to Power and Clan Solidarity The Boycott of the Hashemites 68 72 Dwindling Clan Solidarity for Muhammad

66

Chapter : 76 The Expulsion Abraham, the Founder of the Divinely Prescribed Human Community 76 78 The Search for an Escape Route Medina 81 Muhammad’s Expulsion 84 Chapter : 87 The Pagan Prophet The Best Community 87 Charges against the Jews and Christians Implications Regarding Political Power Additional Rules for the Best Community 95 The Sura of “The Cow”

89 91 92

Chapter : War against Mecca 97 Abuse of the Right of Protection 97 The Battle of Badr 100 The Propagandistic Utilization of the Victory at Badr Muhammad’s Critics 104 107 The Ideal of Militarized Religiosity Chapter : 110 The Bid for Power The Jews of Medina and Muhammad 110 112 The Counter-Attack of the Meccans The so-called Umma Document 113 The “Property that Has Been Reclaimed” 117 The Battle of the Ditch 118 The Segregation of the Prophet from his Community

102

120

Contents

Chapter : The Occupation of Mecca 122 122 The Treaty of al-Hudaybiya Damage to and Restoration of [Muhammad’s] Reputation The Collapse of Quraysh Power and the Entry into Mecca 131 Linking Islam to the Interests of the Quraysh Chapter : 133 Jihad Islam or Belief? 133 The Conflict with the “Helpers” 135 136 The Expansion of Power Renewed Conflict with the “Helpers;” the Mosque of Dissension 140 141 A Harshly Expressed Will to Power The Religious Warriors’ Movement 144 Chapter : The Dying Prophet 148 148 Muhammad’s Final Pilgrimage 149 The Contours of the Hanif Community 152 Muhammad’s Death Reports about the Dying Prophet 153 Chapter : The Return of Muhammad 159 Other Arab Prophets 159 War against the “Apostates,” Beginning of the Wars of Conquest 161 163 The Emergence of the Islamic State The Collapse of the Early Islamic State 167 Chapter : The Roots of “Knowledge” 171 171 The Creation of a Canonical Edition of the Koran The hadith and the Decision-Making Power of the Ruling Class 173 From Human Insight to Superhuman “Knowledge” 177 The Utilization of “Knowledge” 180

IX

125 128

X

Contents

Chapter : “Knowledge” without History 184 184 Islamic Rationalism and the Historicity of Muhammad The Miracles of the Prophet as Proof of his Prophetic Status 185 189 “Proofs of Prophethood” The Sanctification of the Original Community and hadith 192 Scholarship Chapter : The Eternal Role Model 196 A Handbook on the Details Regarding Muhammad’s 196 Exemplariness Two Widely Read Devotional Books 203 Chapter : 206 The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet What May Not and What Must Be Said About Muhammad? 206 207 Allah’s Reverence and Tact towards Muhammad 210 Muhammad, the Divine Light 214 Muhammad’s Infallibility The Punishment of Those Who Diminish Muhammad’s Authority 215 Chapter : The Birthday of the Prophet 218 218 The Genesis of the Birthday Celebration of the Prophet Poetry on the Birthday of the Prophet 221 224 The Cosmic Muhammad The Mantle Poem 227 Muhammad, the Guarantor of Salvation in this World and in the Next 229 Chapter : The Guarantor of Salvation in This World 231 The Obliteration of the Contrast between this World and the Next 231 The Emphasis on Temporal Expectations of Salvation 233

Contents

XI

Muhammad’s Biography, A Lesson-Plan for Earthly Triumph 237 240 A Muslim Path to the Historicity of Muhammad? Appendix : Muhammad and his Position in Ancient Arab Genealogy 243 General Points Ishmaelite Arabs and Others 243 244 The Quraysh The Yemeni Arabs 246 Genealogical Tables 247 259 Maps

243

Appendix : The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad 263 . A Survey of Recent Scholarship on the Life of Muhammad 263 . The Biography of Muhammad in the Context of Tilman Nagel’s 272 Scholarship Appendix : Understanding or Imitation? Basic Varieties of Muslim Recollection of 276 Muhammad . The Caliph’s Court and the Scholars 276 . The Hadith, a Specifically Islamic Literary Genre 278 284 . The Meaning of Historicity . The Historian – Fighting for a Lost Cause 287 Clarification of a Few Concepts (A Brief Glossary) Annotations Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter

: : : : : : : : :

295 Introduction 295 Mecca 296 297 The “Year of the Elephant” Purity 297 297 The “Lord of the Dog Star” The “Satanic Verses” 297 Moses and Pharaoh 298 The Expulsion 298 The Pagan Prophet 298 War against Mecca 298

293

XII

Contents

Chapter : The Bid for Power 299 Chapter : The Occupation of Mecca 299 300 Chapter : Jihad 300 Chapter : The Dying Prophet Chapter : The Return of Muhammad 302 303 Chapter : The Roots of “Knowledge” 303 Chapter : “Knowledge” without History Chapter : The Eternal Role Model 303 303 Chapter : The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet Chapter : The Birthday of the Prophet 304 Chapter : The Guarantor of Salvation in This World 304 305 Appendix : Muhammad and his Position in Ancient Arab Genealogy Appendix : The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad 305 Appendix : Understanding or Imitation? Basic Varieties of Muslim Recollection 305 of Muhammad General Index

309

Index of Koranic citations

323

Introduction The Islamic perspective on Muhammad is fundamentally different from that of non-Muslim students of history, whether they be agnostics, atheists, or adherents of other religions. The latter all seek an understanding of the way of life of the man who, at the beginning of the seventh century, in the middle of Arabia, created a religious movement which, permeated by an aggressive war-like spirit, rapidly conquered large stretches of southwest Asia and North Africa, subordinating these regions to its own religion and creating a unique mode of governance. What are the identifiable preconditions of this event, what were the unpredictable, irreducible turning-points that influenced it? In short, the nonMuslim inquirer seeks the clarification and representation of an event of world-historical importance. This event is to be considered according to the methods of historical research that flow from a scientific world-view, and this means being content with findings that will always be provisional and revisable. Provisionality and revisability, however, are impermissible in a Muslim representation of Muhammad’s life. For Muslims regard him to be a man through whose proclamations, actions, and omissions Allah transmitted to humanity a final, unrevisable, and eternally true message. The Koran, according to Islamic belief, contains Allah’s literal words to human beings, perfect and unadulterated, and the life of Muhammad, with which the proclamation of these words and the implementation of their norms is inextricably bound, must for this very reason indirectly bear the character of an eternally valid normativity. The words and deeds of the prophet of the Muslims must therefore be separated from the framework of the words and deed of human beings before and after him, not merely because they are determined by Allah – that is true of all creatures according to Islamic belief – but rather because Allah’s legislative will is to be discerned in them. At least from the moment of God’s calling, all aspects of Muhammad’s life must be infallible manifestations of this legislative will; indeed, the pious tendency of Muslims to certainty in this matter inclines them to ascribe such sinlessness to Muhammad from birth on. This means, conversely, that all the norms that Muslims consider to be binding on them must have been exemplified by Muhammad, that is, one must be able to locate them in the Koran as the word of Allah transmitted [by Muhammad] and also in the traditional accounts of the prophet’s life. The interest in knowledge for normative ends has therefore dominated Muslim discussions of Muhammad since the 8th century, and the question “what actually happened” (“wie es eigentlich gewesen ist”), which can never be definitively answered, has been suppressed in favor of statements about what must have happened (wie es gewesen sein muss).¹ The demand for norms that https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-001

2

Introduction

must be authenticated through the traditional accounts of Muhammad’s words and deeds has since then permeated every aspect of a Muslim’s life, from the cradle to the grave. Every norm that is recognized as valid must, then and now, be derived from the Koran or from the life of the prophet in order thereby to be understood as an expression of the trans-historical legislative will of Allah. Traditions regarding the life of Muhammad thus have to serve, alongside the Koran, as the authoritative source of the countless normative teachings of Islam. Because Muslims, too, cannot avoid changing times and living conditions, however, there must necessarily be changes in the content of the norms that are derived at any given time from these sources and that must be justified as the expression of the eternally valid and unchanging legislative will of Allah. But by no means do the historical traditions regarding Muhammad self-consciously present themselves as doing this. Rather, they are, on the one hand, bound tightly to the era of their origin and the milieu of ancient Arabia; on the other hand, they are manifold and multiform like real life, so that not infrequently a given norm and its opposite can both be deduced from them. The defenders of the one norm and the other both aim to establish their own interpretation as the only valid one. This gives rise to an arbitrary use of the sources, one that is driven by an interest in vindicating the preferred normative conclusion, and this approach involves a narrow and one-sided view that rarely does justice to the reported event: whatever does not fit with the normative prejudice [of the interpreter] is explained away. Of course, this is no way of refuting the argument for the opposing normative conclusion; for it relies precisely on the other portions of the tradition and explains away the parts that the other side takes to be decisive. Thus, for over thirteen hundred years, in a feud that flares up again and again, Sunnis and Shiites engage in bitter polemics regarding the normative substance of a few prophetic traditions; the question of how these traditions can be understood in the whole context of the history of Muhammad’s life is never even raised. There is therefore no possibility of either conclusion being proven as exclusively true. For the motive driving the use of the tradition is precisely not the historical Muhammad, but rather the current need for certainty regarding the norm that is considered correct (see below, Chapter 13). Claiming the right to satisfy this need in a comprehensive way, Islamic jurisprudence understands itself to be the appointed arbiter of the traditions regarding the life of Muhammad. Islamic legal experts recognized early on that this claim is eminently debatable. They devised formal procedures for the use of authoritative texts, namely the Koran and the hadith,² individual stories about Muhammad taken out of the chronologically organized historical narrative, in order to secure their logical consistency with a view to the normative content that was required in any given case – procedures that completely ignored the question of

Introduction

3

the historical context of the transmitted material. Thus, one attempted to ascribe to the texts of the hadith different degrees of authority, which were based on the “truthfulness” of the respective transmitters, where “truthfulness” was defined by religious criteria. This method obviously led to furious debates. In order to maintain the logical consistency of the prescriptive teachings of the Koran, one developed the principle that [in the case of contradictory verses] the more recently “revealed” verse abrogated the older verse: Allah did not want to overburden his followers, so he led them step by step to the rules of his law; there could not have been any change in the religious and moral views of Muhammad, however obvious it might be from the sources that there was such a change. A standard example is the prohibition of wine drinking. In the late Meccan Sura 16, intoxicating drink is praised as a gift from God; in Sura 2, which stems from the early Medinan period, Muhammad recognizes the usefulness of wine, but warns that wine can also lead to sin, so that the harm outweighs the benefit. It is only in the late Medinan Sura 5, verses 90 – 92, that abstention from wine is commanded, because it incites hatred and division. From this formulation, the Islamic legal scholars deduced what they took to be the divinely given prohibition of wine, precisely because it abrogated the older and milder evaluation of wine. In recent times, many Muslims have claimed that this chronological technique of comparing texts, practiced by Muslims for more than a thousand years, corresponds precisely to the historical-critical analysis of sources practiced by Western historians; they argue that it is therefore unjust to say of Muslim scholars that their approach to the life of Muhammad excludes this method. This assertion is, however, inaccurate, for the considerations concerning the abrogation of older divine sayings by newer ones serve no other purpose than to rescue the authority of the texts and thereby their unquestionable, eternal truth. A historical-critical analysis of those three Koran passages would proceed in a completely different way. It would have to take into account evidence from a broader range of sources which tell us that there was within Arab paganism a movement permeated by sophisticated religious ideas, the so-called hanif movement, with which Muhammad demonstrably sought to associate himself several years after the beginning of his mission, when his earliest pronouncements had shown a completely different religious orientation. To be sure, he did not wish to burden himself or his followers with the strongly ascetic tendency of the hanif movement, including its prohibition of wine-drinking. In Medina,³ however, he began to conceive of his newly proclaimed religious practice as a true revival of a hanif movement allegedly founded by Abraham and sharply distinguished from Judaism and Christianity, and the condemnation of wine

4

Introduction

drinking became an essential mark of the difference between Islam and these two other religions, in both of which wine played an important ritual role.⁴ Scientific historiography of course approaches the sources that are relevant to researching the life of Muhammad and the birth of Islam with the same questioning, factual view that it applies to testimony about any other historical event. After becoming intimately familiar with the contents of the sources, it has to formulate the appropriate questions and search for answers without consideration for religious interests or sharia norms. It must not be deflected from this path by vociferously expressed challenges by Muslims. For Muslims, as noted, the Koran and the traditions interpreted by sharia scholarship and its specialists are the quintessence of the knowledge that Allah has bestowed on humanity (cf. Sura 2: 32); beyond this there is for them, in principle, no “true” knowledge. Therefore, an explanation of the origins of the wine prohibition that draws on non-Islamic sources and that stresses motives in Muhammad that are not coordinated with the postulated law-giving intentions of Allah are not suitable means to an increase of knowledge: such an explanation could never lead to “true” knowledge, which moreover cannot anyway be achieved by human beings, but is independent of human intellectual efforts and exists purely as something bestowed by Allah. Historical-critical analysis applied to the life of Muhammad and Islam, from this perspective, produces nothing more than a watering-down, indeed, a falsification of “true” knowledge. “Because Muhammad’s life expressed the manifested and experienced essence of Islam’s message, getting to know the Prophet is a privileged means of acceding to the spiritual universe of Islam. From his birth to his death, the Messenger’s experience – devoid of any human tragic dimension – allies the call of faith, trial among people, humility, and the quest for peace with the One.” This is the perspective with which a Muslim living in Europe presents the life of Muhammad both to his fellow Muslims and also to non-Muslims in search of simple, plain maxims for living.⁵ “Devoid of any human tragic dimension:” a life which, because it passed in uninterrupted union with the Most High, never knew error, never took a wrong turn, never became ensnared in sin. Throughout the twenty-three years of his mission, Muhammad sought the way to spiritual freedom and liberation [from the compulsions of the ego? –T.N.]. He received Revelation, step by step, in the midst of the circumstances of life, as if the Most High was conversing with him in history, for eternity. The Prophet listened to Him, spoke to Him, and contemplated His signs day and night, in the warm company of his Companions or in the solitude of the Arabian desert. He prayed while the world of humans was asleep, he invoked God while his brothers and sisters despaired, and he remained patient and steadfast in the face of adversity and insult while so many beings turned away. His deep spirituality had freed him from the prison of the self, and he kept seeing and recalling the signs of the

Introduction

5

Most Near [namely, Allah – T.N.], whether in a flying bird, a standing tree, falling darkness, or a shining star.⁶

Everything that a Muslim is taught about Muhammad therefore leads immediately, directly, infallibly, to Allah. There is in all of this, to repeat, nothing sinful; with regard to him personally, there is no such thing. All prophets lived without becoming ensnared in sin. Adam, the first prophet, and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit; Satan had tempted them to do so, and they had to leave paradise. So teaches the Koran (Sura 2: 35 f). Acquiring the knowledge of good and evil was, however, not connected to the violation of the prohibition. Instead at the moment when he was expelled to the earth, Adam “received certain words (of promise) from his Lord, and Allah turned to him again…” (Sura 2: 37; cf. below, Chapter 11). It is all merely a question of being prepared to accept Allah’s guidance, not a question of sin – and who was more unconditionally open to Allah’s guidance than his last prophet? “Devoid of any human tragic dimension:” Not all Muslims are prepared to tacitly accept such an amoral way of regarding the life of the prophet as a series of events and deeds which is by definition “right” and thus praiseworthy and exemplary because it is brought about by uninterrupted divine guidance. In his book 23 Years: The Career of the Prophet Muhammad,⁷ the Iranian Ali Dashti (1896 – 1981) undertook to excerpt the most important textual sources without the sort of dogmatic prejudice that has to declare even the most repulsive atrocities, such as the massacre of the Jewish Banu Qurayza (cf. below, Chapter 10), as the fruit of an unwavering spiritual communion with Allah. Obviously, one cannot satisfy the demands [of this prejudice] without an occasionally embarrassing casuistry. Dashti freed himself from this. In his judgment Muhammad was a normal human being with all the strengths and weaknesses of human nature. Steadfastness and perseverance and loyalty in carrying out the mission that he considered himself charged to fulfill characterized him as much as unscrupulousness in the pursuit of power. According to Dashti, suffusing all of this with the miraculous light of direct divine guidance does no honor to Muhammad and does humanity no good either. It only serves to solidify the power of Islamic scholars who seize the legacy of the prophet and boast of being his loyal and zealous imitators, thereby forestalling any criticism of their words and deeds by their fellow Muslims.⁸ Dashti’s writings on Muhammad’s career began circulating in Iran in 1973. Immediately after the victory of the Mullah-revolution in 1979, Dashti was imprisoned and tortured, dying of his wounds in 1981. European scholars can – still?⁹— do their work without being hindered by religiously grounded truth claims. If they want to be true to their vocation as scholars, they can and they must gather what the various sources tell them

6

Introduction

about their topic, examine these materials soberly and objectively according to the rules of their discipline, be transparent about the standards they are using in doing this, and present their findings in a context that is plausible and that takes into account the possible interpretations of the sources. In doing this, however, scholarship on the life of Muhammad has not yet completed its task. In addition to establishing what can be said about Muhammad and the birth of Islam according to the standards just mentioned, it must also elucidate the “second” life of the Muslim prophet, namely, the development and content of the doctrine of Muhammad. Only then will it actually become clear how the dogmatic view of Muhammad came about and why so many Muslims find it so difficult to overcome it, and indeed why some of them perceive it as outrageous impudence that anyone should expect them to overcome it. These twenty chapters on the prophet of the Muslims undertake this task from Chapter 13 on and attempt to trace this topic into the present. Allah’s Messenger himself worked from the beginning of his mission to be recognized by his followers as the sole transmitter of messages from the transcendent [realm]. The content of these messages changed profoundly after Muhammad had also begun to understand himself to be the prophet and proclaimer of the only valid belief system, formerly imparted to Abraham: to the tireless praise of the all-creating Allah was added the exposition of his legislative will. This [will] revealed initially only the rites with which Allah wished to be honored day by day, but extended in principle to all aspects of human life, which thus were to be subordinated to divine guidance. Allah and his Messenger, as the Medinan Suras state again and again, determine what is right and proper, and thus already in Medina was created the precondition for the triumph of the Muslim model for every community: in all of its manifestations, it must satisfy the eternal and unsurpassably true principles which, according to Islamic belief, were proclaimed for the last time in human history by none other than Muhammad. But not only that! He also realized [this ideal community] in Medina in unsurpassable fashion, and this in turn means that “Muhammad in Medina” is transfigured into the ideal against which every era after Muhammad must forever be measured. Thus, the Messenger and prophet of Allah, Muhammad, remains after his death the figure who towers far over all others in the political and religious life of Muslims, indeed, only after his death did he take on the superhuman dimensions that Islamic literature on Muhammad never tires of depicting in its efforts to do justice to history. Those who concern themselves with the life of Muhammad must learn to distinguish this second life from the first and must understand how the second life developed out of the data of the first. The environment in which Muhammad grew up and acted was shaped by the religious, political, social, and moral customs of the ancient tribal culture

Introduction

7

of the Arabs. Although the message that he proclaimed was addressed to all human beings and thus in principle judged human beings regardless of clan or tribal affiliation, the prophet of Islam remained enmeshed in the unwritten maxims of his tribal society throughout his entire life. They determined his practical-political modus operandi – a contradiction that Islam inherited. The conflict which broke out in the 8th century over the privileged status of the Arabs as the people of the Messenger of Allah vis-à-vis other Islamic peoples, still ongoing today, is one aspect of this contradiction. Another is manifested in the often invoked, specifically Muslim sense of solidarity; it regards non-Muslims as people who, because they do not “belong,” are obviously to be assigned an inferior legal status – the Islamic community appears as a super-tribe with special privileges that are withheld from those who stand outside of it. Human beings as such do not possess inalienable rights; human beings possess rights only thanks to membership in Islam, as is made clear by the “General Islamic Human Rights Declaration” published in 1981 by the “Islamic Council for Europe,” a viewpoint that was reinforced by the 1990 “Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam.” If one wishes to understand the fundamental conflict that runs throughout the life’s work of Muhammad, it is essential that one inform oneself about his position within the tribal system that remained valid in his lifetime. Knowledge of this position is not only of genealogical interest, but more importantly, it makes clear the possible range of actions within a social order that was shaped by certain religious ideas and by the politics of clan and tribe. The unifying and dividing impulses of this social order were understood as the unavoidable result of blood relationships; they defined the group membership of the individual and therefore also determined who his friends and enemies were and, last but not least, what his religious duties were. The movement of an individual or of an entire clan from one solidarity-community to another was possible under certain conditions and a few cases of this are documented. In general, the staying power of tradition was so strong that the new integrating factors, the tribe-transcending religion and the jihad, were not able to vanquish solidarity based on blood but were only able to complement it. To assist the reader who is trying to follow the thread of the narrative, and to avoid repetition of this basic information about a culture that is foreign to the reader, I decided to write a brief excursus, [included in this translation as Appendix 1], entitled “Muhammad and His Position in Ancient Arab Genealogy.” This should especially make the reading of the first chapter easier. To understand the historical figure of Muhammad, we must understand the extent to which he was, in his words and deeds, an interested party, that is, to what extent there was in his person a conflict between the clan interests to which he knew he was obligated and the universal-religious aspects of his message. The historicity of the prophet becomes tangible, histor-

8

Introduction

icity in a double sense: 1. He actually lived and is no bloodless construct of an obscure near-eastern religious sect, as has recently been claimed.¹⁰ 2. He actually lived and was not merely the medium of an eternal-unchanging law ascribed to the One [God].

Chapter 1: Mecca That the Quraysh may bring together, may bring together the caravan journey of the winter and the summer, for this they shall worship the lord of this house, who gives them nourishment against hunger and security before that which they fear! (Sura 106)

Islam, a “Religion of the Desert”? In the clear nights of the desert, undisturbed by the affairs of the day, the starry heavens make an overwhelming impression, and the human observer is overcome by feelings of awe before the powerful One. How great, how sublime is He, whose work proclaims itself at such moments in all of its incomprehensibility! He is so great and so sublime that any comparison of His nature with earthly categories, within which human standards are necessarily imprisoned, is totally forbidden. “Allahu akbar, Allah is incomparably great:” this insight grips the night-time observer with irresistible force. “Allahu akbar!” – the greatest doctrinal truth of Islam, indeed the core of this faith, animates every dogmatic speculation and eludes any [critical] reflection. “Islam” is the experience of the smallness of anything earthly before the One, and nowhere is this experience more compelling than in the desert at night: Islam is the religion of the desert. One often reads, and even more often hears, this idea or something like it, above all from civilization-weary intellectuals in whose fantasy the desert is a place of unblemished purity and crystal-clear vision unobscured by any human works. The Creator and Preserver of the universe, and the nullity of the human being – a chasm whose depth cannot be plumbed with human concepts but can only be acknowledged with deep awe and reverence. The glorification of the desert and its dwellers, the Bedouins, to whom one ascribed a character unspoiled by the comforts of civilization, began already in the ninth century in the metropolitan centers of the still-young Islamic empire. It made its way to the educated classes of Europe in the Romantic era and implanted in them the prejudice that the “desert religion” of Islam is dogma-free religiosity in itself, with which all of humanity can agree. No one expressed this idea, which converts today are fond of citing to justify their conversion, more movingly than Goethe: Abraham long ago acknowledged “the Lord of the stars”; “…Moses in the distant desert / became great through the One … And so must the law appear / that Muhammad imposed; only through the concept of the One / did he conquer the world,” he waxes enthusiastic in a poem found in the posthumous https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-002

10

Chapter 1: Mecca

portion of his West-eastern Divan. No wonder a zealous, recently converted Muslim has declared Goethe in a fatwa to be a fellow Muslim!¹ In any case, Muhammad’s allegedly unmediated experience of God is also an indubitable fact for the vast majority of Muslims, who know nothing of European literature and just as little of the polemics of their new Western co-religionists. We will discover the reasons for this later. By directing our attention now to the historical record, we will quickly see that Islam is nothing less than a desert or Bedouin-religion. Far from emerging out of a civilizational no-mans-land, it shows itself as being connected in many ways with the religious and secular history of the Near East.

Mecca: A Place with No Secure Basis for Life Sura 106, one of the earliest sections of the Koran, gives information on the living conditions that form the background for Muhammad’s actions. Allah, the lord of the Kaaba, deserves thanks and reverence for ensuring the security of the Quraysh, Muhammad’s tribe, and for protecting them from hunger. In the Koran, Muhammad repeatedly refers to the precarious situation of Mecca, the dependence of its residents on the importation of foodstuffs. The Meccans object to Muhammad’s demand that they comply with his message: “If we follow you with the correct guidance, then we will be torn from our home!” He replies with soothing words from Allah: “Have we not guided them to a secure sanctuary, to which through our action fruits of every sort are brought as nourishment?” (Sura 28: 57). Shortly before his flight [from Mecca] in 622, Muhammad threatened his fellow Meccans: “God shows you a parable: There is a town that lived in complete security and drew its provisions abundantly from every place – but it did not thank Allah for his blessings! So Allah let it taste what it is like when hunger and fear overpower it” (Sura 16: 112). Moreover, for Muhammad it is absolutely clear that the Meccans owe their unusual position to the prayers that Abraham once addressed to Allah: “Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in a valley without cultivation near your holy house! Our Lord, they shall carry out the ritual prayer! Incline the hearts of some people towards them and nourish them with fruits! They will hopefully thank you for that” (Sura 14: 37). What these Koran verses tell us is clarified and expanded by traditions about the market and pilgrimage customs on the Arabian Peninsula. In pre-Islamic times several localities competed for the favor of merchants and pilgrims. Commerce and religious cult in many ways went hand in hand. Both could be carried out in a tribal society only if unwritten rules were observed. If the pilgrims and merchants were to get to their destinations, they had to be able to travel through

Mecca: A Place with No Secure Basis for Life

11

the territories of foreign tribes unmolested. At specific times of the year, in the relevant regions, feuds could not be pursued; escorts were organized [to guarantee safe-passage]. A complicated, easily disturbed framework of reciprocal obligations between the tribe on whose territory the pilgrimage site or market was located and the others, without whose agreement caravan traffic would have been impossible, determined the ancient Arab “domestic politics.” The order guaranteed by these means was of course highly unstable; rash actions by individuals, committed in the thoughtless pursuit of material interests or to restore damaged honor, constantly threatened it. In addition, the attempts by the Byzantines and Sassanids² to increase their influence in Arabia by using the ambition of a few clan leaders had a destabilizing effect. A tradition recorded in early Islamic times gives us information about the caravan traffic in ancient Arabia that was based on the solar calendar. In the northern part of the [Arabian] Peninsula, the market of Dumat al-Jandal fell in the third month of the old Arab calendar year, which, with twelve months, each of which was measured from new moon to new moon, and comprising 365¼ days, roughly agreed with the solar year. A few tribes whose territory lay in the vicinity were customarily responsible for the safety of visitors during the relevant days. Merchants who travelled from the Hijaz or Yemen trusted themselves to one of the escorts organized by the Quraysh, which guided them through the territory of the Mudar Arabs; the Quraysh regarded themselves to be the most excellent of the descendants of a man named Mudar, whom they declared at least in Muhammad’s time to be the most noble of the offspring of Ishmael. We will have more detailed things to say about this later. Dumat al-Jandal itself, as long as the market was underway, stood under the control of a so-called “king,” who belonged either to the princely house of the Ghassanids, who ruled in what is today Jordan, or to the south-Arabian tribe of the Kindites. The latter had attempted in vain in the sixth century to bring all the tribes of the peninsula under their rule, which amounted no more and no less to attempting finally to put an end to the problem of feuding, which disturbed the social order and made caravan commerce extraordinarily difficult. The “king” had the right to put his goods up for sale first and to collect a tithe of all the other commercial goods. Markets operated from the sixth to the eighth months in a few coastal localities on the Persian Gulf. The Sassanids, to whom Arabia for purely geographical reasons could not be a matter of indifference, attempted to install “kings” agreeable to themselves; for example in al-Musaqqar in the region known today as al-Ahsa’ [they installed as ruler] a member of the Banu Tamim. – We shall encounter this tribe again in connection with the Quraysh and Muhammad. – There was no “king” in as-Sihr on the Indian Ocean; thus there was no tithe to pay, but instead it was necessary to pay for an escort. In Yemen, which in Mu-

12

Chapter 1: Mecca

hammad’s lifetime was in part ruled by a Sassanid expeditionary force, one did have to pay the tithe, but was spared the expense of hiring an escort. Finally, at the beginning of the eleventh month the market was open for business in ‘Ukaz north of al-Ta’if; at the beginning of the twelfth month one set out for the marketplace of Du Magaz, then travelled from there a short time later to Mecca to complete the pilgrimage rites there and at a few other places in the immediate vicinity. This somewhat idealized depiction of the ancient Arab market practices, which describes conditions at the end of the sixth century, allows us to understand why Muhammad exhorts his tribe to give appropriate thanks to the “Lord of this house.” The Quraysh owed their survival to their successful participation in this venerable but precarious political framework, which in addition was repeatedly exposed to tensions caused by interventions by the two great powers with an interest in Arabia – Sassanid Iran and the Byzantine Empire. The sources assure us that the Meccans were no one’s subjects; but that does not mean they were spared attempts to exert influence [over them.] On the contrary, the rivalry between the two great powers sowed division between the Quraysh clans, and [this rivalry] was one of the established facts that affected the life of Muhammad, leaving traces in his preaching, as we shall see. First, however, we must keep our focus on pre-Muhammadan Mecca and review what the sources tell us about the efforts by the Quraysh to ward off “hunger and fear.”

Settlement on Holy Ground Tradition tells us that, five generations before Muhammad, several clans of the tribe of Quraysh, led by a certain Qusayy, settled in the sacred territory surrounding the Kaaba. The other pilgrimage sites of Arabia that we know of were not inhabited places. If necessary a few custodians were permanently present. But, we are told, Qusayy had stone lodgings erected directly adjacent to the Kaaba, a violation of tradition. Allah, the divinity who was worshipped beside others at the sanctuary, became the special protector of the Quraysh, who called themselves “Allah’s people.” The pilgrims who completed the ritual circumambulation of the shrine understood themselves to be the guests [of the Quraysh] with the right to claim protection from them. It is impossible to say whether these ideas were actually presented by the Quraysh at the time of their usurpation of the shrine – for that is what it was – or whether they were conceived only later to justify this transgression of the customary practice. In any case, in the lifetime of Muhammad, this was considered to be the truth, as the Koran verses presented above make clear. Moreover, people believed at the time that there was

Settlement on Holy Ground

13

a special relationship between the Kaaba and Jerusalem; one prayed standing before the southern wall of the Kaaba facing north, in the direction of Jerusalem. One of the threatening speeches in the Koran against the Quraysh can only be interpreted in one way, if the Quraysh were convinced of their connection to Jerusalem. Muhammad places the relevant words in the mouth of Moses: Twice, Allah has decreed, would the Israelites transgress against him, the creator; the first time is in the past, [when] they were driven from their homes, but with Allah’s help, were allowed to return. If “you,” the Quraysh, “do good, you do good for yourselves,” Muhammad continues; otherwise enemies will “enter the place, as they did the first time” and “destroy completely what they have seized” (Sura 17: 7). This proclamation could only make an impression on the Quraysh if they referred this second destruction to Mecca. We will encounter again much later this idea that the Kaaba, allegedly founded by Abraham, is a sort of branch establishment of Jerusalem. We note in passing that the Byzantine church historian Sozomen, who came from the vicinity of Gaza and wrote in the fifth century, reports of pilgrimages to the tomb of Abraham in Hebron; Arab pagans as well as Jews and Christians participated in these pilgrimages, the Arab pagans bringing sacrificial animals and abstaining from sexual intercourse during the festival days – customs that one encounters again in Mecca. Sozomen also notes that the Emperor Constantine (r. 306 – 337) put an end to the veneration of Abraham in Hebron due to its unchristian character. Qusayy himself, to return to him, spent the first part of his life in the region of Tabuk, which lies in the Arab regions south of modern-day Jordan that formed the border zone between the Hijaz and the Byzantine Empire. Qusayy’s father Kilab, whose genealogy is traced in a direct line back to Ishmael, died shortly after the boy’s birth; his mother then entered a marriage with a man from the tribal federation of the Quda’a, which lived in the same region. As a young man Qusayy made his way to the Hijaz, where he married into the clan that at that time was in charge of the cult surrounding the Kaaba. This clan belonged to the tribe of the Khuza’a, whose genealogy had no connection to Mudar and who therefore could claim no descent from Ishmael. “As the sons (of Qusayy) increased, their wealth grew and their reputation rose, his (father-in-law) died. Now Qusayy saw that he (due to his descent from Ishmael) had a greater right to the Kaaba and Mecca than the Khuza’a and (their allies) the Banu Bakr (b. ‘Abd Manat b. Kinana), [he saw] namely that the Quraysh represented the branch of the purest descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham.” Qusayy gathered men from his tribe, persuaded a few others to join them, and occupied the Kaaba, but to hold it, he had to take up permanent residence in the sacred zone surrounding the shrine, in which the use of weapons is forbidden. His precarious position prevented him from joining in the customary pilgrimage practice of traveling out of town to

14

Chapter 1: Mecca

the locale of ‘Arafat after completing the rites at the Kaaba. Qusayy rationalized this unusual practice by asserting that [he and his clan] were “Allah’s people” and did not worship other deities. In Muhammad’s day, the Meccans connected a number of further distinctive aspects of their daily lives to Qusayy. Thus, he was said to have erected the boundary markers of the sacred territory and the “house of deliberation.” As the Quraysh saw it, in the era of their “founding father,” the Khuza’a had spoiled the true Kaaba cult, which Qusayy was thus justified in taking over. [The Khuza’a] had to forfeit this office. It was a different matter with the ritual activities that we read about outside of Mecca, which remained under the control of the former custodians, but ones who did not belong to the Khuza’a. However, an important part of the rites, the opening of the route from ‘Arafat to Muzdalifa, passed to a clan of the Banu Tamim after the family that had occupied this office died out; the Banu Tamim were an important tribe with many branches, especially in northeastern Arabia. Qusayy was said to have divided control over Mecca’s internal affairs among six offices, which were allowed to be occupied only by his descendants; all other Quraysh clans were excluded from them. At least, this is what we are told, and it is clear that this assertion reflects the clan rivalries that we will consider in the next chapter. Three of these offices relate directly to the pilgrimage, namely the gatekeeper of the Kaaba, the feeding of the pilgrims, and providing them with water. The remaining three can be interpreted as the beginnings of an institutionalized exercise of power: leading the consultative assembly, bearing the war banners, and exercising high command in war. However, there was one office that was highly important for the orderly unfolding of the pilgrimage and that remained outside the control of the Quraysh, namely, the determination of the leap-month. If one calculates the 12 months of the year precisely according to the phases of the moon, as was customary in preIslamic Arabia, then one arrives at a total of only 354 days. But the date of the pilgrimage, as noted above, was linked to the solar year, so at regular intervals a leap-month had to be intercalated [or inserted into the calendar]. The details of this [intercalation] had to be proclaimed each time at the Kaaba. But above all, they had to be spread abroad outside of Mecca, because people had to know when the sacred months began, when it became possible for pilgrims to travel to and from pilgrimage sites without being subjected to attacks by highway robbers. Near the end of his life Muhammad would condemn the leap-month as a remnant of polytheistic darkness (Sura 9: 37). In an Islamized Arabia only the pilgrimage to Mecca remained permissible; if its date according to the lunar calendar shifted through the solar seasons, then the system, sketched above, that had once prevailed across the peninsula would collapse; Mecca would have no competition – assuming it could hold all of Arabia under its power.

On the History of War in Pre-Islamic Mecca

15

On the History of War in Pre-Islamic Mecca But let us return to pre-Islamic conditions! There were tribes that cared nothing about the sacredness of the Kaaba or the pilgrimage to it; they could be attacked even during the sacred months. The distinction between “sacred” and “profane” thus had the correlative meaning of respecting or failing to respect the Quraysh claims to power and the Meccan cultic praxis that was traced back to Abraham and Ishmael. The tribes that did not participate were called “the profaners”; religion and politics were tightly bound together. To hold their own against “the profaners,” it was necessary to have a military force composed of more than just the Meccan clans. The first attempts to form a sort of protective force are attributed to ‘Abd Manaf, a son of Qusayy. He gained the support of a tribal federation named Ahabis, whose founder was not a Quraysh but was thought to be closely related in his genealogy to the Quraysh. From this time on, the Ahabis formed the core of the Meccan military force, and they also distinguished themselves later in the battles against Muhammad and his followers after they had been driven to Medina. When he took control of Mecca, Qusayy was able to count on the support of Quda’a, the tribe into which his mother had married after she was widowed and in which he had grown up. ‘Abd Manaf lacked such support, so it was a significant advantage for him to be able to enter an alliance with the Ahabis. This secured for him access to Tihama, the coastal plain along the Red Sea, through which important trade routes ran. – Shortly after his arrival in Medina, Muhammad will stake everything on disrupting these routes to the detriment of Mecca. – To the Ahabis belonged two Mudarite clans, which would later be absorbed into the Meccan-Quraysh clan of the Banu Zuhra b. Kilab; furthermore, the Khuza’a clans would play a role in their affairs, the Khuza’a of course being the former lords of the Kaaba. Traditions report that the Quraysh together with the Ahabis strove to impose peace in the Tihama, which they succeeded in doing after lengthy and eventful battles. The names of the Meccan participants show that these events lasted into the youth of Muhammad. The so-called figar wars also occurred in these decades, battles which, if one follows the common etymology, were caused by violations of the duty to refrain from violence during the sacred months. Thus, the prince of Hira, a vassal of the Sassanids, had hired a leader for the caravan that he wanted to send to the market of ‘Ukaz. A man from the tribal federation of the Qais ‘Ailan, in whose sphere of influence that locality lay, had offered him his services but had been rejected. The spurned man got his revenge. He lay in ambush for the caravan from Hira and killed its leader. Word spread of the atrocity in ‘Ukaz, which was filled with Qaisites, since the pilgrimage was about to begin. Commercial activity came to a halt due to fear of fighting between them and the Quraysh, whose in-

16

Chapter 1: Mecca

tervention was expected due to the proximity of the Meccan pilgrimage season; it finally was settled that a year hence the Quraysh and the Ahabis would challenge the peace-breakers to combat. Extensive but confused traditions, focusing more on details than on the overarching narrative and thus allowing no clear summary, depict the fighting, which did not end well for the Quraysh. At the end both parties calculated the blood money that was owed and it turned out that the Meccans had to pay considerable sums. Until they had done so, they had to hand over hostages. One of them was Abu Sufyan b. Harb, a grandson of the respected ‘Abd Shams; he in turn had been one of the sons of ‘Abd Manaf, [the sons] whose rivalry forms a core theme in the history of Mecca and is directly connected to the life of Muhammad. A further striking aspect of his fate is also clear from the reports on the figar wars: the Quraysh rivalry with al-Taif, in whose sphere of influence ‘Ukaz lay. The Banu Thaqif, who at that time controlled al-Taif, probably supported the Qais ‘Ailan in the figar wars.

Peaceful Attempts to Extend the Influence of Mecca These wars ended by 590. Around this time several Quraysh clans concluded a treaty in which they bound themselves to prevent the cheating and robbing of foreign merchants on their territory. The sources narrate scattered accounts of such crimes; Qusayy himself, no less, was said to have laid the foundation of his fortune by plundering an Ethiopian merchant on his way home from Mecca. This was far in the past. In the meantime, many Quraysh clans had become convinced that the security of merchants and the inviolability of their property were necessary conditions for the prosperity of Mecca. When a member of the Quraysh clan of the Banu Sahm attempted to defraud a foreigner who had no one in Mecca to protect him, the clans of the Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib, both descending from ’Abd Manaf, together with the Banu Zuhra b. Kilab and the Banu Taim b. Murra, swore that they would from that time on always stand up for victims of injustice and ensure redress for them. In other words, clan and tribal solidarity had to give way to a generally valid principle of equity. This “confederation of eminences” was concluded in the house of ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an of the Banu Taim b. Murra, one of the wealthiest Quraysh in those days, who incidentally was a hanif, that is, an Arab who practiced a more religiously and morally profound version of paganism. As a member of the Banu Hashim, Muhammad was included in this confederation, and later, long after he was known as a prophet, he is reported to have said that he could hardly think of anything more splendid than his presence at this event. Of course, the parties to this agreement would have had no occasion to mention his presence there,

Peaceful Attempts to Extend the Influence of Mecca

17

if in fact he was present; he was at that time a poor man, and merely being a descendant of Hashim would not have outweighed this disadvantage. We find in the Koran repeated exhortations to be honest in commercial dealings (e. g. Sura 6: 152; Sura 83: 1– 3), which shows agreement with the principle behind the “confederation of eminences.” The “purification payment” (Arabic: azzakat), a donation for the atonement of illicitly acquired wealth, adopted by Muhammad shortly after the beginning of his mission as a prophet, was the religious transformation of a principle that had long before penetrated into the pagan Arab milieu and which transcended the principle of clan solidarity. Oath-based and tribal confederations were the most important institutions by which to achieve socially useful goals, goals that required the renunciation of short-term selfish interests in the service of a higher purpose. Their awareness of this is what made the Quraysh, who organized “the caravan journey of the winter and the summer,” more advanced than the tribes who lived by posing a potential danger for such enterprises [i. e. by raiding caravans]. In the meantime, to defend the interests of the Quraysh against such raiders over the long term, the military forces of the Ahabis, who were not a standing army, were no longer nearly sufficient. There was, therefore, finally no other option than to cultivate friendly relations with the most important clan leaders of foreign tribes. Thus, the multi-branched tribal federation of the Banu Ghatafan, which ruled the region northeast of Mecca and so could threaten the route from Mecca to Hira, was hostile to the Quraysh; nonetheless, the Quraysh managed to recruit a few of their leaders. To be sure, one could avoid the direct route from Hira to Mecca by swinging to the west. Mudarite territory began at Dumat al-Jandal, where the Quraysh were secure, whereas members of tribes that did not have friendly relations with the Mudarites would need a protective escort to travel further south, as noted above. The reports in the traditional sources are not complete enough for us to trace all the alliances of the Quraysh; moreover, we do not know about the comparable webs [of alliances] that must have spread out from other localities. One can hardly doubt that they existed, when one recalls the annual markets described above. That the Sassanids were able to intervene in these matters, especially in eastern Arabia, shows how weak these efforts at self-governance must have been in general. It would also be incorrect to assume that the Quraysh net, once woven, never changed. It consisted of personal relationships that varied and had no source of stability beyond the parties involved. Only the religious attraction of pilgrimage rites would have tended to make the relationships more permanent. “The Quraysh carry out for all of us the religious duties that Ishmael gave us as our legacy” – all Mudarite tribes were said to have been convinced of this, and that is why they allowed to pass unmolested through their territories any travel-

18

Chapter 1: Mecca

ers who enjoyed the protection of the Quraysh. A closer collaboration developed with the Banu Tamim, who came to control ‘Ukaz after the Qais ‘Ailan had been driven out. When, under the Umayyad Caliph Mu’awiya I (r. 660 – 680), there were efforts to claim a connection back to the legacy left by Qusayy, the precedence that the Quraysh claimed over all other Arabs was illustrated by means of an image: the Arabs were like a beast of prey, and the Quraysh were its breast while the Banu Tamim were its neck and torso. We have now an idea of what Muhammad meant when he said that the Quraysh owe great thanks to Allah, because Allah has granted to them the opportunity to organize the winter and summer caravans. Muhammad b. Habib (d. 860) was one of the early Islamic philologists, to whose diligent collecting we owe many reports whose contents had grown obsolete due to the rapid Islamization of the [Arab] world-view. He wrote, “Those in charge of the ‘bringing together’ [of the caravans] among the Quraysh are those through whose actions Allah elevated (this tribe), and it is they, through whom he revived the poor in their midst. ‘Bringing together’ means namely the agreements (with the other tribes). (The organizers of the ‘bringing together’ are thus) Hashim, ’Abd Shams, al-Muttalib, and Naufal, the sons of ‘Abd Manaf.” While Hashim organized two caravans each year, namely in winter and in summer to ash-Sha’m³, ’Abd Shams was said to have organized trade with Ethiopia; al-Muttalib traveled to Yemen and Naufal to Iraq. “Each of these four was the leader of the merchants who set out with him to his destination. For (each) had negotiated (for the Quraysh) treaties with the ‘kings’ and elders of the tribes.” – In Sura 106 Muhammad mentions only the two caravans attributed to his great-grandfather Hashim and passes over the others in silence. As we shall often have occasion to note, he is highly partisan in his statements. To understand this, we must now turn our attention to the factions within the Quraysh tribe. Their discord at the same time gives us a perspective on the great political events in Arabia at the turn of the sixth to the seventh century.⁴

Chapter 2: The “Year of the Elephant” Have you not seen how your lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? Did he not turn their attack against them? He sent against them flocks of birds, which pelted them with stones of baked clay. Thus (your lord) transformed (your enemies) into a field of grain chewed up by grazing animals! (Sura 105)

The Fame of ‘Abd al-Muttalib The event to which Muhammad refers in these words is dated to the year 882 of the Seleucid era, which was known on the Arabian Peninsula together with other dating systems. This era began on 1 October 312 before the birth of Christ; its 882nd year would thus be from fall 570 to fall 571. In the winter [of this year], Abraha al-Ashram, the Ethiopian military governor in Yemen, traveled up into the Hijaz with his army, whose most noteworthy weapon was a war elephant. The destination of the campaign was al-Taif, but the residents of that town succeeded in persuading Abraha that the town of Mecca, unloved by al-Taif, was much more deserving of punishment. At Mujammas, two-thirds of a parasang [or about four kilometers] from Mecca on the road from al-Taif, we are told that the elephant could not be induced to go any further; the animal would not enter the sacred zone in which no fighting was allowed, and this came about as follows: ‘Abd al-Muttalib b. Hashim b. ‘Abd Manaf, Muhammad’s paternal grandfather, from whom the invaders had stolen a herd of camels, went to the enemy’s camp representing the Meccans. He demanded the return of his valuable livestock, but to Abraha’s amazement, be said nothing about the danger facing Mecca. Abraha asked him why he had nothing to say about the most important matter, to which ‘Abd al-Muttalib responded that the lord of the Kaaba himself knows how to protect his shrine and his people. Back in Mecca, ‘Abd al-Muttalib advised the townsmen to move themselves and their property out of harm’s way. He then removed the metal knocker on the door of the Kaaba and had it sent to Abraha. One of the Arab prisoners in the Ethiopian army whispered something into the ear of the elephant, which then refused to budge. The animal was finally killed by the enraged soldiers. The next day in Mecca people heard a strange rattling sound. Flocks of birds were flying from the direction of the Red Sea and pelting the enemies of the Kaaba with pebbles made of clay, which they had carried in their beaks and claws. Those who escaped this rain of stones soon saw the small wounds left by the pebbles turn into suppurating pustules that caused a miserable death. “O Allah, as a man protects his riding https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-003

20

Chapter 2: The “Year of the Elephant”

animals, so too you protect what is rightfully yours! – Neither their cross nor their [archangel] Michael shall triumph tomorrow over your power. – If you should allow them to penetrate to our place of prayer, then you must have something evil in mind!” By these words ‘Abd al-Muttalib, the leader of the Meccans, explained his decision not to act [in defense of the Kaaba], a decision that had been miraculously justified. One of the results of the figar wars, which ended about 20 years after this event, was the treaty that gave the Meccans unhindered access to the shrine at al-Taif that lay outside of the walls of this fortified city; in exchange, the Banu Thaqif were granted the right to visit Mecca whenever they wished. A few of them entered alliances with descendants of ‘Abd Shams b. ‘Abd Manaf and appear later in events having to do with Muhammad on the side of his Quraysh enemies. One such Thaqif involved with Meccan affairs was al-Ahnes b. Sariq,¹ and his family told the story of the affair of the elephant a bit differently. According to their version, it was not Abraha but one of his officers who commanded the expedition to the north. The specific occasion of the campaign was simple Quraysh greed. For a grandson of Abraha had been robbed by Quraysh on his return journey from Mecca, where he had carried out the pilgrimage; this robbery occurred in Najran, where he had stopped to visit a church. In retaliation, the Kaaba was to have been destroyed. The officer was the one who had spoken outside of Mecca with ‘Abd al-Muttalib, who then withdrew to a secure place and waited for events to take their course and then, after a fair amount of time had passed, sent his son al-Harith to find out what had happened. The son brought back the news of the defeat of the enemies. “Then ‘Abd al-Muttalib and his companions went and took for themselves the property (of the dead). This property laid the foundation of the wealth of the Banu ‘Abd al-Muttalib.” According to this version of the story, too, which is somewhat unflattering to him and his offspring, ‘Abd al-Muttalib played a role in the events surrounding the failed attack on Mecca. It was only later, in poems composed by Muhammad’s enemies during the wars against Muhammad, that ‘Abd al-Muttalib was passed over in silence. Only the holy power of the Kaaba and of Mecca – not your lord – were now said to have annihilated the attackers. For already before the Dog Star [Sirius] was created, Mecca had been declared inviolable. Now and then one reads in the sources of a certain religious practice in which ‘Abd al-Muttalib must have distinguished himself from his fellow Meccans. One of his sons, Abu Talib, who took in the orphaned Muhammad and then supported him when he declared himself to be a prophet, invoked this type of divine worship when he rejected conversion to Muhammad’s new religion. In short, his offspring and the partisans of his clan see a connection between the figure of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, the failure of the Yemeni-Ethiopian attackers, and the inviolability of the Kaaba, an

Byzantines and Sassanids

21

inviolability that emerges clearly in this event. An additional “Islamic” flavor is added to this version through the claim that the campaign was triggered by a Quraysh insult aimed at the Ethiopian efforts to strengthen Christianity in Yemen. The Thaqif tradition tries, in contrast, to obscure the religious background. It does this presumably because the victory of Islam had led to a burgeoning polemic that never tired of condemning the behavior of the Thaqif in the “year of the elephant:” the man who showed Abraha the route to Mecca was said to have been a member of the Thaqif tribe. He died near al-Mujammas, where, out of righteous anger, people pelted his grave with stones in early Islamic times. [Early Muslims] saw the Thaqif themselves as the cursed offspring of the people of Tamud, who, as Muhammad repeatedly claimed, had been wiped out because of their refusal to heed Allah’s call (e. g. Sura 89: 9; 53: 51; 7: 73). When in the Koran Muhammad recalls how his lord repelled the attack on the Kaaba, he intentionally uses the most glorious honorific title for his paternal grandfather. As in the case of the Winter and Summer caravans, he uses his status as prophet to take sides in the conflicts among the Quraysh clans: the Hashemite ‘Abd al-Muttalib is the measure of all things Meccan. But the descendants of ‘Abd Shams had achieved important things for Mecca in the settlement of the figar wars, when ‘Abd al-Muttalib had long since passed away. In another context, we shall also have occasion to note that, by the time Muhammad had reached adulthood, he was basking in the rays of a faded family glory, one that had long since been surpassed by the achievements of other clans. His career was likewise affected by the fact that he perceived as enemies the Banu Thaqif, who had been drawn into Meccan affairs by their alliance with the Banu ‘Abd Shams. Meanwhile, his position within the Quraysh quarrels carried with it a partisan stance in the competition between the two great powers for preeminence in Arabia, and this fact too will come to our attention again and again. We shall therefore take a moment now to describe the main features of this conflict.

Byzantines and Sassanids The Khuza’a, from whom Qusayy took control of the Kaaba, are classified by the genealogists as members of the Yemeni Arabs; they contrast them with the tribes descending from Ishmael, among whom again the Mudarite tribes, of whom the Quraysh are one, regard themselves as the true heirs of Ishmael. In any case, this is how things stood in the time of Muhammad. The two-fold genealogical system, which sharpened into a destructive antagonism after the middle of the seventh century, testifies to a profound and consequential change, which one can de-

22

Chapter 2: The “Year of the Elephant”

scribe as the penetration of a high-religious tradition, rooted in the Jewish and Christian traditions; we have already touched on this theme. More generally, one can speak of a reversal of cultural influence, which especially affected the Hijaz: If this part of Arabia had fallen up to a certain unknown point in time within Yemen’s sphere of influence, now it was more open to [influence from] Syria-Palestine, whose population, apart from the cities, was largely Arabized in late antiquity. Syriac, as the language of Christian liturgy, hymns, and theology, occupied a dominant position there. At the beginning, we are told, the Quraysh in Mecca still used the old south-Arabian script; but they soon replaced it with the cursive script derived from the Syriac alphabet, which was commonly used in Muhammad’s day and today is still used in many Islamic languages in addition to Arabic. The standard Arab names used in Islam for the days of the week and months likewise stem from a northern influence; the name jaum as-sabt, “day of rest” or “Sabbath,” clearly reveals this origin. As late as the ninth century there were memories in the Hijaz of once being under south-Arabian dominance. Mecca, we are told, was at the center of several Yemeni administrative districts that stretched a bit more than a day’s journey to the north, but all the way to the border of Najran in the south. These districts are designated in the sources by the term mihlaf, which is only used in relation to Yemeni affairs.² In the sixth century, the Byzantine Empire extended its power deep into the Arabian Peninsula. In the year 502 it entered an alliance with the Banu Kinda. Their settlements and grazing lands lay in Palestine and modern-day Jordan, but they had developed a network of relationships based on personal connections that encompassed many important tribes. Byzantine interests were strengthened even more when in 524 an Ethiopian fleet sailed across the Red Sea and landed troops on the coast of Yemen, imposing the rule of the Negus there. Six years later the Emperor Justinian sent an ambassador to him, presumably in order to deepen cooperation between the two Christian empires. For the Ethiopian intervention had a prehistory that requires us to shift our attention to the other side of the infiltration of high-religious ideas, namely, the Jewish influence. Of this side we know less, but we find its traces again and again in the history of Muhammad. Jewish proselytizing achieved its most noteworthy success in 522: The Yemeni ruler Du Nuwas converted to Judaism and, from that point on, called himself Yusuf. There are indications that this Yusuf had connections to the Jewish community in Tiberias, which in turn illustrates social and political activity spanning great distances and contradicts the mistaken idea that Arabia at that time was a totally closed, impenetrable, desert wilderness. In any event, around 523, Yusuf went to war against the Christians of Najran, which must have prompted the Ethiopians to rush to the aid of their co-religionists in the

Byzantines and Sassanids

23

way we have described. The Byzantine embassy of 530 must also have been connected to these events. The Negus, however, was not able to rejoice for long in the dominion of his occupying army. One of the leaders, Abraha, mentioned above, staged a putsch and then ruled as an independent prince. According to Arab tradition, the Ethiopians, whether as an army under the Negus’ control or as rebels, ruled Yemen altogether for 72 years, thus into the middle of the last decade of the sixth century. In the 540s they marched to the north for the first time, then under the command of Abraha. It is possible that this campaign can be connected to the Quraysh usurpation of Mecca and the subjugation of the Khuza’a who had lived there, events that we have already described. We also read about efforts by Abraha to strengthen Christianity. He tried to make Sanaa the center of Arab pilgrimage, which doubtless would have meant giving it a Christian character and putting an end to the sacrifice of animals which had previously been a part of Arab pilgrimage rites. There is ample proof that Christians also took part in the traditional pagan pilgrimages. The second Ethiopian campaign to the north – in the “year of the elephant” – could therefore have aimed yet again at solidifying Christian pilgrimage rites and doing away with the pagan competition, as indeed the verses attributed to ‘Abd al-Muttalib, cited above, also suggest. The Ethiopian rulers in Yemen did not only make friends there. Saif b. di Jazan, a local prince, traveled to Constantinople to request Byzantine help in ending the occupation regime. But his pleas fell on deaf ears at the imperial palace and he had to return home without having achieved his purpose. On his return journey he stopped in Hira, where he sojourned among the Lakhmid vassals of the Sassanids. But the Iranian empire, he was told, was equally uninterested in events in distant Yemen. Eventually he was able to muster an expeditionary force that traveled by sea to the coast of Hadramaut [in Yemen]. The Ethiopians were conquered and Saif made himself ruler of Yemen. Evidence in the source material suggests that it was not by means of a single military campaign that Iranian power made itself felt in the far corners of Arabia; chronological difficulties in the traditional accounts can only be solved if one attributes to the Iranians several such campaigns, which aimed at the expulsion of the Ethiopians and thus the reduction of the Byzantine sphere of influence. In any case, the second half of the sixth century saw the Sassanids getting the upper hand in the [Arabian] Peninsula, and not only in the south. The Arabized Jewish tribes in Yathrib (or Medina), who would fall victim to Muhammad’s ruthless will to power, are said to have collected taxes for the Sassanids. Mecca, too, was not disinclined to take advantage of Iran’s growing power, of course without accepting any obligations on their side. ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an of the clan of Taim b. Murra, whom we have already mentioned, owed his wealth to his good relations with the

24

Chapter 2: The “Year of the Elephant”

east, relations that allegedly reached as far as the court in Ctesiphon. It is an exaggeration to say, as one source assures us, that Zoroastrianism came to predominate among the Quraysh. Even so, prominent opponents of Muhammad invoked the entertaining stories about the Iranian hero Rustam in order to prove to their fellow Meccans that the Koran was composed of nothing but recycled fairy tales. The Umayyad caliphs – descendants of ‘Abd Shams – followed the Iranian custom of exchanging Nawruz and Mehregan gifts into the eighth century.

The Quraysh Clans and Great-Power Politics After the “year of the elephant,” the policy of repulsing Ethiopian efforts to advance the cause of Christianity in the Hijaz, a policy associated with the name of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, would have lost some of its urgency. The Quraysh clans who dominated Mecca in those days would never have sacrificed their independence from foreign hegemony in favor of Sassanid interests. But the Byzantines took pains to increase their influence in the Hijaz, and they had the advantage there if only because of geographical proximity. With this observation we approach the clan history of the Quraysh from a perspective that we have not yet addressed. Above we mentioned that Qusayy created six offices that were to be inherited by his male descendants. In the sources on pre-Islamic Mecca we encounter mostly terse statements that the provision of food and drink to pilgrims was entrusted from the beginning to ‘Abd Manaf and his son Hashim, whereas ‘Abd ad-Dar, the oldest son of Qusayy, and his descendants were responsible for the gatekeeper’s office, the carrying of war banners, and the “house of consultation.” This view of things takes the situation in Muhammad’s time and projects it back into the past. However, the sources preserve the memory that Qusayy’s son ‘Abd al-‘Uzza or his son Asad were responsible for the care of the pilgrims. In the traditional account that tries to persuade us that Muhammad’s forefathers were the true lords of Mecca, there are detailed reports on how Hashim used the wealth gained from his caravan journeys to care for the physical needs of foreign visitors, thus fulfilling the duties the other source says belonged to Asad b. ‘Abd al-Uzza. The inconsistency resolves itself if one searches further in the reports on him and his clan. One of his grandsons, ‘Uthman b. alHuwairit, had good connections in Byzantine lands, especially with the Ghassanids, a princely Arab tribe that ruled in ash-Sha’m as clients of Constantinople. They also controlled a pilgrimage shrine on the Red Sea dedicated to the goddess al-Manat, which lay outside of Byzantine territory and was frequented by the Aus and the Khazraj, the two Arab tribal confederations of Medina. It was a short distance from the coast of the Red Sea to Mecca, so ‘Uthman b. al-Huwairit persuad-

The Quraysh Clans and Great-Power Politics

25

ed the Ghassanids to give him the title of “king” in Mecca. – The previous chapter explained what such a title meant at this time. – But the Meccans would not hear of it. They insisted that they would neither rule nor be ruled by anyone, and they stuck to this position even though ‘Uthman was able to claim for himself the Byzantine rank of a patrikios [patrician or noble]. Related to this affair are poems in which the Banu Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza are branded as the most sinister clan of the Quraysh, with whom one should never ally oneself. ‘Uthman was also a second-degree cousin of Muhammad’s first wife Khadija bt. Khuwaylid, a fact that will draw our attention later. As soon as he begins proclaiming his revelations, Muhammad will step onto a stage on which the champions of very diverse political tendencies already are struggling against each other. There would have been broadest agreement on the principle of Mecca’s independence. Violations of this principle would have been met with the harshest punishment, namely with the loss of one of the offices founded by Qusayy. In the traditional Quraysh accounts, crafted in light of Muhammad’s later triumph, Hashim’s son ‘Abd al-Muttalib is presented as the champion of independence, which also means as the promoter and defender of the pagan character of the Kaaba and its acolytes. The Banu ‘Abd Shams, descendants of ‘Abd Manaf but never connected to the six offices, were lumped together with the Quraysh clans that stood for a flexible opportunism that sought to accommodate itself to the stronger party, which after 570 was the Iranians. With Muhammad’s occupation of Mecca in January 630, at the latest, the victory of a paganism enriched with high-religious tradition and linked to the name of ‘Abd al-Muttalib acquired world-historical importance. According to the viewpoint of a society whose whole perception of reality was marked by the principle of clan- or tribal solidarity, Muhammad’s triumph must have been augured by the lives of his ancestors. The elevation of his forefathers, from ‘Abdallah, his father, to ‘Abd al-Muttalib, Hashim, and ‘Abd Manaf to Qusayy, the “renewer” of the true Ishmaelite-Abrahamic Kaaba cult, was seen generally as a useful means to this end. If one sifts through all the sources, however, one may reject the view that the praise heaped on ‘Abd al-Muttalib and his father Hashim in particular was completely unjustified. But one could hardly understand the evolution and activity of the “pagan prophet” if one did not try to clarify the factual background against which Muhammad himself became convinced of the chosenness of his own clan. Let us return once more to the discord among the heirs of Qusayy! He would have gladly given all the offices to his eldest son ‘Abd ad-Dar, but ‘Abd Manaf would never have accepted this snub. Pointing to his own reputation, which far surpassed that of ‘Abd ad-Dar, he demanded as a minimum the office of gate-keeper for himself. The quarrel, the inconsistent details of which can be

26

Chapter 2: The “Year of the Elephant”

passed over, left in its wake a division among the Meccan Quraysh. A few clans took sides with ‘Abd ad-Dar, namely the Banu Sahm and the Banu Jumah, both of which descended from a paternal uncle of Qusayy, also the Banu Makhzum and the Banu ‘Adi b. Ka’b, whose genealogy likewise did not descend from Qusayy. These four clans and the the Banu ‘Abd ad-Dar entered an alliance, which the sources designate by the pejorative name “the blood-lickers:” to reinforce their oaths they were said to have dipped their hands in the blood of a slaughtered camel and one of them was said to have licked the blood off his hand. The confederacy that gathered around ‘Abd Manaf was known by an inoffensive name, at least in the later, Islamic view of things. Besides his descendants, among them the Banu Asad b. ‘Abd al-Uzza, the Banu Zuhra joined the alliance, a clan that descended from a brother of Qusayy, as well as the clans of Taim b. Murra and al-Harith b. Fihr, whose genealogy likewise did not include Qusayy. They are all said to have sealed their oath by dipping their hands in perfume. Thus, they were called “the perfumed ones.” Up to Muhammad’s death and beyond it, we encounter events linked to the discord between these two clan alliances. The alliance of the “eminences” was in fact a new version of the alliance of the “perfumed ones,” with the difference that two groups of ‘Abd Manaf’s descendants had left it, namely, the Banu ‘Abd Shams and the Banu Asad b. ‘Abd al-Uzza. We have become acquainted with the likely cause of the latter event. And the absence of the Banu ‘Abd Shams around this time, 590, is also easily explained: ‘Abd al-Muttalib had been dead for about a decade; he did not have a son of his stature, who could have unified the clan; moreover, already in his lifetime, intense enmity had developed between him and the Banu ‘Abd Shams, so that this clan had in the meantime gone its separate way. By the religious practices attributed to him, and by emphasizing the power of the lord of the Kaaba in opposition to the Ethiopian attempt to capture that shrine, ‘Abd al-Muttalib elucidated the religious foundations on which Muhammad was later able to base his message. For his part, Hashim created the preconditions for Muhammad’s successful pursuit of political power. He arranged relations with the Byzantine Empire and its Arab vassals and worked to open the caravan routes to the north; he purchased peaceful relations with the tribes there by transporting their goods for free. The Byzantines allegedly provided him with a letter addressed to the Negus in which the Negus was instructed to allow Quraysh merchants access to his territory. In this he would have crossed the sons of ‘Abd Shams, who were supposed to have had control of trade with Ethiopia. In the course of securing his connections to the north [of Mecca], Hashim married a woman from Medina: Salma bt. ‘Amr from the clan of Banu ‘Adi b. al-Najjar, which belonged to the Khazraj tribe. With her he had a daughter as well as his son ‘Abd al-Muttalib. This son spent his childhood in Medina. Thanks

The Quraysh Clans and Great-Power Politics

27

to this connection, Hashim also had many in-laws among the second Arab tribe of Medina, the Aus. The links to Medina proved their worth for the first time in a battle over inheritance rights between ‘Abd al-Muttalib and his uncle, Naufal b. ‘Abd Manaf. Khazraj warriors appeared in Mecca and brought about a settlement of the quarrel in favor of ‘Abd al-Muttalib. He also is said to have profited indirectly at this time from his connection to Medina. The Khuza’a pledged their allegiance to him in the growing rivalry with Harb b. Umayya of the Banu ‘Abd Shams; when, together with the Khazraj, a Yemeni tribe took his side, this suited him just fine, since they lived with him. ‘Abd al-Muttalib entered an alliance with the Khuza’a; Muhammad’s mother was related to them. When ‘Abd al-Muttalib died around 580, none of his sons was able to take up the cudgels against Harb b. Umayya and the Banu ‘Abd Shams. We can ignore the details about the animosities that poisoned the relationship between these two men. Here we must only note that the two had originally been close companions. We are told that after they had parted ways, ‘Abd al-Muttalib allied himself closely with ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an of the Banu Taim b. Murra; Muhammad’s close friend Abu Bakr stemmed from this very clan. An event that occurred in the years shortly after the death of ‘Abd al-Muttalib illustrates the distribution of power and status among the Quraysh. The Kaaba was at that time a square structure without a roof. Cloths brought as votive offerings by wealthy pilgrims were draped over the walls and secured from within. In the course of time a thick layer of cloths accumulated. A flying spark caused this layer to ignite one day and a fire ensued that caused such severe damage to the structure that it had to be torn down and rebuilt. Meanwhile, no one trusted himself to lay hands on the ruin, fearing that Allah, whose shrine it was, would misinterpret this as sacrilege. Finally, a member of the clan of Makhzum dared to begin the work, and this clan plays an important role also in further reports about the reconstruction. For the first time the Kaaba received a roof, supported inside by six posts. The walls, built out of alternating layers of wood and stone, reached a height of 19 ells [an ell being equal to six hand breadths]. On the interior, the walls and the ceiling were decorated with paintings, as were the posts. We are told that the paintings depicted Abraham, various prophets, and Mary with the baby Jesus; if these reports are accurate, then they point to the high-religious tradition that had been appropriated by paganism. What united the Arab pilgrims were the rites, in which Christians were also said to have participated. “In those days the Arabs followed several different religions, although they were united by reverence for the Holy One, pilgrimage to the ‘house,’ and preservation of the tradition, well-known among them, going back to Abraham; for they claimed to belong to his religious community. There-

28

Chapter 2: The “Year of the Elephant”

fore they made the pilgrimage to the ‘house’ – amidst all the differences in their (other religious) affairs.” These words were written by Ibn Ishaq (d. 767) in his biography of Muhammad, and with these sentences he characterized the presuppositions that were foundational for the “independent” Mecca in which Muhammad grew to manhood. Ties of loyalty stemming from the recent or distant past, partly reinforcing one another, partly contradicting one another, formed an interlocking framework of customs that had to be heeded by anyone who, like Muhammad, rose to a position of leadership. Muhammad experienced the waning of his grandfather’s fame and saw that none of his grandfather’s descendants was able to reverse this trend. The confederation of the “eminences,” sealed with an oath in the house of ‘Adallah b. Jud’an, could no longer rely on the prestige of ‘Abd al-Muttalib. The clans of his sons were wrangling over the offices Qusayy was said to have created. The assumption that they were the dominant force in Mecca no longer corresponded to reality. Others, for example the Banu Makhzum, had superceded them. The enmity displayed by the Banu ’Abd Shams towards ‘Abd alMuttalib and his sons was a burden for Muhammad, and the fact that they were allied to the Thaqif from al-Taif suggests that he stood on the side of the losers. The alliance of his grandfather with the Khuza’a could be interpreted as a denigration of the achievements of Qusayy, and the marriage with a woman from the “sinister” clan of the Banu Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza had the effect of stamping him as altogether an outsider. Conditions were not exactly auspicious for Muhammad when he began attracting attention. Of course, as we shall see, his membership in a respected clan and the security that came with it did protect him from attack even when he challenged the prominent men of Mecca in a positively insolent manner.³

Chapter 3: Purity You, cloaked one! Stand up and warn! Praise your lord! Purify your clothes! Avoid filth! (Sura 74, verses 1– 5)

Traditions Regarding the Beginning of the Revelations In the opinion of many Muslims, these are the oldest words of the Koran, the first received by Muhammad: the command of the lord to warn human beings – of what we are not told, it must have been self-evident – and to purify his clothing and avoid all defilement. It is an open question whether by the latter is meant only filth in the physical sense or whether it has also a figurative sense, referring to the defilement of one’s person by wrongful actions. Commentators on the Koran disagree on this matter. However, in other early sections of the Koran, the horrors of Judgment Day are portrayed in vivid fashion, and this suggests that the warning transmitted by Muhammad and the command to avoid “filth” can be understood as an exhortation to lead a morally upright life. In contemplating the life of Muhammad, of course, Muslims are guided less by this question than by the desire to learn the details about the beginning of the revelation and the circumstances surrounding it. This perspective is shaped by the principle (not yet present at all in Muhammad’s time) that Allah’s Messenger handed on the message entrusted to him not only literally, word for word, but also completely, which means as well that nowhere did any word of [Muhammad’s] own get smuggled in or, which would be even worse, a word whispered by Satan. The beginning of the revelations is thus a ticklish matter about which one could be most certain if it were marked by a noteworthy event. Many [exegetes] see such an event in the incident that is connected to the proclamation of the first verses of Sura 96: Muhammad is overpowered by a stranger and thrown to the ground; the stranger, whom Muhammad recognizes as the angel Gabriel, commands: “Recite in the name of your lord, who created man out of a clot of blood! Recite! Your lord, the most generous, teaches (the use) of the pen, teaches man what he did not know before!” But here the reference is to the presentation of what has been revealed and to writing, which, thanks to divine instruction of human beings, is permitted and positively obligatory. Thus, Sura 96, which presupposes the prior existence of texts that are to be recited, belongs to a later time in Muhammad’s life, which also is suggested by the theological content hidden in the reference to the creation of man from a clot of blood. There was a time when Islamic Koran scholarship, too, knew how to dishttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-004

30

Chapter 3: Purity

tinguish between the oldest revelation, the first five verses of Sura 74, and the oldest Sura, namely Sura 96. The concept “Sura,” whose origin is obscure, appears in the text of the Koran for the first time near the end of the Meccan phase of Muhammad’s mission. At that time he says to his critics, who do not believe in the divine origin of his teachings, that if they wish to prove him a swindler, they should produce one (Sura 10: 38) or ten (Sura 11: 13) Suras that are comparable to his. From this point on “Sura” is used only together with the verb meaning “to send down” (Sura 2: 23; 9: 64, 86, 124, and 127; 24: 1; 47: 20) and means a text assembled out of verses (“miraculous signs”). The Koran consequently has become an authoritative scripture, Allah’s word of command, transmitted by his Messenger. Of course, none of this holds for the beginning of Muhammad’s mission. The anachronistic linking of these two passages in the Koran might be satisfying to a Muslim craving dogmatic certainty: Gabriel’s physical wrestling [with Muhammad], carried out at Allah’s behest, is his initiation into the office of prophet, followed immediately by the command to warn human beings and call them to purity. The historian, however, studies the spiritual and religious milieu in which the first words of the Koran were spoken, searching for connections to what the sources report about pre-Islamic Mecca; he or she looks for the path leading from there to the conception of the Koran as the authoritative word of God. So let us reconstruct what else the sources tell us with regard to Sura 74! They tell us that inspirations had long been granted to the future Messenger of Allah, dreams that came to him like the early rays of dawn. Solitude was precious to him, and he retreated to a cave on Mount Hira for solitary prayer and meditation. – In this anecdote we find perhaps a trace of a religious practice of ‘Abd al-Muttalib; for he was said to have gone to the same place during Ramadan, spent the month in prayer to Allah, and also instituted the feeding of the poor in Mecca. Shortly after his arrival in Medina Muhammad will prescribe fasting during Ramadan and justify this on the grounds that it was in this month that “the Koran was sent down” (Sura 2: 185), expressing himself with a phrase that by then had become typical of him. – Immediately after this comes the report of the initiation experience which, as we have seen, does not belong here at all; Muhammad, gripped by horror, hastens back to Mecca and stumbles into Khadija’s house, crying out, “Cover me!” At this moment the command is given to him: “You, cloaked one! Stand up and warn!” Khadija reassures the troubled Muhammad; he does not need to fear for his life; Allah will by no means allow him to be disgraced, for he has led a morally upright life. She takes him to Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza, her elderly granduncle, who has become a Christian and is well-versed in holy books. He tells Muhammad there is no need for him to be upset, for the nomos (Arabic: an-namus)

Ritual Purity in Pre-Islamic Mecca

31

has come to him. The Greek term is used in Christian-Syriac to designate the Torah, the divine law, and it has the same sense here. Again the beginning of revelation is being linked to ideas that Muhammad surely did not have at the time, but which are sacrosanct for later generations of Muslims.

Ritual Purity in Pre-Islamic Mecca Does then the concept of purity, which is the core of the oldest message, have nothing at all to do with Islam as a religion of the law instituted by Allah? Is there likewise no connection to the traditions regarding ancient Mecca which we discussed in the first two chapters? If we cannot find answers to these two questions, then the attempt to locate Islam in the extant history of Arabia would be a failure. Those who affirm the underivable or irreducible character of the Islamic message would be right. Meanwhile, the plausibility of the dogmatic view of the earliest history of Islam depends above all on ignoring whole portions of the traditional sources. So let us once more turn our attention to this extensive body of material! The Quraysh, we read in Ibn Ishaq, said the following about themselves: “We are the people of the sacred territory; it is not fitting for us to leave the place of our inviolability” – during the performance of the rites of pilgrimage – “and to honor other places as we, the ‘strict ones,’ honor this place (of our inviolability). The ‘strict ones’ are, namely, the people of the holy territory.” The Quraysh imposed on all the Arabs “who were descended from them, whether they lived within the sacred territory or outside of it,” the same prescriptions. To [all of] them “shall the same [things] be permitted or forbidden as to the Quraysh. Together with them the Kinana” – related tribes such as the Banu Bakr b. ‘Abd Manat b. Kinana – “and the Khuza’a had agreed in these matters.” Ibn Ishaq admits that he does not know whether these rules had been put in place already before the “year of the elephant.” The observation that [these regulations] shall apply to all the Arabs descended from the Quraysh creates, moreover, some difficulties. From Qusayy’s father Kilab on, the genealogical traditions also include female Quraysh who married into foreign tribes, plus their offspring, so that perhaps what is meant here is an incorporation of the female line into the Quraysh tribe. Certainly, however, Muhammad’s strictly patrilineal conception of Arab genealogy was transformed in the Umayyad era into a system that associated or subordinated all the Arab tribes to the Quraysh. The Quraysh attachment to the Kaaba, evident from Ibn Ishaq’s words, obliges them to adhere to rules that are not binding on others. In addition to the prohibition of going out to ‘Arafat, Ibn Ishaq mentions a series of further rules. When in the state of ritual consecration during the pilgrimage, they

32

Chapter 3: Purity

were only permitted to seek shade beneath a leather tent, not one made of felt; they were forbidden to use the usual doorway into their homes, a proscription that Muhammad will condemn in Sura 2, verse 189 as not consistent with true piety. Maintaining purity during the rites at the Kaaba was, however, especially important to them: they were to don new clothes before circumambulation [of the Kaaba], [and], due to its holiness, they were not to tread the ground of the shrine with bare feet. As noted above, these rules all applied to the Quraysh and the Arabs “descended” from them. But many pilgrims were “profane;” they respected the sanctity of Mecca, but followed customs that differed in part from those of the Quraysh. – These “profane ones” are not to be confused with the previously mentioned “profaners” who disregarded the sanctity of Mecca. – According to Ibn Ishaq, over against these “profane ones” were the Quraysh members of a religious fraternity dedicated to the Kaaba and referred to as “the strict ones,” who demanded that [the “profane ones”] adhere to certain rules of conduct: “The people who come from the profane territory are not allowed to consume food that they bring with them from there when they come to perform the pilgrimage (in the month of Du’l-Hijja) or the other pilgrimage rites (that may be performed at other times of the year). Likewise, as soon as they wish to begin the circumambulation (of the Kaaba), they may do so only in the clothes of the ‘strict ones.’ If they cannot procure such clothes, then they must go round [the Kaaba] naked. If a man or a woman cannot find a garment of the ‘strict ones’ and wishes to behave honorably and generously, then they should circle the Kaaba in a garment that they have brought from the ‘profane’ [territory]; they must certainly take off the garment immediately at the end of the ceremony; the bearer [of the garment] must never use it thereafter, neither he nor anyone else may touch it from that time on.” The “profane ones” actually complied with these rules. “When they came to Mecca, they gave away as alms all their shoes and clothing and rented garments from the ‘strict ones;’ for they regarded the Kaaba as so exalted that they should not go round it unshod and without clothing and tread the (ground) with bare feet… Every man among the ‘profane ones’ had a partner among the ‘strict ones,’ called an al-Hirmi, whose clothing he received… The ‘profane ones’ first rented the clothes upon their return (from the ceremonies in the environs of Mecca). For as soon as they had set out for the pilgrimage, they considered it impermissible to purchase or sell anything before reaching their camping place. The Messenger of Allah had been the Hirmi of ‘Iyad b. Himar al-Mujasi’i, who, when he came to Mecca, circled the Kaaba in the clothing of God’s Messenger.” This anecdote was attributed to Muhammad b. Habib, whom we have already cited once before. Muhammad therefore was himself a member of “the strict ones;” his partner, who is otherwise insignificant in the life of the prophet, belonged to the vast tribal confeder-

The Years before the Beginning of the Revelations

33

ation of the Banu Tamim, whose important role in the affairs of the Quraysh has already been mentioned. ‘Abd al-Muttalib was dedicated to veneration of the lord of the Kaaba even apart from the rites of pilgrimage. We have already noted this. The mandate addressed to Muhammad to purify his clothing or to keep himself pure appears in light of the traditions discussed above to be a generalization of a command that hitherto had applied only in the exceptional circumstances of the pilgrimage. The opening verses of Sura 74 also emphasize that violation of this generalized command will have consequences about which Muhammad should warn. The lord of the Kaaba is not content with intermittent worship but expects continuous awareness of his greatness, and it is thus presumably not mistaken to consider that the concept of purity is here being extended into everyday life. When viewed as a continuous honoring of the lord, avoiding filth can be understood as a moralization of one’s entire life. We can thus describe the religious fraternity of the “strict ones” as constituting at least one of the roots of Muhammad’s mission. The traditional biography of the prophet tells us about the “beginning of the revelations” and the understanding reaction of Khadija, and about the confirmation, following immediately after these events, that Muhammad is the transmitter of the divine law. However, this narrative is shaped by later doctrinal needs, and it obscures the [true] origin of Muhammad’s proclamations and the many ways in which they were rooted in the [pre-Islamic] history of Mecca.

The Years before the Beginning of the Revelations This insight makes it appear advisable now for us to shift our focus and to make the necessary observations regarding Muhammad’s evolution into a proclaimer of the words of Allah. It will become clear that the traditional Islamic biography of the prophet sheds little light on the early way-stations of Muhammad’s life. Even the “year of the elephant,” accepted by Muslims as Muhammad’s year of birth from ancient to modern times, serves as a thematic link between the biography of Muhammad and that of his grandfather ‘Abd al-Muttalib; this date is meant to prove that Muhammad is his successor and that the Banu Hashim can claim a relationship to Allah that reaches its unsurpassable fulfillment in the highpoint of salvation history, the birth of Allah’s Messenger. In the early sources, however, one finds speculation about the length of time separating Muhammad’s birth and the defeat of Abraha, and a completely different dating is given: Muhammad was born in the 38th year of the reign of the Sassanid Chosroes Anushirwan. Chosroes ascended to the throne in 531; the Iranian New Year’s Day

34

Chapter 3: Purity

in the relevant year fell on July 2, so that what is meant is the solar year beginning on July 2, 568. If [Muhammad’s] birth really fell in the Arab month of Rabi’ al-auwal, as is most commonly claimed, then this would correspond to the late winter of 569. This is consistent with the claim that Muhammad was 63 years old when he died in June 632 – solar years, that is, since the lunar calendar had only been introduced shortly before his death. Dating in terms of Sassanid rulers, by the way, is yet another piece of evidence for the Iranian influence on Mecca in Muhammad’s day. Eagerness to praise him as the noblest descendant of a divinely favored lineage also manifests itself in the legends surrounding the pre-history of his birth. At the pilgrimage shrine described by Sozomen there was a well. In the biography of the prophet we read that ‘Abd al-Muttalib, famous for his faith in the “lord of the Kaaba,” saw in a dream the place near the Kaaba where he was to dig a well. He swore to the Quraysh, who were resisting him, that this was the command of the lord, and he solemnly vowed that, if he should have a tenth son, he would sacrifice him to Allah, [the lord] of the Kaaba, as soon as he had grown to be a young man. The Meccans did not really take ‘Abd al-Muttalib’s words seriously, because at that time he had only one son and therefore had little prestige. But five years before Abraha’s campaign, the moment had arrived to carry out his oath. With horror the Meccans watched as ‘Abd al-Muttalib made preparations to kill his youngest son ‘Abdallah, the father of Muhammad. From a female soothsayer ‘Abd al-Muttalib learned that the lord of the Kaaba would forego the sacrifice of his son in exchange for the slaughter of one hundred camels. The face of ‘Abdallah, indeed even that of his father, radiated the light of the coming prophet and his imminent rule. It was fitting that it should be passed on. The father took the son by the hand to take him to be married. He went with him to Wahb b. ‘Abd Manaf from the Quraysh clan of Zuhra b. Kilab. On the way a woman of the Banu Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza offered herself to the young man. But he rejected her advances, telling her that he had to obey his father. ‘Abd al-Muttalib quickly struck an agreement with Wahb – recall that the Banu Zuhra, too, belonged to the confederation of the “perfumed ones.” Amina, the daughter of Wahb, was the one chosen [to be ‘Abdallah’s spouse]. Ibn Ishaq writes, “People say that as soon as ‘Abdallah was married to Amina, he immediately went to her bed and consummated the marriage. Then he left her again. Afterwards he met the woman who had offered herself to him. He asked her, ‘What is wrong with you, that you no longer offer yourself to me, as you did yesterday?’ She answered, ‘The light that was with you yesterday has left you. Why should I have anything to do with you today?’ For she had

The Years before the Beginning of the Revelations

35

learned from her brother Waraqa b. Naufal, who had become a Christian and knew their scriptures, that a prophet would come from this community.” Muhammad was the offspring of an uxorilocal marriage, which was customary [at this time in Arabia]; only a wealthy man could acquire a wife from another clan or tribe and have her continuously at his disposal. Amina stayed with her family, so one can describe [this type of marital relationship] as purchased sexual intercourse and purchased motherhood. ‘Abd al-Muttalib was himself the offspring of an uxorilocal relationship. His mother Salma bt. ‘Amr was of course, as noted already, so independent that she sought out male partners according to her own taste. But this claim might only have been intended to praise Hashim for his attractiveness. In any case, ‘Abd al-Muttalib had been born in Medina and spent his childhood there. In contrast, Muhammad was taken from his mother shortly after his birth and entrusted to a wet-nurse [named] Halima, from the Banu Sa’d b. Bakr of the large confederation of the Hawazin. She took care of [Muhammad] through his infancy and early childhood; it was in her company that he learned to speak, and he was said to have retained the accent of the Banu Sa’d for the rest of his life. Not surprisingly, the only reports from this period of his life are miracle stories that anticipate his future role as a prophet. After he was weaned, Muhammad was returned to his mother. His father had long since died; he had passed away in Medina while staying with the Banu ‘Adi b. an-Najjar. Amina likewise lived a few months now with her young son in Medina. On the return journey to Mecca she died near al-Abwa’. Muhammad was now an orphan, and his uncle Abu Talib took over his care. – His close connections to Medina, incidentally, could be discerned in his name. “Muhammad” is possibly not his original name; rather, [it may have been] “Qutam.” Like “’Abdallah,” [literally] slave of Allah, “Muhammad,” meaning “the glorified one,” appears to be a proper name coined under the high-religious influence mentioned above. The early Arab philologists were acquainted with several people who bore this name before our Muhammad; among these is also the son of one of the spouses of Salma bt. ‘Amr [mother of ‘Abd al-Muttalib]. We also find in the traditional biography of Muhammad many miracle stories dating from the years when he was under the guardianship of Abu Talib. On a caravan trip to ash-Sha’m, a monk recognizes in the young [Muhammad], who is constantly protected from the scorching sun by supernatural means, the proclaimer of the law foretold in the scriptures. During the reconstruction of the Kaaba, divine intervention grants to Muhammad the honor of supervising the placement of the sacred black stone. But there are also references to incidents suggesting that [Muhammad] suffered from epilepsy. However, the most important event in the decades before his mission began was his marriage to Khadija bt. Huwailid; the traditional sources tell us [Muhammad] was 25 years old when

36

Chapter 3: Purity

he married her. Again we see here an uxorilocal relationship. Nothing else would have been possible for Muhammad, who as yet had no house or wealth of his own. It is usually claimed that Khadija was 15 years older than Muhammad, but this hardly seems possible when one considers that she bore him six children, including the son ‘Abdallah after 15 years [of marriage]. For there are also traditions that tell us of a much smaller difference in age. Muhammad was her fourth spouse; her father was said to have considered this to be a bad match, but his misgivings were reduced by the administration of a generous quantity of wine. The Islamic biography of the prophet portrays the marriage as if it were governed by the rules that Muhammad would later promulgate in Medina: Khadija, we are told, received the prescribed bridal gift. This is of course one of the anachronisms introduced out of deference to the doctrine that Muhammad never acted contrary to divine law.

On the Content of the Oldest Revelations Let us now return to the central narrative theme of Muhammad’s first preaching. Khadija took a very sober view of the strange behavior she had occasionally noticed in her husband and tried to address it with the means available to her. In any event, this is what we learn from a passage from the work of Ibn Ishaq that was deleted from the original text by Ibn Hisham (d. 834), the editor of the revised version of the text available to us today. – Ibn Hisham states quite openly in his preface that he has left out, among other passages, those that could be perceived as offensive. This passage is offensive because it says that at the beginning of the revelations was not an initiation [by another], but rather a decision that Muhammad made himself. – “In Mecca the evil eye often struck the Messenger of God; (each time) he would be suddenly attacked by it. This happened before the revelations came down to him. Khadija bt. Huwailid constantly sent for an old woman in Mecca who would protect him (through magic) by laying a charm on him. But when the Koran was sent down to him and the evil eye still struck him in the same way as before and Khadija asked: ‘Messenger of Allah! Shall I not send for the old woman so that she can charm you?’ he answered her, ‘not now!’”¹ The charm consisted in tying knots in a cord and spitting upon it. This is exactly the practice against which Muhammad guards himself in Sura 113: “I take my refuge with the Lord of Daybreak … from the evil of women who blow on knots…” According to the Islamic tradition, Sura 113 was revealed shortly before Sura 53, with which Muhammad’s public preaching begins: He now knows the significance of these troubling experiences, [and] the help of the “woman who blows on knots” is now unwelcome. To the Muslim

On the Content of the Oldest Revelations

37

scholars for whom two hundred years later it had become a certainty that in such moments of suffering Muhammad was receiving Allah’s word, in order then to proclaim it accurately and completely, it is an unbearable thought that they cannot know with absolute certainty whether something was lost because of Khadija’s solicitude. It remains largely obscure what really happened during those years in which the conviction ripened within Muhammad that he had been chosen by the highest Lord to be a messenger and warner. It is, however, indisputable that Khadija had nothing to do with the beginning of the effort to recruit disciples; also [the claim] that she confirmed Muhammad in his ideas cannot be proved and can safely be classified as a pious legend. For as soon as Muhammad felt the need to present his thoughts to a circle of those who seemed interested in them, he did so not in Khadija’s presence, but in the house of al-Arqam b. abi l-Arqam of the [Banu] Makhzum. Thus Muhammad had secured the goodwill of a member of this clan, which was very influential in his day, and many Meccans who counted among the most important early supporters were converted there. Sura 53 – according to the minority view of the early Koran expert ‘Ubaid b. ‘Umair al-Laiti (d. 687/8) Sura 87 – is the text with which Muhammad for the first time addressed himself to an audience. As we shall see in the next chapter, both Suras already exhibit the marks of a very early body of ideas having to do with purity and pointing beyond themselves to a deeper theological doctrine. For now, however, let us focus only on the oldest layer of ideas, which seemed so noteworthy to the Meccans that they regarded them for a long time as the central characteristic of Muhammad’s message and named his disciples accordingly. Sura 95, containing the oldest verses in the Koran, points out the threat to salvation arising from a failure to cultivate purity and grounds this by pointing to human nature and the situation of the human being in the temporal world. Allah created man in the most noble image, but then he reduced him to the lowest of the low. Only those can escape the depths [of degradation] who believe and do what is right; they will receive their reward, and not as a gift of grace, but as just compensation for their achievements. In light of this, who would wish to deny the Last Judgment? Again and again Muhammad is angered by the fact that many pagan Arabs could not be convinced of the resurrection [of the dead], but saw death as the definitive end [of their existence] – something also attested by many extra-Koranic sources. The resurrection gives to earthly existence an importance of which the pagans had no inkling. At the end of Sura 74, Muhammad again speaks of the warning that he has been told to convey: He who knows that the fires of hell threaten him must also see that he himself is responsible for either “moving forward or staying behind.” Those who sit at Allah’s right hand on the last day will

38

Chapter 3: Purity

look down from there into the fiery abyss and ask the tormented: “What has brought you into hell?” and they will reply: “We did not pray, we did not feed the poor, we gossiped with the gossipers, we denied the Day of Judgment – until the inevitable overcame us!” No one’s intercession will help them. “Why then do they shrink before this warning, like terrified wild donkeys fleeing before a lion? Indeed! Each of them demands a scripture of his own. But no! They do not fear the end. Therein lies a (grave) warning…” (Sura 74: 35 – 55). Muhammad borrows from gnostic themes in generalizing the idea of purity. With regard to ultimate salvation, he distinguishes between three types of human being, namely, [first] “those who are brought close” to Allah, the chosen ones, who apparently are protected from any temptation to sin, so that the Last Judgment does not even apply to them. The only ones to face [the Last Judgment] are [the second and third classes] those who, depending on the judgment, are separated into “the ones on the right” and “the ones on the left.” This three-fold division (Sura 56: 7– 14 and 88 – 94) mirrors the typical gnostic doctrine of salvation, which divides human beings into the three groups of pneumatics, psychics, and hylics. Moreover, Muhammad is said to have urged his followers to wear white garments, reminiscent of the Manichaean electi. The theological content of the oldest Koran verses is quite different from those that followed later, and the reason may be discerned in a detail conveyed by the traditional Islamic sources on Muhammad, namely, that, after the initial revelations, Muhammad had to endure the painful experience of not receiving any further revelations for an extended period of time. The wait is said to have lasted for three years. Then he was able to begin preaching in public. Be that as it may, the Muslim scholar ash-Shahrastani (d. 1154) describes this hiatus similarly, and his extensive knowledge of foreign religions enables him to distinguish the gnostic ideas among the themes that dominated Muhammad’s public preaching. The creation of purity, as-Sharastani explains, is an action that the human being carries out by his own power and under his own responsibility, an act of “acquiring” (in Arabic: al-kash), as he says in connection with Sura 74: 38. He opposes to this what he understands to be “our doctrine,” the Islamic doctrine. This is the doctrine of fitra, that is, the nature created by Allah in every human being, which human beings can in no way alter. The requirement that everyone shall qualify for paradise by means of his own actions and omissions proves to be fundamentally impossible to fulfill in light of this conviction, that of the hanif. In order to designate the gnostic ideas in Muhammad’s thought, which were quickly superseded by other ideas, ash-Shahrastani uses the adjective “Sabi’an.” He thereby has recourse to the traditions about the beginnings of [the mission of] Allah’s Messenger. The Meccans referred to him as one of the Sabi’ans; “to be-

On the Content of the Oldest Revelations

39

come a Sabi’an,” tasabba’a, is the oldest label used for those who converted to Muhammad’s doctrines. One searches in vain for the concept “Islam” in his teachings from that time period. Until recently, it was thought that the source of these “Sabi’an” ideas was Hira; from there, it was thought, the dualistic theology trickled down into the Hijaz. When one considers the Iranian influence, of which we have spoken, this is plausible. However, more recent scholarship suggests that the source of these ideas was a gnostic sect in Palestine that worshipped as their highest God “the lord of the heavenly hosts” (in Hebrew: pl. s’ba’ot), the distant One, who exists beyond the created world that is guided by the stars. Mention of the stars puts us in mind of a topic that will occupy us at the beginning of the next chapter. It shows us the path forward to the monotheism of the hanif: Muhammad appropriated this idea and it became the key to his success.²

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star” By the Pleiades, when it sinks! Your companion does not err, nor has he been led astray! He does not speak according to his own whims! It is nothing but a revelation which is revealed to him. One with strong powers has taught him, one with might. He has seated himself upright (on the throne), there, far up on the horizon. Then he came nearer and descended, within two bow-spans or closer. And now he revealed to his slave what he revealed to him. The heart does not lie about what it saw. Will you dispute (with Allah’s Messenger) about what he saw? And he saw him come down a second time, by the thorn tree at the far end, there, where the garden with the place of repose is located. There something covered the thorn tree. The glance (of the Messenger) did not turn aside, but it also was not intrusive. He saw the greatest of the miraculous signs of his lord… What do you think of him who turns away? He who gives little and is stingy? Does he know about what is hidden, so that he sees it? Or was he not told about what stands in the scriptures of Moses? And of Abraham, who discharged (everything)? That no one shall bear the burden of another? That man will only be given that for which he strives? And that one will see the result of such striving? That he will then be paid in full? That your lord is the final end? That he is the one who causes laughter and weeping? Causes death and life? That he made the pair, male and female? From a drop of semen, when it is ejaculated? That (Allah) also causes the second creation (on the Last Day)? That he gives wealth and property? That he is the lord of Sirius, the Dog Star? That he annihilated the ancient people of ‘Ad? And the Tamud, and left no one alive? And before that the people of Noah? They were wicked and rebellious! That he destroyed (the city) that was destined to be destroyed and then covered it completely? Which of the blessings of your lord do you wish to dispute? This is one of the serious warnings. The catastrophe draws near! Besides Allah no one can avert it. You wonder at such talk? You laugh? You do not cry? Frivolous, as you are? (Rather) throw yourselves down before Allah and worship (him)! (Sura 53, verses 1– 18 and 33 – 62)

From the “Highest Lord” to Allah, the One Muhammad has seen the highest lord, twice, and these visions authorize him to be his spokesman. This lord, Allah, determines everything that happens on earth; and because this is so, one is not allowed to doubt that he will one day create man a second time and then sit in judgment over him. By directing everything that happens on this earth, he knows about everything; from his all-embracing causality it follows, furthermore, that no one has to bear a burden that is meant for another. This could already be read in the scriptures that Moses received. Here Muhammad is not thinking of the reception of the tables of the law in the Book of Exodus, but rather of the events depicted in the Book of Jubilees in the second century B.C. An angel, not God himself, speaks to Moses and, at the behest of the Highest One, dictates much more than just https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-005

From the “Highest Lord” to Allah, the One

41

a law: “Write about the beginning of creation up to when my shrine is built among you for the eternity of eternities!” According to the Midrash Genesis Rabba, Abraham, too, was given knowledge of this world and the next, about all that will come to pass until the coming of the messiah. – In this early stage of the spiritual development of Allah’s Messenger, Abraham was still a shadowy figure, but near the end of Muhammad’s mission in Mecca, Abraham would become a central focus of his teachings, and it is the insight into the operation of divine causality that will make Abraham the original Muslim. Allah creates everything, the individual human being and his destiny, the nations and the cruel end that awaits them if they do not believe in him, if they are wicked like the inhabitants of Sodom, who were annihilated. As the creator and cause of all that happens, Allah is the absolutely superior being. He is the lord of Sirius, the Dog Star (Sura 53: 49). Here let us pause for a moment. For we read already in the poem attributed to ‘Abd al-Muttalib, which exults over the defeat of “Abraha” and boasts of the inviolability of the Kaaba, which the highest lord guarantees, this statement: Before Sirius was created, the inviolability of Mecca had already been established. The pious pilgrims who circled the Kaaba and the other holy places in ancient Arabia paid homage to the gods worshipped there with exclamations that varied from tribe to tribe. “At your service, lord of the Dog Star, lord of the highest heaven, lord (of the goddesses) al-Lat and al‘Uzza!”, exclaimed the Yemeni Makhzig at one of the pilgrimage shrines dedicated to their god Yagut. Sirius was also worshipped in Muhammad’s region, above all among the Khuza’a. Wahb b. ’Abd Manaf, [Muhammad’s] maternal grandfather, was related to them on the side of his own mother. Wahb’s mother was the daughter of a Khuza’a named Wajz b. Galib, who was said to have been the first person “who worshipped Sirius.” Among the descendants of az-Zubair, a nephew of Khadija, the story was told: “Wajz said: ‘Sirius crosses the entire heaven. I see nothing else in the heaven, neither sun nor moon nor star, that crosses its entire breadth.’ The Arabs call Sirius ‘the crosser,’ because it crosses the breadth of the sky. Wajz had the nickname Abu Kabsha, with whom the Quraysh were accustomed to associate Allah’s Messenger. For the Quraysh considered that every man acted according to his own constitution [lit. his artery], the similarity of which (to that of another) led him (to a corresponding mode of behavior). When Allah’s Messenger opposed the religion of the Quraysh, they said: ‘Abu Kabsha causes him to do that.’ For [Abu Kabsha] had opposed the people by worshipping Sirius, and for this reason they associated Allah’s Messenger with him. Abu Kabsha had been a leader among the Khuza’a, and they in no way meant to reproach Allah’s Messenger for any deficiency by calling him this (Ibn abi Kab-

42

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star”

sha). They only meant to note the similarity to the contrary behavior of Abu Kabsha and therefore said: ‘He is contrary like Abu Kabsha.’” In the pious exclamation mentioned above, and in many others that have been preserved in the sources, the deity that is being addressed is perceived under the circumstances – the pilgrim approaching the numinous presence with a feeling of deep awe – to be [at that moment] the only powerful [deity]. One speaks therefore of a situational monolatry. Considerations like those attributed to Wajz b. Galid aim at giving a kind of steadiness or permanence to this worshipping of one god: Sirius distinguishes itself through a property that elevates it above all other stars, and one that lasts for more than a moment. The same applies to Allah in the oldest parts of the Koran. Sura 87 begins: “Praise the name of the highest lord!”, which a few scattered [commentators] assumed to mark the beginning of Muhammad’s public preaching, and not Sura 53. Sura 87 also identifies this God as the creator, who “measures everything and then guides it on the right path.” The pagan Arabs were well aware of this, but, Muhammad thinks, they drew the wrong conclusions from it. For in their everyday needs, they did not turn to the highest one, but to female deities that they regarded as intercessors with the highest deity (Sura 39: 38) and whom they therefore favored with sacrificial offerings (Sura 6: 136). Muhammad considers this behavior to be blameworthy; he stresses that he is content to worship Allah and depend on his protection (Sura 39: 38). This selective emphasis on the “highest lord” – which, by the way, is consistent with gnostic doctrine only if he is not regarded as the creator – and the focusing of ritual practice on him lead Muhammad into conflict with the everyday piety of his fellow Meccans. First he reproached them by stating that it is unseemly to attribute daughters to Allah, since daughters do not enhance one’s status at all, whereas they themselves boast proudly of their sons. This criticism, which he presents in Sura 53, verses 19 – 22, is amplified in two sentences that were inserted later and are written in a style that sets them off sharply from the preceding verses, namely: “(the goddesses al-Lat, al-‘Uzza, and Manat) are nothing more than names that you and your fathers have coined; but Allah did not give any authority to do this. (The pagans) only follow their own conjectures and that which they desire, when now true guidance has come to them!” (Sura 53: 23). As with the generalization of the requirement of purity, we can distinguish here, on the path toward monotheism, between pagan starting points and high-religious reinforcement of them. The striving of the “strict ones” for a more conscientious cultivation of purity acquired a hitherto unknown urgency when the resurrection and the Last Judgment were added to the debate: It was now necessary for every person to understand earthly existence as the prelude to an eternal existence whose character would depend on how one behaves here and now. The scriptures of Moses and Abra-

The Miraculous Signs of the One

43

ham, which transmit the message of the omnipotence of Allah, form the foundation for a new level of argument that goes beyond the traditional customs: Those who grasp the universal scope of the creative power of Allah and allow this idea to penetrate every aspect of their thinking must reach the conclusion that these goddesses are names without power; it would be foolish to place one’s hope in them. For it is only when Allah has decreed in a certain case that things will happen one way and not another that one of the many angels that hurry through the heavens with divine instructions can intercede on one’s behalf (Sura 53: 26).

The Miraculous Signs of the One Thus the “highest lord” becomes “the lord” or “your lord,” the one and only God, the untiring creator and governor of the Earth. Again and again in the Koran Muhammad speaks of the activity of the lord in this world. Allah, from now on the One without rival, determines everything that happens; he creates without any preconditions. Thus he also forms man in his mother’s womb, where he grows after conception; this must not be misconceived as a “biological” process, but unfolds at every step of the way due to the intervention of Allah, who at that time also fixes the lifespan [of the individual]: “In truth (Allah) created the heavens and the earth. He is exalted above all that they associate with him. He created man out of a drop of semen – and immediately man became quarrelsome!” – by not recognizing Allah as the sole source of these events, but instead thinking that he himself brings it about. – “And (Allah) created livestock for you. You have warmth from them and other benefits, and you eat from them. And they offer you a beautiful sight, when you drive them home in the evening or when you bring them to pasture (in the morning). And they carry your burdens to a place that you could otherwise reach only with great exertions. Truly your lord is gracious and merciful! The horses, mules, and donkeys, for you to ride, and as an ornament! – And he created other things besides, of which you know nothing! It is for Allah to lead on the straight path, for there are paths that lead astray! Had it pleased him, he could have rightly guided you all. He is the one who sends down water from heaven. You can drink from it and you have vegetation thanks to it on which you can pasture your livestock…” (Sura 16: 3 – 10). Given how Allah provides for him, what else can man do, except to show unceasing gratitude to Allah, to praise him, and to worship him in prayer? Permanently established divine worship lends a new meaning to ritual purity. It becomes indispensable, because man, who knows himself to be at every moment under Allah’s providential control, must think of Allah with gratitude as often

44

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star”

as possible and also address him in ritual prayer. “(Allah) is to be praised in the heavens and on the earth, in the evening and at midday. He brings forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. He gives life to the earth after it has died. In the same way you too will be brought forth (on the last day).” Allah created for men female spouses, implanted feelings of love and mercy; he created men with varied skin colors, speaking different languages. “Among (Allah’s) signs is your resting by night and by day, and that you may seek his grace. Herein are signs for people who hear… Among his signs is that the heaven and earth exist thanks to his providence. If he calls you forth one day from the earth, then you will come forth. To him belongs everything in the heavens and on the earth. Everything humbles itself before him. It is he who creates creatures for the first time and in the future will restore them to their condition. For him that is easy! He is the most exalted being in the heavens and on the earth. He is the powerful and wise one! He has coined a parable for you from you yourselves: Do you have among your slaves those who also share the provision I have made for you, so that in this respect you would be equal to them, you fearing them as you fear your equals? Thus we present sign after sign for people who possess understanding. No, the wicked follow their own personal opinions, without having firm knowledge. Who can lead aright those whom Allah has led astray? They have no one to help them! Therefore, turn your face as a hanif towards the (true) religion (Arabic: al-din). This corresponds to the original manner in which Allah created the human being [al-fitra], and no one can change the creation of Allah. That is the true faith, but most people do not know it!” (Sura 30: 18 – 30).

Allah’s Causal Power and the Meaning of the Rites Over and over again we have encountered the idea that Allah must be understood as the unceasingly ruling creator and shaper of everything on earth. Therefore, he can by no means reward a man who tries to secure a favorable outcome for himself on Judgment Day by means of his own efforts to maintain strict ritual purity and to keep his own thoughts and actions free from the defilement of sin. Even just thinking that this is possible is the worst impiety of which a man can be guilty: the presumption of a powerless slave towards the omnipotent lord. Allah’s causality encompasses also one’s eternal destiny: “Who can lead aright those whom Allah has led astray?” [Muhammad’s thinking has evolved in such a way that] It has become unthinkable [to him] that gaining salvation could somehow depend on following an ethical code by means of one’s own individual responsibility. Indeed, none of a man’s actions can be attributed to him

Allah’s Causal Power and the Meaning of the Rites

45

anymore. Rather, the Sunni theology of the 9th century will say that they have been predetermined by Allah, appearing through Allah’s power at the foreseen moment in the individual’s life. Allah is like a lord who is unsurpassably superior to his slaves. They are completely at the mercy of his causal power and have no portion of their own among the goods that their lord controls by his own sovereign discretion. This simple comparison was meant to help the Meccans imagine their position before almighty Allah. Whatever they might do, human beings can neither improve their earthly existence nor so much as influence their eternal destiny. What are they supposed to do about the threats to their salvation that have been presented to them again and again in disturbing depictions of the end of the world? If one thought about the matter with the logical consistency of a theologian, then those scenes would appear to be nothing but a terrifying farce, for they hinged in no way on any [human] decisions; they had already been predetermined before the beginning of time. Gratitude towards Allah, made a part of everyday life in ritual, takes the place of individual efforts to meet the threat to one’s salvation by striving to meet ethical requirements by means of one’s own power. According to Sura 30, one should turn one’s face, which is to say one’s whole person, towards the ritual practice of religion, whose form and content, according to Islamic belief, are not under the authority of the individual but are laid down by Allah: The fact that he determines everything that happens on earth, down to the smallest detail, manifests itself not least in the transmission of his words to the prophets and thus also always contains an ideal that his creatures of course can never fulfill by their own power. Sunni theology, and likewise across wide stretches [of time] Shiite theology, has worked to solve this dilemma, but without success. We will turn to this topic in later chapters. This dilemma is already present in veiled form in Sura 30 and in many other places in the Koran. The veil that hides it is the exhortation to surrender oneself completely to the performance of ritual: As a creature who gratefully accepts all that Allah has destined for him, it will not even occur to a human being that he himself is accomplishing anything. An existence marked by this way of thinking is the way of life that the all-determining Allah intends for his slaves. He who adopts this attitude completely is a true hanif, a monotheistic pagan. We will turn our attention to this concept momentarily. First it will suffice to point out that it derives from the Syriac hanpa, which from a Christian point of view denotes the devotee of a pagan cult. Sura 30, in which verse 30 sharply rejects the gnostic understanding of salvation, can be dated relatively precisely. It must have originated after the invasion of Palestine by the Sassanids, thus after 614, for this event is mentioned in the introductory verse [30: 2– 4] and connected to the contrary wish that they will be defeated before long [by the Byzantines

46

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star”

or “Romans”]. We recall the Byzantine connections that Khadija’s clan had cultivated, thereby triggering the ire of the most powerful Quraysh clans of the time. The true ritual practice, to which the hanif must be faithful, consisted at that time among Muhammad and his followers in the prayers called salat, which were to be carried out together with proskynesis [prostrations]. Muhammad did not yet regard this ritual as part of a religious system expressly commanded by Allah. It was only shortly before his expulsion from Mecca that he felt the overpowering desire to proclaim divinely sanctioned rites and thereby claim for himself and his followers a religious rank which, in his view, the Jews and the Christians had long possessed thanks to Moses and Jesus.

The Material of the Koranic Teachings With this observation we get ahead of ourselves somewhat, but this is justifiable, since it informs the reader of the perspective he must take in the future regarding Muhammad’s teachings about Allah and his action in history, teachings that dominate the “post-gnostic” phase in Mecca. This is the time when Muhammad begins to think of the prophets of the Jewish-Christian tradition as his predecessors and fits their careers into a narrative framework that can be described as punishment legends. The offences that are punished by Allah are certainly not individual violations of ethical norms, but rather statements and actions that show disregard for the message of his prophets and therefore also for the original nature [al-fitra] that we mentioned above. “We sent Noah to his people: ‘Warn your people, before they meet with a painful punishment!’ (Noah) spoke: ‘My people, my clear warning to you is this: You should fear and worship Allah and obey me, then he will forgive you your sins and grant you a postponement for an appointed time. But when the appointed time has elapsed, then no further postponement will be granted to you. If only you knew this!’ (Noah) spoke: ‘My lord, night and day I call to my people, but my call only causes them to turn more and more from me. When I called to them, so that you would forgive them, they always stuck their fingers in their ears, covered themselves with their garments, hardened their hearts, and behaved arrogantly!’” (Sura 71: 1– 7). Noah solemnly swears that he has proclaimed Allah’s message to his people in public and in private, pointed out to them Allah’s constant activity, [and] warned them to stop worshipping their deities Wadd, Suwa’, Yagut, and Nasr – all in vain. “Because of their sins (Noah’s people) were drowned and afterwards thrown into the hellfire. They found no one who could protect them against Allah.” But Noah implored [Allah]: “My lord, do not leave on the earth a single unbelieving inhabitant! If you leave them there, they will lead your slaves

The Material of the Koranic Teachings

47

astray and give birth to none but unbelieving evil-doers. My lord, forgive me, my parents, and everyone who enters my house as a believer, and also all (other) believing men and women, and drive the wicked ever deeper into ruin!” (Sura 71: 26 – 28). A brief allusion is all that reminds the listeners of the biblical events in Sura 71, which bears the title “Noah.” Clearly they already know the story, so that Muhammad can concentrate entirely on presenting his own experiences as identical to those of Noah and conclude the text with a warning: If the Meccans do not take his warnings to heart and obey him, then they will be annihilated, and their gods – the name Yagut was mentioned – will not be able to help them. Only Muhammad’s family and his followers will escape damnation. The Meccans were aware that Muhammad borrowed the material for his admonitory preaching from a tradition that was not native to Arabia, and many criticized him for this. Not Allah, but a human being had taught him all of this, they alleged. Muhammad defended himself against such accusations with the not very persuasive argument that he expressed all his ideas in Arabic (Sura 16: 103). He also often went over to the counter-attack, telling his critics that they should produce comparable Suras to prove that he is merely proclaiming the words of a human being (e. g. Sura 10: 18). But we shall say more about this later! In Sura 26 Muhammad gives a schematic treatment of the lives of the prophets before him, and every one corresponds exactly to what he is experiencing in Mecca. After the introductory statements, he commences, or rather allows Allah to speak, by asserting that the following text is a part of the “clear book:” “Perhaps you are troubled, because they remain unbelieving. If we wish, we shall send down a sign from heaven, and afterward, they will forevermore bend their necks humbly.” Muhammad now speaks directly of Allah in the third person: “The merciful one constantly gives them anew a warning, but they ignore it (every time). They declare it to be a lie, but the tidings of that which they mock will come to them eventually!” Then Allah [speaks] again: “Have they then never observed the land, how we have made [plants] of every noble variety spring forth from it? Surely therein is a sign, but most of them do not believe! Your lord is the powerful one, the merciful one!” (Sura 26: 2– 9). Here the framework is outlined into which items from a variety of traditions can be fitted. Moses and Pharaoh (verses 10 – 67) are the first example that Muhammad presents. “Your lord is the powerful one, the merciful one!” (verse 68). Noah; the [people of] ’Ad and their prophet Hud; the [people of] Tamud and Salih; Lot and the sinful cities; the prophet Shu’aib, in whom people claim to recognize the biblical Jethro (Exodus 3: 1); like Muhammad, they all were called and met with rejection, but their stubborn people were punished. Each episode concludes with the refrain, “Your lord is the powerful one, the merciful one.” Then comes the moral of the story for the present day: For the time

48

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star”

being, Allah spares all the critics and mockers, but who can say for how long? In any event, Muhammad is certain that he is proclaiming Allah’s authentic word; the devils, who try to listen in on what is said in Allah’s heavenly councils, and then whisper this in twisted form to soothsayers as a supernatural message, have now lost any opportunity for making this sort of mischief – we will discover the background to this odd statement. “Call upon no god except Allah! You would otherwise be punished. But warn your next of kin” – as Abraham and Lot did – “and be lenient with the believers who follow you!” Muhammad is not responsible for the punishments that the doubters bring upon themselves. “Put your confidence in the mighty one, the merciful one, who sees you when you stand up (for the ritual prayer) and when you move about among those who prostrate themselves. He hears and sees all!” The poets and other swindlers engage in idle talk when they repeat the whisperings of the devils, and only fools would follow them. In contrast, they cannot be defeated “who believe, do pious works, think often of Allah and triumph, after they were treated unjustly. Those, however, who act unjustly will experience what will happen to them” (Sura 26: 210 – 227). The refrain is typical of Christian hymns¹; what is missing in Muhammad is the clear organization of his rhyming prose into uniform metrical stanzas. Rather, what is characteristic of the texts of the Arab prophet is the constant alternation between the grammatical persons who are doing the speaking. At one moment it is Allah who speaks, in the third person singular: Muhammad reports; at another moment, Allah speaks himself in the first person plural. Especially often he speaks to Muhammad and sympathetically refers to his moods: “Perhaps you are troubled….” The terrifying and mighty Allah, before whose words Muhammad once wrapped himself in his cloak like those Meccans who now do not want to hear Noah’s warnings, has in the meantime become an intimate alter ego of the Messenger, looking down in a soothing and thoroughly benevolent manner on his protégé as he assiduously completes his prayers and prostrations. Near the end of his life, in Medina, this alter ego will perceive every approaching bout of bad humor and immediately contrive a remedy: “You who believe! Do not enter the houses of the prophet, unless you have been given an invitation to dine there! (Do this) without waiting (outside) for the appointed time, but rather enter, when you are called, and when you have eaten, go your separate ways, without engaging in further conversation. For such behavior by you would annoy the prophet. But he would be embarrassed to correct you (himself). But the truth is not embarrassing to Allah. And if you request something (from Muhammad’s wives), then do it while hidden behind a curtain. This will be best suited for keeping your hearts and their hearts chaste. You are not permitted to offend the Messenger of Allah, and also not to marry any of his

The Truthfulness of Allah’s Messenger

49

wives after his death, (that is forbidden to you) for all time. This would be a serious offence in the eyes of Allah” (Sura 33: 53).

The Truthfulness of Allah’s Messenger But back to Mecca and the beginning of Muhammad’s mission! The style and the peculiar way in which the texts were recited attracted attention; young people were especially enthusiastic; but Muhammad met with harsh rejection. He was instructed [by Allah] to show more self-control than Jonah, who begged Allah for help the moment he was swallowed by the whale (Sura 68: 48). After being thus warned by his alter ego, Muhammad said regarding himself and his relationship with the Meccans: “Those who disbelieve would like to make you stumble by their hateful glances when they hear you warn them, and they claim, ‘He is possessed by a demon!’ Yet it is nothing but a warning to (all) people” (verses 51 f.). It was obvious to all who were not captivated by his words that Muhammad was not speaking on his own but rather that a strange power had taken possession of him. They alleged that the Koran, the “(liturgical) reading,” that Muhammad recited, and that his followers also recited in emulation of him, confused the thinking of unsteady minds, causing them to scold their forefathers and disparage traditional religious practices, indeed, they “separate a man from his father, a man from his brother, a man from his clan.” The accusation of being a poet and thus the mouthpiece of a demon must have cut Muhammad to the quick, for it was difficult to refute. It was a common belief that poets owed their words to being overcome by a supernatural power. Soothsayers also were thought to be possessed. When asked for advice, they answered with statements transmitted to them from a hidden realm not accessible to the five senses. And was it not easy to confuse many sections of the “recitation” with the statements of soothsayers? Like them, Muhammad began a number of his Suras with oaths meant to reinforce the truth of the messages that followed. “By those who are loosed with flying manes! By those who roar like a storm! By those who scatter! By those who split apart! By those who convey an admonition, to excuse or to warn! That with which you are threatened will surely strike you! Then when the stars are extinguished, when the heaven is torn open, when the mountains are ground to dust…” (Sura 77: 1– 10). “By those who snatch the reins, until they strangle! By those who bestir themselves cheerfully! By those who soar away speedily! By those who win the race! By those who impart a divine commandment! On the day when the earth shall quake once and immediately thereafter a second time…” (Sura 79: 1– 7).

50

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star”

How could Muhammad defend himself against the accusations that he was a man possessed? In the spiritual milieu of ancient Arabia, it was understood on all sides that he could not claim simply to be speaking from his own knowledge. It was as self-evident as it was indispensable to him that the source of his words should be a higher power – or even the highest. As soon as he takes on the role of a prophet, a proclaimer of the religion commanded by Allah, he will emphasize the obligation of his followers to believe in the unseen (Sura 2: 3). Still, as soon as he had begun trying to win people over to his ideas in Mecca, he had to face the question of how he would differentiate his words from the demonically inspired words of poets and soothsayers. He pointed to the many shooting stars that had been observed before his appearance: Those were flaming torches with which Allah had chased away the demons who had been listening without his permission. Since then heaven has been strictly guarded (Sura 72: 8 f. and Sura 26: 212)! This peculiar “proof” for the truth [of Muhammad’s teachings] was used [in debates] with doubtful non-Muslims until into the early ninth century but then disappeared, to be replaced with the doctrine of the inimitability of the Koran as the real proof of Muhammad’s prophethood. In the meantime, among the non-Muslims, people made fun of this strange Allah who pelted uninvited listeners with glowing coals. Muhammad himself was not the only one who recited the texts in Mecca; his followers did so too, and the reports on this presuppose that a number of the revelations, organized into Suras, were circulating in written form. Fatima, the sister of the later caliph ‘Umar b. al-Khattab (r. 634 – 644), and her husband had one of Muhammad’s disciples instruct them in “reciting,” specifically, we are told, with a piece of writing that contained Sura 20. ‘Umar, at that time still a vigorous opponent of Muhammad, surprised the three; as soon as his anger had abated, he looked over the lines and is said to have been so deeply moved by the content of the sentences that he converted. In fact, in the Koran there are 17 Meccan Suras whose introductory verses stress that the following text is part of a book. “When the opening verse of a Sura was sent down in Mecca, it was written down already in Mecca,” writes a Koran scholar of the ninth century. “The unbelievers among the people of the book and the polytheists” – that is the polytheistic pagans – “would not renounce their errors until a proof came to them: a Messenger from the side of Allah, who reads to them from pure pages, on which books of true content stand written,” says Muhammad in Medina, looking back at his beginnings (Sura 98: 1– 3). The transplantation of high-religious tradition into a pagan monotheism was bound up with the necessity of also adopting the form in which this body of ideas was contained at the time in the higher religions: the book.

The Truthfulness of Allah’s Messenger

51

“By the ones who stand in rows! Who then fend off, then present a warning! Your God is truly one, the lord of the heavens and the earth and of that which lies between both! We have adorned the lowest heaven with stars. These also serve as protection against every rebellious Satan: they are not able to listen to the heavenly council. From every side they are pelted, to chase them away” (Sura 37: 1– 8). The Meccans knew what Muhammad was talking about. The poet Umayya b. abi-s-Salt, a contemporary of Allah’s Messenger who was considered to be a hanif, had expressed in verse the high-religious themes to which the Koran alludes here: Heaven consists of seven levels (cf. Sura 67: 3 and Sura 71: 15); the throne of Allah sits on the uppermost level; multitudes of angels abide before the One in worship, others hurry through space with his commands, which ensure the ongoing operation of the created order; the throne on which Allah sits as ruler is carried by four cherubim, the first having the form of a man, the second that of a bull, the third that of a lion, the fourth that of an eagle. What Umayya has in mind is the representations of the majestas domini that existed in the Byzantine cultural sphere already before the year 500: Christ, the architect of the universe, is lifted up by the four-fold Gospel [i. e. by the traditional symbols representing the four authors of the canonical Gospels]. In the prophetic traditions, the hadith, this image is transferred to the vision of the One found in Sura 53: Muhammad has seen Allah on a throne borne by four angels. Sura 37 stems from Muhammad’s mid-Meccan years; near the end of his mission in Mecca the Koranic image of the One [seated] on the throne becomes clearer: He is the Creator and Ruler. “Your lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days and then took his place on the throne. He causes the night to cover the day by trying to catch up to it, having been urged on, and (Allah) created the sun, the moon, and the stars, which are subjected (to human beings) by his command. Truly he has reserved for himself creation and command!” (Sura 7: 54). The high-religious picture fits smoothly into the pagan-monotheistic doctrine of the all-determining Allah. So it seems, in any case. Fakhr al-Din alRazi (d. 1209), one of the most discerning Islamic theologians, recognized that this was an illusion. It was clear to him that these sentences allude to the six days of God’s creation described in detail at the beginning of the book of Genesis, mere traces of which are to be found in the Koran. For in the Koran, creation is not something that happened “in the beginning,” after the completion of which the creator had to rest. This is exactly the impression left by the words “and then…”. Al-Razi admits that the image of Allah taking his place on the throne after creating the world in order then to rule it is meant only to lead the polytheists to monotheism. But one must not allow this image to distract one’s attention from the true monotheism of the hanif: Allah’s act of creation

52

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star”

takes place without interruption and extends to everything that happens in this world; otherwise the world would not continue to exist.²

Chapter 5: The “Satanic Verses” (The goddesses al-Lat, al-‘Uzza, and Manat) are the high-flying swans, for whose intercession one may truly hope. (Interpolated verse behind Sura 53 verse 22, abrogated by Muhammad; replaced by the statement “they are only names.”) Whenever we sent a messenger before you, it happened that, when he wished something for himself, Satan would insert something into his wishful thinking. But Allah blots out what Satan inserts and establishes the verses clearly. Allah is all-knowing and wise. Allah chooses to make Satan’s insinuations a temptation for those whose hearts are infected with sickness and who are impenitent. The evildoers act with great hostility. (Sura 22, verses 52 f.)

A Hanif Predecessor of Muhammad It was not an entirely new experience for the Meccans to encounter men who drew radical conclusions from the ideas of the hanif movement, thereby arousing the resentment of the majority, who feared for the survival of the existing religious system and its political presuppositions. The Arab-Islamic tradition preserves fragments of hanif poetry, including verses that are said to stem from a certain Zaid b. ‘Amr b. Nufail, a cousin of ‘Umar b. al-Khattab. “To Allah I give my praise and my glory and firmly ordained speech, [speech] that is eternally powerful and enduring – to the highest ruler, above whom there is no God and to whom no lord approaches. O man, look to your end, for you cannot hide from Allah the most secret feeling! Guard yourself, never place another beside Allah, for the correct path has now become clear! Mercy, (O Allah), the jinns were the hope (of men), but you are my lord, our lord, you are my hope. You are sufficient for me as my lord, O Allah, beside you, Allah, I will never worship a second god. I worship a lord who hears, not one who hears for eternity no one who calls to him. You are the one who, out of great compassion and mercy, sent to Moses a messenger who ordered him: ‘Go with Aaron, call the Pharaoh, the tyrant, to Allah! And speak to him: Are you the one who firmly laid out this (earth) without stakes, so that it securely remains where it is? And speak to him: Are you the one who lifted up this (heaven) without pillars? What a skilled builder you would then be! And speak to him: Are you the one who placed a light in the middle of the heaven that shows the way when the night shrouds everything? And speak to him: Who causes the sun to rise in the morning so that it illuminates every land that it touches? And speak to him: Who causes the seed to sprout in the soil, so that vegetation springs forth and sways (in the wind)? Who causes https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-006

54

Chapter 5: The “Satanic Verses”

the grain to grow? He who understands precisely sees in these things miraculous signs. You are the one who, through your kindness, rescued Jonah; he persevered for nights in the belly of the fish. O lord, however much I praised your name, I would (still) be committing many sins – (they weigh on me) beyond those that you forgive. Therefore, lord of slaves, grant me your favors and your mercy (at all times); bless my sons and my possessions.” These verses are not comparable to the stirring manner of speech of Allah’s Messenger; above all, what is lacking in them is Allah as the alter ego of the speaker and thus the tangible presence of the numinous. The content of Zaid b. ‘Amr’s teaching is the same as that of the somewhat younger Muhammad. We are told that Zaid is the one who explained the futility of idolatry to [Muhammad] before the beginning of his mission. Muhammad is said to have met the hanif outside of Mecca on returning from a journey. Driven out of Mecca for his offensive speech, [Zaid] must have been living hand to mouth. Muhammad is said to have offered him some of his travel provisions; but Zaid rejected the offer, noting that he was being offered the flesh of animals that had been slaughtered before the images of idols. – Already in the late-Meccan Sura 16 (verse 121), Muhammad advises against eating animals that are killed without the name of Allah having been proclaimed. – Zaid b. ‘Amr taught his host, [Muhammad], that it is an error to worship idols which “can neither help nor harm.” We are told that after this, Muhammad strictly avoided any idolatry. Zaid b. ‘Amr’s argument appears repeatedly in the Koran, for example in Sura 20, verse 89, but it would probably have been widespread, so this passage cannot be interpreted as proof of Zaid’s influence. – Ibn Hisham considered this tradition to be so questionable that he deleted it. To suggest that the prophet was once an idolater – that is simply unacceptable! Incidentally, there is in the Koran itself a sentence that supports this very claim: “Did not (Allah) find you in error and guide you to the right path?” (Sura 93: 7). The Koran commentators had to use all their hairsplitting skills to render this verse harmless. “Shall I devote my prayer to one lord or to a thousand, if so many should appear on the earth?,” Zaid asked himself, immediately giving an answer that dismayed his contemporaries: “I put aside both al-Lat and al-‘Uzza; so acts the mighty One, the enduring One! I worship neither al-‘Uzza nor her two daughters; I do not seek out the two idols of the Banu ‘Amr, or Hubal, who has been our lord from ancient times – my clever foresight is too limited (than that I should allow myself to be deflected from my monotheism)! Instead of that I am amazed: how many things cause one to be amazed in the night, and in the day, things that the sharp-sighted man perceives! (He sees) that Allah annihilated many men who had resorted to evil deeds; that he left others alive due to the piety of a few people, so that the child of the wicked man grew up – and while one reas-

A Hanif Predecessor of Muhammad

55

sured oneself (about Allah’s possible vengeance), one day he returned, as a branch turns green right after it is sprinkled with rain. I, however, worship the merciful one, my lord, so that the forgiving one forgives my offences. Therefore fear Allah, your lord! So long as you fear him, you shall not be lost. You see, the resting place of the pious are the gardens; for the ungrateful, hellfire awaits, and dishonor in this (earthly) life, and when they die, they will encounter what makes their hearts uneasy.” It is unclear who the Banu ‘Amr are, and other clan or tribal names are mentioned in their place. But Hubal was a goddess that was highly regarded in Mecca, one that was also worshipped in the Kaaba. Zaid’s rejection of polytheism is related to the main features of a religious practice like the one also propagated by Muhammad after he turned away from gnostic piety. Indeed, the concept “Islam” as a name for this religious practice, to which Muhammad refers for the first time in the early Suras of the midMeccan period of his mission (Sura 68: 35; Sura 51: 32, 36; Sura 72: 14), appears in Zaid already fully formed. As in these Suras, it means for [Zaid], too, the opposite of polytheism: every creature is created with an orientation to Allah; but man must himself take care that he, consciously keeping all his thinking and striving focused on the one [God], remains in this orientation that will ensure his salvation, [an orientation] that Muhammad will identify in Sura 30, verse 30 as the original orientation [of the human being], the one corresponding to Allah’s intentions. Zaid b. ‘Amr is said to have expressed this point as follows: “I turn my face (Arabic: aslamtu wagh-i) entirely towards that to which the earth turns [its face], the earth that bears the heavy rocks. (Allah) spread it out, and when he saw that it rested on the water, he anchored the mountains on it. I turn my face entirely towards that to which the cloud turns (its face), the cloud that bears the pure sweet water. When it is guided to a place, it pours down the rain in torrents.” Turning one’s face towards Allah alone and thereby excluding from one’s view every creature [that one might otherwise be tempted] to worship – that is “Islam.” Moreover, in just the same sense used twice in the above verses by Zaid b. ‘Amr, the expression aslama, “submitting something entirely to someone,” appears also in one of the exclamations with which pilgrims approached the shrines of the various deities, thereby assuring the deity of their momentarily exclusive devotion. The Himyarites worshipped Nasr and cried out: “At your service, O Allah, at your service, by order of kings and princes, the wise and prudent ones, who respect family bonds and never draw near to that which is sinful; in order to set aside (earthly striving) and to turn (one’s face towards you), they humble themselves before the lord of men [and] obey only him alone among all their lofty deities and idols.” However, Zaid b. ‘Amr no longer has in mind merely a situationally conditioned monolatry or a mere gesture used only when a pilgrim approaches a

56

Chapter 5: The “Satanic Verses”

shrine. Zaid was driven out of Mecca; spatially separated from the Kaaba, he could no longer approach Allah directly in prayer. Therefore the symbolic turning towards the One, seeking out the direction of prayer (in Arabic: al-qibla), had to replace the direct attendance before Allah, so that religious ritual became ubiquitous and universal. Thus Zaid also anticipated Muhammad’s choice of a direction of prayer in Medina (Sura 2: 144), a choice that Muhammad made under similar conditions [i. e., exile from Mecca]. But Zaid searched in vain for a religious practice founded by Allah himself, something he longed for greatly; he never felt himself to be a spokesman for Allah. We read that Jews and Christians repeatedly assured him, as he traveled through ash-Sha’m, that he could not acquire a divine ritual order that would guarantee his salvation unless he accepted the anger and curse of God that Jews and Christians had to bear. But it also became clear to this seeker that Abraham had worshipped Allah and no other deities; so must not the hoped-for hanif religious practice be traceable beyond Moses and Jesus, back to Abraham? – We shall find these ideas again with Muhammad, as soon as he comes to the conviction that he is not only the messenger of Allah, but also his prophet, and it is no argument against this claim to point out that he was thereby making use of longings that had long been extant. How else are we to understand his success?

The Beginning of Muhammad’s Conflict with the Meccans This success, of course, was still a long way off in the early and middle years of his mission in Mecca, years in which he gradually embraced the the hanif movement. His fellow Meccans perceived him, above all, as a member of the Banu Hashim who had embarked on the unwelcome project of renewing and strengthening the faded glory of his clan. Into his Medinan years, the conviction did not disappear from his preaching that one is obligated to one’s own family before all others. It was only after the occupation of Mecca that he broadened his horizon in this respect and included the other clans of ‘Abd Manaf, but this came at the expense of his longstanding comrades-in-arms from other family lines, thereby putting his life’s work at great risk. But it will be precisely those demoted comrades-in-arms who protect it from destruction. But let us return to the early years of his mission in Mecca! When Muhammad began preaching there, roughly around 612, the rivalry between the descendants of ‘Abd Manaf, who regarded themselves as the authentic heirs of Qusayy, and the Banu Makhzum, who had risen to wealth and status, had by no means disappeared; but it was dying out. The confederacy of the “eminences,” concluded approximately two decades earlier, and the connections between

The Beginning of Muhammad’s Conflict with the Meccans

57

the Hashemites and the Khuza’a created for the children and grandchildren of ‘Abd al-Muttalib a special position, at least in their own view, among the clans of ‘Abd Manaf, which manifested itself especially in a contrast vis-à-vis the clan of ‘Abd Shams b. ‘Abd Manaf. The services of Harb b. Umayya, a member of the latter, in resolving the figar-wars would not have been forgotten in 610. But Muhammad was not shy about emphasizing in his preaching the fame of the Hashemites, which lay much further back in the past, as we learned from Suras 105 and 106, a fame, moreover, which had not found anyone to augment it since the death of ‘Abd al-Muttalib. It is therefore no surprise that the Banu ‘Abd Shams and the Banu Makhzum were insulted by Muhammad’s words, since those words no longer corresponded to reality in Mecca. Among the brothers of the prematurely deceased father of Muhammad, it was apparently only ‘Abd al-‘Uzza (b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib) who really faced up to reality; he won the hand of a daughter of Harb b. Umayya in marriage. But even Abu Talib, Muhammad’s guardian and protector, adjusted to the changes; he married his daughter Umm Hani to a man from the Banu Makhzum – and thereby disappointed his protégé and nephew, who had desired her for himself and then had to enter the uxorilocal marriage to Khadija. Even Muhammad did not hesitate likewise to show his own approval of the end of the rivalry by marrying two of his daughters by Khadija to sons of his uncle ‘Abd al-‘Uzza, [sons] who had come out of his marriage to the daughter of Harb b. Umayya. Since Muhammad began speaking of himself as Allah’s Messenger and presented himself as heir to the prestige of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, and in this way offended the aforementioned clans, the wound that had begun healing was once again ripped open. His uncle ‘Abd al-‘Uzza induced his sons to dissolve their marriages with Muhammad’s daughters. One also hears of a number of other cases of marriages breaking up because one of the spouses became a follower of Allah’s Messenger. Thus, Umm Hani, after she had converted to Islam, was rejected by her husband; Muhammad hoped finally to have her as his own, but again his offer was rejected. As soon as he has been driven out of Mecca and forms the resolution to take control of his hometown by force of arms, he will seek to further this goal by entering marriages with women from the Banu ‘Abd Shams and the Banu Makhzum; when he enters Mecca, he will do so as a man who is related by marriage to the most important clans. First of all, however, he had isolated himself by his “inspirations,” and instead of acting in a conciliatory manner, he worsened his position by rudely disparaging his uncle ‘Abd al-‘Uzza and his wife. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza would be nicknamed Abu Lahab, “the inflamed one,” because of the redness of his face; Muhammad cursed him by interpreting the “flame” as the fires of hell, and he insulted ‘Abd al-‘Uzza’s wife as a miserable fire-wood collector – meaning probably not only [to associate her with] a low-

58

Chapter 5: The “Satanic Verses”

status, dishonorable activity, but also to suggest that she, as the wife of a man destined for hell, would have to do her part by feeding the hellfire in which he would one day burn (Sura 111). More than 12 years passed between Muhammad’s call to be the Messenger of Allah, however it happened, and his expulsion from Mecca. The traditional chronology locates in the fourth year the beginning of the tensions whose background we have just depicted. Most Meccans did not accept the attacks on their religious practices and on polytheism. The sources tell us that followers of Muhammad who were in Mecca as slaves or war captives were especially subjected to humiliations and torture. Nowhere is it reported that Muhammad and his followers from the local clans intervened courageously for their [persecuted] co-religionists, who were of low status by the standards of tribal society. Apart from encouraging words, Muhammad had nothing to offer those who were suffering. He himself was invulnerable, [and] his meetings in the house of al-Arqam b. abi l-Arqam of the [Banu] Makhzum, who at that time had just reached the age of 20, continued without any danger. The social structure in Mecca was too solid for it to be seriously shaken by a preacher like Zaid b. ‘Amr. Scattered throughout the Koran are instructions telling Muhammad that he must warn his own clan before all others, and these are not the only indications that that structure was something he took for granted. Presumably he and his mostly very young followers from the leading Quraysh clans in no way thought that a message whose content applied to all human beings equally – all are created in the same way by Allah and therefore owe him constant thanks – had to relativize clan boundaries and veneration of paternal ancestors. In any event, Muhammad immediately restored the connection to the Banu ‘Abd Shams, which had been broken by the rejection of his two daughters by the sons of ‘Abd al-‘Uzza, by marrying one of them to a member of that clan, ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan, who would later serve as the third caliph (r. 644 – 656). For their part, the opponents of Allah’s Messenger were convinced that they could silence the irksome preacher by availing themselves of the customary conceptions of justice. They recommended to his uncle Abu Talib that he hand his wayward protégé over to them; they would give him as a replacement a much better man, incidentally a member of the Banu Makhzum. Abu Talib rejected this offer. To accept it would have meant a serious violation of clan solidarity. Without accepting the doctrines of his nephew, he now called upon his relatives to defend Muhammad, and they all honored his wish, except for ‘Abd al-‘Uzza. In the Koranic legends about Muhammad’s predecessors, with which we became acquainted above in examples taken from Suras 26 and 71, the one called [by God] stands with his own clan and a few followers against the great majority of “the people,” a word that can also be interpreted to mean “tribe.” The “peo-

The Beginning of Muhammad’s Conflict with the Meccans

59

ple” reject the warnings, and thus, they also reject the messenger’s claim to be [God’s] spokesman. This is how Muhammad conceived of his own position in Mecca: As Allah’s Messenger, he actually was the one who should be in charge, if the Meccans wished to avoid Allah’s punishment. In no way did it enter Muhammad’s mind that this entailed any alteration in social norms. Many hanifs thought otherwise, for among them the idea had taken root, borrowed from the high-religious traditions, that pride in one’s own tribe and ancestry was of secondary importance in the face of threats to one’s own individual salvation. Quss b. Sa’ida, a preacher often described as a Christian, who died before Muhammad’s mission had begun and was said to have been the first Arab to believe in the resurrection of the dead, is reported to have spoken the following words to the crowd at the market in ‘Ukaz: “You people, hear and remember: Whoever lives, will die, and whoever dies, goes forth! Everything that is to come, shall come! Dark night, still day, a heaven with the signs of the zodiac; stars that shine; seas that swell; mountains that he has anchored; the earth that he has spread out; rivers that he causes to flow; in heaven there truly are tidings, on earth there truly are examples that teach! How can it be that men die there and do not return? Were they content to stay (in their graves), or were they left there sleeping? Quss swears a sinless oath before Allah: Allah has a religion that pleases him better and is more excellent than yours! You commit horrible things!” The one Allah is the reality that outshines every other aspect of human existence, and on the day of judgment it will be proven true that no one will be spared from the reckoning and enter the sleep of the dead undisturbed. But the reckoning will be one in which the human being stands entirely on his own. Muhammad, too, will repeatedly remind [his followers] in the Koran that on that day, earthly honors and famous relatives will count for nothing (cf. Sura 60: 3). In an imagined conversation with the Byzantine Emperor, Quss b. Sa’ida is quite clear. “We knew,” he says among other things, “that human beings have the form of an animal, but they compete among themselves with reason, and we knew that honor is not rooted in fathers and mothers, but in a praiseworthy character. Concerning this I wrote: ‘I milked all the teats of time, and then skimmed off the pure cream, but I was able to see neither preeminence nor nobility in the words of the man who says: I am an Arab! (Before we grant him preeminence we must) see that he elevates himself to a noble character, so that his praiseworthy characteristics vindicate his heritage. Neither the reason of his ancestor who has long since died, nor the reason of the father, is of any use to a man for his own wit, for man is nothing but the son of his own self, through it is he known.’”

60

Chapter 5: The “Satanic Verses”

Muhammad and the Migrations to Ethiopia Those who believe in an Allah who is one and who is the cause of everything, and who know that everyone will have to stand before his judgment seat alone, will have to come to grips with the threats to their salvation, and they will see that the certainties of tribal society will be of no help to them. The religious practice of an obsolete paganism is inadequate; it must be transformed so as to do justice to the right of a tireless creator to an equally tireless expression of gratitude. Muhammad had become aware of this. Ritual prayer (in Arabic: assalat) and purifying alms (in Arabic: az-zakat) are the two actions of his followers by which they set themselves apart from their surroundings. To be sure, both words, which belong to a body of ideas that had already penetrated Arabia before Muhammad’s time, move into the foreground for the first time in the midMeccan years. However, the earliest evidence – assuming it is not a later addition – is found already in Sura 87: “Blessedness comes to him who purifies himself, mentions the name of his lord and (then) performs the ritual prayer. You however prefer this earthly life. The next life is better and longer lasting. This stands in the oldest scriptures, the scriptures of Abraham and Moses” (verses 14– 19). Sura 108, verse 2 names ritual prayer and the slaughter of sacrificial animals as the indispensable consequences of the duty that all human beings have to give thanks to Allah. The certainty of resurrection imposes on human beings in this world the necessity of ritually worshipping Allah and appeasing him through purificatory alms-giving, insofar as one has attempted to squander the income apportioned to him by Allah or to increase it by insolent manipulations. A revealing section of Sura 11 belongs already in the later Meccan period: The pagan Meccans ask God’s Messenger Shu’aib – that is, Muhammad – whether his ritual prayers teach him to turn away from the gods of their fathers and to be frugal in spending their wealth (verse 87). Muhammad makes clear in Sura 29 verse 45 that ritual prayer prohibits fornication and obscene speech. Thus one may assume that by means of prayer and alms-giving one can create for oneself a good life after death, a thought, however, which cannot be logically reconciled with Muhammad’s Allah, who determines all things. Meanwhile, it was not ritual prayer that the Meccans regarded as characteristic of Muhammad. It was much more the constant concern for ritual purity and the oft-criticized sing-song recitation of the Koran. All the same, his preaching contains no further details about how the prayers are to be carried out and according to what principles one should give alms. As we shall see below, the idea of promulgating clear prescriptions regarding the performance of ritual prayer, thereby giving his community a more distinctive profile, first came to Muhammad near the end of his mission in Mecca. Consistent with this is the observation

Muhammad and the Migrations to Ethiopia

61

that the first use of the term “Imam” in the sense of the leader of a religious community occurs in Sura 17, verse 71, a passage dating from the mid-Meccan period, that is, around 620, even if it is used here in connection with the Last Judgment. In two somewhat older passages (Sura 15: 79 and Sura 36: 12), by “Imam” is meant the register of all deeds that serves Allah as the basis for his judgments, to which the verses from Sura 87 cited above also allude. The silence of the sources on the formation of a community in the Meccan years is explained by Muhammad’s fixation on his own clan and on the realities of the Quraysh tribe in general; to overturn [these realities] was not something he had in mind, but more respect had to be paid to Hashim and his descendants. This silence finds its confirmation in the absence of any reference to a dissolution of the traditional social structure that might have been justified by specific prayer rituals. It is all the more confusing that the traditional biographies of Muhammad locate at precisely the moment that Muhammad had decided to begin his public preaching an event, allegedly authorized by him, that caused the Quraysh great consternation: when Allah’s Messenger had reviled the gods of the Meccans, we are told, the Meccans began to disturb the Muslims during the performance of their prayers. Muhammad is said to have ordered his followers to emigrate to the – Christian – land of Ethiopia, where people would have tolerance for their mode of divine worship. In the fourth year of his mission Muhammad is said to have begun his preaching; Sura 53 and the criticism of al-Lat, al-‘Uzza, and Manat mark this turning point in his life. In the seventh month of the fifth year the first refugees set out for Ethiopia, in the eighth and ninth they arrived there, then they learned that the pagans had come to accept the Muhammadan prayer rituals and performed the proskynesis [prostrations]. We are told that they immediately set out on the journey back to Mecca, but no sooner had they arrived there than they discovered that Muhammad’s reconciliation with the Meccans had been of short duration. The persecution then became worse than ever before. Muhammad again permitted, indeed urged, them to flee to Ethiopia, and more Meccan Muslims joined the original group. After thoroughly considering the Quraysh-focused mentality of Allah’s Messenger and the content of his preaching at this time, there is absolutely no reason to regard him as the master of these events. The claim that he arranged everything must be understood as an aspect of the biography composed after his victory, which describes his evolution as part of a salvation history directed singlemindedly by Allah. The refugees – we are told there were 11 of them – were the ones, not Muhammad, who, for the sake of their own manner of divine worship, accepted a rupture with the traditional social conditions and dared to take a step whose further consequences they could not at all predict. Their leader was a certain ‘Uthman b. Maz’un from the clan of Banu Jumah, a hanif who lived accord-

62

Chapter 5: The “Satanic Verses”

ing to strict ascetic principles. Because the Quraysh policy was to guard the independence of Mecca, but also in those years to cultivate friendly relations with the Sassanids, the migration of a number of Meccans to Ethiopia, a part of the Byzantine sphere of influence, was not opportune. This was Muhammad’s moment, and he was in the process of tentatively feeling his way towards the hanif movement. He persuaded the leading Meccans to accept proskynesis [prostration] in prayer – a demand he made in reciting the Koran (Sura 84: 21);¹ if the hanifs could accept their deities as intercessors with Allah, then in other respects everything could remain as it had been. We are told that Muhammad retracted his agreement to this compromise proposal shortly after accepting it and later, presumably on his way from Mecca to Medina, represented it as a suggestion of Satan: Allah’s Messenger had been overwhelmed by the desire to get the leading Meccans to follow him, and he thus persuaded himself that he had to meet them half-way (Sura 22: 52 f.). However, this apparently did not bring him the benefits he had hoped for but rather served to discredit him in the eyes of pious hanifs. In any event, after his retraction, the sources tell us, members of the hanif movement were so severely persecuted that now more than 80 of them fled to Ethiopia. We do not know for certain whether it really happened in this way. If Muhammad was trying, with this recommendation, to become the champion of the hanif cause, then he failed, precisely because shortly thereafter a substantially larger number left Mecca. The leading clans sent two men, a member of the Banu Makhzum and a certain ‘Amr b. al-‘As, who roughly 15 years after this would find his way to Islam, with gifts for the Negus in order to induce him to expel the refugees – but in vain. This may mean that this second migration was perceived by the Meccans as a hard blow. It is uncertain whether the verse in Sura 53 that disparages the three goddesses as mere names thought up by the forefathers and hence unreal (verse 23) is the one with which Muhammad retracted his compromise, and when he did this is also uncertain. It is certain, however, that despite these events in the fifth year of his mission, Muhammad did not cease striving to draw the hanifs to his side. Sura 30, verse 30, which arose after 614, is the best evidence for this. To be sure, Muhammad made it clear that he regarded as false the ascetic lifestyle of ‘Utman b. Maz’un. “Allah called me (to proclaim) the generous hanif religion, not monasticism,” he said, according to the sources. As soon as he decrees the religious practice of the hanifs in the name of Allah, after his expulsion from Mecca, he will emphasize that it is distinguished by the lack of any “compulsion” (Sura 2: 256) to perform actions that go against the original human nature created by Allah (Sura 30: 30). The complicated dietary laws of the Jews and the monasticism of the Christians he

Muhammad and the Migrations to Ethiopia

63

regarded as just such deformations of the true religion, born of fanaticism and disapproved by Allah.²

Chapter 6: Moses and Pharaoh Moses spoke: “Pharaoh, I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds! It is proper, therefore, that I should speak only the truth about Allah. I have come with a proof of your (true) Lord. Let the children of Israel go forth with me!” Pharaoh replied: “If you have come with a miraculous sign, then show it, if you are not really lying!” Then Moses threw down his staff, and immediately it became quite clearly a snake. And he drew his hand (from out of his cloak) and it immediately appeared to the onlookers to be entirely white (as if struck by leprosy). The people of Pharaoh’s council then cried out, “This man is a trained magician! He wants to drive you from your land!…” (Sura 7, verses 104– 110)

Muhammad, a Magician The affair of the revoked compromise with the Meccans stood at the beginning of the conflicts between them and Muhammad, conflicts that would grow steadily worse over the coming years. These [conflicts] reached their first high-point in 622 with the expulsion from Mecca of the preacher who presented himself as Allah’s Messenger and who never grew tired of proclaiming a painful punishment by the One to the neighbors whom he regarded as stubbornly impenitent. To be sure, many of them were unintimidated by Muhammad and mocked the legends he had modified for his own purposes as recycled fairy-tales: “This is nothing but a fraud; he has plagiarized it, and others have helped him… Stories of the ancients! He writes them down while others dictate to him morning and evening” (Sura 25: 4 f). People tried to cut the ground out from under his feet with dramatic episodes from the Iranian national epic that they had learned in Hira; an-Nadr b. al-Harith, a descendant of ‘Abd ad-Dar b. Qusayy, distinguished himself in doing this. Muhammad tried to silence the mockers by citing stories of extinct peoples. One need only to look around with open eyes, he said, to see the traces of peoples of previous ages who were annihilated by Allah; those were people who had not listened to the warnings of the Messengers [sent to them by Allah]! Teachings along these lines can be found already in Sura 30: 9 f, and such threats are repeated again and again into the early Medinan period (Sura 3: 137; 6: 11; 12: 109; 16: 36; 35: 44). In the middle and later years of his mission in Mecca it was above all the figure of Moses and his fearless appearance before Pharaoh, the model of the tyrant, which Muhammad considered to have prefigured his own situation. Already in the oldest passages of the Koran, Pharoah – together with Tamud – appears as an example of royal disobedience to Allah (Sura 79: 17; Sura 85: 18), https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-007

Muhammad, a Magician

65

initially still as a mere name intended to arouse in the listener revulsion against impiety. In Sura 7, which Muhammad composed near the end of his time in Mecca, he weaves into the representation of the struggle between Moses and Pharaoh everything that is bothering him, his fears, but even more, his burning ambition: He himself believes that Allah has chosen and called him to be the Messenger who exercises power in Mecca. The pagan polytheists have forfeited the right to political power, [and] Allah’s will is that [power] now should be handed over to him and his followers. Pharaoh had been a tyrant; he had oppressed a portion of his subjects. “But we wanted to show grace to those who had been oppressed in the land, we want to make them the leaders and the inheritors of the earth!”, Muhammad has his alter ego say in Sura 28: 4 f. In Sura 7, Pharaoh’s assembled advisors see exactly what Moses’ intentions are: “He wants to drive you from your land!” Moses and his brother Aaron wish to accomplish this by means of a magic that is superior to any human magic, because it stems from Allah. Muhammad has already repeatedly stated as much (Sura 20: 57, 63; Sura 26: 35), and in Sura 10, which is older than Sura 7, Moses remonstrates with the unbelieving Egyptians, telling them that they [mistakenly] regard the truth that has now been conveyed to them as the usual man-made magic, which has always been proven to be impotent in the face of divine action. The Egyptians ask anxiously: “Have you perhaps come to induce us to abandon the faith of our fathers so that thereby the highest power in the land will fall to you two (i. e. Moses and Aaron)?” (Sura 10: 78). To Muhammad’s Meccan enemies, his peculiar manner of speaking counted as a form a magic. Shu’aib, who, as Muhammad explains in Sura 26, long ago commanded honesty in the use of weights and measures, was regarded by those he was exhorting to be an ordinary man possessed by a form of magic (verse 185 f). Referring to himself, Muhammad explains in Sura 46, verse 7: “And when our (i. e. Allah’s) verses are presented to them in clear form, the unbelievers say about the truth as soon as it has reached them, ‘This is clear magic!’” In the opening verses of Sura 10, Muhammad expresses himself in somewhat greater detail: “It amazes the people that we (i. e. Allah) instructed a man from their midst, ‘Warn the people and tell those who believe that the lord regards them as upright!’ Regarding this, the unbelievers assert: ‘This [man] is obviously a magician!’” (verse 2). How can this Muhammad, a perfectly ordinary member of the Quraysh tribe just like the rest of us, claim that he and his followers shall receive “the land as their inheritance” and everyone should accept his message in order to escape the wrath of Allah? The Meccans who have not allowed his words to bewitch them ask themselves why they should heed any of his preaching. In their eyes, Muhammad has been possessed by a kind of magic, and at the same time acts as a magician.

66

Chapter 6: Moses and Pharaoh

Muhammad’s Claim to Power and Clan Solidarity In Sura 7, Muhammad declares bluntly what the real issue is: Those who refuse to do his will should be expelled. Pharaoh’s assembly recognized this fact, and they ordered all the experienced magicians in the land to come together so that they could vanquish Moses in a competition. The Egyptians went first, throwing their staffs on the ground, and they “bewitched the eyes of the people,” so that they thought they beheld snakes. Then, inspired by Allah, Moses threw his staff, and behold, his staff devoured [what the Egyptian magicians had produced]. Thus the Egyptian magicians were defeated “and found themselves humbled. They threw themselves down and cried out, ‘We believe in the lord of the worlds, the lord of Moses and Aaron!’” Angered by this turn of events, Pharaoh threatened them with harsh punishment: “You have believed in Moses, before I permitted it. These are schemes that you have crafted in the city in order to drive its inhabitants from it.” The Israelites now had to fear that their sons would be taken from them. But something different came to pass: “We punished Pharaoh’s people with years of tribulation, and scarcity of fruits; perhaps they might heed this warning! And when something good came to them, they spoke: ‘That is our doing!’ And when something bad happened, they blamed Moses and those who were with him … ‘Whatever miraculous signs you produce for us in order to bewitch us, we will not believe you!’ Then we sent to them the flood, the locusts, the lice, and the frogs, the blood – (all) clear signs. But they remained proud… After that we avenged ourselves on them and drowned them in the sea, because they denied our miraculous signs and knowingly flouted them. To those who were previously oppressed we gave the east and the west (of the land) as an inheritance that we have blessed” (Sura 7: 119 – 137). To Muhammad and his audience, whether they were supporters or opponents, the legendary history of Mecca was always in their minds: Had not Qusayy taken over control of the Kaaba and justified doing so by arguing that the religious practice instituted by Abraham had fallen into decay and degenerated into idolatry? If one held this tradition to be true – and which of Muhammad’s contemporaries did not? – then a change in this religious practice meant also the overthrow of the political status quo. Had one not banished Zaid b. ‘Amr b. Nufail from the city, because he had denied the legitimacy of the status quo by affirming monotheism? “To those who were previously oppressed we gave the east and the west (of the land) as an inheritance…” (Sura 7: 137). The key word here is “the oppressed,” and this word gives us insight into Muhammad’s situation in the years between his first public criticism of the “associaters” or idolaters and their answer to this challenge, which consisted precisely in the expulsion with which he had so often threatened them. The events of this period form

Muhammad’s Claim to Power and Clan Solidarity

67

the background to the Koran verses that we have just discussed and many others with a similar content, as well as to Muhammad’s full utilization of the hanif movement’s ideas for his own religious-political goals, which were focused entirely on Mecca and the Quraysh. Only at the end of this phase of his life, and presumably out of necessity rather than insight, will he emphasize the universal-human aspects of the hanif ideology, but without ever denying the priority of his Quraysh identity. Pharaoh divided his subjects into two groups, we are told in Sura 28: 4, one of which he oppressed. Of whom was Muhammad thinking, when he recited this verse? Perhaps of those who occupied the position of outsiders in a Meccan society dominated by the Quraysh? “The oppressed,” literally “those whom one regards as weak” – measured by the standards of a tribal society – were people who did not enjoy the status of inviolability (in Arabic: al-man’a), which stemmed from an unimpaired clan membership from birth on. In the biography of the prophet we find examples of the suffering that these people sometimes had to endure. There was a certain Suhaib b. Sinan, whose clan belonged not to the Mudarite but rather to the Rabite branch of the northern Arabs. Suhaib’s clan enjoyed such high status with the Sassanids that its members were entrusted with important offices. In one of the many wars between Byzantium and the Sassanids, Suhaib had been taken captive and, via various intermediate steps, ended up as the property of ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an of the Banu Taim b. Murra. [‘Abdullah b. Jud’an] is said to have granted him his freedom; Suhaib’s descendants even claim that ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an concluded an alliance with him. Be that as it may, Muhammad’s enemies saw Suhaib, who counted among the first 30 followers of Allah’s Messenger, as a helpless victim and tortured him. When one surveys all the reports regarding “those regarded as weak,” one sees that the Quraysh clans that rejected the new faith singled out precisely these people in their midst, to the extent that they had accepted Muhammad’s teachings, in order to make an example of them. They had no need to fear revenge, and the “genuine” clan members were deterred by these torments from taking the unpopular step of converting to Islam. But none of this led Muhammad to develop fundamental misgivings about the principle of clan solidarity, which justified such actions. On the contrary, in the late-Meccan Sura 34, he still threatened everyone who did not believe in his preaching with eternal punishment in hell. He brusquely rejected the excuse of the “oppressed ones” that they were prevented by the powerful from entering the true religion; their remorse over not resisting the pressure will come too late [to save them] (verses 31– 33). Only in verse 106 of Sura 16 does Muhammad show some leniency towards [those who] vacillate in the profession of Islam: “Those who, after they have believed in Allah, become unbelieving

68

Chapter 6: Moses and Pharaoh

again (will be punished in the next world), except for those who were compelled and whose hearts (nonetheless), full of confidence, held fast to the faith. But those who voluntarily opened themselves to unbelief will face the wrath of Allah and a powerful punishment.” Of course this verse is not actually speaking about “the oppressed ones,” even though it is cited in the biography of Muhammad in connection with one such person who is said to have renounced Islam under torture and later confessed this to Muhammad. Muslim historians who are eager to see in Muhammad’s mission a commitment to “social justice” interpret “the oppressed ones” as referring to a class of poor, disenfranchised people for whose welfare Allah and his Messenger were concerned. However, we have seen that there was no creation of a new community that transcended the traditional divisions and boundaries in Mecca, and that such a transcending of traditional customs can at most be attributed to the Ethiopian refugees, and most probably Muhammad was only retroactively elevated to the status of their teacher. In Mecca he himself had no reason to count himself as one of “those who are regarded as weak,” and he also never did this in the Koran: In the previously discussed Suras 28 and 7, Moses might belong to the “oppressed;” it is to them that the land will be given as their “inheritance,” and Moses, not Pharaoh, will rule. This – but not the misery of the “oppressed” – is the decisive aspect under which Muhammad portrays the life of Moses. He shares the destiny of Moses only insofar as he, the grandson of ‘Abd al-Muttalib chosen by Allah to be his Messenger, is being denied the political power to which he is entitled as a result of Allah’s choice. We must not misinterpret the references to “those who are regarded as weak” as proving any sort of “social justice” concern. Rather, they serve the purpose of demonizing Muhammad’s enemies, who must by no means be permitted to remain in power.

The Boycott of the Hashemites According to the traditional chronology of the Meccan period, the failure of the compromise led to a period of intensified verbal disputes regarding the content of [Muhammad’s] preaching, which now even received some scattered attention outside of Mecca. And, as we shall see, the verbal jousting was soon followed by actions. The efforts to induce the Negus to expel the refugees had not succeeded. In the sixth year of his mission, that is, around 615, ‘Umar b. al-Khattab had become a follower of Muhammad, who had for some time been freely proselytizing in the house of al-Arqam b. abi l-Arqam of the Banu Makhzum. Muhammad’s enemies had to admit to themselves that they had not achieved any decisive victory in their efforts to contain the spread of doctrines that touched on the very foun-

The Boycott of the Hashemites

69

dations of their social order. The leading men of Mecca thus decided to get rid of the nuisance once and for all. In this endeavor, however, it became clear that the dividing line between the Quraysh clans that had once been drawn between the confederacies of the “bloodlickers” and the “perfumed ones” still continued to have an effect. And anyone who, like Muhammad, was firmly rooted in a clan could hardly be held accountable as an individual for anything. Al-Waqidi (d. 822/3), one of the few real historians that Islamic culture has produced,¹ establishes the following: “When the Quraysh learned what the Negus had done (by way of supporting the refugees), and that he had welcomed them generously, they were displeased, and they raged against Allah’s Messenger and his followers. They came to an agreement to kill him, and they wrote a document against the Hashemites, namely, that they would not enter into any marriages with them or conduct any commerce with them and they would (no longer) socialize with them (at all). It was Mansur b. ‘Ikrima al-‘Abdari who wrote this document, and afterwards his hand withered. It was posted inside the Kaaba. Others say, it was … kept with the maternal aunt of Abu Jahl.” [Abu Jahl] – his real name was ‘Amr b. Hisham al-Mujira – was one of the most influential members of the Banu Makhzum in those days; the Islamic sources give him the mocking nickname Abu Jahl, a name that perhaps was coined by Muhammad himself, which means “epitome of foolishness.” The descendants of ‘Abd ad-Dar, as we already saw with the example of an-Nadr b. al-Harith, were a major force among the opponents of Muhammad. The rift between the heirs of Qusayy continued to have its effect. In an earlier era, the Banu ‘Abd ad-Dar had been unable to hold onto the prestigious offices of providing food and drink to the pilgrims and leadership in war; they retained the “house of assembly,” the keys to the Kaaba, and the keeping of the war-banners. For their part, the Banu Makhzum had remained loyal to the Banu ‘Abd ad-Dar, as had the clans of Sahm, Jumah, and ‘Adi. To the latter belonged ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, who until recently had been one of the most bitter enemies of Muhammad. That he, of all people, had now become a Muslim will have been an alarm-bell urging [Muhammad’s opponents] to more energetic action. The result was the boycott document, which, according to the traditional chronology, came into effect at the beginning of the seventh or eighth year of [Muhammad’s] mission. Al-Waqidi continues: “They confined the Banu Hashim in the valley of Abu Talib, in the night of the first day of Muharram in the seventh year of Muhammad’s mission. The Banu al-Muttalib b. ‘Abd Manaf joined with Abu Talib in his valley, together with the Banu Hashim. Abu Lahab, however, went out to the Quraysh and stood with them against the Banu Hashim and the Banu al-Muttalib. They were cut off from supplies of grain and all other goods, and they left the valley only at the time of the pilgrimage, and they suffered great distress and

70

Chapter 6: Moses and Pharaoh

the people could hear (the whimpering of) their small children from across the valley. Some of the Quraysh delighted in this, but others were saddened by it, and they said: ‘Look what Mansur b. ‘Ikrima has wrought!’ They confined them to the valley for three years, then Allah told his Messenger what had happened to the document, and that worms had eaten all the parts on which stood wicked and unjust words, leaving intact only the passages that mentioned Allah. Allah’s Messenger told this to Abu Talib, who in turn told his brother. They went out to the place of prayer (next to the Kaaba), where Abu Talib said to the unbelievers among the Quraysh: ‘My nephew tells me – and he has never lied to me – that Allah has surrendered your document to the worms. They have eaten every part on which wickedness and injustice stood and left behind only the parts on which Allah is mentioned. If my nephew speaks the truth, then abandon your evil purpose; but if he lies, then I will hand him over to you and you can kill him or let him live, as you please.’ They replied: ‘You speak justly.’ They sent for the document and opened it, and it was indeed as Allah’s Messenger had said. They stood there embarrassed and ashamed, whereupon Abu Talib asked them: ‘Why are we still confined and cut off from the outside world, when the matter is now clear?’ He and those who had accompanied him pushed between the Kaaba and the curtains with which it was covered, and (Abu Talib) prayed: ‘O Allah, help us against those who acted unjustly toward us, who sundered bonds of kinship and permitted forbidden things to be done to us!’ Then they returned to their valley. But a few of the Quraysh reproached themselves because of the evil that they had done to the Banu Hashim. (Among them were Mut’im b. ‘Adi, Zam’a b. al-Aswad, and others.) They buckled on their weapons, went out to the Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib, and instructed them to return to their dwelling places. Thus did it happen, and when the (other) Quraysh saw this, they were dismayed and saw that they would not hand (the Hashemites) over (to them). Their departure from the valley occurred in the tenth year of [Muhammad’s] mission.” The boycott applied to the Hashemites and the Banu al-Muttalib, who formed the core of the confederacy of the “perfumed ones.” As the traditional sources suggest, the anger of the other Quraysh clans had not been aroused initially by Allah’s Messenger. The quarrels that finally led to this act of violence lay further back in the past, and their cause was the elevated status that the Hashemites arrogated to themselves, especially the descendants of ‘Abd al-Muttalib. The repulsing of the Ethiopian attackers in the “year of the elephant,” the founding of a particular religious cult, namely the ritual observances on Mount Hira in Ramadan, the digging of the Zam Zam well, legitimized by the offering of a son for sacrifice, these were for the city defining events that made the relatives of ‘Abd al-Muttalib famous. In stopping the encroachments by the Banu Bakr b.

The Boycott of the Hashemites

71

‘Abd Manat, too, ‘Abd al-Muttalib is said to have played a decisive leadership role; he was given credit for gathering the Ahabis and exercising command over the Quraysh troops in a bloody battle in the Tihama region. Muhammad had inserted himself without compunction into the Quraysh faction that extolled his grandfather as the man whom Mecca could thank for being what it was; Sura 105 and Sura 106 showed us this. But, as we have mentioned, the reality had been very different since Muhammad’s youth: In the reconstruction of the Kaaba, the Banu Makhzum had been the driving force; the Banu ‘Abd Shams had gained power due to the alliance with the Banu Thaqif from al-Taif; Iranian influence had reached Mecca. Ibn Ishaq’s biography of the prophet provides information that supplements al-Waqidi’s report; it makes clear that the boycott was not able to last long. There were too many family connections between the Hashemites and the Banu al-Muttalib, on the one hand, and the rest of the Quraysh, on the other, for strict enforcement of the boycott to be possible. There was, for example, Hisham b. ‘Amr b. Rabi’a, a man from the Quraysh [clan] of Banu Jadima b. Malik. There is no evidence that he ever sympathized with Muhammad’s ideas; on the contrary, he remained a pagan until the prophet occupied Mecca, and then he was among the prominent men who were given a large part of the booty from the subsequent battles in order to incline their hearts towards Islam. During the boycott, Hisham b. ‘Amr secretly supplied food to the Hashemites and rescued them from starvation. According to Ibn Ishaq, it was also Hisham b. ‘Amr who persuaded the Makhzumite Zuhair b. abi Umayya to break the boycott agreement. Zuhair’s mother was a daughter of ‘Abd al-Muttalib; how could one tolerate excluding one’s maternal relatives from all human interaction? Mut’im b. ‘Adi was himself a descendant of ‘Abd Manaf, albeit via his son Naufal, against whom Hashim and al-Muttalib had once joined forces; but did that matter now? Zam’a b. alAswad, a great-grandson of Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza and thus a close relative of Khadija, had good reason due to this connection to come to the assistance of the boycott victims. His father had been one of the people who had mocked Muhammad; Zam’a himself and two of his brothers later fell at the Battle of Badr on the side of the pagan Meccans. Both the boycott and its cancellation strengthened the potency of the traditional social order. The conflict between the Banu ‘Abd Manaf and the Banu ‘Abd ad-Dar over the offices instituted by Qusayy was at the root of these events, as we have said. The religious practice of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, which Abu Talib embraced, seemed to secure for the Hashemites and their allies a special rank among the Quraysh clans, and Muhammad (as the rival clans interpreted his actions) built further on this foundation by reciting the Koran and introducing ritual purity and proskynesis [prostration]. Even if Abu Talib did not adopt the

72

Chapter 6: Moses and Pharaoh

ideas of his ward, these ideas still had the potential over the long term to render more difficult the pursuit of glory and prestige by the other clans. Abu Talib had not been ready to sacrifice Muhammad so as to satisfy the desire of the other clans for a balance in the prestige of the clans, a desire that was evident above all in the Banu Makhzum, since they had played a decisive role in the reconstruction of the Kaaba. Thus anger now had to be aimed against the Hashemites in general and against their allies, and the Banu ‘Abd ad-Dar, the earliest losers in the competition for the leadership, could plausibly be cast in the role of the ring-leaders. The countervailing forces that gathered themselves in the course of two years are, as indicated, equally rooted in pre-Islamic thinking; in a few years their battle against Allah’s Messenger after his re-location to Medina will confirm this. But their motives will expose the fragility and instability of the pre-Islamic order. Alliances had their force, but they lost binding power the further back in the past they went and their boundaries were blurred by marriagebased connections with clans outside of the alliance. Marriage-based relationships, not any fondness for Muhammad’s cause, led to the collapse of the alliance for the boycott of the Hashemites and the Banu al-Muttalib. The persistence of the pagan social system, we must repeat, was of great use to Muhammad. He remained largely untouched by the disadvantages that could plague a person for following the rites that he propagated. It was others, not he, who felt the urge to make these rites into the foundation for a new society, and they accordingly bore the burdens of exile. He, however, was safely ensconced in his clan, whose close connection to ritual prayer at the Kaaba was for him presumably something he took for granted. The ineffectiveness and consequent lifting of the boycott confirmed for him that he was on the right path, and that he was called to reform the Meccan cult from the ground up on the basis of monotheism. Abraham and the hanif movement now claimed more and more of his attention. What lies behind this will be explored in the next two chapters.

Dwindling Clan Solidarity for Muhammad The tenth year of his mission did not bring Muhammad only the relief that came with the lifting of the boycott. He also suffered two fateful blows. Near the end of the tenth month, Khadija died. Much has been speculated about the support she provided him in his struggle for the victory of the new religion. But the traditional sources tell us little, and what they tell us about Khadija’s reaction to Muhammad’s epileptic seizures is more suggestive of skepticism vis-à-vis Muhammad’s inspirations rather than enthusiastic agreement and encouragement. At the beginning of the twelfth month Abu Talib passed away, and this was for Muham-

Dwindling Clan Solidarity for Muhammad

73

mad the more bitter loss. Taking the place of his father, Abu Talib had been able to provide his nephew with the backing he needed in a tribal society. Now, however, Muhammad himself could be seen as “one who is regarded as weak.” For he possessed none of the things that mattered in the eyes of his contemporaries: He had no property, he had no sons, and the marriages of two of his daughters to the sons of Abu Lahab, whom he had vilified, had been dissolved. More than previously, he now found himself exposed to the hostility of his opponents. In this difficult situation, it was, of all people, his uncle Abu Lahab ‘Abd al-‘Uzza b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib who recollected the duties of clan solidarity. He forbade any attacks against his nephew, but told him to depart from Mecca. But where was Muhammad to turn? Zaid b. ‘Amr b. Nufail, under similar circumstances, had preferred to remain in the vicinity of Mecca and to keep using the Kaaba as the focal point of his prayers. Muhammad made a different choice. Near the city of al-Taif, Mecca’s rival, there was another pilgrimage shrine. Would not the people of al-Taif receive him, the man rejected by the Quraysh, with open arms? With his servant Zaid b. al-Haritha, a gift from Khadija, he set out for alTaif. Before taking this step, he distanced himself in a breathtaking manner from his grandfather ‘Abd al-Muttalib – whose merits in the Meccan triumph against the Yemeni Ethiopians he had explicitly praised in Sura 105 and whose religious practices had counted among the Hashemites as a mark of their special status. Because ‘Abd al-Muttalib was no Muslim, Muhammad now made clear, he will have landed nowhere else but in hell – and he thereby so angered the Meccans that his departure was now virtually unavoidable. By the time he arrived in alTaif, he had, as it were, burned all his bridges, but in doing so, he had perhaps overlooked a few things: there were long-standing marriage-based family ties between many Quraysh clans and the Banu Thaqif; also, after 570, alliances had been concluded between this tribe and clans from Mecca; moreover, a number of Quraysh owned estates in al-Taif. This explains why he was not welcomed in al-Taif. His claim to be Allah’s Messenger elicited only ridicule. All that remained for him to do was to beg that they keep secret his attempt to establish contact with them. This plea fell on deaf ears. A crowd gathered, and he sought refuge in a garden belonging to ‘Utba and Shaiba, two men from the Quraysh clan of ‘Abd Shams; there he received help in this most difficult situation. “[O God,] to Thee I complain of my little power, my lack of good counsel, my lowliness in the eyes of the people!” Thus did he remonstrate with Allah, according to the traditional biography of the prophet. “Merciful one, you are the Lord of those regarded as weak. You are my lord! To whom will you confide me?” It is understandable that the tradition describes Muhammad in this moment as belonging to “those regarded as weak.” For, as he made his way back to Mecca, he faced an uncertain fate. Who would from now on extend a hand of

74

Chapter 6: Moses and Pharaoh

protection over him? He had hopes regarding al-Akhnas b. Shariq, a Thaqif ally of the Quraysh Banu Zuhra; but he denied the request with the excuse that someone in his position did not have the right to give a promise of protection against the clans to whom he was allied. Suhail b. ‘Amr, an important personality in Meccan affairs as will become clear in the coming years, also denied him protection; only distantly related to the Quraysh clans that were powerful in Mecca, he was not able to take on such an obligation. Mut’im b. ‘Adi, a man who had earlier played a role in the lifting of the boycott, finally took mercy on Allah’s Messenger. Mut’im was a grandson of Naufal b. ‘Abd Manaf, whom the tradition identifies as the first agent in charge of Quraysh relations with Sassanid Iraq. Muhammad spent the last two years before his expulsion under highly precarious conditions in Mecca. How could it be, that it was precisely now that he posed the question of power in all its sharpness, as Sura 7 testifies, among other passages? Was it a matter of taking the bull by the horns? The disunity of the clans, which became evident in the question of who would grant him protection, might be mentioned here, certainly also the fact that, once the grant of protection had been given, an attack in spite of it would have represented a grave wrong. But a further aspect, the one that would prove decisive for the future, should be added to the list. In these critical years, Muhammad was feeling his way toward a new, broader understanding of his mission. In addition to being a Messenger of Allah preaching the oneness of Allah and the duty of creatures to practice loving devotion to Allah, he now also understood himself to be Allah’s prophet, delivering the divinely prescribed ritual order to the pagans and thus laying the foundation of a religious community that transcended the boundaries of tribe and ethnicity. Approximately eighteen months before his flight, he has a dream beside the Kaaba, in which a ladder is erected in front of him on which Gabriel and Michael lead him up into the seventh heaven; there he hears the scratching of the reed pen that records Allah’s uninterrupted governance [of the universe]. Back on earth, he brings [with him] the divine prescriptions regarding ritual prayer; Gabriel executes [the prayers], so that there can be no mistake about the respective times ordained by Allah and the valid form [of the respective daily prayers]. In Sura 7, Muhammad speaks for the first time of his prophethood: Allah’s mercy is boundless; it will be granted to all those who “are God-fearing, give alms, and believe in our miraculous signs, those who follow the Messenger, the pagan prophet (in Arabic: an-nabi al-ummi), whom they find written down in the Torah and the Gospel, who commands the right and forbids the wrong, who permits them ritually harmless things and forbids them bad things and takes from them the burdens and chains that weigh them down. Those who believe in him, help him, support him, and follow the light that is sent down with him, they are the blessed ones! Say: ‘You people! I am Allah’s

Dwindling Clan Solidarity for Muhammad

75

Messenger to all of you, Allah, to whom lordship over heaven and earth belongs, beside whom there is no god, Allah, who gives life and causes death. Therefore, believe in Allah and in his Messenger, the pagan prophet, who himself believes in Allah and his words! Follow him, hopefully you will choose the right path!’” (Sura 7: 156 – 158)²

Chapter 7: The Expulsion He who made the Koran obligatory for you (i. e. Muhammad) surely intends to return you to your home. Say: “My lord knows best who has delivered true guidance to human beings and who is clearly in error.” (Sura 28, verse 85)

Abraham, the Founder of the Divinely Prescribed Human Community Moses appeared before Pharaoh in order to persuade him to accept the true faith; Pharaoh was supposed to renounce self-deification and recognize that everything that happens in this world proceeds from the sole existing causal power, namely, from Allah. For Pharaoh to agree to these doctrines would have meant renouncing a political order that, as the Koran implies, rested on the presumptuous assertion of one’s own power in opposition to Allah. The result of such a renunciation would have been the integration of the tyrant and his officials into the corps of those who are “devoted to Allah.” Like all punishment legends, the story of Moses and Pharaoh, too, presupposes that this corps already exists, even if it is a minority. After the entry of the infidels into its ranks, it will encompass all humanity, unified in the ritual worship of the one Allah. The message that Muhammad is now proclaiming is quite different, inasmuch as he is claiming for himself a connection to Abraham. Let us examine the conclusion of the Meccan Sura 16 in order to understand this difference! Abraham was a hanif, not an idolater or “associater;” as an individual human being, he is to be regarded as a pious faith community (in Arabic: al-umma; verse 119 f). – Human beings on Judgment Day will from now on be divided into faith communities for judgment; this is an idea that contradicts the claim, emphasized especially in debates with the polytheists, that every single human being will stand entirely alone before Allah’s judgment seat (cf. e. g. Sura 80: 33 – 37). Sura 16 verse 120 characterizes it as an exception to the rule that Abraham constitutes a faith community consisting of himself alone; normally human beings are members of a larger religious body. Here we find a clue to the important change in Muhammad’s self-understanding that this chapter documents. – We read, further, that Allah led Abraham on the straight path; in this world Allah was gracious to him; in the next world, he therefore counts as one of the elect (Sura 16: 119 – 122). In Medina Muhammad added three verses: “We inspired you: ‘Follow the religion of Abraham, for he was a hanif and not an idolater!’ The Sabbath was only prescribed for those who (then) fell into dispute https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-008

Abraham, the Founder of the Divinely Prescribed Human Community

77

about it.” On Judgment Day, Allah will decide between the disputing parties; Muhammad will argue against the unbelievers with wisdom and intelligent speech, for Allah knows in any case who strays from the right path and who walks on it unerringly (verses 123 – 125). From the perspective of Medina, Abraham appears as the founder of a religious community, not as the leader of an [already] existing one, within which a certain understanding of God must be imposed. The Jews note the absence of the the prescription of rest on the Sabbath in the Muhammadan community founded in emulation of Abraham. Muhammad receives from his alter ego the advice to remain calm, for he is in the right, as Allah well knows. The community founder Muhammad is authentic just as his predecessor Abraham was in an earlier age. In Muhammad’s understanding, Abraham and not Moses was the original founder of a human community in the form that Allah intended, a community whose foundation is the religious practice that necessarily follows from the understanding of the all-embracing causal power and control of Allah. In the lateMeccan Sura 6, Muhammad instructs his followers on this point. “At that time Abraham said to his father Azar: ‘Do you take idols to be gods? I believe that you and your people are clearly in error.’ Thus do we show to Abraham (our) rule over heaven and earth, and that he shall be one of those who acquire certainty.” – Allah has selected Abraham to be one of his confidants; he shall acquire a knowledge of Allah’s all-embracing causal power that will be incontrovertibly beyond any possibility of doubt. Therefore Allah lifted him into heaven and allowed him to see his hidden activity.¹ The theological foundation of the religious practice proclaimed by Abraham at Allah’s command thus does not rest, as one could conclude from the following verses, on an independent exercise of reason by Abraham; rather, it follows explicitly from the authority of Allah. – The significance of the vision of Muhammad’s ascent into heaven now becomes clear: It legitimizes him as the bearer of the true ritual practice. – “When now the night descended on (Abraham), he saw a star and said: ‘That is my lord!’ As however the star set, he said: ‘I do not like what sets.’ Then he saw the moon, which had just risen, and he said again: ‘That is my lord!’ But as (the moon) also set, he said ‘If my lord does not guide me aright, then I must be one of those who fall into error.’ Finally he saw the sun, which had just risen, and he said: ‘That is my lord, it is the largest!’ But when it too set, he cried out: ‘My people! With those of you who associate [partners] with the One I shall have nothing more to do! As a hanif I turn my face towards him who has created heaven and earth, I am no idolater!’ Then his people disputed with him. But he said: ‘Do you wish to dispute with me about Allah, when he has led me on the right path? I do not fear those [idols] that you associate with him – unless Allah wanted anything (that resembled your idolatry). My

78

Chapter 7: The Expulsion

lord encompasses everything with his knowledge. Do you not wish to remember him? And why should I fear those [idols] that you associate with him, when you do not even fear to associate with Allah something that he gave you no authority to do? Which of the two parties has more right to expect security? (Answer), if you know (it)! That [party] that believes and mixes nothing unjust into its belief is the one that has security and walks on the right path!’ This is our argument, which we gave to Abraham against his people. We elevate in rank whom we please. Your lord is wise and all-knowing” (verses 74– 83). The last sentences allude to the situation in which Muhammad found himself in his native city; his enemies asked what was so special about him that he had the audacity to repudiate the time-honored customs. For the sake of the faith that Abraham illustrated with the gesture of turning one’s face to the creator of all, [Abraham] departed from the community of his tribe – and so did Muhammad. Abraham and Muhammad act only according to the authority that Allah has granted to them (verse 81), and Allah has never granted any authority to worship idols. “Say: ‘Allah has led me to a straight path, which I follow as the correct religious practice. This is the community of Abraham, who was a hanif, not an idolater!”, Muhammad has his alter ego aver near the end of the same Sura (verse 161). The status of outsider, which Muhammad and his followers by this time occupied in Mecca, received its own social and religious-political foundation with the claim that it was bound up with introducing once more the religion of Abraham; the outsiders became, at least in Muhammad’s sight, the first members of a new community, unified by this religious rite. Muhammad lived under the protection of Mut’im b. ‘Adis, but actually he no longer felt duty-bound to honor the traditional Quraysh norms, even when they worked in his favor. It is reported about ‘Uthman b. Maz’un that, shortly after returning to Mecca after the first Ethiopian exile, he expressly rejected the protection offered to him by a member of the Banu Makhzum; he asserted that Allah would be his protector, and no one else. Muhammad had not yet worked up enough courage to take such a decisive step. But he knew that he could no longer remain in Mecca indefinitely. If his uncle Abu Lahab had already warned him to seek residence with a foreign tribe, then in the meantime, after his foolish adventure in al-Taif, it had become a more serious matter than ever for him to seek an escape route.

The Search for an Escape Route The Quraysh were not permitted during the pilgrimage to go to the holy places outside of Mecca; this rule applied probably since the occupation, attributed to Qusayy, of the area around the Kaaba. It is not clear whether, and if so,

The Search for an Escape Route

79

since when Muhammad violated this rule. We are told that he sought to spread his ideas among foreign tribes, and that his Meccan enemies wanted to prevent him from doing so. It is not clear what we should think of these reports, especially since one need not assume that such efforts at contact [actually] took place at the holy sites that were off-limits to the Quraysh. But the traditional sources tell us that a certain Shaiba b. Rabi’a, a grandson of ‘Abd Shams and incidentally one of the two owners of the garden in al-Taif where Muhammad took refuge, together with Khadija’s uncle ‘Uthman b. al-Huwairit, had converted to Christianity and henceforth also visited the other pilgrimage sites; he is said to have believed only in one God, who was worshipped not only at the Kaaba but also at all the other shrines. – As a pagan prophet Muhammad would meld the pilgrimage rites in Mecca together with those in the immediate vicinity into a single cultic event, in the course of which one worshipped the one creator by turns [at several sites]. – Shaiba, who by the way also practiced the ritual sojourn on Mount Hira, never did follow Muhammad and lost his life in the war against him. It was not entirely unknown in Arabia for unpopular people to be forced into a foreign tribe. An-Nu’man b. al-Mundir (d. 602), the Prince of Hira, was granted asylum by the Banu Shaiban, a tribe that was powerful in northeast Arabia, after a split with his Sassanid overlords, although the Banu Shaiban soon betrayed him. – The Banu Shaiban were one of the large tribes of the Rabite Arabs. In the genealogy, Rabi’a is the brother of Mudar; [the Quraysh] regarded themselves as descendants of Mudar. The rivalry between these two lines will leave deep traces in early Islamic history. – In northeastern Arabia, the beginning of the seventh century is marked by many wars between the Sassanids and the Arab tribes, some of whom served the Iranian cause, while others strove to cast off Iranian dominance. The battles of the Rabite tribe of the Banu Bakr b. Wa’il in Du Qar, an oasis near modern-day Kufa, had resonated powerfully across all Arabia. The Sassanid troops had been repeatedly defeated, something in which Muhammad, whose pro-Byzantine sympathies we have already mentioned, is also said to have taken satisfaction. Because in the meantime it had become urgent for Muhammad to find a place to reside, and a number of tribes had brusquely rejected the request to give this discredited man shelter, the Banu Shaiban came to the attention of his confederates. Abu Bakr, a merchant from the Quraysh clan of Taim b. Murra who was comparatively prosperous in contrast to Allah’s Messenger, is said to have cultivated relations with them; he proved himself as a reliable supporter of Muhammad, although he owed him nothing according to the customs of the time. It seems plausible that Allah’s Messenger could have entered into talks with the Banu Shaiban via Abu Bakr; his clan comrade ‘Abdallah b.

80

Chapter 7: The Expulsion

Jud’an, as we have mentioned, had good connections to prominent people in this region. In the form of a fictitious negotiation, in the course of which verses from the late-Meccan Sura 16 are interwoven, the sources tell us what people thought they knew about these contacts. Hani’ b. Qabisa, the Shaiban chief of the Rabi’a, and al-Mutanna b. Haritha, who made a reputation for himself in the wars against the Sassanids under the caliph ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, meet Abu Bakr and Muhammad, who initially looks on silently. Abu Bakr quizzes the Banu Shaiban about their living conditions, above all about their military power. He learns that they can offer more than a thousand armed men, and that their zeal in responding to attacks (in Arabic: al-man’a) is indomitable. Battle horses were more precious to them than children, implements of war more important than milk animals. But victory is always determined by Allah, on some occasions it is granted to them, on other occasions to their enemies. The Banu Shaiban for their part then inquire whether Abu Bakr is a Quraysh. This gives him the opportunity to draw Allah’s Messenger into the conversation, and [Muhammad] proceeds to give a summary of his life. Among other Koran verses, Muhammad is said to have cited Sura 16 verse 90: “Surely Allah commands justice and righteous action and to give to relatives (their due). He forbids heinous and reprehensible deeds and violence (against one another). He warns you. Perhaps you will heed him!” Hani’ b. Qabisa responds in a guarded fashion; it would be unwise after an accidental encounter to discard one’s old religion and to adopt a new one in its place. Al-Mutanna appears in the role of spokesman in military matters and seconds Hani’s opinion, but he adds: “If you would like us to grant you asylum and protect you in the region of the oases of the Arabs, but not near the canals of Chosroes, then we will do so.” For the Banu Shaiban had promised the Shah neither themselves to disturb the peace, nor to support any insurrectionist. “That for which you enlist support displeases the kings!” Muhammad can respond to this in no other way than to express his confidence that Allah will cause the believers to triumph. The Banu Bakr b. Wa’il, who are addressed in the same fashion, also do not reject Muhammad’s request outright. They point to their many battles against the Persians; when they have finally conquered this enemy, they will consider this request. These negotiations can be dated to Muhammad’s third-to-last pilgrimage season in Mecca, thus, according to Islamic reckoning, to the end of the eleventh year of his mission.

Medina

81

Medina Nothing came of the [idea of] resettlement to northeastern Arabia. But Muhammad still had one iron in the fire, as would become clear in the coming pilgrimage season: That is, his connection to Medina, which went back to his greatgrandfather Hashim and had never been severed. The oasis region of Medina had a noteworthy aspect. The population was divided into two groups. On the one hand there were the Arab tribes, themselves divided into the Aus and the Khazraj. Aus and Khazraj appear in the genealogy as two brothers who belonged to the Yemeni Arabs. Therefore, like the Khuza’a, their descendants were not northern or Ishmael Arabs. The destruction of the dam and irrigation system in Marib [in Yemen] was said to have been the catastrophe that had forced the ancestors of these two tribes to emigrate, allegedly leading to their settlement in Medina. This is certainly false, for this event (Sura 34: 16) is to be dated at the earliest to around 600. It is more likely the case that the emergence of a group of Arabs tracing their lineage to Ishmael, with the Quraysh seeing themselves as their leaders, is what transformed the Arab tribes outside this group into “Yemeni” Arabs, thereby forcing them to adopt a corresponding history. Jewish tribes who had adopted the Arabic language formed the second group of the population. They believed that their ancestors had fled to the oasis when the Romans had conquered Palestine, but they also knew of other versions of their history, for example that their ancestors had crossed the Red Sea with Moses but then stayed in Medina. Incidentally, the Sassanids had used the Jewish tribes as their tax collectors in northwestern Arabia. The Aus and the Khazraj were united in wanting to destroy the supremacy of their Jewish neighbors, who, among other things, possessed considerable wealth as blacksmiths, weapons-makers, goldsmiths and gold-lenders, and who were very proud of their superior military technology. But in all other ways the two Arab tribal groups were like hostile brothers; each was anxious to conquer the other with Jewish support. In the seventh year of Muhammad’s mission, this rivalry led to the bloody Battle of Bu’ath, a locality in the territory of the Jewish tribe of the Banu Qurayza. The battle ended in a bitter defeat for the Khazraj. Previously they were said to have been much more powerful than the Aus. But the Aus had managed to conclude alliances with the Jewish Banu n-Nadir and the just-mentioned Banu Qurayza and also to gain as allies the Bedouin tribe of the Banu Muzaina. The livelihood of the Khazraj was partially destroyed when their enemies laid waste to their date palm plantations. The first Medinans with whom Muhammad made contact in Mecca, we are told, were two Khazraj; Muhammad was related to their tribe, as mentioned above; his father’s grave was with [the Khazraj in Medina]; and he had lived

82

Chapter 7: The Expulsion

there together with his mother for a short time as a boy. However, the two Khazraj had not sought out [Muhammad] in Mecca, rather [they had sought] ‘Utba b. Rabi’a b. ‘Abd Shams, already known to us, whom they asked to serve as a mediator in a dispute. – Perhaps this report is the origin of the claim, nowhere to be found in the early sources, that Muhammad was invited to Medina to serve as a mediator. – The two Medinans were said to have heard Muhammad’s preaching on this occasion and accepted his doctrines. One of the two remained in Mecca, while the other, As’ad b. Zurara, returned and proselytized for his new faith in his native land. An ally of the Aus, Abu l-Haitam b. at-Taijihan, who had long before rejected polytheism, also converted to Islam during a sojourn in Mecca. In the Medinan neighborhood of Quba, mainly populated by Aus, the first prayers were said according to the Islamic rite, but no mention is made of the Islamic direction of prayer, which was probably introduced later. To be sure, the land on which this occurred belonged to a Khazraj. As’ad b. Zurara, however, enjoyed the special favor of Muhammad. To him he sent two Koran reciters. It was also under As’ad that the prototype of the Friday service was introduced, with the time possibly chosen deliberately to precede the Jewish Sabbath. After his expulsion from Mecca, Muhammad would declare attendance at [Friday prayer] to be obligatory. In Medina there was no public pagan cult that could have been taken over and filled with hanif content. The emergence of independent “Islamic” forms of institutionalized divine worship was unavoidable here. This ensued independently of Muhammad and was thus the fruit of the spatial separation of Islam from Mecca and the Kaaba. Perhaps eighteen months before the expulsion Muhammad had the vision of the ascent into heaven, and six months after that he dreamed that he had been transported in the night to Jerusalem. – What this dream presumably means we shall consider shortly. – In the time period between these two visions was the pilgrimage of the twelfth year of his mission. During these days [of pilgrimage], 12 Medinans met with Muhammad in ‘Aqaba, not far from Medina, among them As’ad b. Zurara and Abu l-Haitam b. at-Taijihan, and gave to Muhammad the “Pledge of Women.” [They pledged] to associate nothing with Allah; to refrain from stealing; to refrain from fornicating; to refrain from killing their children; to avoid slander; to disobey the Messenger in nothing that was right and proper (cf. Sura 60: 12); if they fulfilled these obligations, then paradise would be theirs; if they violated them, then judgment would be at Allah’s discretion. It is possible that the sending of the two Koran reciters occurred in connection with this meeting. There is no mention of Muhammad wanting to move to Medina and claim protection from the Aus and Khazraj. The label “Pledge of Women” does not stem from this time; it is a later invention, for it relates this first, peaceful treaty, in which no mention is made of waging war, to the second, at which in the fol-

Medina

83

lowing year over 70 Medinans are said to have promised Muhammad that they would wage war at his side against his enemies. However, this clause was retroactively inserted at a later date into the second pledge at Aqaba so as to impose on the Medinans obligations that they had never promised to discharge. In truth, the second pledge involved only a traditional promise of protection, but nothing more. The report about the second meeting at Aqaba, at which 73 men and two women participated out of a group of pilgrims from Medina numbering around 500, is embellished with the aspects of a legend. They met secretly in the night with Muhammad. And now, if one believes the traditional sources, there was actually a promise of protection. Al-‘Abbas b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib accompanies Muhammad. This arouses our suspicion regarding the truthfulness of the tradition; it could have been edited to enhance the glory of the Abbasids. But one should consider that, after the death of Abu Talib and the disavowal of Abu Lahab through the flight to al-Taif, al-‘Abbas could have taken on the role of protector of his nephew, even if this is nowhere stated. The sources now have him acting in precisely this role, and he was adamant vis-à-vis the Medinans that Muhammad still enjoyed every conceivable protection from his clan and by no means had to flee to Medina. One of the pilgrims answered him that she would pour out her own blood for the Messenger and would remain eternally true to her word once she had given it; even the loss of property or the death of the noblest among them would not shake her resolve. Thus did they pay him homage. After this, Muhammad selected 12 leaders, following the model of Moses at Sinai (cf. Sura 5: 12) and invoking the apostles of Jesus. When this had happened, Satan woke the Meccans with a loud cry: Muhammad and the “Sabi’ans” with him had conspired against the Quraysh. One of the Medinans drew his sword, but Muhammad corrected him: He had not yet received Allah’s command to wage war. On the following morning, as soon as the Medinan Muslims had drawn apart from the body of their clueless fellow Medinans, the Meccans tried to seize hold of them as they tried to leave for home. They only got hold of one, Sa’d b. ‘Ubada, but they let him go after Mut’im b. ‘Adi and al-Harith, a grandson of Umayya b. ‘Abd Shams, intervened on his behalf; Sa’d had entered into an agreement of protection (in Arabic: al-jiwar) with both of them, which had to be honored even in this case. The main story line in the traditional Islamic biography of the prophet gives one the impression that this entire process, summed up under the concept of the Hijra, catered to and was directed by Muhammad. This is no more true here than it was previously in the flight to Ethiopia. A number of traditions attest that roughly 620 individual Meccans fled to Medina in order to escape persecution at the hands of their fellow Meccans. The Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf, a clan of the Aus

84

Chapter 7: The Expulsion

tribe, had once taken in a Meccan who had killed a man and protected him from avengers; now followers of Muhammad, or of hanif religious ideals, found refuge in their midst. The first of these was Abu Salama ‘Abdallah b. ‘Abd al-Asad of the Banu Makhzum. The loss of adult men capable of bearing arms would have been a source of concern to the Meccans; probably in order to make Abu Salama reconsider his decision, they used coercion to hold back his wife, who was also of the Banu Makhzum, but then they relented and allowed her to follow her husband. – Abu Salama will die in 625 in the Battle of Uhud; Muhammad will then marry his widow and thus make the Banu Makhzum, influential in Mecca, into his in-laws. – In Quba’, the settlement of the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf, ‘Amir b. Rabi’a and ‘Abdallah b. Jahsh also received asylum. ‘Amir was an ally of the Quraysh Banu ‘Adi b. Ka’b; al-Khattab, the father of ‘Umar, is said to have adopted him. One of the earliest followers of Muhammad, ‘Amir had moved to Ethiopia in order to practice his faith freely, but then had returned like some others to Mecca, and now was seeking refuge in Medina. ‘Abdallah b. Jahsh, an ally of the Banu Umayya b. ‘Abd Shams, but closely related to Muhammad through his mother Umayma bt. ‘Abd al-Muttalib b. Hashim, left Mecca with his entire family, leaving his house empty. After this, Ibn Ishaq narrates, Muslims migrated to Medina “in droves,” among others also the clan of ‘Uthman b. Maz’un. Young, unmarried men formed a particular group among the refugees. They all took up residence with Sa’d b. Haitama; he belonged not to the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf, but to a clan of the Aus Manat, which had likewise settled in Quba’. The Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf allegedly begrudged one another the new arrivals, so that they drew lots to decide who would live with whom. In any event, the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf bore the greatest share of the burden, [for] other Medinan clans are only mentioned here and there and appear only to have been willing to take in refugees when they were related by family ties.

Muhammad’s Expulsion It was different in the case of Muhammad’s departure from Mecca, which he himself unmistakably described as an expulsion. “How many a town have we already annihilated that was more powerful than yours, the one that expelled you, and (their inhabitants) found no one to help them!” (Sura 47: 13), he has his alter ego retrospectively grumble. In the Koran, he never speaks of a hijra in relation to himself. It was only after his death, when a certain faction of his followers began to understand the break with Mecca as the decisive step in the foundation of the community willed by Allah, that “the hijra of Allah’s Messenger” became the cornerstone of the earliest history of Islam. At this time Mu-

Muhammad’s Expulsion

85

hammad was not thinking at all of founding a permanent community in Medina. On the contrary, he was certain that Allah would soon bring him back to Mecca as a victor. Sura 28, verse 85, among others, attests to this, a verse that came to Muhammad on the road to Medina, according to the Islamic tradition. We will examine other pieces of evidence that reinforce this point. In the account of this event, edited along hagiographic lines, it is the angel Gabriel who warns Muhammad of a murder plot orchestrated by the evil Makhzumite Abu Jahl. Abu Bakr hastily makes the necessary arrangements and then sets out with Muhammad. Fearing pursuit by Quraysh henchmen, they must first spend three days hiding in a cave. Abu Bakr’s son ‘Abdallah keeps his ears open and learns of the enemies’ plans; a ward of Abu Bakr supplies the two fugitives with milk and meat. The trap laid by the Quraysh comes to nothing, although they have promised a reward of 100 camels to anyone who can apprehend Muhammad. Abu Bakr’s family has no knowledge of the location to which he and Muhammad are travelling. The search for the two having failed, [Abu Bakr’s] ward comes to the cave again with a guide, as pre-arranged; the journey now proceeds on a secure route without hindrance. A jinn delivers a coded message to Abu Bakr’s anxious family telling them of the successful conclusion of the hijra. In Medina, Muhammad takes up residence with the other unmarried men at Sa’d b. Haitama’s, while Abu Bakr for unclear reasons is housed in a fortified farmhouse in the district of as-Sunh. Muhammad remains only a short time in Quba’ with the refugees who had arrived there before him. He is drawn to more familiar surroundings – whereby naturally Allah’s explicit will is done. Muhammad mounts his camel and waits to see where it will carry him, and in this way he is brought to the Khazraj clan of the Banu Malik b. an-Najjar, to which As’ad b. Zurara also belongs. Here he is welcome. A young man from this clan recites for him from memory seventeen suras. In this way Allah’s Messenger is reassured that the Koran reciters he had dispatched [to Medina] have done good work, and he makes the reciter his scribe; he was Zaid b. Thabit, who would later be famous for his expert knowledge of revelation. But such matters were at most a minor concern for him at this time. The rejection of his inspirations by the Meccans had wounded him too deeply. Regarding this, he had told them that Allah had never spared the Israelites when they had become disobedient to him. They had been driven out of Jerusalem (Sura 7: 161– 163), and the same thing could surely happen again (Sura 17: 1– 9). What Muhammad has dreamed – perhaps the so-called night journey (Sura 17: 1) to Jerusalem is meant – is said to have instilled fear in the Meccans (Sura 17: 60).² But the many stubborn people among them would not convert even if Muhammad had performed the miracles demanded of him (Sura 17: 90 – 95): The expulsion

86

Chapter 7: The Expulsion

to Medina appears now as the prelude to Allah’s second destruction of “Jerusalem,” namely Mecca, and to the triumph of his Messenger.³

Chapter 8: The Pagan Prophet Praise to Allah, the lord of humanity! To the merciful one, the one who always shows mercy, the one who rules on the Day of Judgment! We worship you (i. e. Allah), we beg you for help. Lead us on the straight path, the path of those whom you bless and with whom you are not angry, of those who do not go astray! (Sura 1)

The Best Community In Sura 7, verse 157, Muhammad had described himself as Allah’s Messenger and as the pagan prophet, who, foretold in the Torah and the Gospel, has now appeared, and who commands the right and forbids all that Allah judges to be reprehensible. This formula – commanding the right and forbidding the wrong – becomes from now on a distinctive characteristic of the community as described by the pagan prophet with the divinely promulgated moral code. It is a re-founding of the one that Abraham had founded in the past. “You shall become” such a community, one that achieves happiness, as he demands a few years after the expulsion in Sura 3, verse 104: “Do not become like those who divided and argued among themselves, after they had already received clear proofs,” proofs of the truth of the laws and regulations enacted by Allah. “They,” namely the Jews and Christians, “will face a terrible punishment!” “You, however,” you Muslims, “have become the best community (in Arabic: al-umma) that has ever been founded for human beings. You command the right, forbid the wrong, and believe in Allah. If the ‘people of the scripture’ also believed, it would be better for them, and there are believers among them, but most of them are evildoers” (Sura 3: 110). The rituals surrounding the Kaaba were not available in Medina as a unifying bond among the Muslims. The Meccan refugees who had found refuge in Quba’ with the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf had erected a place of worship there where they gathered every Saturday for religious services. The memory of this lasted far into the Umayyad era. But Muhammad felt that he was in better hands with his Medinan followers, who were also his relatives, from the Khazraj tribe, who, as we have already mentioned, had begun to create their own ritual order distinct from Jewish customs, part of which was the Friday religious service. Muhammad adopted this custom as his own. The introduction of the call to prayer was also a Khazraj initiative, and the anecdote in which ‘Umar b. al-Khattab claims also to have thought of this innovation illustrates the tensions that existed between the refugees living in Quba’, including ‘Umar, and their Aus prohttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-009

88

Chapter 8: The Pagan Prophet

tectors, on the one hand, and Muhammad along with the Khazraj, on the other. The content of the call to prayer that has been traditional since those days, in which Muhammad is praised as the Messenger of Allah and held up as the decisive authority for the religion, and the emphasis on the “proofs” of the truth of the rules he has enacted as well as the warnings against divisions, betray how far removed from the facts is the triumphalistic Islamic portrayal of Muhammad’s life. The verses we have just cited from Sura 3 are not the only evidence for the precarious situation in which Muhammad found himself. In the following chapters we shall return to this topic again and again. Thus, from the standpoint of asserting his own authority, it was urgently necessary for Muhammad to take on the identity of a pagan prophet, that is, to preach and to implement a ritual order formulated by Allah himself – in this regard it was comparable to the war against Mecca that we shall treat in the following chapter. Corresponding to the hanif understanding of history, this order, in order to reflect the authentic will of Allah, had to be linked directly to Abraham and thus extend back into the past beyond Jesus and Moses. These are the religious-historical and socio-political presuppositions behind Muhammad’s composition of Sura 2 in the first 18 months of his exile. The independence of the “original” religion proclaimed by the pagan prophet, understood as distinct from the Jewish and Christian models, shall be expressed not only by holding communal religious services on Fridays. The ritual prayer that had to be carried out several times each day as the core of hanif piety must no longer be executed facing Jerusalem. In Mecca, at the Kaaba, people had positioned themselves so that they had prayed toward Jerusalem, but with the holy building directly in front of them. If they were no longer at the Kaaba, the most important hanif shrine, allegedly built by Abraham and Ishmael, then facing Jerusalem was, so to speak, a glorification of the Mosaic tradition that contradicted the [hanif] doctrine, [for] one [now] wished to move beyond [the Jewish or Mosaic faith] which was a falsification of [the original Abrahamic religion.] Approximately one-and-a-half years after the arrival in Medina Muhammad thus changed the the direction of prayer, and he did so by following the example of Zaid b. ‘Amr b. Nufails. And his alter ego speaks of this important innovation in Sura 2 in these terms: “We see often how you turn your faces to heaven and face this way and that way. We want to show you a direction of prayer with which you are satisfied. Therefore turn your faces towards the holy place of prayer! Wherever you are, turn your face that way! Those to whom the scripture was brought know that this is the truth that comes from your lord. Allah is not unaware of what they do. Even if you performed any kind of miracle for those who have received the scripture, they will not follow your direction of prayer. No one follows the direction of prayer of another. If you should listen to their

Charges against the Jews and Christians

89

speculations, after you have henceforth received knowledge, then you would be one of those who do wrong” (Sura 2: 144 f.). The hanif religion, which Jews and Christians should join, is the only true one, and thus the Arab pagans are urged all the more to join it without delay. Muhammad explains this to them in Sura 2, verse 256. He says of the hanif religion that it imposes no compulsion on those who follow it. The truth of the new [or] “original” ritual order manifests itself precisely in that it prescribes no actions that could be felt as unnatural – contrary to the fitra – a doctrine the basic gist of which he had already preached in Mecca (Sura 30: 18 – 30). It is therefore no longer a sign of profound piety to act as the Hums-brothers used to do, entering their houses or tents from the rear during the pilgrimage (Sura 2: 189).

Charges against the Jews and Christians However, it is the Christians and Jews especially who must now abandon the burdensome practices that they have introduced into their religious customs in defiance of Allah, the Jews their strict dietary laws (Sura 3: 93 – 97 and Sura 4: 160) and the Christians monasticism (Sura 57: 26 f.). The true religion involves a lightening of burdens, not rules that it is difficult to follow (Sura 2: 185). But the “people of the scripture,” above all the Jews, enraged Muhammad. For they rejected his assertions and created uncertainty in the minds of the pagans who had just begun converting to Islam. “Many of the ‘people of the scripture’ would love to make you unbelievers again after you have come to believe. Because the truth was already made clear to them, they now for their part are envious (of you). Bear with them, until Allah decides! Allah is all-powerful.” Muslims should practice the rites zealously; they shall receive their reward. “(The ‘scripture-folk’) assert: ‘Only those who are Jews or Christians shall enter paradise.’ That is their wishful thinking! Say: ‘Show your proof, if you (are certain that you) speak the truth!’ No! Rather, the one who turns his face entirely towards Allah and does good is the one whose reward awaits him with Allah…” (verses 109 – 112). But in much of Sura 2 Muhammad strikes a complaining tone. The pagans reject him because Allah has not sent him an unambiguous sign that would confirm his prophetic status; Jews and Christians only want to win converts to their own religion, but if they were to read the scriptures that they received from Allah in the past, they would have to recognize the truth of Muhammad’s claims (verses 113 – 121). Muhammad’s alter ego directly addresses the “Banu Israel” on this point: In the past, Allah honored them above all other peoples – but what will

90

Chapter 8: The Pagan Prophet

they say at the [Last] Judgment, if they now prove themselves to be unworthy of this honor (verse 122 f)? The memory of Abraham, the forefather of the Jews but also founder of the Kaaba, should prompt the Jews to accept Muhammad’s message. Abraham and the Kaaba, which he and Ishmael built, are deployed with great verbosity against the Jews who refuse to bow down before Muhammad’s claim to authority. At Allah’s command the two of them erected the Kaaba, introduced the pilgrimage rites, [and] prayed for Allah’s blessing: “Our lord, accept this from us! You are the all-hearing, all-knowing one! Our lord, help us both turn (our faces toward you), make of all our descendants one community, which turns (its face) toward you! Show us our rites and turn to us! You are the merciful one, who always turns (towards your creatures)!” (verse 127 f.). With these sentences Muhammad undergirded his demand that Jews and Christians also had to subordinate themselves to him. Another early-Medinan passage of the “Recitation” also expresses this point clearly: “You people of the scripture! Let there be straight talk between us! We want to worship Allah alone and associate nothing with him! And none of us should regard another as lord – that belongs only to Allah. And if the (people of the scripture) do not join you, then say: ‘Testify (at least) that we turn (our faces toward Allah)’” (Sura 3: 64), namely, that we are “Muslims” and profess the true religion, the religion of Abraham. “You people of the book!” Muhammad continues, “Why do you argue about Abraham? The Torah and Gospel after all were only sent down after him” and therefore announce a religion that cannot by any means be used to criticize the prophet from Mecca, who is the true heir of Abraham. “Have you then no intelligence? You dispute (with me) about things about which you (in fact) have no knowledge. But why argue about things about which you know nothing? Allah knows (about them), but you do not. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, rather he was a ‘Muslim’ hanif and no idolater. The people nearest to Abraham are those who followed him in his time, and this prophet here and those who believe. Allah is the friend of the believers” (Sura 3: 65 – 68). Allah struck a covenant with all the prophets before Muhammad, who had transmitted a part of the heavenly book and some portion of wisdom, by which they – meaning they and the communities founded by them – would help and believe in the Messenger who comes to them confirming [Allah’s message]. How can they now desire anything other than Allah’s religion, to whom all in heaven and on the earth turn their faces, voluntarily or by compulsion? (Sura 3: 81– 83) Back to Sura 2! Because he has pledged himself to spread the faith and religious practice of Abraham, Muhammad is the man to whom pagans and also Jews and Christians owe obedience; at Abraham’s supplication, he has been called by Allah. “Our lord,” Abraham prayed, “call (in our progeny) a Messenger from their midst, who will recite your miraculous signs to them, and will teach

Implications Regarding Political Power

91

them ‘the book’ and the wisdom and purify them…” (Sura 2: 129). Only fools do not wish to belong to Abraham’s religious community, the community of those who are chosen in this world and achieve exemplary piety in the next. Allah once commanded him: “Turn (your face toward Allah)!” and he complied: “I turn (my face) toward the lord of the worlds!” Abraham – and later Jacob – bequeathed this religion to his sons and grandsons. If the Jews and Christians continue to insist that others must adopt their religion, then they should be answered as follows: by no means, “rather, (join) the religious community of Abraham, who was a hanif!” (verse 135). Because Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus stand in the line of inheritance from Abraham, Muhammad, too, is their heir, and consequently, as the hanif prophet yearned for by Abraham, [he is] also the lord of the Jews and Christians, who maliciously suppress Allah’s testimony. The change in the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca is, in this context, an unmistakable sign that Muhammad has taken possession of his inheritance; it is to be followed strictly, “so that the people have no argument against you” (verse 150) and cannot allege that you are ignorant of your rank in the eyes of Allah.

Implications Regarding Political Power Muhammad now turns to the serious implications that membership in the religious community of Abraham will have regarding the political situation. For Muhammad is not permitted to settle in Medina with his followers for the long-term; he must reform the cult of the Kaaba along monotheistic lines. For the time being, this is impossible, since the Meccans exclude him and his exiled followers from participating in the annual rites. Only violence can change this: “Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but do not commit excesses. Allah does not love those who commit excesses. Kill (your enemies) wherever you find them, and expel them, as they have expelled you! Seduction (from Islam) is worse than killing! But do not fight them at the sacred place of prayer (at the Kaaba) until they fight you there. And if you fight them, then kill them! That is what the unbelievers deserve!” (verses 190 f.). This abandonment of tradition was, to say the least, strange [to Muhammad’s audience], so Muhammad returns once again to this theme in Sura 2: “They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting during it. Say: ‘Fighting in it is a grave matter. But keeping people back from the path of Allah, unbelief concerning Allah and (his) sacred place of prayer, and the expulsion of his people from there, are graver still with Allah!’ Temptation is worse than killing. They fight you relentlessly in order to turn you back if possible from a (prescribed) religion. Those among you who

92

Chapter 8: The Pagan Prophet

fall away from their religion and then die as unbelievers, whose works in this life and the next are misguided, they will dwell eternally in the hellfire” (verse 217). But he who is killed in the path of Allah truly lives on, [although] unfortunately this fact may not be immediately evident to the community. “We will test you with some hunger and lack of goods and fruits and (with the loss of) human lives. Convey a joyful message to those who persevere!” (verse 155).

Additional Rules for the Best Community Muhammad then goes over a few rules that his hanif community must observe in its everyday life. Carrion and the flesh of animals that have been slaughtered without mindfulness of Allah, as well as blood and pork in general, may not be consumed (verse 173). Again and again, his words are framed by warnings about the fires of hell and praise for the obedient. Piety is manifested not only in zealous observance of ritual prayer, but also must be made evident in generous donations to the community (verse 177). Peace within the community requires rules regarding blood revenge (verse 178 f.) and inheritance rights (verses 180 – 182). He then lays out the regulations for fasting during Ramadan. Not for the first time in 624, the year in which Sura 2 originated, but already one year earlier, that is, immediately after the expulsion, we are told that Muhammad commanded his followers to fast in this month. This circumstance helps to clarify why now Sura 2 speaks of a loosening of strict rules. Just as it had been required of “those before you,” that is, Jews and Christians, it is now required also of Muslims, and for a precisely enumerated number of days; if one should fall ill or be travelling, then he may delay the fasting to another time. Those who are wealthy enough to do so may instead feed the poor. Such alms-giving is advisable even for those who are able to complete the fast within the month of Ramadan. Under no circumstances may one frivolously free oneself from the burden of abstinence through charitable giving (Sura 2: 184). In the following verse Muhammad adds a justification for the prescription of fasting: “It is the month of Ramadan in which the ‘recitation’ was sent down as correct guidance for human beings, indeed in clear words of guidance and deliverance.” At the same time he now lends an unambiguous clarity to his prescriptions by repeating them almost word for word, but leaving out any mention of alms-giving as a substitute for fasting. Instead it reads: “Allah wishes to make it easy for you, not difficult,” then adding the admonition: “You should fulfill the number of days and praise Allah for guiding you aright. Perhaps you will be thankful” (verse 185). From now on Muslims may only provide meals to the poor as penance for missed fasting; everyone must abstain from eating and drinking. After Allah’s

Additional Rules for the Best Community

93

promise that he will listen to those who call on him, Muhammad again speaks of fasting. Obviously he has had some bad experiences regarding the ritual fidelity of many of his followers. For he now grants that sexual intercourse is permissible at night during the time of fasting, because husbands and wives are as closely united to each other as a body and its clothing. Apparently intercourse had previously been forbidden, for Muhammad complains that, by violating this rule, Muslims had “deceived themselves,” that is, had cancelled out any merit in the next life that their fasting may otherwise have earned them. Now one may fulfill the rules commanded by Allah after this lightening of their burdens; as soon as one can distinguish a black from a white thread at dawn, one must fast until evening. However, sexual intercourse is forbidden for all who have decided on making a retreat at a mosque during Ramadan; “these are the boundaries (in Arabic: al-hudud) of Allah, so do not go near them…” (verse 187). He then enters into a detailed discussion of the pilgrimage, whose religious customs are to be profoundly reformed, as we have mentioned; above all the special status that the Hums-brothers claim for themselves in this event is to be annulled; Allah is to be worshipped also at the religious sites in the vicinity. [It is significant] that Muhammad should discuss this topic so thoroughly precisely at a time when there is no possible way for him to make the pilgrimage to Mecca; this shows us yet again that, despite his involuntary change of location, his thinking and striving are still totally focused on his Quraysh heritage, indeed this orientation has even been strengthened by the manner in which he has justified his claim to power: according to their origin, all human beings constitute a single community; after they had become divided, Allah sent forth prophets who were charged with restoring harmony by proclaiming his word; this is exactly the duty that Muhammad now has to fulfill (verse 213). In this conviction, he has fixed his gaze on Mecca. Wine and gambling are not forbidden, but one should avoid them. The property of orphans is to be honestly administered. One may only marry pagan women if they first convert to Islam; one should refrain from intercourse with menstruating women; otherwise men should regard women as their fields, which they may enter as they please (verses 219 – 223). In a lengthy passage, Muhammad regulates divorce and a few questions linked to it (verses 226 – 238). The closer one gets to the end of Sura 2, the harder it is to find a common thread. The prohibition of usury and the instruction to use written contracts when incurring debts (verses 275 – 284) echo again a theme that apparently was of special importance to Muhammad: to prevent any sort of divisions among his followers. Again and again he mixes in to his remarks appeals to [his followers] to be prepared to donate money and fight for his cause, and in doing this he alludes to stories rooted in the Old Testament that he means his listeners to interpret along the lines of

94

Chapter 8: The Pagan Prophet

his admonitions to them. And through it all, an intense pressure to recognize that his rank exceeds that of all his predecessors: “These are the miraculous signs of Allah! We present them to you in accordance with the truth. You belong truly to the Messengers!” (verse 252). The earlier Messengers of Allah were not all equal in rank – [although] in verse 136 he had asserted the opposite: one may not make any distinctions among the prophets of the past (cf. also verse 285). Now, however, [he does make distinctions], for Allah addressed one or more of them directly, thereby conferring a special honor on them, and thus discord arose; many people are believers, many are not, and thus they fight against each other. One may of course not assume that this is contrary to Allah’s will (verse 253), for he is firmly in control, he guides his creation untiringly (verse 255). The unceasingly operative creative power of God, often illustrated with the metaphor of water, requires of course the equally unceasing observance of Islamic ritual. The general rule is this: “Allah is the friend of those who believe. He leads them out of darkness into the light.” The idolaters are destined for hell (verse 257). The rules of the hanif religion, summarized here in highly abbreviated fashion, are enclosed as if by bookends by two passages, in which the content of the Islamic faith is summarized in rough terms: The “book,” which is elevated above any possibility of doubt, serves the God-fearing as a guide to right action, those “who believe in the hidden, who perform ritual prayer, who donate from what we have given them for their support; who believe what was sent down to you and what was sent down before you, and who are firmly convinced of the hereafter” (verses 1– 5). At the very end Muhammad returns again to the content of the faith. “The Messenger believes in what his lord has sent down to him, and so do the believers, each believes in Allah, his angels, books, messengers, and we make no distinction among his messengers. (The believers) say: ‘We hear and obey. Grant us your forgiveness, our lord! All things return to you. Allah burdens no one with more than he can bear; in his favor shall be reckoned all the (good deeds) that he has achieved, to his discredit (the evil). Our lord, do not reproach us if we have forgotten something or make a mistake! Our lord, do not lay too heavy a burden on us, as you did to those who were before us! Do not encumber us with burdens that we cannot carry! Pardon us and forgive us, have mercy on us! You are our protector. Lead us to victory over the unbelievers!” (verse 285 f.).

The Sura of “The Cow”

95

The Sura of “The Cow” Like every Sura, this one, too, has as its title a key word that indicates something about its content; this key word is “the cow,” which seems strange at first glance. However, it draws the attention of Muslims to a ritual requirement by which their community – the best one that Allah has ever made (Sura 3: 110) – sets itself apart from all others, the ritual requirement that actually is the first to make it a hanif community, thus making Muhammad a pagan, hanif prophet. The hanifs thought they knew that the anger and curse of Allah rested on the Jews and Christians, for they had presumptuously gone beyond the authentic, Abrahamic rites, as we have already discussed. Like Zaid b. ‘Amr b. Nufail, the Medinan hanif Abu Qais’ b. al-Aslat is said to have tested the religion of the Jews and Christians, and he came to the conclusion that neither corresponded to the will of Allah, for otherwise human beings would have been created as Jews or Christians! “But we were … created in such a way that our religious practice remains a hanif one from generation to generation. We drive the sacrificial animals that come in fetters with docility – only their withers are free of their (decorative) covering.” The animals selected for sacrifice, ambling towards the pilgrimage shrine, are characteristic of the hanif religion, as one gathers from these verses of Abu Qais’, who incidentally did not join Muhammad’s movement after his arrival in Medina, even though he was related by marriage to Khadija. In Christianity and Judaism, the notion of sacrifice had undergone a process of sublimation, but this approach was evidently considered illegitimate [by the hanifs], and now in Sura 2 Muhammad also rejects it.¹ “At that time (in the desert) Moses said to his people: ‘Allah commands you to sacrifice a cow!’ They replied: ‘Are you mocking us?’ He persisted: ‘I take refuge with Allah from being one of the ignorant!’” At the behest of those who doubted him, Moses shares details about the sacrificial animal: It must be a cow of middle age, with a pronounced yellow color, without blemish, and never used for any work. Only after receiving this precise description are they convinced, and they set about searching for the right animal; “they almost did not do it!” (verses 67– 71). These verses reflect [the Old Testament Book of] Numbers 19: God commands Moses and Aaron to slaughter and burn a cow, [and tells them that] its ashes should be stored and added to the water with which one purifies someone who has come in contact with a corpse (verse 11). These directions appear in garbled form in Sura 2. If a dead man is touched by a part of the slaughtered cow, then he will come to life again and testify against his murderer (verse 73). The purification rite thus becomes for Muhammad an animal sacrifice commanded by Allah that allows him to prove his power of raising up the dead, a power that is affirmed again and again in the Koran: “Thus Allah brings the dead to life and shows you

96

Chapter 8: The Pagan Prophet

his miraculous signs…” (verse 73). However, the Jews abandoned animal sacrifice contrary to Allah’s will. Therefore, they have laden themselves with Allah’s wrath (verse 61). Now, however, that the pagan prophet has been called, for the last time the opportunity is being offered to them and to the Christians and all others who believe in the last day to liberate themselves from fear of the final judgment by finally doing “what is right” (verse 62), namely, performing the rites proclaimed by Muhammad. “You people of the Cow Sura!” This battle cry, allegedly going back to Muhammad himself, is said to have stopped Muslims from fleeing in a battle that they thought they were about to lose. Indeed, Sura 2 goes to the heart of Muhammad’s claim to be the pagan prophet. Bookended by the religious doctrines that he transmitted as Allah’s Messenger, he devotes the main body of [of Sura 2] to explaining his opinions regarding the content of the ritual order enacted by Allah himself. A few rules, for example the command to write down contracts, already go beyond purely ritual matters; it is the beginning of what remains to the present day a defining mark of Islam, namely, the idea that the whole of human life must be subordinated to what are seen as the eternally true and immutable norms that allegedly stem from Allah, beginning from ritual and emanating outward. Whoever adopts this idea will not go astray like the Jews and Christians and need not fear the wrath of Allah. Sura 1, the Sura that “opens” the Koran,² also arose in these first Medinan years: It is the quintessence of the preaching of the pagan prophet; its recitation belongs to the obligatory elements of the Muslim rites, and it is entirely fitting that it stands at the beginning of what became the canonical ordering of the Suras.³

Chapter 9: War against Mecca They ask you about the booty (that has been taken from the enemies killed in battle). Say: “It belongs to Allah and his Messenger.” Be good to one another, obey Allah and his Messenger, if you are believers! The believers are those whose hearts tremble when Allah’s name is mentioned; whose faith increases when Allah’s miraculous signs are recited to them; those who rely on Allah, carry out the ritual prayer, and who donate from what we (namely, Allah) give them for their support. Those are the true believers. They occupy the high ranks with their lord, forgiveness and noble provision shall be theirs. (A guarantee of this is also when) your lord led you out of your house (in Medina and into battle). A few of the believers opposed this and disputed with you about the truth, even though it had been made clear to them – (they disputed), as if they were being driven to death with their eyes wide open! At that time Allah promised you one of the two groups (either the Quraysh caravan or the troops sent to defend it) and you wished that it had been the unarmed one (i.e. the caravan). But Allah wished to confirm the truth with his words and exterminate the unbelievers so that he might verify the truth and expose the lie as false, even if the criminals did not like it! (Sura 8, verses 1– 8)

Abuse of the Right of Protection Hassan b. Thabit, a Khazraj from the clan of Banu n-Najjar, became Muhammad’s court poet. After Muhammad’s death, he looked back on the services that the Medinans had rendered to Muhammad and his cause. Having fallen into dire straits in his hometown, Muhammad ended up in their midst. In Mecca, Mut’im b. ‘Adi had finally granted him protection according to the customs of the time, and the Medinans did the same: “[When] a man of noble lineage came [to them], a chosen one, (they said): ‘Welcome, in security and with rich provision! What a good prophet, what good fortune Allah has granted to us, what a noble one for us to protect!” Thus, according to the understanding of the Medinans, Muhammad was not in their midst as a result of some special sort of agreement, but rather, he claimed the traditional right of protection, the same right he had already made use of in Mecca. Hassan says nothing about the clause that had been retroactively inserted into the second agreement at ‘Aqaba, according to which the Medinans had pledged themselves to military service, and there is also no mention of this in Sura 8, which reflects on and interprets the first great battle against the Meccans. On the contrary, the resistance to his war plans that Muhammad had encountered from many Muslims is mollified in retrospect only with a reference to Allah’s will, but not condemned as disobedient in light of any sort of existing obligation. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-010

98

Chapter 9: War against Mecca

Other sources make it clear that Muhammad was aiming at war with Mecca as soon as he had settled there, but at first entirely without the support of the Medinans, who were bound by custom only to protect him on their territory against attacks by his enemies. They witnessed how their guest unapologetically flouted their own interests and drew them into a conflict that was extremely dangerous for them. Among other things, Muhammad sent a small military force composed entirely of Meccan refugees to the southwest on the coastal plain along the Red Sea, presumably in order to arouse the anxiety of the Quraysh, whose caravan route to ash-Sha’m passed through that region. No fighting occurred on that occasion. He himself left Medina in August 623 and travelled in the same direction. Near the locality of al-Abwa’, where his mother was buried, he met with the chief of the Banu Damra b. Bakr b. ‘Abd Manat and concluded a treaty with him. The tribal confederation of the Banu Bakr b. ‘Abd Manat had once stood against Qusayy and had supported the Khuza’a, from whom Qusayy had seized control over the Kaaba in Mecca; relations between the Quraysh and the Banu Bakr had thus been tense for a long time until in Muhammad’s day new alliances had emerged. At that time the clan of the Banu Damra of the Bakr still lived with some Khuza’a, specifically 36 miles north of Mecca on the edge of the coastal plain near ‘Usfan. By arranging peaceful relations with them and also with their distant relatives, the Banu Mudlig b. Murra b. Kinana, Muhammad created an important precondition for the conquest of Mecca; from now on he threatened its most important commercial route to the north. For he negotiated a kind of non-aggression treaty; they also agreed not to make common cause with his enemies. Two months later he set out again for that region, this time in order actually to ambush a Meccan caravan; it turned out, however, to be protected by a strong escort, so that he was unable to attack with his small force. He urgently needed more men. Muhammad did not limit his military activities to the Tihama. In the sacred month of Rajab (which began on 29 December 623) in the second year after the expulsion [from Mecca], he sent ‘Abdallah b. Jahsh al-Asadi, one of the exiles who had returned from Ethiopia, through the desert to the south, to the area immediately adjacent to Mecca. At Nakhla, between Mecca and al-Taif, ‘Abdallah surprised a few Quraysh; the Muslims did not think themselves strong enough to initiate battle immediately. They pretended to be travelling to make the lesser pilgrimage, which is possible at any time of the year. Moreover, an attack on the Meccans would have been disreputable, for it was still the month of Rajab, during which all fighting was forbidden. It was, they thought, the last day of the month; but if they waited till the beginning of the next month, Sha’ban, the enemies would have reached the sacred territory and would have been inviolable. ‘Abdallah and his fighters therefore decided that they did not know exactly

Abuse of the Right of Protection

99

whether Rajab was over. Given their doubts, it was better to exploit the opportunity and to strike. They took the caravan by surprise and captured two prisoners, but suffered casualties. The traditions surrounding the battle of Nakhla, at which only a dozen Muslim fighters were involved, were the occasion for a number of important rulings. There was the question of the permissibility of fighting at a time when morality would have prohibited it. Muhammad decided, as we already know, that one could flout morals in pursuing the interests of Allah (Sura 2: 217; cf. verse 191). For the first time the question arose of how to distribute the spoils of war. One-fifth, Muhammad decided, must be reserved for Allah, i. e. for him and his ambitions (cf. Sura 8: 41). Finally we should emphasize that, when Muhammad delegated [this mission to] ‘Abdallah b. Jahsh, he designated him by the title “commander of the believers” (in Arabic: amir al-mu’minin). From the caliphate of ‘Umar b. al-Khattab (r. 634– 644) on, this title will become the standard one for Muslim rulers. Why the raid on Nakhla? He had had to allow a Quraysh caravan to the north to escape, but the travelers had gotten wind of the fact that a betterarmed enemy could be lying in wait for them on the return journey. Probably ‘Abdallah b. Jahsh was supposed to have spied on the Quraysh and also sow doubt in their minds about where Muhammad would strike. Meanwhile, he was working in Medina to create a sense of community among the Muslims, who descended from completely different genealogies – the Aus and the Khazraj counted themselves among the Yemeni Arabs, while the Quraysh considered themselves to be the cream of the offspring of Ishmael; Muhammad’s task was to generate a unifying bond that transcended what had hitherto traditionally united people. Already in Mecca he had joined several of his followers to one another as brothers in a way that went beyond the usually divisive clan boundaries. Following this model, he now bound the refugees or “emigrants” to the native [Medinan Muslims] or “helpers.” He hoped to awaken a sense of solidarity rooted in common religious practices, one that would entice his hosts to set aside their justified misgivings about a military conflict with Mecca. After all, the applicable legal principle was this: “We shall only protect you as we would protect ourselves and our children,” a principle that we also encountered in connection with the Banu Shaiban, from whom Muhammad also tried to seek asylum. We get a sense of how strong the newly created bonds should be from the fact that the new “brothers” are supposed to be heirs to each other. However, this stipulation was revoked already after the Battle of Badr, which claimed many Muslim victims (Sura 8:75).

100

Chapter 9: War against Mecca

The Battle of Badr Badr was a well-watered yet unsettled locality that caravans used as a restingplace. In addition, annual markets were held there. Abu Sufyan b. Harb, leader of the Meccan caravan that was returning from ash-Sha’m in the year 624, had intended as usual to stop there. Certain signs, however, made it appear advisable to him not to travel at the usual tempo towards Mecca, but to make all possible haste. He also send a messenger [in advance of the caravan] to sound the alarm in Mecca and urge the Meccans to rush a military force to defend the caravan against attack, should this become necessary. Abu Jahl assembled all the fighters that were available in the town. But they became fearful that if they now left [Mecca], their women, children, and property would be left behind, defenseless – easy prey for the Banu Bakr, with whom they were again feuding. It would certainly be better to take their women and valuables along with them as they marched to war. The historiography, colored by Islamic bias, presents the whole undertaking as a heinous crime marked by luxury and arrogance, destined to fail due to its moral turpitude. The point of departure for this interpretation is Sura 8, verse 47; Muhammad presents the conquered Meccans to his own followers as a sobering example of pride and overconfidence: “Be not like those who set out from their homes presumptuously and seeking to impress the people!…” We shall learn what unpleasant questions Muhammad wished to cover up by calumniating his enemies. The tradition describes these Koranic standards in vivid hues: On the way, the Quraysh are said to have entertained themselves with female singers, slaughtered camels at every stop, held spearthrowing competitions – in short, they did not take the situation seriously. The contrast with fighters setting out in the cause of Allah is made plain to the audience. The Meccans mustered 950 arms-bearing men and – what wealth! – 100 horses belonging to the prominent [among them], 30 belonging to the Banu Makhzum alone, every horse owner and even a few of the foot soldiers wearing a mail shirt; on top of this, the Quraysh had over 700 camels! The wealthy infidels confronted Muhammad’s pious, poorly equipped, yet sacrifice-ready men. Abu Sufyan drove his caravan to move speedily; he missed the Quraysh army coming to meet him. As soon he had reached safety, he spread word of the fortunate outcome of his journey. Many Quraysh clans then left the troops led by Abu Jahl in the lurch, for they thought the purpose of the undertaking had been fulfilled. But Abu Jahl pressed for a continuation of the campaign. He was presumably spurred to do so by the thought that he had to display the power of Mecca precisely in this endangered region, which Muhammad was threatening to take from the Meccans by means of the treaties mentioned above. But what motivated the Medinans to go beyond the grant of protection

The Battle of Badr

101

they had given Muhammad and to allow their protégé to drag them into a war against his enemies? “Muhammad, and with him the Sabi’ans of your young men and the people from Medina” – this is how the Meccans described their enemy, thereby stressing the new religion as their unifying bond. This view is confirmed by an episode in Medina. Hubaib b. Yusuf and Qais b. Muharrit were two swashbucklers known for their prowess in war, but up to this point they had not yet warmed to Islam. When Muhammad set out from Medina with 470 emigrants and roughly 200 “helpers,” the two did not want to be left behind. They rode off, caught up to Muhammad, and asked him to allow them a share of the booty. He demanded that they convert to Islam on the spot; they initially rejected this demand, whereupon Hubaib is said to have reminded [him] that Muhammad was after all “the son of our sister and our protégé.” [However,] Muhammad was not willing to countenance what were for Hubaib convincing reasons for collaboration according to traditional pagan moral ideas. Hubaib reconsidered the matter before the battle, converted to Islam, and proved his worth in combat. Qais, in contrast, had to return to Medina empty-handed. As soon as the Muslims had returned there victorious and laden with booty, he saw what he had missed out on and now likewise became a Muslim. Membership in the new religion was a precondition for participation in the raids – an extremely useful move on Muhammad’s part. He now purposefully proclaimed the principle that was already implicit in his designation of ‘Abdallah b. Jahsh as “commander of the believers:” Military action was from now on a privilege of the true believers and could only be carried out under his authority, an authority reinforced by Allah that had created a new foundation for Arabia revolving around the performance of religious ritual and the constant recitation of the Koran. It is a new, martially interpreted form of religiosity, which Muhammad would demand soon thereafter quite explicitly in Sura 8. In the night of the 17th of Ramadan (14 March 624), Muhammad’s troops arrived in the vicinity of Badr. The Quraysh encampment lay a short distance away. Muhammad quickly made sure that no wells in the vicinity would be usable by his enemies, thus ensuring that they would have no choice but to shortly make their way to the watering-hole [at Badr]. Indeed, that is where the battle took place, and, if one believes the list of casualties, it was fought with extreme brutality. It ended in victory for the Muslims – according to Sura 8, a surprising triumph, for Muhammad and his followers had expected to encounter the caravan, not this military force sent to defend it, though, to be sure, it had been weakened by the untimely departure of a portion of its fighters. In the one-on-one combat, which, as usual, preceded the general hacking and stabbing, the divisions among the Quraysh clans became evident once again, [divisions] that had been deepened by Muhammad’s appearance [as a self-proclaimed prophet]:

102

Chapter 9: War against Mecca

Makhzumites, among them ‘Utba and Shaiba, who must have been hateful to Muhammad after his adventure in al-Taif, stood against Hashemites closely related to him. Muhammad for his part felt no sympathy for co-religionists who had to fight in the ranks of his enemies and had fallen. This applied to five people, among them two Makhzumites. “Those who inflicted evil on themselves were taken by the angels (of death), who asked: ‘How did it stand with you?’ They answered: ‘We belonged to those whom the people in the land regarded as weak,’ whereupon (the angels questioned further): ‘Was Allah’s land not wide enough that you could have emigrated?’ Their resting place shall be hell – a horrible end!” (Sura 4: 97). Only those [Muslims] who were prevented by violence from fleeing Mecca shall escape this fate (verse 98). Thanks to this victory, substantial wealth fell into the hands of Muhammad and his fighters, for the Quraysh had chosen not to leave their wealth behind, unprotected, in Mecca. Even more valuable, however, were the many prisoners, whose release fetched between one thousand and four thousand silver dirhams per person. In regard to this, the sources report a noteworthy detail: In Mecca, the art of writing was widespread, but not in Medina; when the Quraysh were not able to produce the ransom for a literate prisoner, then, before being allowed to return to Mecca, he had to teach ten Medinans how to write. This detail sheds unexpected light on the cultural conditions in Medina: The Jews, from whose midst the Sassanids had chosen their tax collectors, were in many respects superior to the ummiyun of the Aus and the Khazraj, who lived by agriculture and the cultivation of date palms, and they were well aware of this superiority. We will encounter this often in the depiction of their relations with Muhammad. But the Quraysh, well-versed in commerce, were also in many ways superior to the “helpers.” Muhammad, who had recently recommended the use of written contracts for debts in in Sura 2, verse 282, and who, as we inferred from the Koran, had begun in Mecca to institute the writing down of his inspirations, meant literally something written down when, at the beginning of the Cow Sura, he stipulated that “the book” would be both the religious foundation and the source of the rules regulating everyday life for the Muslim community.

The Propagandistic Utilization of the Victory at Badr To Muhammad’s way of thinking, the victory at Badr was a decisive argument for the truth of his message and the justification of his claim to power. He lays this out in Sura 8. Many of his disciples had followed him only reluctantly, to plunder the Meccan caravan, most of them probably convinced that it would be easy pickings. When they became aware that they would be crossing swords with a

The Propagandistic Utilization of the Victory at Badr

103

military expedition, it was too late to turn back; Muhammad’s command to destroy the wells made it necessary for their own people to remain in possession of the watering hole. He describes the event in Sura 8 in these terms: “(Remember, when you) begged your lord for help! He let you have your way: ‘I am here to support you with a thousand angels, one behind another!’ But Allah understood” – this promise – “only as good news and so that your hearts would become confident. For victory comes from no one else but Allah!” (verse 9 f). Muhammad’s presence guarantees Allah’s intervention and thus triumph, albeit not in the way many had hoped for. “(At that time) when he made you slumber thanks to the security that he granted you and sent water down on you to purify you by taking away the filth of Satan, to strengthen your hearts and to place your feet on firm ground” (verse 11). Here Muhammad is engaged in a delicate balancing act. That he is more than a typical military leader had been overshadowed by the fact of the heavy casualities suffered in the battle. Allah had promised heavenly support, so goes the story now, a support that was of course not visible, but [known] only because it was proclaimed, inspiring the Muslims and filling them with the grandest of hopes, so that, certain of victory, they spent the night in unshakeable calm. According to Ibn Ishaq, it rained, which prevented the Quraysh from moving forward to the watering hole earlier than Muhammad would have wished it. In this way, Allah purified hearts from the Satanic disease of doubt. “(At that time, when) your lord inspired the angels: ‘I am with you. So grant steadfastness to those who believe! I shall cast horror into the unbelievers. Separate their heads from their torsos and the same to every finger! Do that, because they were rebellious against Allah and his Messenger!’ For Allah will punish harshly those who are rebellious against Allah and his Messenger. ‘That is now (the punishment), taste it! (And know) that the fires of hell also still await the unbelievers!’” (verses 12– 14). Allah intervened in the battle, Muhammad reassures again later; but the details of how this happened remain unclear. Muhammad exercises restraint on this point. For him, by far the more important point is this: What matters is standing on his side, the side of Allah and the truth. He drives this point home with his followers, the believers: “You, who believe! When you encounter the unbelievers on the field [of battle], by no means turn your backs to them!” It is only permissible to retreat in order to return again to the battle. Whoever flees without this motive enrages Allah and will be sent to hell (verse 15 f). In spite of everything, it was not Muhammad’s fighters who defeated the Meccans; that was Allah’s achievement alone – and therefore, in the final analysis, it was indeed the presence of the prophet that led the “believers” to triumph. “For you did not kill them, but Allah killed them. And you did not shoot, when you shot, but Allah shot. Allah willed that the believers perform heroic deeds through

104

Chapter 9: War against Mecca

his action. Allah hears and knows everything.” Allah ensures that the deviousness of the unbelievers comes to nothing. “Whenever you pray for victory, it has already been granted to you. If you therefore now abstain (from asking for further victories), that is best for you. If you ask for it again (later?), then we (i. e. Allah) shall also (act correspondingly). Your troops themselves, that is, be they ever so numerous, will never be of use to you; (the only thing that is useful) is that Allah is with the believers” (verses 17– 19). Allah makes use of his followers, among them the prophet, to annihilate the Meccans; in this respect Muhammad is in effect surrounded by a power that by its nature is superior to every other. [However,] it would obviously be foolish to hope that [Muhammad’s] enemies would submit themselves to the prophet without any fighting.

Muhammad’s Critics Because the prophet acts on Allah’s orders, as the astonishing triumph at Badr proves, unconditional obedience to “Allah and his Messenger” must be demanded of Muslims. It must not be as with brute animals, to which one speaks without being heard; no, one must follow Allah with one’s whole heart, [for] after all, one will appear before him on Judgment Day. It is not only Muslims who act wickedly who must endure tribulations; a glance at the past history of Muhammad’s disciples shows this: “Remember! Once you were few, regarded as weak in the land, and you feared that the people could carry you off. But Allah has given you shelter, strengthened you by the victory that he brought about, and nourished you with ritually permissible things. Perhaps you are grateful.” The believers – due to the allusion to the Meccan past, only the emigrants are meant here – have every reason not to betray “Allah and his Messenger;” they must be mindful of their duties (verses 20 – 27). Wealth and sons may be a temptation for many believers; but in light of the vast reward that Allah promises, they must never overmaster anyone. It was not so very long ago that the Meccans thought about how they could render the prophet harmless, whether they should kill him or expel him. The miraculous signs that he recited to them they mocked as the fairy tales of the ancients; if all of that was true, they said, then Allah should let stones rain down on them or punish them in some other way. But Allah could not do so at the time, since after all his Messenger still dwelt among them. Moreover, he did not wish to punish them without offering them an opportunity – now wasted – to apologize. This was all in the past. Now the situation has changed completely; Allah crafts more subtle schemes than do human beings. Why should he continue to postpone vengeance now, under completely different conditions, especially when the Meccans deny Muhammad

Muhammad’s Critics

105

and his disciples access to the pilgrimage (verses 28 – 34)? In Sura 2, verse 217, and also in Sura 22, verse 25, Muhammad complains about this, as he sees it, Quraysh impropriety. Since he was driven out, he and the emigrants cannot fulfill the hanif rite that is second in importance only to prayer. The example of Sa’d b. Mu’ad of the Aus clan of the Banu ‘Abd al-Ashal, whom we encountered in Mecca shortly before the Battle of Badr, shows that this restriction did not initially apply to the Medinan “helpers.” What especially aroused Muhammad’s indignation is the, as he saw it, false, distorted cult that the Meccans practiced now as in the past, even though Allah has shared with him how to do it correctly. Yes, the Quraysh spend a great deal of money in order to keep everything as it was and to seduce the Muslims from the path of Allah. But the Meccans will not escape the wrath of Allah. It is, of course, the duty of the believers to fight until there is no more temptation [to leave Islam] and Allah’s religion alone reigns supreme. If the unbelievers cease their wicked ways, Allah will perhaps forgive them; if not, then they are reminded of the punishment legends (verses 34– 40)! The heavy losses created substantial pressure on Muhammad to justify himself. As the Messenger and Prophet of Allah, should he not have foreseen and prevented such losses? At Badr, the Quraysh and the Muslims had taken up their positions; the caravan and the baggage train were encamped “below you.” “Even if you had given a mutual promise, you could not have agreed on a date. But Allah wanted to bring an end to a matter that was already decided. And he who dies was to die with a clear sign; and he who remained alive was to likewise survive with a clear sign. Allah hears and knows everything” (verse 42). With a view to the many casualties, a few allege that there was a possibility of postponing the battle – as had happened, for example, during the figar-wars. But, Muhammad responded to such objections, Allah was the actual protagonist, and his providential decree endows the fate of every individual with a meaning that is no longer to be doubted. Moreover, the parties would never have been able to agree on a date for a decisive battle. But why did Allah allow his prophet to dream that the enemy were few in number (verse 43)? The embarrassing question here is whether Allah could have deceived his chosen Messenger. Of course not, Muhammad answers. Indeed, if Allah had revealed how many troops were on the Meccan side, the prophet would have had to share this immediately with his followers, and trepidation would have overcome them. They would have argued about what to do and finally failed. Allah whispered to both sides that the enemy was weak; this was the precondition for the fulfillment of his providential decree. Thus nothing else follows from the misgivings raised after the victory among Muhammad’s followers than that every believer must obey “Allah and his Messenger” and suppress all discord; then no one will complain about any failures. “Allah is with those who persevere.” How different it was with the be-

106

Chapter 9: War against Mecca

havior of the Quraysh, who set out from Mecca swollen with pride (verses 43 – 47)! Their goal of deflecting people from the path of Allah was wicked, and their discord about how to deal with Muhammad led to their defeat. After this Muhammad speaks in greater detail about his Medinan critics: “At that time the hypocrites (in Arabic: al-munafiqun) and those in whose hearts is sickness said: ‘Your religion deceives the (believers).’ He who trusts in Allah, (he knows) that Allah is powerful and wise” (verse 49). Those among the Medinans who were careful and thoughtful, here as so often vilified as hypocrites, were more than a mere annoyance for Muhammad. They certainly did not form a unified group. In Quba’, with the Aus clan of the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf, the prophet had stayed only a short time; he then settled among the Khazraj with As’ad b. Zurara. As he now set out to plunder the Quraysh caravan that was returning from ash-Sha’m, he sent from the road a certain ‘Asim b. ‘Adi, an ally of the “helpers,” back to Medina, specifically as his plenipotentiary in Quba’; he had received unpleasant but otherwise unspecified reports about the inhabitants in that part of the oasis. In that area resided the Aus clans of Hatma, Waqif, Umayya, and Wa’il, who before Muhammad’s arrival had entered an alliance with the Jewish Banu n-Nadir and Banu Qurayza and who also, probably under the command of Abu Qais b. al-Aslat, the hanif who had rejected Muhammad, had participated in the bitter intra-Medinan wars. Muhammad also had to fear Abdallah b. Ubayy, a Khazraj who had for a long time been regarded as the chief of this tribe and who now felt himself being pushed aside by the newcomer [Muhammad]. The Islamic sources vilify him as the worst of all the hypocrites. The Ausite Abu ‘Amir, named “the monk” because of his ascetic lifestyle, had also been a highly respected person before Muhammad’s arrival. He asked the Meccan prophet for further information about Islam, which Muhammad described as “the hanif religion, the religion of Abraham.” Abu ‘Amir did not accept this description of Islam; he reproached Muhammad, saying he had mixed in things that did not belong to [the hanif faith]. Possibly this was a criticism of the “broadness” of the prophet’s version of the hanif religion, which not everyone approved of. In any case, Abu ‘Amir dismissed the Hashemite refugee as a liar and, to be on the safe side, moved to Mecca. He lived there until Muhammad occupied the city. Abu ‘Amir finally ended up in ashSha’m, via al-Taif. When we consider all these reports, the fact that Muhammad sent a representative to the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf even before the Battle of Badr will have had to do with his mistrust towards many of the Aus. As the affair of the “opposition mosque” in the year 9 (which began 20 April 630) will show, a number of the Aus of the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf were very unhappy with Muhammad’s governance. Possibly they had taken in many of the Meccan refugees for the sake of a version of the hanif religion that did not exactly correspond to Muham-

The Ideal of Militarized Religiosity

107

mad’s, which would explain why Muhammad only spent a few days in Quba’ and then preferred to move on to As’ad b. Zurara and his people. In Sura 8, after mentioning the “hypocrites,” Muhammad encourages himself: “If only you could see, (how it is) when the angels seize the unbelievers and strike them in the face and on their backs: ‘Taste now the punishment of the hellfire!’” These “hypocrites” acted despicably like the Pharaoh! No one is therefore more odious to Allah than the unbelievers, “above all those among them with whom you reached an agreement, and they then break their agreement at every opportunity, without fear of God, as they are. If you should meet them in war, then chase immediately also those who stand behind them! Perhaps they shall take heed. And if you should fear betrayal from people, then unambiguously hurl (their betrayal at their feet)! Allah does not love traitors” (verses 50 – 58). It is necessary to arm oneself for battle. If the enemies should incline towards peace, then one may make peace with them. Assistance will come from Allah, “who strengthens you by granting you victory, and by the believers. (Allah) united their hearts. If you were to spend all the money on earth, you would not unite their hearts, but Allah created harmony among them…” (verses 59 – 64). “Prophet! Urge on the believers to battle! If there are 20 of them who stand fast, they shall defeat 200. And if there are 100 of them, they shall defeat 1000 unbelievers, because they are a people without understanding. But Allah now lightens your burden, for he saw your weakness. If there are 100 among you who persevere, they shall defeat 200, and if there are 1000 of you, they shall defeat 2000 – with Allah’s permission. Allah is with those who persevere!” (verse 65 f.).

The Ideal of Militarized Religiosity A prophet is only permitted to take prisoners of war if the enemy is decisively put to flight, Muhammad criticized [his followers]; his troops had behaved otherwise at Badr, aiming thereby at earthly gain. “If there had not already been a decree from Allah, then a powerful punishment would have been inflicted upon you because of the (prematurely) taken (prisoners)! But live off of what you have plundered, to the extent that it is permissible and ritually pure!…” (verses 67– 69). In addition, one may promise the prisoners a more lenient treatment on the condition that they convert to Islam (verses 70 f.). After these sentences, which cover practical questions, Muhammad returns immediately to the theme that had concerned him so urgently at the beginning of the Sura. In the victory that Allah brought about at Badr, the new community, which he leads, the community of the believers, has become visible. Its foundations now must be safeguarded

108

Chapter 9: War against Mecca

and reinforced. This is the point of the last four verses, which give the impression of a warning. “Those who came to believe and who emigrated and waged jihad in the path of Allah with their wealth and their lives, and those who sheltered and supported them, are friends to one another. But do not show friendship to those who believed but did not emigrate, until they also emigrate. If they ask you for help for the sake of religion, you must give it to them, but not (by waging war) against those with whom you have an alliance. Allah sees what you do. Those who do not believe are friends to one another. Unless you do the same, there will be temptation and great corruption in the land. Those who became believers and emigrated and waged jihad in the path of Allah, and those who sheltered and supported them, they are the true believers. Forgiveness and noble provision shall be theirs. Those who later came to believe and emigrated and waged jihad together with them, they also belong to you. But relatives stand even closer to each other, according to Allah’s teaching. Allah knows all” (verses 72– 75). The two brotherhoods had brought to the fore a new characteristic of membership in one [of the two] communities: confession of faith in the message of Muhammad. Practicing the Muslim rituals was from now on no longer the decisive factor in proving membership in the community of the prophet. Rather, it was required that one participate in war, “with one’s wealth and one’s life.” Muhammad had no sympathy for fellow Muslims who fell in battle [fighting for the Meccan side], who allegedly had stayed in Mecca of their own free will. On the contrary, they had laden themselves with a heavy burden of guilt by failing to reject the command of Abu Jahl. They should have emigrated, said Muhammad in Sura 4, verse 97. From now on, it was only emigration, not merely profession of the Islamic faith and fulfillment of ritual duties, that established membership in the community of the prophet; in Sura 8, Muhammad displays to the community of “believers” their founding charter: Whoever wishes to be a full member in good standing must place himself permanently at Muhammad’s disposal for military service. Anything less than this proves that one is not a true believer. Nowhere in the historical reports or in the Koran is there any indication that Muhammad’s first military expeditions were meant to defend Medina against Quraysh attacks. Rather, they were part of a pre-planned, determined effort, first of all, to cut off Quraysh commercial traffic to the north, to reduce Mecca’s income, and finally, as will become clear in the following chapters, to gain control over the Kaaba and thereby to achieve the objective that he had already pointed to in Sura 7. Muhammad intended that the Medinans should play the role of useful hosts in this effort: they “shelter and support” the Meccan emigrants, as the Koran labels them for the first time. In fact, it is only they [the emigrants] who carry out the deliberate act of entering Muhammad’s community, by

The Ideal of Militarized Religiosity

109

burning the bridges linking them to their birth communities, [that is,] their clans, becoming members of this new kind of community; only of them is it now true that loyalty to Allah’s Messenger is the sum and substance of their lives. Nevertheless, at the end of Sura 8, he emphasizes that according to Allah’s law, the birth community matters more than the military community of the believers. This contradiction had already become clear in Mecca; there it redounded to Muhammad’s advantage. In Medina this inconsistency emerges first of all in the criticism voiced by the so-called hypocrites. Muhammad was not successful in defining faithfulness in a way that would obliterate the distinction between “emigrants” and “helpers.” The latter were stuck with a lower rank: they “shelter and support” the former. They are indeed merely “helpers,” [and] Medina is not the locality that the community of the believers may regard as their own. That is and remains Mecca, the conquest of which is Muhammad’s top priority, as he frankly confessed during his flight (Sura 28: 85). The “helpers” will certainly not settle in Mecca when the city is in Muhammad’s hands. And among the “emigrants” Muhammad appears to mean, in line with the circumstances at that time, only the Meccan refugees. Only after both sides had drawn foreign tribes into the struggle did it become necessary to re-define the concept of “emigrant,” and even then, one can see an effort to accord a higher rank to the “first emigrants.” At the end of Sura 8, Muhammad drops the idea from which the second brotherhood was spawned: the institution of a specifically religious community. Already in Mecca, he had made clear that his revelations were addressed above all to his nearest clan members (Sura 26: 214), [and] now he stresses this again. According to Allah’s legislative will, clan members are more closely bound to each other than are the “believers.” Muhammad has less confidence in a membership based on a deliberate conversion by which the individual cuts his traditional connections and proves himself [in battle] by committing his wealth and his life than he has in the organic web of family and tribal relationships.¹

Chapter 10: The Bid for Power Whatever is in the heavens or on the earth owes Allah praise. He is the powerful and wise one! He is the one who drove the people of the book out of their courtyards to the first gathering (which will be followed by the second on the last day). You did not think that they would come out, and they thought that their fortified courtyards could protect them from Allah – but Allah surprised them, from a direction they did not foresee! He filled their hearts with terror, so that they destroyed their houses by their own hands and by the hands of the believers. Consider this, you who can see clearly! If Allah had not prescribed for them banishment, then he would have (already) punished them in this life, and in the next life the punishment of hell awaits them. This because they schemed against Allah and his Messenger, and whenever anyone schemes against Allah and his Messenger, (then he must know) that Allah punishes this horribly! When you cut down a palm tree or left it standing on its roots, this happened with Allah’s approval, because he wanted to humiliate the evil-doers. Whatever Allah has reclaimed from them for his Messenger, (it was all) something for (the seizure) of which you did not have to urge on either horses or (other) riding animals. But Allah gives his Messenger power over all that he wills; Allah is able to do everything. (Sura 59: 1– 6)

The Jews of Medina and Muhammad It is no surprise that the Meccans did everything they could to wipe out the disgrace of Badr, and it is equally unsurprising that many Medinans were afraid of the possible consequences that their imprudent collaboration might occasion. Even before Badr a few of the Jews had not minced words, strongly criticizing those Aus and Khazraj who had placed such great hopes in a nonentity. Thus, in Sura 2, Muhammad had not hidden his rancor against the Jews. For they believe in Allah and the coming judgment of the world, but they are not willing to accept him as their new prophet (verses 8 – 20). The sharpness of his words betrays that he was not aiming at conciliation. He could think of no other way of interpreting the Jews’ rejection of him except as proof that they were violating their covenant with Allah (verses 40 – 44). How else could they presume that an eventual punishment in the next world would in their case only last a few days (verse 80)? Apart from that, they must bear the disastrous consequences in this life of their infidelity; for they no longer constitute a unified community, but are divided among themselves (verses 83 – 85). Here Muhammad alludes to the fact that, in the quarrels that preceded his arrival, one of the purely Jewish tribes, the Banu Qaynuqa, had become allies of the Khazraj, while the two others, the Banu n-Nadir and the Banu Qurayza, had entered an alliance with the Aus. In the battle of Bu’ath, the climax of the intra-Medinan civil war, Jews https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-011

The Jews of Medina and Muhammad

111

had fought on both sides. And now they were trying, with reminders of that conflict, to drive a wedge between the Muslims of the Aus and Khazraj tribes. This must have troubled Muhammad much more than the many sneering remarks about his prophethood that he had to swallow. Already at the death of As’ad b. Zurara people had whispered that one could now see that he was no Messenger of Allah, for otherwise Allah would have let his friend live. When one day one of his camels had run away, a Jew could not resist asking snidely what one ought to think about the heavenly revelations conveyed by a prophet who was no less clueless than a normal person in dealing with such everyday challenges. Ka’b b. al-Ashraf, one of the eminent men of the Banu n-Nadir, hastily set out for Mecca after Muhammad’s victory at Badr. A wealthy Quraysh hosted him, and Ka’b avenged himself by composing a famous poem of mourning in which he bemoaned the deaths of the noble Meccans at the watering hole of Badr. Hassan b. Thabit replied with such effectively abusive verses that the Quraysh, not wanting to lose any more prestige, no longer tolerated Ka’b’s presence in their midst. He had to return to Medina, and Muhammad did not pass up this opportunity. There were men among the believers who knew what was expected of them when the prophet said to everyone within earshot: “Who will get Ka’b b. al-Ashraf off my back?” But Allah’s Messenger was not inclined to leave the matter with a mere attack on an individual, which Islamic historiography elevates to the level of a military expedition, even if it was nothing more than an assassination. He entered the schoolhouse of the Jews and demanded that they immediately convert to Islam. They rejected this demand, warned him against the hubris that was clearly clouding his thinking in the wake of his victory, and stressed their ofttested military prowess.¹ Sura 3, which is said to have arisen in this context, formulates unmistakably in verse 110, which we have already discussed, Muhammad’s demand that the people of the book also should submit themselves to his rule. The Jewish tribe of the Banu Qaynuqa were the first victims. From a minor incident, a conflict arose in the course of which they stated that they regarded as invalid the agreement that they had made with Muhammad – presumably as allies of the Khazraj – and they barricaded themselves in their citadels. They were besieged for two weeks, finally grasping the hopelessness of their situation. According to verse 58 of Sura 8, which is connected to this event, the prophet received from his alter ego the advice that as soon as he feared that a tribe wanted to betray him, he should declare as null and void all the treaties he had concluded with them. Muhammad himself therefore could have been taking the opportunity to reduce the number of his declared or secret enemies. We have no way of knowing the truth. The outcome of the conflict, however, is not disputed: The Banu Qaynuqa, unassisted by the other Jewish tribes, capitulated;

112

Chapter 10: The Bid for Power

they left their fortified compounds and handed themselves over to Muhammad for better or for worse. He ordered that their hands be tied behind their backs. This prompted ‘Abdallah b. Ubayy, a long-time ally of the Banu Qaynuqa, to address Muhammad angrily; he, Ibn Ubayy, owed much to his Jewish allies, who had stood at his side at Bu’ath. Their hands were untied. Muhammad decided that he would spare the lives of the Jews, but they should be expelled. Because the Banu Qaynuqa had earned their living primarily as goldsmiths, this victory will have been a lucrative one. In addition, Muhammad forced them to forgive all debts owed to them, and this meant he did not need to fear excessive displeasure from the Medinans. The victims did not own any arable land in the oasis, so presumably the prospect of making a fresh start elsewhere was more attractive to them than remaining in Medina as forcibly converted Muslims. They travelled to Adru’at, a place “on the edge of ash-Sha’m,” in what people regarded as the region of Amman.

The Counter-Attack of the Meccans Meanwhile the Meccans had not been idle. Abu Sufyan and a handful of companions had secretly entered Medinan territory and met with a few members of the Banu n-Nadir, who, like the other Jewish tribe still in Medina, the Banu Qurayza, had been allied to the Aus since Bu’ath. Muhammad had extracted from the Banu n-Nadir a commitment not to criticize Muslims, and in view of the fate of Ka’b b. al-Ashraf, they would have also been exercising the greatest self-restraint. The sources do not allow us to conclude that they actually conspired with the Meccans. In the army that the Meccans assembled for their counter-attack in the winter of 624 to 625, there was alongside of a Thaqif unit also a fifty-man strong troop of Aus, led by Abu ‘Amir, “the monk.” They were supposed to induce their fellow tribesmen to set down their weapons in the coming battle, and the Quraysh would then defeat Muhammad’s followers. The chances of doing this were not bad when the Meccans arrived in the region of Medina and occupied the terrain adjacent to Mount Uhud in an area with good water supplies and agricultural fields cultivated by a few immigrants. The horses and camels brought by the Meccans grazed on the fields, and the enemies waiting in Medina for the attack to commence had to wonder how they would survive without their crops. [The Muslims] began to argue among themselves about whether they should look on at the depredations of the Meccans without acting, or leave the safety of their fortresses and offer battle. It was especially Muhammad’s younger followers who pressed for battle, while ‘Abdallah b. Ubayy, invoking his experience in war, advised against this and emphasized again that they

The so-called Umma Document

113

were only obliged to defend Muhammad on their own territory. But the hotheads insisted on having things their way, and calamity ensued. The Quraysh gained the upper hand, prominent Muslims like ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan and ‘Umar b. al-Khattab fled the battlefield, Muhammad himself had to engage in combat and was badly injured. He came to grief due to one of the entrenchments that the “monk” had ordered dug to make it more difficult for the Muslims to attack the Quraysh. Allah’s Messenger had to thank Talha b. ‘Ubaidallah, a relative of Abu Bakr, for saving his life. But the Meccans did not exploit this victory achieved in March 625. The men around Abu Sufyan sought and found arguments that made it seem advisable to avoid decisive action for the time being. Not Muhammad: He ordered the execution of two Meccans who had been taken prisoner at Badr and now fell into his hands again. He tricked the hesitant victors into thinking he still had troops in reserve, and so they withdrew. They would suffer bitter revenge for giving in to wishful thinking instead of dealing with unwelcome facts in a clear-eyed way. If one considered Muhammad’s situation from the outside, the political outcome of this military debacle thus looked impressive. His influence on the inhabitants of the Tihama, which he had already cultivated before Badr, had proved its worth to the extent that it was the leader of the Meccan troops from that region who dissuaded Abu Sufyan from the energetic pursuit of his war goals. After the withdrawal of the Quraysh, Muhammad seized the opportunity to draw the Bedouin of the Najd region to his side as well. But in this endeavor he soon suffered a disappointment. The situation in the interior was more challenging, although here too the unexpected turn of affairs opened an opportunity for the reinforcement of his power. Earlier, when at Badr he and his followers encountered a military force and not the caravan, this fact aroused dangerous doubts about his prophethood. We saw how he tried to dispel these doubts in Sura 8. Allah fought for him, he had claimed there – but where had Allah’s support gone [at Uhud]? The skeptics around ‘Abdallah b. Ubayy felt themselves vindicated. However, fanatical followers of Muhammad wanted to force ‘Abdallah to beg Muhammad’s forgiveness. But the Muslims were not able to intimidate the respected Khazraj chief in this way. Still, Muhammad found a way to solidify his power by spreading terror.

The so-called Umma Document The Jewish tribe of the Banu n-Nadir, which had stayed out of the battle at Mount Uhud, had already aroused Muhammad’s ire before this battle. It had come to his attention that Abu Sufyan had secretly met with someone from the Banu

114

Chapter 10: The Bid for Power

n-Nadir after Badr. In his efforts to recruit the Bedouin of Najd after the withdrawal of the Meccans, there had been complications, as a result of which Muhammad found himself confronted by the demand that he pay blood money for two murdered members of the Banu ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a from that region. Because the Banu n-Nadir had entered into an alliance with them, Muhammad went to them to request their help in this matter. During his talks with them, he was suddenly overcome by a bad feeling; thanks to a revelation from heaven, we are told, he suddenly learned that they were conspiring to attack him. He found a pretext to break off the talks and withdrew. The Banu n-Nadir for their part, fearing Muhammad’s revenge, barricaded themselves in their fortresses and were forced to look on as [the Muslims] chopped down and burned many of their date-palm trees. ‘Abdallah b. Ubayy and a few other Khazraj encouraged the Banu nNadir to hold out and probably also promised help if it should come to battle. The besieged [Jews] did not hold out for long, especially since they saw the basis of their existence in Medina being partially destroyed. They reached an agreement with Muhammad that he would spare their lives and allow them to leave Medina, whereby they would be permitted to carry away with them everything that their camels could bear, except for their weapons. The Banu n-Nadir, we are told, had seen the calamity looming: Through Muhammad, the “always laughing murderer,” the “newcomer from the south,” the man who rides a male camel and wears a broad mantel, sword on his shoulder, who rewards only with a crumb, who performs no miracles, who speaks in proverbs, through this Muhammad, they charged, the hanif religion has been brought into such disrepute that Abu ‘Amir “the monk” turned his back on it in anger. Here we must discuss a text that sheds light on the delicate situation in which Muhammad found himself after the Battle of Uhud. [Historians of early Islam] speak of a treaty which, based on a misunderstanding of its contents, they describe as “the Umma Document” or even “the constitution of Medina,” a treaty that Muhammad concluded with the two Arab tribes from which his “helpers” were recruited. – The Banu Qaynuqa’, who by the time of this treaty had already had to leave Medina, and also the Banu n-Nadir and Banu Qurayza, are not mentioned; however, belonging to the clans of the Aus and Khazraj were people who had become Jews while remaining in these clans, and these converts are the only Jews mentioned in the surviving text of the document. – The sources amply attest that Muhammad entered into talks with the three purely Jewish tribes in Medina after his arrival there, but they tell us nothing about the content of the treaties he concluded with them. – “This is,” the text begins, “a document from Muhammad, the prophet – may Allah turn to him in prayer and offer to him the greeting of peace² – between the believers and the Muslims of the Quraysh and from Medina along with those who are under them, who have associated

The so-called Umma Document

115

themselves with them, and pursue jihad at their side.” The treaty thus serves the purpose of consolidating the community under the banner of the war-waging prophet. “They form one community (in Arabic: al-umma) to the exclusion of other men. The Quraysh emigrants form a blood-based clan according to their (traditional) customs.” At the beginning and end of Sura 8 Muhammad had confirmed the military community between the emigrants and “helpers.” At the triumph of Badr this community had proven what it was capable of; but Muhammad had announced a qualification in the final verse of Sura 8: The traditional rights and duties of the clans remained intact within the new covenant based on religious faith. The treaty concerns itself with precisely this theme: The costs of war, here the expenditures for the ransoming of captives, now as before must be settled by the solidarity communities based on blood relationship. In the triumphant aftermath of the victory at Badr, such a stipulation would not have been necessary; it would not have become a man who successfully fought for the cause of Allah. Now, however, after the defeat [at Uhud], it was necessary to underscore the traditional moral customs and to avoid any ambiguity. Accordingly, the document states that the Quraysh emigrants “shall redeem their captives in the general and usual way and with the justice that is to be observed among the believers.” In nearly identical language now [the document] mentions a number of Medinan clans that had put themselves at the disposal of Muhammad’s military plans. “The Banu ‘Auf form a blood-based clan and pay blood-money as before; each group shall redeem its captives in the usual way and with the justice that is to be observed among the believers.” The same is stipulated for the Banu Sa’ida, Banu l-Harith, Banu Jusham, Banu n-Najjar, Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf, Banu n-Nabit, and Banu l-Aus. “The believers shall give to the insolvent from their midst (the money for) redemption in the usual way or for the settlement of a blood debt.” The rules just mentioned apply in peacetime; what follows now applies in wartime. No believing fighter may conclude a peace upon his own initiative and to the detriment of the community; the believers shall assist each other with riding animals; they shall exact blood revenge for every one of their number who is killed – in military campaigns, apparently without regard for clan membership; they shall not tolerate an idolater placing a member of the Quraysh or his wealth under his protection. If a believer is killed by a fellow believer, then the community of the believers – again not the affected clan – must execute blood revenge or arrange the payment of blood money. As often noted, this community is manifested only in war, under the direct or delegated command of Muhammad. Already in Mecca, [Muhammad] had paid little attention to Muslims in other tribes; the strength of clan solidarity would probably not have allowed [him to do] otherwise. Only now, in the exceptional situation in Medina, and

116

Chapter 10: The Bid for Power

even then only during the maximum effort demanded by war, can we see a community [emerge] that leaves behind the boundaries of clan membership. Its members, who “make this document their own,” commit themselves quite generally never to support a wrongdoer who contests its stipulations. Rather, all disputes are to be brought before Allah and Muhammad – further evidence for the direct connection of the believers to Muhammad. In the case of war, it says further, the Jews shall lend their support to the believers. “The Jews of the Banu ‘Auf form then with the believers a community (in Arabic: al-umma). (Nonetheless) the Jews shall retain their religion, and the Muslims theirs; (this applies for) their wards as for themselves, except for those who commit outrages and sin, who (anyway only) pull themselves and their families to perdition.” For the Jews of the Banu n-Najjar, Sa’ida, Jusham, Aus, etc., and for their wards, the same rules apply. All people who are covered by this document as to their behavior in war may only take up weapons with Muhammad’s permission; only when someone exacts revenge for an injury may he do so without explicit permission. Additionally, the military community envisioned in this document shall not commit the community to support for individuals who act rashly. All Jews and Muslims who submit to these rules shall support themselves; they help one another honestly, just as no one [should] betray his ally. But there shall be one common purse for Jews and believers as long as they are at war. Near the end, the text again returns to daily living conditions in Medina. All who have entered the agreement shall enjoy security in the oasis. Thus, they constitute a political community that transcends clan boundaries, a community that Muhammad thinks he is called to rule: disputes are to be brought before him [for judgment], we are told once more. The Meccan Quraysh and their allies are explicitly excluded from this community. The moral custom of granting protection to foreigners may not be employed in their favor. The closed and unified nature of the community is meant to fend off attacks on Medina, and this unity shall also undergird any eventual peace talks that may be undertaken at the initiative of the believers. Parties to the agreement who are not believers may also negotiate peace treaties (while respecting the interests of Medina?), but not with groups that wage war against members of the Islamic religion. Appended is a clause stipulating that the Jews of the Aus tribe shall also regard the document as binding. Of the clans mentioned in the treaty, the ‘Auf, al-Harith, Sa’ida, Jusham, and an-Najjar are Khazraj; the ‘Amr b. ‘Auf and the an-Nabit belong to the Aus. The Banu l-Aus, mentioned in the beginning of the document, should perhaps be understood as a collective name denoting smaller clans of the Aus. Apparently they are to be distinguished from the Aus (without “Banu”) mentioned at the end of the treaty; the [appended] passage, standing outside the series, may refer to the

The “Property that Has Been Reclaimed”

117

Aus Manat or Aus Allah, who only hesitantly converted to Islam, presumably only after the composition of the treaty. As [we have] already indicated, the “people of this document” are by no means all [of the] inhabitants of the oasis region of Medina. The large Jewish tribes are not mentioned at all. Muhammad did not have the slightest intention of founding in Medina a community in which all residents would have bestowed on them their written rights and privileges without regard to their relationship to Islam. Such an interpretation derives from modern Western ideas. Muhammad’s concern was merely to keep the peace among the clans that were working with him, to preserve blood-based social unity, to ensure that the Jews among his allies did not feel excluded, for otherwise dangerous frictions were to be feared, and last but not least, [he was concerned] that his followers not allow themselves to be divided by Meccan intrigues. In a word: Muhammad was striving to secure the leadership in Medinan affairs that he had achieved thanks to lucky circumstances and a considerable measure of coldbloodedness.

The “Property that Has Been Reclaimed” This goal was also served by his attack on the Banu n-Nadir in late summer 625, through which he considerably improved the material situation of his closest Meccan followers and also stripped the Aus, whom he rightly mistrusted, of powerful allies. The propagation of a new concept of property went hand-in-hand with this increase in his power, one that complemented the claim of his message to universal validity with an equally universal claim to the appropriation of the moveable and immoveable property of unbelievers. The “believers” had not, indeed, gained possession of the land and immoveable goods of the Banu n-Nadir in war; it was not a matter of possessions stripped from the corpses of enemies killed in battle, or of their plundered baggage train. Rather, as Muhammad stressed in Sura 59, verse 6, [the Muslims] had not even had to spur on their horses against the Banu n-Nadir in order to take possession of their property. Allah reclaimed for his Messenger the wealth to which the original owners had forfeited their right of ownership due to their unauthorized falsification of the religion originally entrusted to them: [this wealth] belonged to those who professed and propagated the true Abrahamic rites. ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, as the reports tell us, insisted that these goods be distributed according to the rules, only recently revealed, governing the disposition of war booty: roughly speaking, Muhammad was permitted to retain one-fifth, [his] victorious fighters, four-fifths. As soon as ‘Umar himself came to rule, he would institute a distribution of booty based on military service in the cause of Islam, a distribution focused on the

118

Chapter 10: The Bid for Power

enormous territories conquered in his time. Now, however, because all of that is still in the future, Muhammad does not allow [anyone] to meddle in the matter: He will spread the wealth according to his own discretion, and he makes it clear to the “helpers” that they will have to stifle their expectations: “What Allah has reclaimed for his Messenger from the inhabitants of the towns, that belongs to Allah, to his Messenger, (his) near relations, the orphans, the poor, and the fighters in the path, so that it is not passed from hand to hand among the wealthy. Accept whatever the Messenger apportions to you, and leave alone whatever he forbids you! And fear Allah, for he punishes harshly! It belongs to the poor emigrants, who were driven out of their homes and their property, who seek Allah’s grace and favor and who support Allah and his Messenger – they are the honest ones. And also those who live in their homeland and chose belief already before (the emigrants achieved firm possession of their property), who now love those who emigrated to them, and who in their hearts harbor no lust after their property, but rather prefer (them) above themselves, even if they themselves should suffer deprivation – they who know how to preserve themselves from their own greed, they are the ones who will be blessed!” (Sura 59: 7– 9). – Muhammad accordingly kept the landholdings of the Banu n-Nadir, at Allah’s express wish, for himself and a few of the emigrants; to the “helpers” he gave pretty words. On the land that he commandeered for himself, he had barley planted, and from these crops, as well as from the harvest from the date palms that had been spared, he supported himself, his wives, and the descendants of ‘Abd alMuttalib. Surplus [crops] were used for the purchase of weapons. The “helpers” are said to have voluntarily renounced any claim to an equal share of the land and moveable goods of the Banu n-Nadir, precisely so that the emigrants were given the ability from now on to support themselves. Ibn Ishaq groups these recipients together under the label “the first emigrants,” a concept that will soon be of great political importance. Only two members of the Banu n-Nadir were able to salvage their property, but at the price of converting to Islam.

The Battle of the Ditch Muhammad’s Medinan enemies by no means admitted defeat after the expulsion of the Banu n-Nadir, who sought refuge north of Medina in Khaybar. The “monk,” Abu ‘Amir, a few Jews from [the Banu n-Nadir], and an Aus from one of the clans that rejected Muhammad, went to Abu Sufyan to confer about what to do [next]. They agreed to secure the support of powerful tribes of Bedouin. The Jewish negotiators, we are told, swore at the Kaaba that the traditional Quraysh religion was the only correct one; upon hearing this report, Muhammad replied with

The Battle of the Ditch

119

the biting comment: “Have you not seen those who received a portion of the scriptures? They now believe in false gods and idols and tell the unbelievers that they are on the right path, more so than the believers” (Sura 4: 51). The Jewish and Aus negotiators then travelled to the territory of the Banu Ghatafan north of Medina and promised them half of the date harvest in Khaybar in return for their participation in the war against Muhammad. The Banu Sulaim, who controlled the route between Mecca and Medina, also agreed to participate. The Khuza’a, in contrast, with their key position in Tihama, who had repeatedly stood by Muhammad, warned them that they were courting disaster. This time around Muhammad would not make the mistake of allowing himself to be lured outside of Medina. He sought out a terrain with a steep mountainside to his rear and ordered that it be secured with a trench facing the plain. The coalition forces arrived at Medina at the beginning of April 627. But, unlike two years earlier, [the Muslims] had cleared the fields as far as possible, so that the animals of the attackers had to graze on the meager shrubbery of uncultivated land. The 700 horses that the attackers had brought with them, an impressive number for the time, had to be fed with millet that they had transported themselves. The siege could not be sustained for long. But the Muslims were not without their own worries. They did not know which side the Banu Qurayza would support. Their settlement did not lie within the area protected by the trench. The Banu Ghatafan were the first to become weary of sitting and waiting. Muhammad was able to lure them away from the coalition, in which morale began to plummet. The Banu Qurayza then also refused Abu Sufyan; the agreed-upon date for the attack fell on the Sabbath. In the middle of April Abu Sufyan abandoned the whole enterprise as a lost cause. On the very same day Muhammad directed his fighters towards a rich target: The Banu Qurayza in their fortresses. After the three-week siege, [his fighters] were itching for action. The Aus reminded Muhammad that he had spared the Banu Qaynuqa, allies to the Khazraj, and asked that he now treat their allies no worse. Muhammad knew how he had to proceed. He summoned a member of the Aus, Sa’d b. Mu’ad, an ardent supporter of Allah’s cause whom we have mentioned once already. Looking away from Allah’s Messenger – out of reverence he dared not look him in the face – Sa’d pronounced the judgment that was expected of him: “The men should be killed, the property distributed, the women and children enslaved.” Those condemned to death – their number ranging from 600 to 900, according to different reports – were jammed into the courtyard of the Banu n-Najjar; Muhammad had graves dug in a marketplace, and then the men were massacred in batches. Muhammad monitored the murder as an observer. Members of all of the Aus clans had to perpetrate the atrocity; they were all to be made equally guilty [of killing] their allies. The killing lasted

120

Chapter 10: The Bid for Power

until the next morning. “Allah fended off the unbelievers in all their ill will and spared the believers from fighting. Allah is strong and powerful. And the ‘people of the book,’ who supported (the unbelievers), he brought down from their fortresses and cast terror into their hearts; some of them you killed, the others you enslaved. He gave you their land as an inheritance and their homes and goods, as well as (additional) land on which you have not yet set foot. Allah has the power to do anything” (Sura 33: 25 – 27). With these words, Muhammad provided his own commentary on the event.

The Segregation of the Prophet from his Community Around this time, Muhammad began to regard himself as a figure who was elevated far above the circle of his followers. In Sura 33, he speaks quite frankly about this. As prophet, he has more rights over the believers than they have over themselves. His wives are also the mothers of the believers. Muhammad is unable to express the peculiar relationship of the believers to himself, one that is grounded in the new religion, except in the language of genealogy. He immediately adds that blood relatives are even more closely bound to each other and obligated to mutual benevolence (verse 6). Membership in the community of believing men and women requires, of course, unhesitating obedience to Allah and his Messenger (verses 35 f.). As with Messengers before him, Allah has also exempted [Muhammad] from many rules that apply to the rest of the believers. Therefore, it is not indecent for him to pressure his freedman and adopted son Zaid b. Haritha to divorce the beautiful Zainab so that he, the prophet, could marry her. For Muhammad is the adoptive or biological father of no one; what sets him apart is his unique position, that of Allah’s Messenger and the authenticator of all previous prophets (in Arabic: hatam an-nabiyin) (verses 37– 40). His alter ego permits for him marriage to any woman to whom he pays the bridal money, as well as all the female slaves belonging to the property reclaimed for him by Allah, and also the daughters of his uncles and aunts in the maternal and paternal lines who came with him to Medina, and any believing woman who gives herself to him; “we (i. e. Allah) know very well what we prescribe to the believers regarding their wives and slave girls, (but we loosen these rules for you), so that no difficulty shall arise for you (from this)” (verse 50). In the chapter after the next, in which we examine the foundations of the community created by Muhammad, we shall return to this topic. Through their contact with Allah’s Messenger, his wives are drawn into his aura to such an extent that from now on the rest of the believers are not allowed to look at them face-to-face; a curtain must screen them from the gaze [of oth-

The Segregation of the Prophet from his Community

121

ers]. After the death of the prophet, it will be impermissible for anyone to marry his widows. And in dealing with Muhammad himself, believers must exercise the greatest self-restraint (verse 53). For his rank is so high that Allah himself and his angels carry out ritual prayers while turned towards the Messenger. “You, who believe! You too should perform your prayers turned towards him and offer him in a seemly way the greeting of peace!” (verse 56). Just as Allah and the human being turn to face each other in the act of atonement, and this act of turning can also proceed from Allah (cf. Sura 4: 16 and Sura 9: 104), so too ritual prayer is to be regarded as a reciprocal, two-sided event. Not only to the angels, but even to Allah, Muhammad is so precious that [Allah] initiates the ritual act [of prayer] in person while facing him: Even Allah permits as fitting and appropriate this unsurpassable measure of honor to be bestowed upon his prophet. And, so that this will occur unceasingly, Muslims repeat at every mention of the prophet’s name the formula that is attested for the first time in Sura 33:³ “May Allah perform the ritual prayer facing him and offer him the greeting of peace!”⁴

Chapter 11: The Occupation of Mecca Allah was pleased with the believers when they paid homage to you beneath the tree. In this way he learned what was in their hearts, whereupon he sent down his presence upon them and rewarded them soon thereafter with victory, and also with much booty, which they (will) receive. Allah is powerful and wise. He has promised you much booty, which you (will) receive. Now he has already given this to you in advance and has fended off the hands of men from you. This shall be a sign for the believers, and he will lead you in the straight path. (Sura 48, verses 18 – 20)

The Treaty of al-Hudaybiya The so-called Battle of the Ditch, the unsuccessful siege of Medina in Spring 627, marks the decisive turning point in Muhammad’s relations with Mecca. He had already gone onto the offensive before his expulsion from Mecca: He had altered the pilgrimage rites according to his own ideas and thereby wanted to take over leadership in Mecca; almost immediately after fleeing from Mecca, he began threatening Meccan commerce and finally entangled the Medinans in his war against Mecca. In the course of this war, he managed to muzzle the criticism aimed at him from among the “helpers,” and by eliminating the Jewish tribes that were independent of him, he made himself into the feared overlord of his hosts. He favored to the best of his ability the Khazraj faction among them, who were his relatives; for [by eliminating] the Banu n-Nadir and the Banu Qurayza, he deprived the Aus of their strongest allies. These successes seduced Muhammad into exalting himself more and more, finally even leading him to proclaim that Allah and the angels unceasingly honored him in ritual prayer. Muhammad had exercised control over the Tihama region for some time, [but] his efforts to recruit the Banu Sulaim and the Banu Ghatafan had been less successful. The latter had, to be sure, allowed themselves to be bought off during the siege. He had worked to extend his power to the north even before the Battle of the Ditch, but in such a way as to avoid aggravating the vassals and governors of the Byzantines. As we have noted, he himself had joined sides with the partisans of the Byzantine Empire in Mecca. Around the end of 627 and the beginning of 628, he dispatched the early emigrant ‘Abd ar-Rahman b. ‘Auf to Dumat al-Jandal; the population there was to be won over to Islam. ‘Ali b. abi Talib led an expedition to Fadak in order to disperse a band of Banu Ghatafan who had gathered there with hostile intent. All of this unfolded as a geopolitical shift of great importance was taking place. In December 627, Emperor https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-012

The Treaty of al-Hudaybiya

123

Heraclius had defeated the Sassanids at Nineveh. His army was active in northern Iraq into April 628, but had also come dangerously close to the capital city of Ctesiphon. The Persian troops in ash-Sha’m did not participate in the fighting, which contributed to a progressive disintegration of Sassanid power. In the year 614, they had humiliated Heraclius in a spectacular manner by carrying off the Holy Cross from Jerusalem, [but] now their power was in decline. During the year 628, the Persian troops were concentrated in the region around Antioch. In April, Heraclius marched to the west; his route is unknown. These are the events in the light of which, at a minimum, we must consider the steps taken by Muhammad in this year. “At the end of the year 6 or at the beginning of the year 7” (which began on 11 May 628), his ambassador Dihja al-Kalbi was received by the Emperor in his residence at Homs; they agreed on an armistice. Thus do the Islamic sources describe the result of the delegation. Muhammad’s activities to the north of Medina, by no means completely described here, and the collapse of Sassanid rule over ash-Sha’m, followed by the withdrawal of the Byzantine emperor, form the background of a bold decision. It was certainly not caused by these circumstances, but they help us to understand why Muhammad did not fail [in executing] the intention that he now formulated, an intention that filled many of his followers with fear. In the month of Shawwal of the year 6 (which began on 13 February 628), he announced that he would travel to Mecca and carry out the “lesser pilgrimage,” which could be done at any time of the year. He had received the instruction [to do this] in a dream (Sura 48: 27). Because Muhammad intended to avoid the actual pilgrimage season, which would begin in the middle of April, the challenge to the Quraysh that was implicit in this plan did not come off as completely intolerable; or so he would have calculated. He had sacrificial animals herded together and decorated in Medina, one for every ten pilgrims, and set off in March. The pilgrims were armed with swords, one for every man; but they were accompanied by a large host of fighters equipped for war who had not entered into the consecrated state of the pilgrims. Underway he met Bedouins, whom he tried to persuade to come along, but they suspected that he would not come back alive, so they did not join him. As soon as he had reached the Tihama, people informed him that the Meccans were not willing to grant him access to the pilgrimage sites; for the reputation of the Meccans would suffer irreparable harm if they were to grant such access to an enemy. At al-Hudaybiya, at the western edge of the sacred zone, Muhammad and his procession suddenly faced the Meccan military force. He halted; his camel, we are told by way of justification, would not go any further, and he recognized that it was held back by the same power that had stopped the Ethiopian elephant in the time of ‘Abd al-Muttalib.

124

Chapter 11: The Occupation of Mecca

After some back and forth, negotiations began, led on the Meccan side at first by ‘Urwa b. Mas’ud, a Thaqif, but one whose mother was a daughter of ‘Abd Shams. ‘Urwa reported [back] in Mecca about the to him strange zeal with which the prophet was venerated by his followers, and he was appalled that he had met, in close proximity to Muhammad, al-Mugira b. Su’ba, a Thaqif mass-murderer, for whose atrocities he had just recently had to pay blood money – Islam and the hijra sever previously [existing bonds], was Muhammad’s principle. – Allah’s Messenger, for his part, sent ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan, his follower from the Banu ‘Abd Shams, to the Meccans. When ‘Uthman was held up for a long time in Mecca, the rumor began to circulate among Muhammad’s followers that he had been killed. Fear overcame the Muslims and, to prevent a panic, Muhammad assembled his people and had them swear an oath, which went down in history as the “homage-oath of (unconditional) obedience:” They all promised not to flee (Sura 48: 18). Finally, they reached an agreement at al-Hudaybiya. But before they could begin writing the agreement down, ‘Umar b. al-Khattab and, incited by him, Abu Bakr objected that Allah’s Messenger should not enter talks with idolaters as if they were his equals. This scene points to future tensions in the community of the “believers” and thus makes us suspect that it may be fictitious. The Quraysh negotiator Suhail b. ‘Amr, in any case, insisted successfully that the introductory words of the document should be the pagan formula, “In your name, O Allah,” instead of the Muslim formula, “In the name of Allah, the merciful, the forgiving.” Moreover, Muhammad would not be referred to by the title “Allah’s Messenger,” and thus would not be recognized as such, but rather merely as “Muhammad b. ‘Abdallah.” The extant text of the treaty of al-Hudaybiya reads as follows: “This is (the stipulation) entered as a settlement by Muhammad b. ‘Abdallah with Suhail b. ‘Amr: Both agree to lift from the people the burden of war for a period of ten years, during which they shall be secure and shall leave each other alone, under the condition that Muhammad shall send back to the Quraysh any of their number who leave and come to him without permission of their guardian. However, if any of Muhammad’s people come to the Quraysh, they shall not be sent back. Between us the clothes-bag (of rancor) shall be sewn shut; neither secret stealing nor open robbery shall occur. Whoever wants to enter an alliance and a treaty with Muhammad, he may do so. Whoever wants to enter an alliance and treaty with the Quraysh, he may do so.” The Khuza’a, we are told, immediately jumped at the chance and entered an alliance with Muhammad, while the Banu Bakr preferred to enter an alliance with the Quraysh. Ibn Ishaq then mentions a further stipulation, [though] it is unclear whether it was a part of the written agreement: “That you shall withdraw this year and not enter Mecca against

Damage to and Restoration of [Muhammad’s] Reputation

125

our will. But next year we shall leave the city (before your arrival there); you then shall enter and spend three days there and may carry with you the weapons of one who is mounted, swords in their sheathes; only with these weapons shall you enter (Mecca).”

Damage to and Restoration of [Muhammad’s] Reputation In his dream Muhammad had reached the Kaaba; with this promise he had mobilized his followers, but then everything turned out very differently, and he had had to reach a compromise with Mecca. This meant a loss of face for him, just as he had lost face four years earlier when he had failed to foresee the encounter with the Meccan military force [at Badr, where he had expected to meet the caravan instead]. He now stuck to his position that the dream had told him to go to Mecca; the treaty, after all, had promised him the fulfilment of the rites of pilgrimage in the following year. Was that not a great success, made even more attractive by the promise of future booty? In this way, according to the testimony of Sura 48, he tried to undo the damage to his authority. For even during the negotiations he was forced to deal with the consequences of his agreement. In his camp, Abu Jandal appeared, Suhail b. ‘Amr’s son, his feet in chains; he had escaped his Quraysh guards and hoped finally to join Muhammad, of whose teachings he was convinced. His father grabbed him by the collar and struck him in the face; facing Muhammad, he demanded that the treaty was already in force, and Muhammad had to grant the point. Abu Jandal was dragged back to the Quraysh; Muhammad had had nothing but consoling words to offer him. Not all the Muslims accepted this with equanimity. It was therefore urgently necessary after the return from al-Hudaybiya [for Muhammad] to restore his damaged prestige. The oasis of Khaybar was a lucrative target for conquest. The Jewish population was considered prosperous, [and] the expelled Banu n-Nadir had found refuge there. Approximately at the same time that he had set out for Mecca, he had demanded that the inhabitants of Khaybar recognize him as a prophet, which was consistent with the warning expressed in Sura 3, verse 110, that it would be beneficial for the people of the book to join “the best community.” After the ignominious agreement with the Meccans, it was expedient at least in this matter to be uncompromising. In addition, the contact between Khaybar and the Banu Ghatafan had been a thorn in his eye, and his followers, growing in number as they were, needed further opportunities for material enrichment. Thus, there were several reasons to head to Khaybar in early summer of 628. Yet Muhammad stressed the voluntary nature

126

Chapter 11: The Occupation of Mecca

of participation in this military expedition; only those who seek jihad should come along. We shall explain what this means in the next chapter. Like Medina, Khaybar consisted of defensive fortresses that lay scattered across the cultivated landscape; they had access to flowing water, something that is explicitly noted [in the sources]. A Muslim advance party apprehended a spy and learned after some back-and-forth that the Jews were expecting the arrival of the Ghatafan Bedouin, who had been informed about the approaching danger. Khaybar itself had one thousand armored fighters; supported by them, the Ghatafan had always been able to defy the attacks that other tribes had made on them. Now they were to return the favor. But in Khaybar the people understood that they could not rely too much on the loyalty of these allies, and so they had offered them one-half of their date harvest to secure their so urgently needed services. Moreover, the Jews placed their troops on alert every morning before dawn. Nonetheless, they were unpleasantly surprised when one morning they set out to work in their fields and met their enemies. They fled back to their citadels, and a time of mutual watching began. The attackers were under constant fire from the defenders; Muhammad was forced to seek a campground well to the rear. The first skirmishes, in the heat of midday, were unsuccessful, an attempt to occupy one of the fortresses failed. The situation of the mujahidun, the jihad-fighters, was not at all promising, especially since there was uncertainty about the intentions of the Bedouin allies of the Jews [who, in the end, never showed up to help the Jews of Khaybar]. After a few days, a defector offered his services to Muhammad: The Jews of the fortress that the Muslims were trying to conquer were in the habit of sneaking out every night to go to another one; only a few defenders were left behind, in spite of the fact that a large weapons depot was located in the fortress, of whose existence allegedly only the defector knew the details. Encouraged by this information, the Muslims launched a vigorous attack and discovered that, indeed, [the fortress was only being defended by] a few boys. In an underground chamber, they found swords, mail shirts, helmets, and also the parts to a catapult and two testudos. They used this military equipment to take the fortress into which the Jews had fled, and rapidly took control of more of their citadels. The supply situation of the mujahidun had dramatically improved. Up to this point, the number of war captives, from which one could make money, had remained small. However, [the Muslims] discovered where the besieged [Jews] had hidden their women and children. Muhammad laid siege to the relevant citadel and negotiated a surrender treaty that promised that the lives of those handed over would be spared; but those included had to agree to depart from Khaybar and to leave behind all their property excepting only the clothes on their backs.¹ They would lose the “protection (in Arabic: ad-dhim-

Damage to and Restoration of [Muhammad’s] Reputation

127

ma) of Allah and his Messenger” if they kept back any of their property from the plunderers. Chail-mail shirts, swords, bows and quivers, [and] lances were taken in large quantities [by the Muslims], and also fabrics, dishes, gold, and silver. The Meccan Muslims also were aware that the Jewish clan of Abu l-Huqayq had stored away in a safe place a camel skin filled with a treasure of jewelry which they loaned out on festive occasions, such as weddings. Kinana b. abi l-Huqayq pretended that this treasure had been spent preparing for the war. Muhammad ordered Kinana to be tortured² and before long a relative of Kinana betrayed the location of the buried treasure. Golden bracelets for arms, wrists and ankles, golden earrings, chains, signet rings, [all] set with precious gemstones and pearls, a great finger-ring made from onyx from Zofar – a considerable quantity of wealth was brought to light, well suited to enhance the attractiveness of jihad. The conquest of Khaybar, which was followed by smaller raids against nearby communities, increased Muhammad’s power and its material basis. The fact that the jihad-fighters entered this battle voluntarily shows that Allah’s Messenger was becoming less dependent on his Medinan “helpers,” a development that had begun with the expulsion of the Jewish tribes of Medina and the appropriation of their property. The exaltation of his person, of which we have spoken, fits in precisely this context, as do his letters to the rulers of the surrounding countries calling upon them to accept Islam, letters that he sent out shortly after returning from al-Hudaybiya. A letter was sent to Heraclius in Bostra, another was sent to the prince of the Ghassanids in Damascus. The Sassanid [emperor] in Ctesiphon is said to have ripped up the letter delivered to him, thereby ensuring the destruction of his empire, according to the Muslim tradition’s understanding of events after Muhammad’s death. Further recipients included Badan, the leader of the Sassanid expeditionary force in Yemen, who in light of his threatening situation, thought it advisable to throw in his lot with the upstart from the Hijaz, and finally the Patriarch of Alexandria. He answered that one was expecting a final prophet, but from Syria. Despite this discrepancy, he sent [as gifts] to Muhammad fabrics and a white mule named Duldul, as well as two Coptic girls; with one of these Muhammad conceived his son Ibrahim, who, however, died in infancy. Over against the élan with which Muhammad was able to broaden and even fulfill his ambitions were of course expressions of discontent from his zealous disciples, who were especially offended by the compromise of al-Hudaybiya. The discordant note that in their view marred the negotiations was the forced return of Abu Jandal, the son of Suhail b. ‘Amr. After all, the Prophet himself had declared in Sura 8 that Allah regards war against non-Muslims to be the very reason for the existence of his “best community”! Now Muhammad has promised

128

Chapter 11: The Occupation of Mecca

the enemies that he will immediately send back every dependent who comes to Medina to enter Islam against the will of his owner, guardian, or clan leader. Abu Basir, who lived under the protection of the Banu Zuhra, appeared before Muhammad and explained that he had become a Muslim and fled from his Meccan clan leader. Shortly thereafter a messenger came to Medina bearing a letter signed by al-Akhnas b. Shariq, an influential Thaqif ally of the Banu Zuhra, and a member of the Banu Zuhra, in which they demanded that Muhammad keep the promise he had made at al-Hudaybiya and send the refugee, who had fled without the permission of his Quraysh lord, back without delay. Muhammad complied with the request and forbade any attempt to help his co-religionist. An assurance that Allah will find a way out was all that he gave the disappointed man to take with him on his forced return journey. On the journey, Abu Basir killed one of the two guards and soon appeared again before Muhammad. To justify his action, he cited Sura 2, verse 193 and Sura 8, verse 39, which command Muslims to fight unrelentingly until Allah’s religion is practiced everywhere and no one is hindered from practicing it. Confronted with his own maxims, Muhammad could think of no better response than to allow the troublemaker to run free. At least he had not admitted him to his own ranks, [so] no one could accuse him of breaking his treaty with the Quraysh. Meanwhile, Abu Basir began to attack Meccan caravans according to a well-known example [namely, the example set by Muhammad himself].

The Collapse of Quraysh Power and the Entry into Mecca In the Spring of 629, Muhammad carried out the “lesser pilgrimage,” as had been agreed; from the roof of the Kaaba, the call to prayer resounded. Many Quraysh sensed that their cause was lost and went over to Allah’s Messenger, for such a move was likely to bring advantages in the future. The first were the Makhzumite Khalid b. al-Walid and ‘Uthman b. Talha of the Banu ‘Abd ad-Dar. ‘Amr b. al-‘As, who once had tried to persuade the [Ethiopian] Negus to hand over the Quraysh refugees, now also submitted to Muhammad. Already in Autumn 629, [Muhammad] had thought to use ‘Amr’s family connections in order to break up a hostile tribal coalition that was coming together north of Medina, thereby igniting the first dispute between the old emigrants, who felt that they had been passed over, and the recently converted opportunist. An attack perpetrated in Mecca on a few Khuza’a, preceded as usual by typical petty squabbling, now gave Muhammad the pretext for abrogating the treaty of al-Hudaybiya: Members of the time-honored Hashemite-Khuzaite alliance had suffered harm, and the validity of such pre-Islamic alliances had explicitly been left intact by the treaty. Abu

The Collapse of Quraysh Power and the Entry into Mecca

129

Sufyan rushed to Medina in order to placate Muhammad, but in vain. [Muhammad] made all the arrangements for a military campaign against Mecca. He held a military muster outside of Medina and distributed the war-banners among the various units. The emigrants mustered 700 men, among them 300 cavalry, the “helpers” 3500 foot soldiers and 500 cavalry. That nearly one-half of the emigrants could afford war-horses testifies to the substantial wealth that this group had acquired thanks to the conquest of Khaybar. Additional tribes that had allied themselves to Muhammad offered a few hundred fighters each; to the extent that the sources attribute cavalry units to them, these comprised far less than one-tenth of the total contingent. Bedouin tribes hungry for booty also joined Muhammad’s troops, but one could not know if they would stick to [Muhammad’s cause] at the decisive moment. Certainly not unimportant for Muhammad’s decision was the news that the large tribal confederation of the Hawazin, who had a long-standing alliance to the Thaqif, were assembling their military-age men at al-Ta’if. That did not augur well for Mecca, and Muhammad could infer from this development that the alliance between the Banu Thaqif and a few of the Quraysh clans, dating from the figar-wars, had been broken. Were the Thaqif hoping to exploit for their own advantage the weakness of their old rival Mecca, a weakness that had become evident since al-Hudaybiya? Al-Harith b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib, a cousin and milk-brother [or foster-brother] of the prophet, was among the many Meccans who streamed to Muhammad as he camped at al-Abwa’ on the way to Mecca. This cousin, up till then a declared enemy of Allah’s Messenger, was regarded [in the tradition] as the one who had once mockingly demanded that Muhammad could build himself a palace or ascend to heaven and bring down a book, if he were really what he claimed to be (Sura 17: 93). Now he paid his respects to Muhammad and begged forgiveness. Other notorious opponents followed his example. Even Abu Sufyan b. Harb escaped Muhammad’s revenge. When Muhammad marched into Mecca on 12 January 630, it was almost completely unnecessary to engage in combat, and he took out his anger on only a few people who had especially infuriated him. He had the keys to the Kaaba brought to him, but he is said to have entered it only after all remnants of pagan idolatry had been removed from it. After he had exited the shrine, he gave the speech that is often cited in the sources, in which he proclaimed the dawn of a new era. “Praise be to Allah, who has fulfilled his promises, granted victory to his slave, and all alone put the parties” – during the Battle of the Ditch – “to flight! What do you say (now)? What do you suppose?” The crowd responded: “We say good things, [and] expect good things! You are a noble-minded brother, the son of a noble-minded brother, you have certainly considered all things wisely!” Muhammad continued: “I speak to you as my brother Joseph spoke: ‘From now on, no reproach shall be

130

Chapter 11: The Occupation of Mecca

upon you! Allah forgives, for he is the most merciful of all those who show mercy!’ (Sura 12: 92) Truly, every obligation to pay usurious interest, incurred before Islam, every blood debt, all wealth and privilege, all of these are beneath my feet, except for the keeping of the keys of the house and the provision of the pilgrims (with water from Zamzam)! Truly, for him who was killed negligently by club or whip, blood money shall be increased, [to] 100 female camels, of those 40 pregnant! Allah has banished the pride of heathen idolatry, boasting about one’s forefathers, as used to be typical: You all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from earth! The most noble among you is the most God-fearing (cf. Sura 49: 13)! Truly, Allah declared Mecca to be a holy place on the day that he created heaven and earth. Mecca was not profane to anyone before me, and it will not be profane to anyone after me – it was profane to me only for a moment on this day” – Muhammad indicated a short span of time with a hand gesture. – “Wild game may not be hunted, leaves may not be plucked from the shrubs; found objects may only be kept if the find is announced in public; fresh sprouts may no longer be harvested!” Here al-Abbas interrupted him with the request that fragrant bluegrass be exempted from this prohibition; Muhammad agreed. Then he continued: “There shall be no bequest that (favors) a (particular) heir. The child belongs to the (owner) of the bed in which it was born, and the fornicator is to be stoned. No wife may give away any of her property, except with the permission of her husband. A Muslim is brother to a Muslim, all Muslims are brothers, they are like one hand against all others. They are all responsible together for their blood, the most distant of them helps them all, the nearest of them assumes an obligation to the encumbrance of all; those with strong riding animals help those with weak ones; the nimble help the sluggish. A Muslim may not be killed (in retaliation) for a non-Muslim, the same for anyone who stands under a promise of protection. Members of two different religions may not inherit from each other. (In collecting tribute one shall) not (forcibly) have livestock driven to a distant location, or summon the owners with their livestock to the edge of their territory; rather, the tribute payments (in Arabic: as-sadaqat) of the Muslims are only to be demanded in their tents and settlements. A woman may not be married by a man who is already married to her maternal or paternal aunt. Proof rests on the one who makes a claim, the oath on the one who disputes something. A woman may not travel further than a distance of three days without being accompanied by a male relative who is so closely related to her that marriage is forbidden. After the afternoon prayer there is no (more) ritual prayer (until the time when the disk of the sun has sunk below the horizon); and none after the morning prayer (until the midday prayer). I forbid for you fasting on two (specific) days, namely, on the feast of the sacrifice and on the feast of the breaking of the fast. I forbid to you two ways of wearing clothing,

Linking Islam to the Interests of the Quraysh

131

namely in such a way that one who, while squatting, covers the back and legs with his cloak, yet exposes the shameful parts to the sky, and in such a way that he throws a part of his cloak over his shoulder and exposes his shameful parts. I assume you are familiar with both.”

Linking Islam to the Interests of the Quraysh The Kaaba is the center point of the history of the world, a history that is under Allah’s control. By proclaiming this at the Kaaba, Muhammad creates for Islam what it had lacked for so long: a foundation in the visible, tangible realm. The axis of creation is handed over to the man under whose authority it should have by rights been placed since the beginning of his mission. Now, because Allah’s Messenger has entered Mecca not as a tolerated pilgrim but as its ruler, the world-order instituted by Allah has been fulfilled. This is the core theme of Muhammad’s words; and because this order has now become permanent, certain of its aspects that are a matter of some urgency to Muhammad must be proclaimed, impediments to marriage and customs regarding clothing must be stated more precisely, times of prayer explained, rules for the collection of sadaqat enacted. The community that Muhammad envisions is the social reflection of his message of salvation. The sovereignty of Allah is the foundation and purpose of its existence; this sovereignty is to be expanded by means of jihad, which creates and sustains a sense of communal solidarity – the Muslims are like one hand against all others. The sources report on measures that Muhammad took to Islamize the tribes in the region around Mecca. This was urgently necessary, for a minor detail reveals to us just how precarious Muhammad’s situation was in reality, in the middle of the core region of people who had been his enemies until recently. “Allah’s Messenger stayed for fifteen days in Mecca, where he (always) prayed two sequences (in Arabic: ar-raka’a). On Sunday the 6th of Shawwal (27 January 630), he left. He appointed as governor in Mecca ‘Attab b. Asid, who led the Meccans in prayer, and entrusted Mu’ad b. Jabal with the task of instructing them in the religious customs and implications of Islam.” ‘Attab was one of the descendants of ‘Abd Shams and had just converted to Islam; if even ‘Amr b. al-‘As had not wanted any of the old emigrants to lead him in prayer, then Allah’s Messenger had all the more reason to take into account the sensibilities of the conquered in Mecca. But not only that! During the sojourn in his hometown, he felt so insecure that he followed the abbreviated version of the ritual prayer – only two rak’as, as is permitted when facing an enemy.

132

Chapter 11: The Occupation of Mecca

As we have already mentioned, the Hawazin Bedouin and the Banu Thaqif had prepared to attack Mecca, thus arousing serious anxiety among the Quraysh. Now, because Muhammad had once again become one of them, he took control of the situation. Together with the large army that had come with him from Medina, he, the Quraysh, and their allies marched towards al-Ta’if and came upon the enemy in the valley of Hunayn. There ensued a bloody battle, the outcome of which was not entirely satisfactory for Muhammad. The Hawazin were by no means vanquished; on the contrary, the battle moved to beneath the fortified walls of al-Ta’if, which Muhammad’s troops stormed in vain for a number of days. Retreat became unavoidable, because the Bedouin who were fighting on the Muslim or Quraysh side lost their patience. They had assumed that Allah would help his prophet achieve an easy victory. Muhammad eventually concluded that Allah was not going to permit him just yet to occupy al-Ta’if.³ That is the curse of a prophethood that relies upon the intentions of God in each and every detail – it cannot easily tolerate failures. Muhammad withdrew without having achieved his objective. At al-Jir’ana, a watering hole closer to Mecca than to al-Ta’if, [the Muslims] had gathered the captured Hawazin and their livestock, 6000 people, 24,000 camels, and countless smaller livestock, according to the sources. Now came the time for dividing it all up. Naturally, Allah’s messenger had already taken care of his closest followers right away at Hunayn: ‘Abd arRahman b. ‘Auf, ‘Ali b. abi Talib, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman; in addition Jubair b. Mu’tim, the son of the same Mut’im b. ‘Adi who who had once protected him from the Quraysh after the abortive journey to al-Ta’if, they and a few others had already [each] been allowed to take possession of a pretty [slave] girl. Upon arrival at al-Jirana, Muhammad had to try the patience of his fighters a bit further. The arrival of a delegation of the Hawazin was announced. Allah’s Messenger had first of all to deal with the allocation of the livestock and the plundered valuables, among which a treasure of 4000 okes⁴ of silver had aroused a good deal of greediness. First of all he had to satisfy the wishes of the prominent men “whose hearts are to be reconciled to Islam” (in Arabic: almu’allafa qulubu-hum) (Sura 9: 60). Among them were, for example, Abu Sufyan b. Harb, who received 40 okes of silver and 100 camels; and what about his sons, Yazid and Mu’awiya, Abu Sufyan asked? Muhammad responded handsomely, giving each of them the same portion. One can see that this preference for people who had fought against the prophet up till a short time ago would create some bad blood among those who now came away empty-handed, namely, the “helpers.” Had they not committed their lives and their property to wage a war for Muhammad that they had not even wanted in the first place – and now all of a sudden this should all go without any reward?⁵

Chapter 12: Jihad Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth as the price for paradise. Thus they fight in the way of Allah, and they kill and are killed – this (reward of paradise) is a true promise, given in the Torah, Gospel, and Koran. Who is truer to his promise than Allah? Rejoice in the exchange you have made! That is the great profit! (Sura 9, verse 111)

Islam or Belief? Allah determines the course of the universe in every detail, including the actions of human beings. Because this is so, it would be offensive to seek to acquire wealth by exceeding the limits set by Allah, for example to demand usurious interest on a loan (cf. Sura 2: 275; Sura 3:130; Sura 4:161). There is only one type of loan that carries with it an entirely just profit: the commitment of one’s wealth and life for the interests of Allah (cf. Sura 57:10 f) and thus for Muhammad and the “best community.” This conviction, which contradicts the doctrine of predestination, a doctrine that is preached everywhere at least implicitly, is one that Muhammad taught in the last years of his life, and it is clear that it mirrors the situation in which he found himself at that time. He had succeeded in becoming the most powerful man in Arabia in just a few years. People feared him and paid him homage – and many of his followers had become tired of fighting after all these successes. The “helpers” especially longed for peace, but militating against peace was a process with a dynamic all its own, namely, a new religious-political ordering of Arabia that drew in an ever-expanding circle of territory. For some time now it was no longer a matter of the persecuted one fighting back against his persecutors; this phase of [Muhammad’s] life had come to a close at the latest with the treaty of Hudaybiyya. Already at that time distant tribes of Bedouins had been drawn into the events; the occupation of Mecca and the battles of Hunayn and al-Taif that followed immediately upon it showed that a return to the way things had always been or even to the status quo ante had become impossible and would have meant the dissolution of Muhammad’s community. It was its aggressiveness that made it so attractive. In any case, the rhetoric of the Koran which, since the first days in Medina, had equated sincere belief with the waging of war precluded the possibility of contentment with what had been attained so far. Since the Battle of the Ditch, Muhammad had spoken repeatedly about the triumph of his cause and also about the nature of the community that was obligated to obey him and Allah, and each time, his words betrayed that the comhttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-013

134

Chapter 12: Jihad

munity was far from this ideal [of obedience], and that the demand for battlereadiness should drown out any disagreements. Thus at the beginning of Sura 49 he admonishes his followers as he had in Sura 33 that they were only allowed to approach him with deeply felt reverence. It was very possible that the hardwon harmony was being threatened by inner divisions. One should pay no attention to the whispering! Moreover, it would be fatal if Muhammad allowed himself to be influenced by many of his followers. “Allah has made belief dear and precious to you, and made it appear beautiful in your hearts, and awakened revulsion in you towards disbelief, wickedness, and rebelliousness…” (verse 7). Therefore it must be possible for the Muslims to smooth over the dissension that was beginning to emerge in their ranks; nonetheless, when the need arises, they must not shy away from the use of weapons so that dominion will belong to Allah alone (verse 9). “The believers are brothers to one another!” (verse 10). No one may mock another; no one may consider himself better than his brothers and sisters. Malicious gossip and veiled insinuations are forbidden. “You people! We created you from a male and a female and divided you into peoples and tribes (only for this reason), that you should recognize one another. In the sight of Allah the most noble among you is the one who shows the greatest fear of God” (verse 13). If one keeps this simple principle in view, then the Bedouin followers [of Muhammad] are wrong to claim that they are believers; they have merely become Muslims, and Allah will credit their deeds precisely on Judgment Day. The believers are only those who without reservation “wage jihad in the way of Allah with their wealth and their lives” (verse 14 f). If the Bedouins imagine that they have embraced Islam, then that only proves their blindness, their ignorance of the true nature of their conversion, for this is Allah’s work alone (verses 16 – 18). We will return often to the statements on the distinction between Islam and belief; they are foundational for understanding the events of the middle of the seventh century and the struggle over the correct interpretation of Muhammad’s legacy. First, however, we must describe the conflict between Allah’s Messenger and his “helpers.” This conflict did not emerge for the first time after the return to Mecca; already before the Battle of the Ditch the situation was such that one could no longer tacitly presuppose the reliability of all the Medinan Muslims while complaining merely about a few “hypocrites.” Around the time of the Battle of the Ditch Muhammad had scored a victory in a minor skirmish at al-Muraisi’, a locale on the route to Mecca. While still in the field Muhammad altered the hitherto usual practice in the division of the booty. From his own one-fifth share, the so-called sadaqat, he would now only satisfy the wishes of the needy and the orphans; those who were rich or otherwise able to support themselves could no longer count on receiving gifts. The fighters themselves received

The Conflict with the “Helpers”

135

– apart from their respective shares of the remaining four-fifths of the booty – no further rewards; for they were to draw their support from the revenues generated from the properties and lands that had been “reclaimed” by Allah (in Arabic: alfay) for the “believers.” In return, they had to serve in the military and wage war (in Arabic: al-jihad). In this way Muhammad created a military corps that was loyal to him and that, in contrast to the “helpers,” had jihad as its sole reason for existing. This could not be pleasing to the “helpers,” for they were now demoted to an inferior rank.

The Conflict with the “Helpers” He further angered the “helpers” by purchasing from them a captured girl and marrying her on the spot. The other captives from the girl’s clan, who thus unexpectedly became in-laws of the prophet, demanded immediately that they be released from captivity without having to pay any ransom; as in-laws of Muhammad they could hardly be slaves. Muhammad had to agree, and a large number of “helpers” saw themselves stripped of the captives that they had taken as war booty. The “helpers” began to complain that those they had taken in and protected had broken with them; “they are trying to conquer us in our own homeland. They deny our good deeds. By Allah, with us and the Quraysh rabble it is as the old saying has it, ‘first you feed the dog, then the dog eats you!’” On the way back from al-Muraisi’, ‘A’isha, Muhammad’s young wife, fell into a compromising situation when she missed the departure of the caravan while off looking for a lost necklace. Ugly rumors began to circulate. Hassan b. Thabit, Muhammad’s court poet of the Khazraj tribe, was identified as the source of the rumors about ‘A’isha. ‘Ali b. abi Talib, Muhammad’s cousin, who was tasked with investigating the apparent insult to the manly honor of Allah’s Messenger, discovered that the rumors had no basis in fact. Hassan received a whipping as punishment (cf. Sura 24: 11– 20). It is no surprise that the “helpers” complained when they were denied war booty after the Battle of Hunayn. Hassan b. Thabit asked Muhammad the pointed question, why his followers from the Banu Sulaim had become more valuable to him than those who had taken him in and supported him in dangerous battles. Even Sa’d b. ‘Ubada of the Khazraj, one of the twelve Medinan leaders mentioned at the second meeting at al-Aqaba, evinced sympathy with the words of Hassan and demanded an answer from Muhammad. Muhammad responded by losing his temper. Then, however, he consoled the “helpers” by promising them the revenues from Bahrain, on which he had trained his sights around this time. He also told the “helpers” that, even though he had conquered

136

Chapter 12: Jihad

Mecca, he would return to Medina with them, and what greater privilege could there be for anyone than that Allah’s Messenger should dwell among them? – But recall that he could not have contemplated an extended sojourn in Mecca anyway.

The Expansion of Power If one did not take into consideration these animosities, then the strong man of Arabia now resided in Medina. As was customary, even tribes far from Medina considered it appropriate to come to the powerful man to pay their respects, to give him gifts, and to depart after determining that they enjoyed his good will. Neither side got into discussion of the details of their respective obligations at this time. So it had been up to now, and so it would have been viewed by most of the tribal ambassadors who now presented themselves in great numbers in Medina. Nevertheless, Muhammad did not allow events simply to follow their course. He repeatedly took the initiative himself and sent his own ambassadors to tribes that had up until then remained neutral, making clear to them what he expected from them – not just a courtesy visit, but the establishment of a durable relationship of loyalty based on Islam. Thus, shortly after his return from Mecca, mindful of his promise to the “helpers,” he sent a recently converted Meccan to the ruler of Bahrain in order to convert him to Islam. The ruler dragged his feet in answering; he himself was certainly willing to comply with the request, but not all the inhabitants of Bahrain had in their hearts an inclination to Islam. Also, one had to clarify what would happen with the Jews and Zoroastrians. Muhammad informed him without delay that their conversion to Islam should also be made possible; if they should reject this invitation, then they had to pay the poll-tax. Newly converted Muslims would be informed of the level of tribute they would have to pay, which would be collected by Muhammad’s ambassador. Around 800, al-Waqidi, from whom we have received detailed reports about Muhammad and early Islam, traveled around the Arabian Peninsula to collect testimony about Muhammad’s actions. To the extent that they were available, he examined writings that had been sent from Medina, copied them, and included the contents in his extensive chronicle. The tone of Muhammad’s messages can be gleaned from an undated letter that was sent to Hagar, the capital of Bahrain, apparently after the first command to submit: “I recommend that you be mindful of Allah and watch over yourselves, so that you do not fall into error after the right path has been shown to you… Your delegation came to me and I granted them only what caused them delight. Had I let you feel my whole

The Expansion of Power

137

power, then I would have driven you from Hagar. However I accepted the plea of the one who does not dwell among you and showed my mercy to those who are among you. He among you who acts rightly I will not burden with the guilt of the wrongdoer. When my commanders come to you, then obey them and support them according to the command of Allah and on His path. Whoever among you performs a righteous deed, his deed will not go unnoticed either by Allah or by me.” ‘Amr b. al-‘As set out for Oman in the month of Du l-Qa’da (which began on 20 Feb. 630) in the year 8 A.H. The ruler there, who belonged to the Yemeni Azd, at first wanted to have nothing to do with Islam; if he handed over power to the man in Medina, what would remain for him? ‘Amr made clear that he would depart and report back to Muhammad. This hint sufficed to make the prince submissive. From this time on ‘Amr was the real commander in Oman. He collected the sadaqat, “passed judgement over affairs there,” and used what he collected for the support of the needy. In this manner he ruled in the land for a good two years, until the death of Muhammad. This example makes clear how the expansion of Islam did not [merely] foster but rather directly unleashed the dissolution of the traditional political and social framework. The tribute payments collected by the emissaries of God’s Messenger, which they distributed according to their own discretion to those they deemed worthy recipients, destroyed the traditional bonds of tribal solidarity and left the tribal chieftains with no choice but to take a leading role in making the changes. Their power was also undermined when the emissaries began to administer justice in the name of Allah and to intervene in local conflicts, as sources repeatedly attest. In the documents transmitted by al-Waqidi, it becomes clear that Muhammad in these years began to perceive Christianity as something especially disagreeable and disturbing. He had largely destroyed Judaism in Medina, except for the Jewish members of the clans of the “helpers;” he had already promised protection to these [Jews] in the so-called “Umma Document,” as long as they did not oppose his policies. He had subjugated the remaining Jewish communities in Kaybar and the oases surrounding it. His ambitions now reached further, presumably as far as there were people living under the genealogical system of the Arabs, a system which he took to be divinely ordained. Christianity, which from its beginning had always understood how to integrate itself into the existing political circumstances and did not deduce from its salvific message an obligation to fundamentally re-order earthly rule, was thoroughly outdone by the aggressive demands of this peculiar prophet; only too soon would it become clear to many what sort of a spirit animated a religion that claimed the right to order all earthly affairs according to its leader’s interest in power, an interest that was presented as Allah’s will.

138

Chapter 12: Jihad

In the documents that tradition assigns to Muhammad’s last years, Christianity appears as a foolish form of unbelief. ‘Aijas b. abi Rabi’a of the Banu Makzum was sent to the Himyarites: “The unbelievers, namely the people of the scriptures and the idolaters, first desisted (from their errors) when (Muhammad’s revelation) came to them as a clear proof (for the true faith)” (Sura 98: 1 f). He was to speak these words to the Yemenis, for they would have nothing intelligent to say in response. So Muhammad advised him before he left on his journey. Jews and Christians have forfeited their justification for existing; their faith is pure stupidity. Allah’s Messenger came to this realization around this time; he expresses it sharply in Sura 9 verse 30, [and] ‘Aijas is also to speak these words to the Himyarites: “The Jews say, Ezra is the son of God. The Christians say, Christ is the son of God. They say this with their mouth (and without reflection). They babble like the unbelievers of old. May Allah fight them! How are they so deluded?” Already before the Treaty of Hudaybiya Muhammad alluded to Sura 4 verse 171 while telling a bishop that Jesus, the son of Mary, was the spirit of Allah, indeed the Word of Allah, that flowed into the Virgin Mary; he, Muhammad, believes without distinction in all the prophets (cf. Sura 2: 136 and 285; Sura 3: 84). “The greeting of peace be offered to him who follows correct guidance!” In verses 17 to 19 of Sura 5, which dates to the end of Muhammad’s life, he states above all to the Christians that they have no special standing with Allah; by no means can Jesus do anything contrary to the express will of Allah, Allah rewards and punishes whom He will. So it would be best if all the scripture folk accepted the message that Muhammad now proclaims, he having been called [by Allah] at this time after a long interruption in the series of prophets. South of the Hijaz lived Christians in closed communities. Najran, a region north of the present-day border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, had long been Christianized. In the sixth century it had been the target of attacks by the Jewish convert Du Nuwas Yusuf; the people of Najran turned to Byzantium for help, which in turn mobilized its ally Ethiopia. Also Christian were the Banu l-Harit b. Ka’b, of the Madhig tribe, who had their own bishop. Muhammad told this bishop and the bishops of the Najran that they could keep their traditional rights unhindered as long as they acted rightly towards him. Al-Waqidi mentions another document, unfortunately likewise undated, that makes new demands: He, Muhammad, has the right to “every yellow, white, and black fruit¹” and to every slave of the Najran; yet he is willing to forego those and instead to accept from them two thousand Yemeni robes, each weighing one oke, one thousand in the month of Rajab and one thousand in Safar. They also had to hand over livestock of all sorts. In addition they had to host the ambassadors of the prophet up to twenty days, but not longer than a month. Should unrest in Yemen make it

The Expansion of Power

139

necessary, the Christians in Najran had to provide milking animals and riding animals; however these animals were only to be loaned and would be returned. Then Muhammad repeats his and Allah’s promise of protection; bishops, monks, and donors of goods for religious purposes shall retain their rights. Then it says that usury may no longer be practiced, [and] old blood guilt shall be lifted. People should act rightly to one another when disputes arise. Correspondence with Muhammad was a prelude to Islamization by military force. In the month of Rabi’ al-auwal (which began on 7 June 631) of the year 10 A.H., Khalid b. al-Walid set out with 400 fighters to the Banu l-Harit b. Ka’b, furnished with Muhammad’s order to invite them to Islam three times before attacking. One could hardly refuse this highly unfriendly “invitation.” As ordered by Muhammad, Khalid brought a delegation from the tribe with him back to Medina; [Muhammad] appointed one of the delegation to be leader of the Banu l-Harit b. Ka’b and gave him gifts; in January 632 he permitted them to travel home. The Christians of Najran also sent representatives to Medina; it is not clear if an intervention of the sort made by Khalid b. al-Walid against the Banu l-Harit had been necessary. In Medina the visitors from Najran attracted attention due to their fine clothing. This displeased Allah’s Messenger and he spoke to them only when they came to him in the habits of monks. They resolutely rejected the demand that they become Muslims, and when Muhammad pressured them to submit to trial by ordeal, they rejected this, too, explaining that they were willing to accept their inferior position. The conditions under which they purchased the “protection (in Arabic: al-dhimma) of Allah and His Messenger” correspond almost word for word to those laid down in the document cited above; possibly it is identical to the one that the delegation now received. The “helpers” were not significantly involved in any of these activities. They viewed with concern Muhammad’s efforts to impose his dominion also to the north. What was the value of his solemn assurances that he wanted to avoid a clash with the Byzantines? The Byzantines obviously would not take it lightly if Muslims sought to gain a foothold on their territory. For example, the governor of Amman, Farwa b. ‘Amr al-Judami, had become a Muslim. He reported this to Medina and sent gifts to the prophet, including luxurious garments and, in recognition of the special status of the prophet, a white mule, thus following the example of the patriarch of Alexandria. The Byzantines learned of Farwa’s treasonous connections and of his correspondence; they demanded that he issue a retraction. When he ignored these serious warnings, he was arrested and executed. It is possible that these events occurred in the time before Muhammad’s entry into Mecca.

140

Chapter 12: Jihad

Renewed Conflict with the “Helpers;” the Mosque of Dissension In the year 630 Heraclius was again, or still, in Homs, and in Medina the rumor spread that he was gathering troops in the region of Amman to launch an invasion to the south. In Medina people had the highest respect for the battle-readiness and weaponry of the Byzantine army, so they found this quite disturbing. For his part, Muhammad felt himself compelled to prepare a campaign to the north, for which he mobilized not only his emigrants and “helpers” and the tribes around Medina, but also the Meccans. When it was time to set off, Muhammad received an unpleasant surprise: on this occasion he could not count on the “helpers” as he had done in the past. One of their most important men, Abdallah b. Ubayy, had indeed gathered many fighters, but he expressed serious reservations; Allah’s Messenger, he suggested, did not know what he was getting into. It is unclear if, in spite of this, many “helpers” were present when Muhammad’s forces, suffering under intense heat and thirst, set out for the north in the month of Rajab in the year 9 A.H. (which began on 14 October 630), heading initially in the direction of Dumat al-Jandal. Muhammad then ordered his troops to swing to the west, until he and his army reached Tabuk, a small fortress that lay just within Byzantine territory. The Muslims could neither see nor learn anything of the enemy that was allegedly about to attack. Yet again he enjoyed good luck. He was able to remain in Tabuk for some time and, as was his practice, demand loyalty from the tribes and localities in the vicinity. As soon as he had returned to Medina, he became aware that many of the “helpers” had finally had enough of jihad and were selling their weapons. Besides Abdallah b. Ubayy, against whom Muhammad did not dare to act, three other men had refused him their service, two from the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf and also the Khazraj poet Ka’b b. Malik, a participant at the second meeting at Aqaba. He banished these three and forbade any contact with them, “until the world despite its breadth became too narrow for them and they felt themselves oppressed within and they thought there was no shelter from Allah except in going to Him, then Allah turned graciously to them…” (Sura 9: 118). The Medinan opponents were not merely disobedient, but rather sought a separation and constructed their own place of prayer without Muhammad’s agreement, precisely in order to liberate themselves from him. The reports in the narrative sources stress this very point: they wanted to be on their own, more specifically, they were awaiting the return from Syria of Abu ‘Amir, “the monk,” also referred to sometimes as “the Jew.” The building was erected in Quba, the second one of this sort in this neighborhood of Medina. The first mosque was founded there by the earliest emigrants and was regularly used up to

A Harshly Expressed Will to Power

141

that time and after for religious services. One source tells us that the erection of the second building was justified on the grounds that some inhabitants of Quba had difficulties reaching the first place of prayer due to flash-flooding in the valley after rainfall. We are also assured that Muhammad’s permission had been requested, but when he was about to enter the new mosque, the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared to him and advised against it: “Those are they who out of unbelief have taken a mosque to cause harm and to divide the believers and to gather those who have previously waged war against Allah and His Messenger. To be sure, they swear that they acted (with regard to the building) with the best of intentions, but Allah testifies that they lie! Never stand in (that mosque) to pray! It is more appropriate for you to go to pray in a place of prayer that was erected from the beginning out of reverence for God; for therein you shall find men who love to purify themselves, and Allah loves all who purify themselves!” One who founds his building on reverence for God is more reasonable than one who builds it on the edge of hellfire (Sura 9: 107– 110). Then comes the reference to the actual cause of the conflict: Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their property, so that they fight in his way, killing and being killed, and he will reward them with paradise – a truly advantageous exchange (verse 111)! The believers are they who “repent, worship (Allah), praise him, travel through the land (in his service), bow (in prayer), prostrate themselves, command the right, forbid the wrong, and respect Allah’s boundaries (in Arabic: alhudud)! Give good news to the believers!” (verse 112). The founders of the place of prayer built “on the edge of hellfire” belonged one and all to the Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf; most belonged to the sub-group of the Banu Zaid b. Malik b. ‘Auf b. ‘Amr b. ‘Auf, to which Abu ‘Amir, “the monk,” also belonged. The Mosque of Dissension is eloquent proof of the lasting skepticism with which many Medinans regarded Muhammad’s policies, perhaps even of bitterness that this man had transformed the hanif religion into a military movement with very worldly objectives. But Muhammad would not permit such fundamental criticism; he ordered that the building be destroyed.

A Harshly Expressed Will to Power The last two and a half years of Muhammad’s life, the period after the occupation of Mecca, could have seemed to him a series of triumphant successes, if one sets aside the resistance from his longstanding followers. But what was the real value of the many pledges of loyalty that he received? Those tribes that promised him to accept Islam and that tolerated the presence of his tax-collectors in their midst – did they really respect his word? Carrying out the rites of pilgrimage was

142

Chapter 12: Jihad

the goal for which he had fought for years. It therefore comes as a surprise that in the spring of 631, when he could have travelled unhindered to Mecca, he did not do so and instead entrusted the leadership of the [pilgrimage] caravan from Medina to Abu Bakr. The caravan had already set out when, tradition has it, ‘Ali b. abi Talib overtook it and handed over a text: Sura 9, which had just been “sent down.” It represents, also according to Islamic historiography, a reckoning by Muhammad with his external enemies, the unbelievers, among whom he also at that time counted the Jews and Christians, as well as “the hypocrites,” of whom we have already spoken. He states in harsh terms that non-Muslims must do his will. With the polytheists he had a year earlier concluded a treaty that guaranteed them that they could follow their customary rites in and around Mecca. He now revoked this concession: “A renunciation from Allah and His Messenger to those of the idolaters with whom you have made a treaty!” – thus begins the text without any introductory flourishes. Only this one time would the polytheists enjoy the immunity from attack accorded by the sacred months. “Therefore move about freely on the earth for the four (holy) months and know that you cannot escape Allah!” – You stand always and everywhere under the power of Allah. – “And know that Allah wishes to dishonor the unbelievers! And a proclamation from Allah and His Messenger to the people on the day of the great pilgrimage, that Allah and His Messenger are free (of all pledges) to the idolaters. If you” – unbelievers – “show remorse and convert, it will be better for you. But if you turn away, know that you cannot escape Allah. Threaten the unbelievers with a painful punishment! Except for the idolaters with whom you made an agreement and who since then have not kept back anything or supported anyone against you. With regard to them, honor your agreement until the end of the (agreed) term! Allah loves those who fear God. But when the sacred months have passed, then kill the idolaters, wherever you find them! Seize them, and corner them, and set every conceivable ambush for them! If they convert, carry out the ritual prayer, and pay the alms tax, then let them go their way! Allah forgives and is merciful. If an idolater asks you for protection, then grant it to him, so that he can hear the word of Allah; after that, guide him to a secure territory. (So shall you behave) because they are a people with no knowledge. How can the idolaters have any treaty with God and His Messenger? Only they can do so with whom you made a treaty at the place of prayer” (Sura 9: 1– 7). According to Ibn Ishaq, among the latter were meant the Banu d-Dil, a clan of the Banu Bakr, who had entered into the Treaty of Hudaybiya on the side of the Quraysh; unlike [the Quraysh], [the Ban d-Dil] had not violated the treaty. With regard to [the Banu d-Dil], the treaty of 628 still held good when Muhammad had marched into Mecca in 630. Now, however, in the year 631, for them, too, the peace would only last for four months; they would have time to return

A Harshly Expressed Will to Power

143

to their ancestral territory. After that, however, if they persisted in their idolatry, then they too would face the jihad. And, so that the polytheistic pilgrimage rites would end forever, Muhammad condemned as unbelief the old custom of inserting a month [into the lunar calendar] so as to make the pilgrimage coincide with the same point each year according to the solar seasons (verse 37): He, the Messenger of Allah, destroys according to [Allah’s] will the polytheistic pilgrimage and market customs aligned with the solar seasons and thereby secures a monopoly over the holy place of Mecca, as is appropriate for this shrine, which Abraham and Ishmael had once built at the command of Allah (cf. Sura 2: 124 f). “Kill those among whom you hear no call to prayer and see no place of prayer!” Muhammad had spoken these words already after the entry into Mecca and before the Battle of Hunayn. One year later he justified the termination of the general pledge of peace with the claim that the idolaters were fundamentally not willing to live up to their agreements as soon as they felt they had the upper hand [and were strong enough to break them] (verse 8). To lend greater force to his threats he mocked them as “leaders of unbelief.” They violate their oaths; “they intend to expel the Messenger, and they are the ones who launched the first attack against you!” (verse 13) Yet another allusion to the precarious position that Muhammad had found himself in barely a year earlier in Mecca! And also the first time, namely during his expulsion, it had been his Quraysh opponents who had taken the initiative to get rid of him. Therefore it is right and fitting to crush them with all means! Did the “believers” imagine that they could now relax in security vis-à-vis their enemies? The war is by no means over! Allah knows exactly who among the followers of Islam will carry on the jihad and who will take no one but him and his Messenger and “the believers” for their companions (verses 9 – 16)! This remark takes aim at the internal difficulties that Muhammad had faced since the return from Tabuk. The “people of the book” are also to be treated severely, insofar as they do not acknowledge that he has been sent to them to liberate them from their errors. Even so, they have not forfeited their right to life, as have the pagan idolaters: “And fight those among the people of the book who do not believe in Allah and the last day, and who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not follow the true faith, until they are humiliated and each of them pays out of hand the poll tax (in Arabic: al-jizya)!” (verse 28 f). Muhammad briefly summarizes one more time why the use of violence against them is justified: “The Jews say, ‘Ezra is the son of Allah.’ The Christians say, ‘The messiah is the son of Allah.’ That is the saying of their mouths (but without reflection); they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before them. May Allah fight them! What brought them to this error? They take their rabbis and monks as lords instead of Allah, and also the messiah, the son of Mary, when

144

Chapter 12: Jihad

they were commanded to pray only to one God, beyond whom there is no other – may He be praised to the exclusion of all that they associate with Him! They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their ill-considered speech, but Allah wants nothing but to perfect His light, however repugnant it is to the unbelievers. He is the one who has sent His Messenger with correct guidance and with the true religion in order to make it triumph over all other religions, even if it is repugnant to the idolaters. You, who believe! Many rabbis and monks devour unjustly the wealth of the people and keep them from Allah’s way” (verses 30 – 34). So much for non-Muslims! In the same passage Muhammad turns his attention to the unenthusiastic among his own followers, and he continues: “Proclaim a painful punishment to those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of Allah! On the day on which the fire of Gehenna will heat (their hoarded treasure) and their foreheads and sides and backs will be branded with (the molten metal): ‘That is what you have hoarded for yourselves! Taste now what you have hoarded!’” (Sura 9: 34 f). Of course the jihad should be voluntary, but it angers Muhammad that so many are not joining in: “When a Sura is sent down (which says), ‘Believe in Allah and go out to conduct jihad with His Messenger,’ then the prosperous among them say, ‘Leave us (in peace), we want to be with those who stay (at home).’” He can no longer force them to participate, so all he can do is repeat how much these people are lacking in understanding, while “the Messenger and those who believe and carry out the jihad with their property and their lives” will one day achieve blessedness (verses 86 – 9). Muhammad has no illusions: The Suras will only strengthen the faith of those whose faith already has deep roots. The rest, “whose hearts are eaten away by sickness,” are not impressed by new revelations and, Muhammad makes clear, they fall further and further into sin because of their resistance. Once or twice per year Allah will put them to the test, and every time, they squander the opportunity to come to their senses. They sneak away as soon as a Sura is revealed and they hope that no one sees them do so – Allah has turned their hearts away from faith! The Messenger who has come from among them, for whom they once yearned, has appeared; he wants what is best for them. But if they do not follow him, he cannot be held responsible for their unbelief (verses 124– 129).

The Religious Warriors’ Movement Let us ask at the end of this chapter about the characteristics of the community as Muhammad envisioned it at the end of his life. What is the “best community” like? Its members are divided into the Muslims and the believers, as we have just

The Religious Warriors’ Movement

145

discussed. Both groups have in common that Allah and the Last Judgment are the most important facts of their existence and that they follow the ritual order proclaimed to them by Muhammad, the confirmer of all earlier prophets (Sura 33:40). On this last point the Jews and the Christians opposed him, even though Allah had transmitted to him the authentic truth with which he had once and for all corrected the unauthorized changes that they had made since Abraham. The stubbornness of the Jews and Christians could nonetheless be allowed to continue, as long as it was guaranteed that they are no longer allowed to spread their errors and that their peculiar views and deviant rites are condemned to die out. The poll tax remunerates the Muslims for this magnanimity and reminds the obstinate [Jews and Christians] continually of the misguided nature of their behavior. Of course, this magnanimity is not to be offered to those who completely reject Allah’s message [i. e. pagan idolaters]. They must choose between conversion to Islam or death. The necessity to extend “the best community” over the face of the entire inhabited world follows simply from the position in history that Allah assigns to his Messengers and prophets, and the circumstances in Muhammad’s time dictate that this expansion should be carried out (at least also) by means of physical violence, an activity that Allah valued and rewarded in the highest degree and that is designated by the term “jihad.” The two-fold division of Muslims and believers reflected that this was the very reason for the existence of “the best community.” This division became possible, indeed unavoidable, as soon as Muhammad’s power began to expand beyond the region of Medina. Up until then his followers had had to prove their mettle as an inwardly-focused military community; the emigrants and the “helpers,” residing together in Medina, were both equally affected by the wars against Mecca. After the Treaty of Hudaybiya, the hostility of Mecca no longer had the same unifying effect and Islam found resonance beyond Medina, and for the first time, jihad became a freely chosen vocation of those who were prepared to fight, while the rest expressed their membership in the new religion merely through ritual observance. The “Muslims” – as the term was then used – had to support by means of tribute (sadaqat) the military engagement by which the mujahidun fulfilled the existential purpose of the “the best community.” The “helpers” had by no means unambiguously supported Muhammad’s war policy; they had had to look on as their protégé gradually became independent of them, stripped them of their Jewish allies, and finally did as he pleased in their midst. He nipped their resistance in the bud. They angered him finally by becoming tired of war. It was at the latest around this time that the claim was made that they had committed themselves at Aqaba to military service. In the tradition regarding Muhammad’s encounters with the future “helpers,” one in-

146

Chapter 12: Jihad

terpolated as “proof” verse 193 of the Medinan Sura 2, which commands war against unbelievers until Islam is unchallenged, as well as verses 39 to 41 of Sura 22, a passage that, according to Muslim scholars, was also revealed first in Medina. This also is clear from the content [of the verse]: “War is permitted for those who have been attacked unjustly. Allah has the power to lead them to victory. (War is permitted for) those who have been driven from their homes unjustly, merely because they said, ‘Our lord is Allah!’ If Allah had not defended people, some with the support of others, then hermitages, monasteries, (places of) ritual prayer, and (places of) Proskynesis [i. e. bowing or prostration], where the name of Allah is frequently mentioned, would have been destroyed. But Allah will certainly grant victory to those who want to grant Him victory. Allah is strong and powerful. (Allah permits war) to those who, if given power on earth, carry out the ritual prayer, give alms, command the right, and forbid the wrong. All happens according to Allah’s will” (Sura 22: 39 – 41). It is entirely plausible that Muhammad emphasized what he saw as unique about his prophetic vocation, namely, its warlike character, when he embarked on his campaign against Tabuk, which many “helpers” had not wanted to join. “Five things were allowed to me, which were granted to no one before me: I was sent to all human beings; before a prophet was only sent to his own people. The (whole) earth was given to me as a place of prayer, and indeed as ritually pure. Wherever I am at the time of prayer, I carry out ritual purification with sand and pray; before me, one considered that to be sacrilege and prayed only in churches and monasteries. War booty was permitted to me, I am allowed to make use of it; before me it was forbidden. The fifth item is what it is.” Muhammad repeated this [last] sentence three times before he could be brought to reveal what he meant. “It was said to me, Ask! Because every prophet asks Allah. (The fulfillment of your requests) is granted to you and to those who testify that there is no God but Allah.” The hadith collections record many versions of this saying and clarify the meaning: by “Ask!” is meant Muhammad’s right to intercede for Muslims so that they may easily enter paradise. Frequently this additional statement is included: “Victory has been granted to me by means of terror, which I spread over the distance of a month’s journey.” Not infrequently Muhammad adds: “I have received the keys to the treasures of the earth, they have been laid before me.” Let us remind ourselves of the inconsistencies in the account of the second meeting at Aqaba. The version in which the “helpers” commit themselves there to military service would have emerged at this time: Muhammad concocted arguments to compel the “helpers” to participate in the military campaigns to the north, which they regarded as irresponsible. Possibly this text should also be understood as the earliest example of the general characterization of “the best

The Religious Warriors’ Movement

147

community:” there must always be men who voluntarily wage jihad. In this case the tradition of the alleged promise of the “helpers” at the second Aqaba meeting could be interpreted as evidence that their one-time contribution to Muhammad’s cause, made in a non-recurring historical situation, is being obscured more and more in the wake of the emerging two-fold division of the new community into Muslims and voluntary mujahidun. ²

Chapter 13: The Dying Prophet Allah gave to one of his slaves (i. e. Muhammad) the choice between this world and the presence of Allah, and the slave chose the presence of Allah. Look at the doorways that open onto the place of prayer! Close them all, except for the one that leads to the home of Abu Bakr, for I know of no one who could have been a more excellent companion to me than he! (Ibn Hisham, as-Sira an-nabawiya, Cairo edition, 1936, IV, 299)

Muhammad’s Final Pilgrimage In January 632, two years after the occupation of Mecca, Muhammad set out to make the pilgrimage. Upon his arrival in Mecca, his tent was set up at Mina. After that, he and his entourage traveled with the sacrificial animals to ‘Arafa. From there [the animals] were led at the appointed time to the place where they were to be slaughtered. Muhammad commanded that the owners ride on the camels that were to be sacrificed, which evidently contradicted the customs of the pre-Islamic polytheists. The most important blow against pre-Islamic customs, however, was that Muhammad, as a member of the Quraysh tribe, travelled out to ‘Arafa during the ceremonies; with the sole exceptions of Muhammad and the hanif Shaiba b. Rabi’a b. ‘Abd Shams, a close friend of ‘Uthman b. al-Huwairit, his fellow tribesmen never did this, as we mentioned earlier. Allah’s Messenger apparently realized one of the ideas of the hanif religion by declaring a much wider terrain to be “Abraham’s inheritance.” “We do not speak with the (common) people, we are the followers of Allah!”, the Quraysh of pre-Islamic times are said to have exclaimed, holding themselves aloof from the hordes of foreign pilgrims. The expansion of Quraysh self-understanding, the elimination of the difference in rank that had hitherto been accorded to the keepers of the Kaaba, is on the same level as the broadening of the command of ritual purity that stands at the beginning of Muhammad’s prophetic mission, [and] on the same level as the entire broadening of the authority of the one Allah. [The sources tell us that] Muhammad now proclaimed this broadening at ‘Arafa: “The most excellent invocation (of Allah) [expressed] by me and by the prophets before me is: ‘There is no god but Allah, he has no companion, sovereignty is under him, praise is owed to him, in his hand lies the good, there are no limits to his power!’”

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-014

The Contours of the Hanif Community

149

The hanif message that becomes a concrete, lived reality with Muhammad’s pilgrimage is addressed to all Arabs, to all who make the pilgrimage to Mecca, not only to the allies of the Quraysh. The hanif Allah thinks of all [people] in the same way in his providence, he creates everything, and everything is provided for the support of human beings. Worship of Allah must therefore be integrated into the ordinary course of events as he has established it. Already in the sermon that he had delivered a good two years earlier at the Kaaba, [Muhammad] had made clear that the evening prayer must only begin after the disk of the sun has sunk [below the horizon]. The departure from ‘Arafa must now likewise only happen at this time; the pre-Islamic Arabs had set out already “when the sun stood above the mountain peaks like a turban on the heads of men.” In the famous homily that Muhammad now holds during the feast of the sacrifice, he reminds further that the insertion of a leap-month signifies an excess of ingratitude towards Allah; the unbelievers required this manipulation for their calendar, aligned as it was with the solar seasons, in order to maintain the divinely prescribed number of twelve months (Sura 9, verse 37). “Truly now, however, time has turned and assumed again the form that it had on the day when Allah created the heavens and the earth: The number of months is twelve according to the (original) divine scripture,” in which [Allah’s] plan of creation is laid down. “Of them four are sacred, three in a row, that is Du l-Qa’da, Du l-Hijja, and Muharram, as well as Rajab, which is called the month of Mudar and lies between Jumada l-ahira and Sha’ban. And every month has 29 or 30 days. Have I conveyed it clearly?”

The Contours of the Hanif Community A short while later, in the same homily, which counts as a sort of “last will and testament” because given on his “farewell pilgrimage,” Muhammad outlines the religious-political goal at which he is aiming and which now seems within his grasp. “You people! Satan has abandoned all hope of being worshipped in this, your land, from now on! But he is satisfied that people obey him elsewhere. You regard this as insignificant, but he is satisfied with it!” With the introduction of the Abrahamic pilgrimage rites, the devil has been deprived of any opportunity of exercising in Mecca the seductive powers that Allah has allowed him to practice (Sura 15: 37– 40); however, “in this land” could perhaps refer to the entire territory that is now under Islamic rule. Be that as it may, one must not underestimate the possibilities that remain to the devil. “Every Muslim is the brother of (every) Muslim, they are among one another nothing but brothers. No Muslim may infringe on the blood or the property of another Muslim, except

150

Chapter 13: The Dying Prophet

with his permission (cf. Sura 2: 178). I have been commanded to fight against (all other) people, until they say: ‘There is no god but Allah!’ If they say that, then they protect their blood and their property, and Allah shall sit over them in judgment. Commit no wrong against one another! Do not again become unbelieving after my death to such an extent that one cuts off the head of another! I leave behind for you something to which (you should grasp hold, in order) that you shall not fall into error: the book of Allah! Have I conveyed it clearly?” The expansion of the dominion of Allah’s Messenger means at the same time the narrowing of the area in which Satan can operate. Therefore, the Islamization of the earth re-orders affairs along the lines of what Allah had intended and instituted on the day of creation. The introduction of the purely lunar calendar and the Abrahamic pilgrimage rites, the prohibition of usury, the promulgation of the status of women – they are the prisoners (in Arabic: al-‘awani) of men – and the greatest possible prohibition of blood feuds stemming from pre-Islamic times – “Allah has declared your blood, your property, [and] your honor, until the day you shall meet him, to be sacred in just the same way as this month here, now, in this place, on just this day!” – create a space in which, according to Muhammad’s conviction, Allah’s pure will rules and the devotion of his creatures to him is ensured. We can summarize as follows the way in which human relations are regulated in this space: Each has a place, clearly defined by paternal descent, within a society that is thought of as a great tribe; piety and zeal for the cause of Allah determine the rank that the individual may claim, and the glory of one’s forefathers (in Arabic: al-hasah) is, in comparison, without meaning (Sura 49: 13). To protect this total tribal order from disturbances, total control over women is essential. It is the necessary condition for maintaining the unambiguous and indisputable genealogy that Allah has mandated for human beings. Muhammad had already promulgated the laws pertaining to this [control] a few years earlier in Medina, so that now a brief reference suffices for his listeners. We, however, shall return once again to the time after the Battle of Badr, which, as we recall, claimed a heavy toll in Muslim lives. On the one hand, many wives lost their husbands and had to be guided into new relationships. On the other hand, the question arose of how those emigrants who had come to Medina without families were to be married; marital connections with the clans of the “helpers” were rare. The normal pre-Islamic marital forms of Arabia were not able to accommodate the family framework as Islam envisioned it. The most widespread [form of marriage] was the uxorilocal marriage, which we have already mentioned in connection with Muhammad. It would have been the easiest custom to adopt in Medina, but it had the great disadvantage of creating doubts about the identity of the biological fathers of children. In marriage by purchase, the wife became

The Contours of the Hanif Community

151

the property of her purchaser and was inherited among his brothers after his death. Because the purchase price was high, this form of marriage was only possible for wealthy men. Still, assuming the fidelity of the wife, it did guarantee certainty about the identity of the children’s father. In Sura 4, Muhammad created a new law of marriage that corresponded to the needs of the “best community.” Marriage by purchase was modified: The purchase price did not pass into the property of the tribe from which the wife came, but was given to her – in the early days in Medina, there was probably hardly any tribe that would have negotiated with the Muslims about the acquisition of a wife. What was more important, however, was that the price was set very low, 500 silver dirhams, so that the emigrants could easily afford it, since they were living off of the appropriation of other people’s property. This sum was one-half of the lowest price set for Meccans who had to ransom their clan members after the Battle of Badr. – In Islam, we often encounter the idea that a woman is worth half as much as a man: In the division of inheritances, a woman receives half the portion of a man, and before a court, her testimony as a witness carries half as much weight as a man’s. – The new form of marriage also created for poorer Muslims the opportunity to rise up in society by becoming the owner of a woman, indeed even four women were permitted, a circumstance that will have enhanced the attractiveness of the new religion. Moreover, men were permitted to have sexual relations with female slaves. In order to exclude any doubt about the paternity of children, as far as that is humanly possible, Muhammad also introduced a waiting period that had to elapse before a widowed or divorced woman could re-marry; clarity had to be guaranteed regarding the possibility of a pregnancy resulting from the previous marriage (Sura 2: 234; Sura 4: 2– 34). In the “best community,” marriage is, as it were, a public matter; women are “fields” (Sura 2: 223) that must be zealously plowed and seeded. According to later sharia jurisprudence, the qadi [judge in an Islamic court] had to marry off single women. The severe penalties with which adulterers are threatened, and also innocent women who have become victims of rape, are best explained from an Islamic perspective by pointing out that the boundaries set by Allah himself have been violated, thus endangering the “best community.” Allah in person therefore prescribes the imposition of the penalties. The concept of “boundaries” appears for the first time in Sura 2: After the promulgation of the easier fasting rules, it says that these are from now on “Allah’s boundaries,” which one dare not approach (verse 187); rules for divorcing wives are also to be regarded as such “boundaries” (verse 230). Now, in the last months of Muhammad’s life, “Allah’s boundaries” come to be understood as the enclosure of the community. Allah does not tolerate the infringement [of this en-

152

Chapter 13: The Dying Prophet

closing boundary]. The equation of Muhammad’s dominion with that of Allah is complete. Sura 5 testifies to this. “The compensation for those who wage war against Allah and his Messenger and who intend to wreak havoc in the earth is that they shall be mercilessly killed or crucified or that their hands and feet shall be cut off on opposite sides of their bodies or that they shall be banished from the earth. This means for them shame and disgrace in this world, and in the next world a powerful punishment awaits them. Excepted are only those who remorsefully convert before they fall into your power. Know that Allah forgives and is merciful” (verse 33 f.). All who believe choose jihad in the path of Allah as the means by which they shall gain eternal salvation. The unbelievers can try as they might to get out of the hellfire in which they are roasting, but they will never succeed (verses 35 – 37). The most effective punishment with which Allah defends his “boundaries” is killing, mutilating, or banishing anyone who falls under suspicion of not siding with Allah and his Messenger. Then follow sentences in which a second “boundary” is drawn: “Cut off the hands of the male and female thief as punishment for that which they have acquired (by bad deeds) and as a deterring example from Allah! If anyone turns in repentance, then Allah will turn graciously to him…” (verse 38 f.). Other crimes follow in rapid succession, each of which also violates Allah’s “boundaries.” Islamic jurisprudence counts among such offences sexual intercourse outside of marriage, to be punished by whipping, according to Sura 24, verse 2; stoning [for adultery], already practiced under ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, is justified with a statement from Allah that, we are told, [somehow] did not made it into the Koran. Sura 24, verse 4 supports the whipping of people who falsely accuse others of illicit sexual intercourse. Whipping is also the punishment prescribed for consuming alcoholic beverages.

Muhammad’s Death While Muhammad was in this way working on perfecting the Muslim religious order, something that Allah noted with satisfaction (Sura 5: 3), his military activities continued without interruption, aiming at the expansion of his power and the consolidation of the religion on which it rested. In Spring 629, he had sent an ambassador to Bostra who had been murdered. A small military expedition that he had sent to that region in August of the same year to exact revenge had been wiped out at Mu’ta, a village near Amman, and his adoptive son Zaid b. Haritha and several other men who were close to him had been killed. This loss had not yet been avenged, so he ordered in May 632 that a new military campaign to the north be prepared. To be sure, Muhammad had to take into account the resentment of the “helpers” towards his provocation of the Byzantines, resentment

Reports about the Dying Prophet

153

that they had recently manifested overtly, and not only in words. He decreed that this time chiefly the early emigrants should take to the field, and he named Usama, the son of Zaid b. Haritha, who had a personal motive for joining this mission, as the commander of the troops, who were to assemble three miles from Medina on the caravan route leading to ash-Sha’m. The old hands grumbled, because they did not wish to be placed under the command of someone that they regarded as an inexperienced young man, and thus the project was delayed. But dissatisfaction with the commander would have been only one reason for the delay. For rumors were circulating that Allah’s Messenger lay dying, and considering the internal quarrels, sketched out above, that divided “the best community,” it would have been unwise to set out at precisely this moment to wage war far from Medina when possibly back at home the deck of cards was about to be shuffled anew. Muhammad’s unexpected preference for recent converts had angered the early emigrants, and thus they might have suspected that they would be left out in the cold as soon as they obeyed the order to depart. On 6 June 632, a Sunday, Usama b. Zaid went to the appointed mustering place, where, despite everything, many fighters had shown up. On this day Muhammad was unconscious. A few days later he regained consciousness, and Usama hurried back to him in order, we are told, to say farewell before going into combat. Then he went again to the troops and issued the order to march. Then, we are told, it became known that Allah’s Messenger was dying. Accompanied by ‘Umar b. al-Khattab and Abu ‘Ubaida b. al-Jarrah, like him an old emigrant, Usama again went to Muhammad. On Monday at midday he died.

Reports about the Dying Prophet The circumstances of his death are distorted by numerous later embellishments that serve only one purpose, namely, to legitimize after the fact the outcome of the power struggle that now ensued, or, from the perspective of the losers, to show why Allah and his Messenger had wanted everything to turn out differently than it did. Let us try first of all to summarize what could belong to the history of the event! The prophet had a female slave, a Jewess named Rayhana, whom he had housed in one of his palm groves; he often took his midday siesta with her – she did not count as one of his official spouses, with each of whom he spent the night in turn so that each of them received the share of his time to which she was entitled as a wife. It was with this concubine, of all people, who possibly had not even become a Muslim, that he suffered the final stroke. He was then brought to Maimuna bt. al-Harith, a woman that Muhammad had only married

154

Chapter 13: The Dying Prophet

in 629 presumably for political reasons,¹ and after that to ‘A’isha, who according to the Sunni tradition, was his favorite wife. Rayhana stemmed from the Banu nNadir, [and] she had been married to a man of the Banu Qurayza. As we have mentioned, Muhammad had had the men of this tribe massacred, the women had become the slaves of the victors, and Rayhana had the distinction of being chosen by Allah’s Messenger because of her beauty when he exercised his prerogative of making first choice from the spoils of every victorious battle. Muhammad even proposed marriage to her, in which case he would have freed her from her status as a slave. But Rayhana preferred to remain a slave, and “he consorted with her until she (sic!) died with him.” As we can see, the sources convey contradictory accounts of Rayhana’s relationship with Muhammad. Often we read that he did marry her after all, but then divorced her, because she threw jealous tantrums. Some say he then married her a second time. We are also told that she died before him, which eliminates the embarrassing idea that his last hour came in the company of a Jewish woman. For this same reason, the Sunni tradition took pains to argue that it was in truth in Maimuna’s company that his final illness struck him down, and that he then expressly asked permission from all of his wives to be nursed by ‘A’isha. With such conjectures we have already begun our discussion of the legitimation legends mentioned above. We shall now review them, with all the contradictions that are unavoidably a part of the topic, in order then in the next chapter to turn once again to the history of the event. The dying [Muhammad], we are told, was taken to ‘A’isha’s hut; when his suffering became unbearable, he asked that water be poured over him. The doors of the houses of his wives opened directly onto the courtyard of the mosque in Medina, and based on this assumption, the tradition takes the opportunity to interweave Muhammad’s alleged last wishes. Thus Muhammad is said to have commanded: “Look at these doorways! Close them all, except for the doorway that leads to the home of Abu Bakr, for I do not know anyone who could have been a more excellent companion to me than he!” Muslim scholars have had their hands full trying to make sense of the fact that Abu Bakr did not have a house that opened onto the place of prayer and that, moreover, an equally widespread version names Ali b. abi Talib instead of Abu Bakr: Sunni – Abu Bakr – and Shiite – Ali – claims to the legacy of Muhammad’s life’s work can be deduced from the respective version of the tradition. The accounts of the dying prophet consist, as is clear from this example, primarily of fragments, which cannot be arranged in any sort of a plausible chronological sequence vis-à-vis each other. After the command to close all the doors except Abu Bakr’s, what most commonly follows is the episode that is most important for the Sunnis: The bed-ridden prophet orders Abu Bakr to stand before the people waiting in the mosque and lead them in prayer. The narrator is

Reports about the Dying Prophet

155

‘A’isha, Abu Bakr’s daughter: “When Allah’s Messenger had been confined to his sick-bed, he requested: ‘Command Abu Bakr to lead the people (waiting in the mosque) in prayer!’ I objected: ‘Prophet of Allah, Abu Bakr is a highly sensitive man, and moreover he has a weak voice, and he often breaks down weeping when he recites the Koran.’ (But Muhammad) requested: ‘Command him to lead the people in prayer!’ I repeated my objections, whereupon he remarked: ‘You (women) are all the seducers of Joseph!’” – due to the stubbornness with which you pursue your goals – “‘Command him (finally) to lead the people in prayer!’ By Allah, I only raised my objections because I wished that Abu Bakr would be relieved of this obligation; for I knew that the people would never love someone who occupied the place (of the prophet), indeed, that they would upon any incident regard him as a bearer of bad fortune. Therefore, I wished that he would not impose this obligation on Abu Bakr.” Thus, ‘A’isha herself is said to have been strictly opposed to the idea of granting her own father, of all people, the honor of representing Muhammad as prayer leader – for the Sunnis the irrefutable implicit indication of the prophet’s wish as to who should be his successor. Thus, the accusation of obnoxious ambition may not be levelled at Abu Bakr and his daughter, and that things turned out as they did, as the Sunni argument says they should have turned out, was nothing other than Allah’s will. Moreover, [Sunnis] were able to reproach the Shiites [by pointing out] that ‘Ali neglected in the decisive hours to cite any clarifying words from Muhammad. On the morning of the day Muhammad died, the following is said to have happened: ‘Ali b. abi Talib left the prophet’s sick-bed and ran into Muhammad’s uncle al-‘Abbas b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib, who asked about Muhammad’s condition; he was about to get better, ‘Ali assured him. Al-‘Abbas grasped his nephew by the hand and warned him: “’Ali, by Allah, by three o’clock you will be the whipping-boy.² I swear by Allah, I have seen death in the face of Allah’s Messenger, as I have always recognized it in the faces of the Banu ‘Abd al-Muttalib. Let us go to Allah’s Messenger. If the matter is in our hands” – the descendants of Hashim – “then he will make that clear to us, and if in someone else’s hands, he will give us that command and entrust us with custody over human beings.” However, ‘Ali did not seek such clarification, but rather disregarded this admonition: “If (the matter) is denied to us, then no one will ever bestow it on us anyway.” Allah’s Messenger died in the late morning. – It was therefore entirely in accordance with the wishes of Allah and his Messenger that no Hashemite, no relative of Muhammad, assumed power, dominion was not ordained for them, and when ‘Ali made his bid for power after the three caliphates of Abu Bakr (632– 634), ‘Umar (634– 644), and ‘Uthman (644 – 656), he was sure to come to a bad end.

156

Chapter 13: The Dying Prophet

“Allah’s Messenger died, (his head) resting on my breast, when (among all his wives) it was my turn [to be with him] – I did not claim any undue advantage over them with regard to him. The death of the Messenger in my company was blamed on my youth and inexperience (not, that is, because I had acted in a calculating way). I then cradled his head on a pillow and stood up in order to strike my breast and face like the other women.” ‘A’isha utters these sentences in Ibn Ishaq; they are meant to fend off the suspicions that circulated later that Abu Bakr’s daughter, Abu Bakr himself, and all who saw in Abu Bakr the rightful successor of Muhammad, had been usurpers. We have already heard that, in some versions of the narrative, it was not Abu Bakr but ‘Ali whose door to [Muhammad’s] mosque was supposed to have been left open. In the decades around the middle of the 8th century we encounter reports about the death of the prophet in which ‘A’isha and, with her, Abu Bakr trade places with ‘Ali. “I am a city of knowledge, and ‘Ali is the gateway,” said Muhammad in a widespread Shiite tradition. In the meantime, among the descendants of ‘Ali, people were convinced that Muhammad by no means had died on ‘A’isha’s breast; ‘Ali was the one who cradled the head of the dying prophet and then, after his death, laid him on the ground, assisted by al-‘Abbas, who had been called to his aid. In another tradition, his son ‘Abdallah is asked: “Did Allah’s Messenger die with his head resting on someone’s breast?” “On the breast of Ali!”, goes the answer, whereupon the questioner objects that ‘Urwa b. az-Zubair, a collector of traditions belonging to nascent Sunnism, attributes this distinction to ‘A’isha. “Have you taken leave of your senses!”, responds ‘Abdallah b. al-‘Abbas indignantly; it was ‘Ali, who indeed thereafter also washed the corpse. The traditions that place ‘Ali instead of ‘A’isha and Abu Bakr at Muhammad’s side probably stem from the early ‘Abbasid era. The clan of al-‘Abbas, an uncle of the prophet, came to power in 749, [and] had spread propaganda supporting Hashemite rule, and it was widely understood that they were willing to support a descendant of ‘Ali to become caliph. But the Abbasids were also Hashemites, and once they controlled the caliphate, they had no intention of abdicating the power they had just gained in favor of the Alids. Al-‘Abbas’ son ‘Abdallah only seems to champion the interests of the Alids in this tradition; shortly before his death, we are told, Muhammad urgently advised his uncle al-‘Abbas above all to remain aloof from all squabbling, for the office of caliph was intended for his descendants, not those of ‘Ali. Thus even the dynasty that came to power one and a half centuries after the death of Allah’s Messenger still invokes a statement of the dying [Muhammad]. However, by these propagandistic traditions, the new dynasty cut itself off from nascent Sunnism, to which the “old emigrants” and Abu Bakr, but above all ‘A’isha, were indispensable transmitters of “knowledge.” ‘A’isha was given a role that she could never have occupied during Muhammad’s lifetime, and with this [ob-

Reports about the Dying Prophet

157

servation] we come to address the second aspect under which the narratives of the death of the prophet are to be explicated. The dying prophet was taken to ‘A’isha’s chamber, we are told. According to a source from Basra, to whom she is said to have shown herself at an advanced age without the curtains prescribed by Muhammad in Sura 33, verse 53, she described this event as follows: “Always when Allah’s Messenger walked by the door (of my living quarters), he would share with me a helpful word from Allah. But one day he walked by and said nothing, and then he did it again. I therefore asked a maid to set a cushion for me before the door. Then I sat down on the path that he would have to take and wrapped a cloth around my head. Then Allah’s Messenger appeared and asked: ‘What is the matter with you?’ I answered, ‘my head hurts,’ whereupon he retorted, ‘And mine hurts more!’ A short while later he was carried on a cloak into my chamber. He had his wives summoned, and when they had gathered, he said: ‘I am sick, I can no longer take my turn with each of you. How would it be, if you permitted me to stay with ‘A’isha?’ They agreed, and so it fell to me to care for a sick man, which I had never done.” Muhammad shared a helpful word from Allah with her: That is the salient point in this tradition. ‘A’isha, the one chosen for this distinction by the prophet himself from all of his wives, guarantees not only the legitimacy of her father’s rule, she is the most important witness for the normative words and actions of Muhammad, the foundation of Sunni Islam. Sunnism, too, is – at least indirectly – the form that Muhammad himself wanted for the religion he founded. Muhammad instructed Abu Bakr to lead the prayers in his place. After water was poured over the dying man to sooth his pain, he regained consciousness. Abu Bakr immediately left the position of prayer leader so that Allah’s Messenger could again assume this role. But Muhammad would not tolerate this, ordering that he be placed on the ground near Abu Bakr. So it was done, and Abu Bakr exactly imitated Muhammad, who performed the prayers while seated, and the community in turn followed Abu Bakr. This scene appears, with variations that we can pass over, in the great hadith collections of the 9th and 10th centuries. Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 874/5), for example, cites it under the following title: “Chapter on how the prayer leader, as soon as he has a compelling excuse like, for example, sickness, a trip, etc., appoints a representative, who leads the people in prayer, and further, on how all who perform their prayers behind a prayer leader who, due to incapacity to stand, (leads the ritual) while sitting, are obligated to stand insofar as they are able to do so, and finally, on how the stipulation that one who is able to stand must (perform the ritual) while seated when behind a seated prayer leader, was abrogated.” This wording shows that it was already taken as self-evident that whatever was contained in such a tradi-

158

Chapter 13: The Dying Prophet

tion was to be regarded as binding; it only remains to render explicit any normative sayings that are hidden in this transmitted “knowledge” – in this case, the duty of the incapacitated prayer leader to appoint a representative, as well as the command that every Muslim must perform the ritual while standing, insofar as that is possible. This command is of course only to be justified if the tradition in question “abrogates” others that suggest an opposite conclusion. Muhammad’s servant Anas b. Malik reports that the prophet once fell from a horse and suffered severe abrasions. “We paid a visit to the injured man; the time for prayer came, he prayed while seated and we prayed behind him, likewise seated. After he had finished the prayers, he explained: ‘The prayer leader conducts himself so that people imitate him exactly. If he says Allahu akbar, then so do you, if he prostrates himself, then so do you, if he lifts (his arms), then so do you! If he says: Allah listens to those who praise him, then say: Our lord! Our praise to you! And if (the prayer leader) prays while seated, then you too, and all of you!’” Thus, even just from this one selected [chapter] title in Muslim’s hadith collection, we can deduce that everything Muhammad does has the character of a legislative act inspired by Allah. What merits the attention of the reader or listener is no longer the event that is reported and thereby becomes history, but rather the norms that are transmitted in the course of the event. They are what must be impressed upon the consciousness of the Muslim. Naturally, norms must not contradict each other. We learn from the previously cited tradition that “he whom the Imam leads in prayer must imitate him,” as Muslim’s title says. This general command, inferred from the report about Muhammad’s accident and thereby explicitly applied to sitting during prayer, is “abrogated” by the norm derived from the chronologically later event insofar as the duty of scrupulously imitating the words and gestures of the prayer leader no longer applies to sitting. The original interest in [producing] evidence of the legitimacy of Abu Bakr’s caliphate thus gives way to a much more far-reaching interest, one that shapes the daily life of the Muslim, and the companions of the prophet, who are able to satisfy this comprehensive interest, must therefore for this very reason be protected against even the most minor criticism. In the behavior of the dying prophet and his companions, as delineated in the traditional sources, we have a clear illustration of how his words and actions have come to be regarded as the eternally valid model that all Muslims must strive to obey and emulate.³

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad ’Abdallah b. Saba’ was a Jew from Sanaa who converted to Islam under ‘Uthman. He then travelled through the lands of the Muslims and tried to lead them into error… Finally he arrived in Egypt… He told the Egyptians among other things: “One has to wonder about the people who say that Jesus will come again, but who deny the return of Muhammad, when Allah himself has said (Sura 28: 85): ‘He who made recitation [of the Koran] obligatory for you truly intends to return you.’ One has a greater right to foretell Muhammad’s return than that of Jesus.” People took up this teaching (of ‘Abdallah). He also invented for them the (doctrine of) the return, and they spoke about it. (Saif b. ‘Umar, Kitab arridda wal-futuh, ed. Qasim as-Samarrai, Leiden 1995, 135 f.)

Other Arab Prophets Sunnism, Shiisim, the Hashemite caliphate, all the religious phenomena mentioned in the previous chapter that legitimized their existence with stories about the dying prophet, naturally did not yet exist at the time of [Muhammad’s death]. But this does not mean that “the best community” could have experienced and survived the death of its Medinan ruler without serious trials and tribulations. Because of their long-lasting consequences, we can only outline them here. We now return to the history of the event, from which we had to digress temporarily earlier. Muhammad’s passing brought to the fore divisions within the community that he had cobbled together out of heterogeneous elements, divisions that had been covered over by his forceful personality, although the conflicts in his last years that we described in the preceding pages have already clearly proven the existence of centrifugal forces [within the Muslim community]. But first let us take a look at Arabia outside of Medina. Many tribes who had pledged obedience to Muhammad and who had accepted his tax (sadaqa) collectors and Koran-reciters now considered themselves – in accordance with ancient Arab custom? – to be free from these obligations, which they had entered into only vis-à-vis the man, Muhammad. They had become Muslims, to be sure, but for them that did not mean that they had handed themselves over to a ruling authority that was distinct from a person. In many cases, the tax collectors had to flee, [for] they were subjected to attacks. Especially among the tribes that did not belong to the “north Arab” confederations, the word spread that Islam had become a Quraysh affair, which certainly made it easier for them to cut bonds of loyalty that were of fairly recent vintage. A movement began to spread that has been branded in Islamic historiography as “apostasy” (in Arabic: ar-ridda).

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-015

160

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad

This trend was that much more dangerous for Medina because Muhammad had been by no means without competition in his claim to be a prophet. Muslim historiography tends to link the appearance of other prophets chronologically with the spread of reports about Muhammad’s final illness, thus stamping these figures as opportunists who hoped to take advantage of the suffering of Allah’s true Messenger. A certain Talha of the Banu Asad, known nearly everywhere in the sources by the disparaging diminutive Tulaiha, belonged in the year 627 to the Quraysh alliance during the Battle of the Ditch. He did not submit to Muhammad, but rather claimed the status of prophet for himself. It was only in the Medinan wars against the apostates, to be described shortly, that he finally gave in. The Caliph ‘Umar (r. 634– 644) then gave him and his followers the opportunity to distinguish themselves in the wars against the Sassanids, but did not trust his loyalty. Talha remained engaged in the Iraqi theater and we encounter him for the last time in Kufa immediately after the murder of ‘Uthman in the year 656. – Likewise, already in Muhammad’s lifetime, al-Aswad al-‘Ansi rose in Yemen and fought against the efforts of the prophet in distant Medina to conquer that land; with the help of the descendants of the Sassanid occupiers, he exercised power and collected taxes. Al-Aswad, too, projected the image of a prophet and miracle-worker. Muhammad’s ambassadors, among them the later muchlauded Mu’ad b. Jabal, took to their heels. Al-Aswad’s sphere of influence extended in the north to at-Ta’if, in the east to al-Ahsa’. His most important support came from the Banu Madhig; as his representative among them, he sent ‘Amr b. Ma’dikarib, a man whom we find in Iraq in the caliphate of ‘Umar in the company of the very same Talha that we have just mentioned. Approximately around the time that Muhammad died in Medina, al-Aswad was murdered by two “Persian” Yemenis. Maslama, too – in the diminutive, Musaylima – did not first claim to be a prophet in 632. Muhammad is said to have written him a letter as early as 628, in which he demanded his submission. Maslama is said to have responded that he would not [submit to Muhammad]; instead, he recommended that he and [Muhammad] share dominion over Arabia. The sources tell us that Muhammad then sent him a second letter, telling him that Allah had given him, [Muhammad,] all the earth as his inheritance, and that was that (Sura 7: 128, and 33: 27). Musaylima, Muhammad added, was nothing but a bald-faced liar. Further, the agreement that Muhammad reached with the Meccans at al-Hudaybiya aggravated the Banu Tamim. They feared that they would lose their official duties in the pilgrimage rituals after these were reformed along Islamic lines. “The leaders of the Arabs in the (Meccan) pilgrimage and the ‘judges’ in ‘Ukaz … were supplied by the Banu Tamim,” according to a tradition which granted to the Quraysh only the supervision of the rites in Mecca and custodianship of the Kaaba, some-

War against the “Apostates,” Beginning of the Wars of Conquest

161

thing we also know from other contexts. – By joining Muhammad, the Quraysh gained a monopoly in the matter of the pilgrimage rites, which had been extended to the region surrounding Mecca, another reason why we observe Quraysh opposition to him disappearing so rapidly after 628. – Among the Banu Tamim, a female prophet named Sajah appeared, who, the sources tell us, like Musaylima, proposed a shared dominion with Muhammad. It was lucky for the Medinans that Sajah and Maslama never joined forces, but opposed one other. The Banu Tamim imposed a tribute payment on Maslama’s Banu Hanifa and then withdrew into Mesopotamia. Khalid b. al-Walid, the Quraysh military commander charged by Muhammad’s successor Abu Bakr with waging war against the “apostates,” then succeeded in annihilating Maslama’s army on the edge of the Yamama. Maslama was killed in the battle. We encounter Sajah and her followers later in the sources as clans that were assimilated into the Christian Banu Taglib. When Mu’awiya (r. 660 – 680) was securing his rule over Iraq at the end of the first civil war, Sajah and her clan were taken to Kufa, where she converted to Islam.

War against the “Apostates,” Beginning of the Wars of Conquest The successful war against the “apostates” leads us back to Medina. How can it be, that [the Muslims] were able to operate so successfully from there in spite of the internal discord? Immediately after Muhammad’s death, events had unfolded in a way that was anything but auspicious. The influential Sa’d b. ‘Ubada of the Khazraj clan of the Banu Sa’ida assembled the “helpers” at his home; at the latest, since Muhammad had willfully favored those “whose hearts were to be won for Islam,” the “helpers” had complained about their lot and believed that they had been cheated out of the reward for their undeniable merits. For those gathered around Sa’d, it was beyond question that the military campaigns should continue, even if not precisely against Byzantium. But so that they would not have to feel passed over, they demanded their own commander for themselves. The great majority of the emigrants, in contrast, gathered with the Aus [clan of] the Banu ‘Abd al-Ashal, exactly where the first of them had found shelter before Muhammad’s arrival. The most renowned among the Banu ‘Abd al-Ashal, Usaid b. Hudair, the son of their hero in the battle of Bu’ath and one of the three Aus chiefs whom Muhammad had chosen at the second meeting at al-‘Aqaba, was the main speaker in this group. Only ‘Ali b. abi Talib, az-Zubair b. al-‘Auwam, and Talha b. ‘Ubaidallah were said to have remained with Fatima, the daughter

162

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad

of the prophet, in order to support her in these difficult hours and make the preparations for Muhammad’s funeral. The latter tradition appears to have emerged under the influence of the events of the first civil war, which began with the murder of ‘Uthman in the year 656. With ‘Ali on the one side, and az-Zubair and Talha on the other, it indicates the two parties that are said to have opposed each other at the beginning of this civil war, each claiming for itself the goal of correcting the alleged errors and mistakes of the third caliph in the spirit of the true decrees of the prophet. That immediately after the death of Muhammad ‘Ali and the other two exercised political power or at least tried to do so is nowhere attested. The only thing that seems to have mattered in Medina at that time was the old division between Aus and Khazraj. Now the Aus had the advantage, precisely because they could count on the early emigrants; the Aus had sought support from the Quraysh in the civil war against the Khazraj even before they knew about Muhammad, albeit in vain. Among these it was ‘Umar b. al-Khattab who strong-armed Sa’d to such a degree that he fainted. Abu Bakr, the candidate of the emigrants and of the Aus allied to them, was honored with the designation of the “successor” or “representative of Allah’s Messenger.” This title, al-khalifa, is presumably a compromise, because it resolves at most only indirectly the question about the power of military command and thus the dispute over the division of the spoils. Sa’d b. ‘Ubada did not accept this turn of events; he denied Abu Bakr the oath of loyalty, but he no longer had enough followers to pose a danger to his caliphate. When ‘Umar had become Abu Bakr’s successor a short while later, Sa’d preferred to escape to ash-Sha’m, where, we are told, he soon died. Even in many Quraysh clans, people could not imagine Abu Bakr as a ruler. A few Meccans even thought of leaving Islam. But Suhail b. ‘Amr, who earlier had negotiated the treaty of al-Hudaybiya with Muhammad, put a stop to this. He pointed out that Islam had not been weakened by the death of Muhammad, but strengthened. “Whoever arouses our suspicion, we will cut his head off!” This is the praiseworthy achievement of Suhail that Muhammad had prophesied, according to Ibn Ishaq. Suhail’s threat fits with the traditional sources, according to which many of the Quraysh who regarded Muhammad in general with skepticism never wanted to cut off the connection with him entirely; perhaps his proselytizing for Islam would one day further the Quraysh ambition for power. In fact, maintaining the Islamic movement now opened up brilliant prospects for increasing political power and material wealth, so that it would have been foolish to have allowed it simply to peter out. Naturally, the tribes that lived far from Mecca and Medina regarded events in a completely different light, as we have already mentioned; only a few of their members at most could share in the profits of the jihad, while the rest had to bear the burdens of the sadaqat.

The Emergence of the Islamic State

163

Thus, Abu Bakr’s prospects were not exactly rosy. Challenged internally from several different sides, he saw himself confronted by the de facto collapse across wide portions of Arabia of the dominion that Muhammad had recently established. He was left with no alternative but to energetically reject the proposal made by many tribes that they no longer be required to pay sadaqat even as they continued to pray according to the Islamic rites. The prophet Talha enjoyed great popularity; the Banu Ghatafan, among others, had joined his cause. A nocturnal raid by “apostates” on Medina itself showed the gravity of the situation. All the same, under these trying circumstances, Abu Bakr was able to muster a military force consisting in part of Medinans who – following Sa’d b. ‘Ubada’s example? – were commanded by one of their own number, in part of other fighters under the command of Khalid b. al-Walid. Together they repulsed the attackers. In subsequent battles, Khalid b. al-Walid treated conquered enemies with shocking brutality. The military campaigning in which he rose to become the leader of the Muslim cause gradually came to be concentrated in the northeastern portion of the Arabian Peninsula, where the aforementioned victory over Maslama and the Banu Hanifa extended Medinan rule into a region in which up until then it had only existed in Muhammad’s mind: The war against the “apostates” seamlessly evolved once again into the expansion that had begun under Muhammad.

The Emergence of the Islamic State We are unable here to recount even only the most salient events in this emergence. We shall mention only a few facts that are indispensable for an understanding of our main theme. Khalid continued his military operations in the year 633 in northeastern Arabia and penetrated as far as Hira. He is said to have followed Muhammad’s example in imposing treaties of surrender on conquered regions that secured [for the Muslim conquerors] a share of the agricultural produce and the head-tax. From the Sassanid side, no vigorous opposition to his activities was to be expected; in Ctesiphon, people were preoccupied with disputes over the throne, and besides, Khalid in the meantime had begun working together with the Banu Shaiban, who had once refused to grant asylum to Muhammad, but who now joined the Muslim troops and fought against the Iranians. It is not clear how, but Abu Bakr managed even to send a military force against ash-Sha’m and the Byzantine troops that were so feared among the Medinans. This force, however, did not initially fight as successfully as Khalid did against the Sassanids. In the year 634, shortly before his death, Abu Bakr ordered [Khalid] to shift his forces without delay to the west in order to reduce the pressure on the Muslim forces who were in great difficulty there. Khalid

164

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad

drove into Syria via Tadmur, linked up with the remaining Muslim forces there, and inflicted a defeat on the Byzantine forces. Emperor Heraclius fled from his residence in Homs and retreated to Antioch. Two years later, his last effort to drive the occupiers from ash-Sha’m ended in failure. Meanwhile, the Sassanids had succeeded in regaining lost ground. ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, who succeeded Abu Bakr [as caliph] in late summer 634, sojourned in Mecca in the first months of the year 635 to carry out the pilgrimage. He used this occasion to urge stronger support for the campaign in the northeast. He had fresh troops mustered and placed them under the command of a certain Sa’d b. abi Waqqas from the Quraysh Banu Zuhra. Sa’d was, like ‘Umar, one of the early emigrants and also enjoyed the reputation of being the first Muslim – while still in Mecca – to take up a weapon on behalf of the new religion. To the west of the middle Euphrates, near the town of al-Qadisiya, in 636 or 637, he waged the decisive battle from which the Muslims emerged as victors. The last Sassanid, Yazdagird III, was unable to offer any effective resistance to the conquerors who were now spilling into Iran; he was killed by his own people in 651 at Merw. In these years, in Kufa and Basra, military bases were established to which streamed Arab-Muslim fighters, most of them Bedouins, and from these bases they relentlessly penetrated into Iran, which was now stripped of any organized defenses. Things went differently in ash-Sha’m. By the end of the 630s, this land, too, had fallen into the hands of the Muslims. But because it had long since been largely Arabized, it could hardly take in more immigrants. Moreover, the Byzantine Empire was able to block the route to Anatolia, so that the conquest of Constantinople remained a dream. The invasion of Egypt, begun in 640 by the late Quraysh convert ‘Amr b. al-‘As – allegedly against a direct command from the caliph – also redirected from ashSha’m any surplus of holy warriors. ‘Umar’s reservations about the annexation of Egypt direct our attention to his ideas about the extent of the nascent Muslim community. Muhammad’s second successor was convinced that it should not extend beyond the “island of the Arabs.” By that is meant a region circumscribed by the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea, extending to the Euphrates in the northeast and the Nile in the northwest. The population of this “island” was thought to be homogeneous, having in common Arab customs and, above all, the Arabic language. Khalid b. al-Walid is said to have addressed the Arab Christians of Hira, allies of the Sassanids, as follows: “Woe to you! What are you then? Arabs? With what then do you reproach the Arabs (who now demand that you shift your allegiance to them)? Or Persians? With what do you reproach the good treatment (that we promise you), (our) justice (towards you)?” When the Christians of Hira assured him that they were Arabs, and indeed both Yemeni and northern Arabs, Khalid reproached them: “If that were so, then you would not fight us, and you also

The Emergence of the Islamic State

165

would not despise our cause (i. e. Islam)!” The Christians of Hira insisted that they were true Arabs, because they spoke no language other than Arabic.¹ As this tradition indicates, the population of the “island” territory was also expected to be religiously uniform, that is, Muslim. ‘Umar therefore allowed the Christians of Najran to emigrate. One of the oldest doctrinal beliefs of the hanif religion is the idea that human beings, who are totally dependent upon divine providence for their support, should take care never to own more property than is really intended for them. Of course, it is all too easy for unintentional mistakes to creep into a person’s life, and in order to atone for them, purifying alms payments must be made (in Arabic: az-zakat). Even as caliph, ‘Umar sought to live solely from his own work, not from the ever-increasing war booty and tax revenues that were streaming into [the coffers of the Islamic state]. Abu Huraira, one of the young companions of the prophet, fell into a dispute with the caliph on account of this principle. While Abu Huraira was serving as a governor, he did not expend the official revenues he received in virtue of the office he held, but used them to build up a profitable horse breeding business: ‘Umar upbraided him by charging that such was the behavior of an “enemy of Allah and his book.” The caliph seized a great portion of the property acquired in this pursuit of gain. However, one could not close one’s eyes to the fact that, thanks to the wars of conquest, money and goods were streaming in to Medina that had not been earned by labor, consequently giving rise to pious caution. What should happen with this “property of Allah,” as ‘Umar called it? It had to be distributed according to some plausible standard. Especially the lands “reclaimed” by Allah, whose revenues became the economic foundation for the conquerors, could not, in the view of the caliph, become the private property of Muslims, even though Muhammad himself had reserved portions of the arable land of the Banu n-Nadir to meet his own needs. But the rapidly expanding territory over which Muslims ruled must not serve the personal profit of a few. The Damascene scholar al-Walid b. Muslim (d. ca. 810) discovered the following about ‘Umar’s land policy: “’Umar and the (other) companions of Allah’s Messenger were unanimously of the opinion that one had to leave the lands (of the conquered peoples) in their hands, so that they could cultivate them and from (the harvest) pay the land-tax (in Arabic: al-kharaj) to the Muslims. If one of them becomes a Muslim, he is relieved of the obligation of paying the land-tax, but for that his land and his house pass into the possession of his (Christian) neighbors, who then (also) have to pay his share of the land-tax; but they hand over (to the convert) his (moveable) property, his slaves, and his livestock. They assign (to the new Muslim) his rightful allowance from the diwan” – more on this in a moment – “in such a way that he has the same rights and duties as the Muslims. (‘Umar and the companions of the proph-

166

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad

et) were most certainly not of the opinion that the convert, even if he is now a Muslim, has any claim to ownership of his previous land among his (non-Muslim) neighbors, his family, and relatives.” In these sentences we see quite clearly again those characteristics of the “best community” that are totally based on the conquest and exploitation of non-Muslims. The land that had previously belonged to the convert thus became the property of the Islamic treasury and remained with the non-Muslims [only] for the purpose of cultivation. Al-Walid continues: “Those who remained with their religion and in their village were called the ‘wards’ (in Arabic: ahl al-dhimma) of the Muslims…” Thus, ideally, the goods produced by non-Muslims were to be distributed among the Muslims, and what better criterion for distributing them could one think of than as the reward for contributing to the victory of Islam? ‘Umar instituted a payment system that divided Muslim soldiers into categories, but oriented entirely in terms of the past. The early emigrants and “helpers” who had fought at Badr received the highest amounts; each of them was awarded an annual allowance of 5000 drachmae.² All who entered Islam early but had not participated in that battle, and all who had risked their lives for Islam for the first time at Uhud, had a right to 4000. Anyone who made the hijra after this date, but before Muhammad’s occupation of Mecca, received 3000. Anyone who converted to Islam in Mecca still received 2000. This amount was also granted to the very young offspring of the emigrants and “helpers” who had not yet been old enough to fight in Muhammad’s lifetime. This Islamic “justice” became more unjust with every passing day. For those who were serving far from Medina on distant battlefields at the moment this system was created could only count of receiving 300 drachmae, unless they were the sons of meritorious comrades. If we set aside the many exceptions to these rules that are attested in the sources, what we have here is a cementing of the status of the old warriors that showed contempt for the present and that had to create bad blood sooner or later. But this bad state of affairs can be explained by considering ‘Umar’s life history. He regarded with repugnance the ‘Abd Manaf Quraysh, to whom he did not belong, and who, after Muhammad’s entry into his hometown, proceeded to seize control of things; this repugnance certainly was also connected to his hanif sympathies, which presumably dated back to the period before his conversion to Islam. It is no accident that it was not Khalid b. al-Walid but Sa’d b. abi Waqqas who was allowed to continue the wars against the Sassanids, for this corresponds to ‘Umar’s view, known also from other evidence, that the late converts among the Quraysh elite had to stay in the background, because they had fought against Islam for so long. An innovation of great symbolic power gave expression to this conviction in a way that everyone could recognize: the introduction of the Islamic calendar that takes the year of the hijra as its starting point. Other

The Collapse of the Early Islamic State

167

recommendations had been considered, for example taking the year of Muhammad’s calling as the starting point. But that would have meant that the years of Muhammad’s struggle with his Quraysh enemies would have become a fully valid part of the Islamic past. What the “best community” actually is, namely the dominion of “Allah and his Messenger,” would have been obscured. But the hijra, as ‘Umar and his followers saw it, was the decisive turning point in salvation history, the transition from the dominion of lies to the dominion of truth.

The Collapse of the Early Islamic State The material and political preconditions for the continued existence of ‘Umar’s religious-political system began to erode already during his caliphate. The early emigrant Abu ‘Ubaida b. al-Jarrah, to whom he had entrusted ash-Sha’m, died from the plague after a short time in office; the caliph had no choice but to assign the difficult post to a young man from the Banu ‘Abd Shams, Mu’awiya b. abi Sufyan b. Harb. Since pre-Islamic times, his family had been well acquainted with affairs in this region. It had cost ‘Umar further prestige when he had had to allow ‘Amr b. al-‘As, politically astute but not especially meritorious in Islamic terms, a free hand in Egypt. It became clear just how much “the best community” was changing after the assassination that took ‘Umar’s life in 644. Staring death in the face, ‘Umar was admittedly able to appoint an electoral committee to select his successor. It consisted exclusively of early emigrants and settled on ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan, one of the first followers of Muhammad. In a situation in which the old emigrants could not long hold back a Quraysh elite that had converted to Islam late and was aggressively seeking power, ‘Uthman had the invaluable strength of belonging to both sides: He belonged to the clan of the Banu ‘Abd Shams,³ but at the same time his early service to Muhammad and Islam was indisputable. The economic preconditions undergirding ‘Umar’s model of the state also declined rapidly. It had been a pious wish to prohibit private enrichment from the conquered lands in favor of pensions distributed according to Islamic “justice.” Even early emigrants like Talha b. ‘Ubaidallah from Abu Bakr’s clan Taim b. Murra, or Khadija’s nephew az-Zubair b. al-‘Auwam, whom Muhammad once praised as his “disciple” due to his courageous service during the Battle of the Ditch, understood how to enrich themselves shamelessly. Of course, such examples could not deter hordes of poor Arabs from rushing to military service to make their fortunes. The fantastic gains that a few fighters raked in at the early stages were, however, long a thing of the past. The routes grew longer and longer, the time spent in the field increased, the spoils of war grew sparser, but still,

168

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad

the new recruits could at least be sure of receiving the modest pensions intended for them, in any case, in theory. When ‘Uthman took over the caliphate, he tried to retain the practices established by his predecessor. But the struggles over the distribution [of revenues and war booty] grew harder, and, whether from inner compulsion, or because he saw no other way of securing his rule, he appointed members of his own clan to responsible posts with ever greater frequency. In this respect he departed from the policy of his predecessor, and the growing throng of disgruntled [Muslims], confusing cause and effect with a polemical purpose, declared that this circumstance was the reason for all of the dissensions about which they were complaining. Among the troublemakers who stoked the growing discontent, a certain ‘Abdallah b. Saba’ stood out, a Yemeni Jew who had only converted to Islam under ‘Uthman. In the Hijaz, in the military garrison cities of Basra and Kufa, and in Syria, he agitated against the prevailing conditions and against those who, in his opinion, were responsible for them. His message was simple: It was against the will of Allah that those in power horded the revenues of the community as the so-called “property of Allah” – from which the pensions were paid; rather, one should speak of the “property of the Muslims,” which must be divided equally among all those who pray facing Mecca. He thereby declared to be invalid ‘Umar’s principle of merit in the cause of Islam; the militarized religiosity that lay at the root of the two-fold division of the “best community” into the mujahidun and the payers of sadaqa, thus justifying a society of unequals, should lose its defining power, [and] a society of equals would be manifested in the performance of religious ritual to which everyone is obligated. The promise of Muhammad’s return, derived from Sura 28, verse 85, underscored the illegitimacy of the status quo, as alleged by ‘Abdallah b. Saba’. After a while he gave up proclaiming the return of the prophet and declared instead that a thousand prophets had lived before Muhammad, and each of them had appointed an administrator, an executor (in Arabic: al-wasi); Muhammad’s administrator was his cousin and son-in-law ‘Ali b. abi Talib. And just as Muhammad was the seal of the prophets (cf. Sura 33: 40), ‘Ali was the seal of the administrators, the last in their line. But this meant no more and no less than that political conditions as they had developed since the death of Muhammad were illegitimate. “Who,” ‘Abdallah asked polemically, “is a more wicked wrongdoer than the one who did not permit the execution of the last will and testament of Allah’s Messenger, indeed, who laid hands on the administrator?” Thus, ‘Uthman is a usurper, and what else can one expect from such a man than injustice? He piles up goods and money, taking everything for himself, without being authorized to do so; for the administrator, namely ‘Ali, is still alive! The whole network of office holders that the caliphs have built up is therefore operating illegally! One must wake

The Collapse of the Early Islamic State

169

people up [and] call on them to command the right and forbid the wrong (cf. Sura 3: 110) so that a community may once again arise that can regard itself as the heir to the life’s work of the prophet! Although at first largely unnoticed, it is obvious that a religious-political movement had arisen whose proponents were convinced that someone other than Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, or ‘Uthman would have been a better leader of the Muslim community. Muhammad’s son-in-law had rejected the caliphate of Abu Bakr because he had believed that his clan membership was an obstacle to [his holding] such an office. This Hashemite arrogance of ‘Ali, focused on the past, gradually led to the conviction that his family relationship to the prophet made him better qualified for the caliphate than those three. He was therefore able to make himself the focus of the hopes of the disgruntled, [and] ‘Abdallah b. Saba’, independently of [‘Ali’s] ambitions, provided him with an ideology that played into his hands. ‘Ali had had nothing to do with the murder of ‘Uthman in 656, but he silently accepted that among the many who carried him to power were also those who had stained their hands with ‘Uthman’s blood. To begin with, ‘Ali’s movement was so strong that he conquered Talha b. ‘Ubaidallah and az-Zubair b. al-‘Auwam, the most important representatives of the early emigrants, in lower Iraq. Mu’awiya b. abi Sufyan, who ruled in Syria unchallenged by all the turmoil, insisted stubbornly that blood vengeance must be exacted upon those who had murdered ‘Uthman, his fellow clan member. ‘Ali, who was too weak to arrest the guilty ones, acquired the reputation of protecting the criminals. The battles between ‘Ali and Mu’awiya dragged on for years. They led to a division among ‘Ali’s followers, because he agreed to an arbitration panel that was to decide whether Mu’awiya’s demand was justified. The secessionists, later known as Kharijites, accused ‘Ali in taking this step of abandoning the divine judgment that had to be sought on the battlefield. The arbitration panel decided against ‘Ali and bloody fighting against the dissenters shaped his last years until in 660 he died at the hands of an assassin from their ranks. Loyalty to him endured among those who believed in his charisma, which they attributed to him because of his blood relationship to Muhammad; [these partisans of ‘Ali] recognized in him and his descendants the “imams” [or leaders] chosen by Allah to rule over the Muslims. From these followers of ‘Ali the multiform movement of Shiite Islam would develop. Immediately after the arbitration panel’s decision in Spring 658, Mu’awiya assumed the title of caliph. He did not possess the charisma of his opponent; he had not exactly distinguished himself early on in the cause of Islam. The notion among the early emigrants that the hijra was the turning point from lies to truth must have been alien to him. In his eyes, it was not the hijra that was the decisive event of the recent past but rather Muhammad’s triumphal entry into

170

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad

Mecca and the reconciliation between Muhammad and his fellow tribesmen – had this not been the key event that had smoothed the path of the Quraysh to dominion over Arabia? Mu’awiya purchased the property of Khadija, the location where Muhammad had been called to be Allah’s Messenger, and united it to the neighboring house of Abu Sufyan, in which Muhammad had announced to the Meccans that he forgave them: The caliphate of the Umayyad Mu’awiya is the legitimate consummation of the rise of the Quraysh to become the lords of Arabia, a rise that had begun with Qusayy and proceeded via ‘Abd Manaf and his descendants, among them Muhammad.⁴

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge” Al-Qasim (d. 726/7), a grandson of Abu Bakr, was a sought-after collector of prophetic traditions. To a man who asked him if he would dictate Hadiths to him, he replied: “In the era of ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, the Hadiths proliferated. The caliph commanded the people to bring him these (writings), and when that had been done, he ordered that they be burned. ‘A Mishna like the Mishna of the scripture folk!’ he said (by way of justification).” (Ibn Sa’d, Kitab at-tabaqat al-kabir, eds. E. Mittwoch et alia, Leiden, 1905 – 1928, V, 140.)

The Creation of a Canonical Edition of the Koran The writing of the Koran or, more precisely, of individual Suras, began already before the expulsion from Mecca; it continued in Medina, and in the process, Muhammad repeatedly intervened in the text.¹ In Medina, the continuous Koran recitation at religious services rooted the verses in the memories of the congregation, so that in the lifetime of the prophet and in the first years after his death, extensive unauthorized alterations of the contents are hardly conceivable. However, under ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, another question became acute, which previously could have existed at most in rudimentary form: the distortion of the wording in the verses regarded as Allah’s word when they were recited by people who had not mastered the dialect of the Mudar Arabs. The caliph, and probably others, were of the opinion that the descendants of Mudar, the common ancestor of the Quraysh and the Banu Tamim, could claim a special status within the Arab world. People even claimed that Mudar was already a Muslim. The “helpers” themselves, who did not belong to this circle, are said to have given ‘Umar b. al-Khattab the idea of assembling all of the Suras of the Koran into a single corpus and of protecting it by means of this canonical text from any distortions that might result from a mode of recitation that departed from the Mudar dialect. On one occasion, the caliph witnessed how a reciter said ‘atta instead of the Quraysh hatta, that is, “until,” and he immediately insisted on a correction, asserting that it was irresponsible that people in Kufa, where the chastened reciter had learned his craft, should tolerate such a pronunciation. According to ‘Umar, the creation of an authorized text of the Koran was supposed to serve another purpose as well. The caliph wanted to produce a corpus whose components belonged without any doubt to that which had been “sent down” or “inspired.” Belonging to this category was to distinguish the relevant texts from all other sayings with religious content. His main concern in this matter was certainty; thus he instructed Ubayy b. Ka’b, a Medinan scribe of the https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-016

172

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge”

prophet, when in doubt to leave out parts of verses that Muhammad may have recited a few times, but finally stopped mentioning, since they presumably had been tacitly abrogated. Last but not least, such stringency was necessary because accounts (in Arabic: al-hadith) of the words and deeds of Allah’s Messenger were emerging as a new genre of religious text, coming into competition with the Koran. An example will illustrate the situation: ‘Umar delegated a “helper,” Qaraza b. Ka’b, to travel to Kufa so that he could instruct the population there – mostly people of non-Mudarite genealogy who had only a superficial knowledge of Islam, if any – in the Islamic religion. “We wanted to travel to Kufa,” Qaraza narrates in a tradition, “and ‘Umar accompanied us until Sirar (a watering hole not far from Medina on the route to Iraq). There he performed the minor ritual purification, then he twice performed the major ritual purification. ‘Do you know why I accompanied you?’ he asked. ‘Yes,’ we answered, ‘because we are companions of Allah’s Messenger.’ He spoke again: ‘You will come to a place where the people zealously recite the Koran like the humming of bees. Do not hinder them in doing so by reciting Hadiths, you could distract them! Concentrate on the Koran and report (only) a little about the Messenger of Allah! And now go, I am your partner.’” ‘Umar’s designated catechists consider that they shall arrive in Kufa as companions of the deceased prophet, as first-rank [witnesses and thus] warrantors of everything that has to do with him; thus they wish to win for Islam precisely those people who had not experienced Muhammad’s activity in Medina – and what better method could there have been than extolling Muhammad by recounting stories about him? But the caliph rejects exactly this approach. Muslims have in the Koran what is really important – words “sent down” and thus of a unique nature. No one’s head should be turned with all sorts of other material. The Koran suffices; on this foundation one acquires insights into the requirements of the Islamic way of life by means of appropriate considerations. This attitude of ‘Umar is also attested in another way. Al-Qasim (d. 726/7), a grandson of Abu Bakr, was in his time a sought-after collector of prophetic hadith; to a man who asked him if he would dictate Hadiths to him, he replied: “In the era of ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, the Hadiths proliferated. The caliph commanded the people to bring him these (writings), and when that had been done, he ordered that they be burned. ‘A Mishna like the Mishna of the scripture folk!’ he said (by way of justification).” The interpretation of the Torah, at first transmitted orally, the derivation of an abundance of legal stipulations from that foundational text, is called the Mishna. It was composed in written form after the second century A.D. and constitutes a second source of religious knowledge and indeed of multifarious disputation, one that is often consulted because of its relevance to daily life. However, in ‘Umar’s opinion, as a fixed, written ref-

The hadith and the Decision-Making Power of the Ruling Class

173

erence work, only the Koran is permitted. No one should take it upon oneself to supplement the inspired word given by Allah to [his] Messenger with other words, or to place beside it reports or individual sayings of human origin.

The hadith and the Decision-Making Power of the Ruling Class In the form of the hadith, something was emerging that interposed itself like an uncontrollable authority between the revealed word of Allah and the rule of the old emigrants that rested on this revealed word. Above all among young people, those who had experienced the prophet for the first time in the last years of his career, a peculiar mood arose. The early days, in which the fate of the prophet and his followers rested on the edge of a knife, they knew only from hearsay, those days in which Muhammad had his work cut out for him to portray the victories he had eked out with luck, cool self-control, and cunning, as the result of Allah’s intervention, and to create the impression that he, Allah’s Messenger, had a right to such assistance. They knew only the triumphant days of the movement, [they] had experienced how the opponents, the “hypocrites” and the nonMuslims, had had to surrender, in adulthood they had become witnesses to the conquests: If this world could be so intoxicating, then the next world would be even more magnificent – the next world was like the immeasurable ocean, this world like a drop of water suspended from the tip one’s index finger after dipping it in the ocean. This is what Muhammad had promised, the Kufans were told by a man who had been a young boy at Muhammad’s death. The romantic enthusiasm of the young people who were drawn into the vortex of the expanding movement left a powerful mark in the early history of Islam, which we shall explore in detail. Under ‘Abd al-Malik, around 700, the Hadiths became a problem for the caliphate; the Umayyads were not entirely innocent in this matter, for whenever it seemed useful to them, they themselves promoted such experts as sources of allegedly infallible truths, for example Abu Huraira, about whom we will hear more shortly. But now ‘Abd al-Malik addresses agitated complaints to the Medinans: “You above all people are obligated to hold fast to the foundation. From the East (that is, from Iraq, which could be controlled only with difficulty by Damascus) are streaming (meanwhile) numerous Hadiths towards us, which are unknown to us and from which we can recognize nothing except what (corresponds) to the recitation of the Koran. Therefore cling to the contents of your codex, around which your Imam gathered you, to whom injustice was done! And fulfill the religious duties to which your Imam swore you, to whom injustice was done!” – The reference is to ‘Uthman, the successor of ‘Umar,

174

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge”

who completed the canonical edition of the Koran; he was the actual founding father of the Umayyads, to whom he was closely related. The idea of a sharp boundary separating the revealed Koran from the vast and growing body of pious traditions is becoming plausible to ‘Abd al-Malik, too. The historical tradition contains an entire series of cases in which ‘Umar made decisions according to the measure of his own deliberation, for which he himself was responsible. No guidance could be found in the Koran, and so the caliph had no alternative except to find a reasonable solution for each problem as it arose. An example of this: Numerous captive women from foreign peoples ended up in the possession of the victorious Muslims. Sexual intercourse with these slave women was permitted for Muslim men, on this there were no doubts. But did a son who had been born by such a slave woman have a right to a pension? The caliph answered in the negative when this question was posed to him. “The son is a slave,” he instructed the questioner. The man drew the obvious conclusion from this answer and put both mother and son up for sale in the market, since they were the source of unnecessary costs to him. ‘Umar was able to forestall this in the nick of time, and he forbade the sale of a slave woman who had born a son to her owner (in Arabic: umm walad). “For if you were to do such a thing, then it could happen that someone, without knowing it, could marry a woman to whom he is so closely related that marriage is forbidden.” According to the law of property, one should include the relevant slave woman in the portion that her son may claim from the estate of the father. This of course led to a situation in which the half-brother could claim that, because the son inherits his mother, all of his claims to the estate of the father have been discharged. This solution was equally unsatisfactory to ‘Umar, and therefore he finally ruled that a slave woman who bore her owner a son acquires the status of a free person at the moment of her owner’s death. ‘Umar clearly and decisively rejected the nascent hadith as an authoritative basis of his decisions. What he decreed he justified if necessary with a reference to some higher goal, for example the transparency of family relationships. To reach this goal, he was prepared to reconsider previous decisions and, if necessary, to alter them, as the example given above shows. Of course, because ‘Umar allowed the Koran alone to count as an authority, he was naturally not able to lend force to his decrees by appealing to a charisma attaching to his own person. In a community led by a prophet who had inculcated the belief that his commands stemmed from direct divine guidance, this circumstance would be perceived as a deficiency in one’s assurance of salvation. The aforementioned Abu Huraira counted among those young companions of the prophet who dared, in their narratives about Muhammad, to contradict the old companions by raising the possibility of removing this deficiency. When Allah’s Messenger

The hadith and the Decision-Making Power of the Ruling Class

175

besieged Khaybar, Abu Huraira came to him as a roughly twenty-year-old man. In the wars of conquest, he ended up first of all in Bahrain, where he collected tribute payments on behalf of ‘Umar; back in Medina, he was accused by the caliph of financial manipulations and lost the greater part of his wealth. In the following years he participated in the jihad in the Caucasus and near the Caspian Sea. During the turmoil against ‘Uthman, Abu Huraira took ‘Uthman’s side and therefore enjoyed good standing with the Umayyad caliphs, who had emerged as the victors from the first civil war. He died between 676 and 679. But what makes him famous for Muslims to the present day are the countless traditions about Muhammad that are attributed to him – whether rightly or wrongly we cannot say. Many of the stories about him are legendary: He is said to have had close, daily contact with the prophet; he accompanied Muhammad ceaselessly and in return received so much food that he could eat his fill. – It was not for earthly gain but only for the sake of “knowledge” that Abu Huraira showed such zeal! – “His hand was the hand of Allah’s Messenger, it turned where the Messenger turned.” Indeed, in order not to miss even a moment of Muhammad’s life, he accepted for himself the most extreme trials and miseries and did not earn a living at all. He stayed with Muhammad when others left him, we are told, and he remembered everything when others forgot. In this way he stored up all “knowledge,” detaching himself from all the concerns of everyday life that could have distracted him. Consequently, he was able to recount far more prophetic traditions than any of the other companions of the prophet. “And he thought frequently of Allah, thanking him for the goodness he had shown him after he had been a poor day laborer…” He is said to have stubbornly persisted in collecting and transmitting prophetic traditions. He repeated the Hadiths over and over again, until all of his listeners had memorized them. He justified his loquaciousness by citing a magnanimous act by which Muhammad had allegedly singled him out for honor: “I hear from you many traditions, but I forget them afterwards,” Abu Huraira complained, whereupon Allah’s Messenger told him: “Lift up your cloak!” Abu Huraira did so, and Muhammad placed something with his hand deep within it and then commanded: “Draw (the edges of the cloak) together!” After that Abu Huraira would never again forget a Hadith that he heard from the mouth of the prophet. It had not yet happened in ‘Umar’s day, but by the end of the seventh century the idea, conveyed in episodes such as this, had acquired wide currency in Islamic religiosity that prophetic traditions embodied a God-given “knowledge.” The Umayyad ‘Abd al-Malik sensed how this “knowledge” was limiting his authority as a ruler. In that time, when ‘Abdallah b. Saba’ had turned the heads of many Muslims with the proclamation of Muhammad’s return and then with the alleged right to power of the “executor,” ‘Ali, many members of especially

176

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge”

the younger generation of prophetic companions had begun to cloak their opinions of how the “best community” should behave in the depiction of alleged sayings and actions of Muhammad, not seldom in his – fictitious – literal words. Around 700, “knowledge” circulating in the form of the hadith began to bury the memory that the first caliphs, indeed the prophet himself, had made decisions independently of divine legitimation. Even Muhammad had by no means claimed a divine inspiration for all of his decrees. There is the wellknown case of the female slave purchased by ‘A’isha, to whom she then later granted freedom. The previous owner then reclaimed for himself the right of ongoing control over the slave as his client, [for] according to pre-Islamic Arab custom, despite the manumission, there was still an enduring link between the slave and his or her previous master. Muhammad, however, ruled that the ex-slave should be ‘A’isha’s client, for she was the one who had granted the slave her freedom. Furthermore, the woman was married to a male slave who remained in an unfree state; the prophet left to her the choice between the continuation of the marriage or its dissolution, but of course on the condition that [in case of its dissolution] she would have to observe the waiting period prescribed in cases of divorce. As we have repeatedly mentioned, with the passing of time, [the Muslim community] rapidly lost the memory of such judgments, which had been made without any supernatural tutelage. ‘Abdallah (d. ca. 685), the son of the conqueror of Egypt, ‘Amr b. al-‘As, was considered an especially pious man who had mastered “book learning.” To him, too, this statement is attributed: “Everything that I heard from Allah’s Messenger I wrote down in order to memorize it.” He was asked what he was doing, since after all Allah’s Messenger was only a human being (cf. Sura 25: 20), “who spoke in anger and in understanding. Therefore I stopped writing and spoke to Allah’s Messenger about it. [Muhammad] decided: ‘Write on! For by him in whose hand my soul rests, nothing leaves (my mouth) but the truth!’” This fictitious approval by Muhammad of the written recording (prohibited by ‘Umar b. al-Khattab) of his alleged or actual words, words that had not made it into the Koran, illustrates vividly how quickly the appeal to the authority of the prophet had become standard practice – and how far he had to be removed from the human sphere for the sake of this authority. For did he not also speak often under the influence of his feelings, and may one accept as truth everything that he said under such circumstances, as a statement reflecting Allah’s unadulterated will, in its weight comparable to the Koran? Yes, in fact, one must, according to the answer that Muhammad himself is said to have given to the young man. According to al-Waqidi, it happened in this way: After ‘Uthman had been murdered, ‘Abdallah, the son of the caliph ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, and also Abu Huraira, ‘Abdallah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As, and other second-generation companions of the prophet began to issue expert opin-

From Human Insight to Superhuman “Knowledge”

177

ions in Medina, that is, judgments about Islam and its practical implications based on Muhammad’s Hadiths. The judgments made by rulers and administrators for reasons of expediency were, so to speak, colliding with a body of ideas rising from below and stemming from pious, or sanctimonious, speculation; in this body of ideas, Muhammad and the “true” Islam seemed tangible to the innocent people of the time, a Muhammad, moreover, who could never have been tempted by human weaknesses, to the extent that he knew any at all in his role as the faithful transmitter of Allah’s will.

From Human Insight to Superhuman “Knowledge” In the figure of Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab, a scholar from the Hijaz born in the caliphate of ‘Umar, we encounter a man for whom two things were near and dear to his heart: first, the tradition of the independent decisions of Muhammad and his immediate successors, and second, engagement with the hadith. Indeed, no one documented the former as comprehensively as he; but he was equally devoted to the latter. He must have been close to the circle around Abu Huraira, at least he was married to his daughter and, we are told, no one was able to recount his Hadiths as faithfully as he. Sa’id was also famous for being unsurpassed in his expertise in distinguishing between the ritually permitted and the ritually forbidden; no one, we are told, was so skilled in tracing the implications of “insight” (in Arabic: al-fiqh) into the true meaning of Islam for everyday life. The activity of the scholar thus encompassed two epistemologically distinct domains, which were made useful for one and the same goal, creating the high-religious foundation of “the best community.” Because this foundation had to be incontrovertible, it is obvious which of the two domains would expand at the cost of the other. In the lifetime of Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab, the hadith was just beginning on its path to supremacy over the empirical experience of the Muslim. Yet even then the question was raised whether the evolving authority of the prophet in certain cases overruled even the Koran, the authentic words of Allah, as it was regarded. The two were not always in agreement in their contents. Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab attests to one of the more blatant contradictions between a prescription of the Koran and a practical maxim attributed to the prophet in the hadith. In Sura 24, verse 2 Muhammad decrees that a man and woman convicted of adultery are to be punished with 100 lashes; because this punishment belongs to the practice of the religion, those who attend and witness it should not allow themselves to be overcome by pity. Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab – who allegedly never cites ‘Umar as a source, since he was still a child when ‘Umar died – nonetheless in this case reports having heard “‘Umar saying from the mosque pulpit: ‘There

178

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge”

might be people who, after my death, will dispute stoning (as the punishment for adultery) and justify doing so by saying that they do not find it in Allah’s book. If I were not prohibited from adding to Allah’s book what is not in it, (thus committing forgery), then I would write (into it), that (stoning) is true. For Allah’s Messenger decreed it, as did Abu Bakr, and I also command stoning.’” The stoning of married people [who commit adultery] does in fact appear to go back to a mere “decision” of Muhammad. Abu Huraira and his contemporary Zaid b. Khalid assert that two men one day came to call on Allah’s Messenger and asked for advice in a delicate matter. The son of one of the men had hired himself out as a day laborer for the other and was caught committing adultery with his [employer’s] wife. The father, who feared the vengeance of the patron against his son, purchased the son’s freedom from the betrayed husband; the price came to 100 sheep and one [slave] girl. It was only after this exchange that the father learned that the son had to expect a punishment of 100 lashes and banishment for one year. Muhammad did indeed decide “according to Allah’s book” that the sheep and the girl be returned to the father, for the son would in fact be punished with lashes and banishment. Muhammad then ordered that the woman be interrogated; if she confessed, then, Muhammad commanded, she must be stoned. Muhammad thus arbitrarily deviated from the punishment stipulated by the Koran. Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab explained this to himself by citing a tradition that he had heard from Abu Huraira: A Jew and an otherwise undescribed woman committed adultery and thus had to be stoned, according to Jewish law. Muhammad was asked how he saw the matter; because he advocated a lightening of burdens in religious matters, people hoped that he would render a milder judgment, which they would then follow. In the Jewish schoolhouse in Medina, Muhammad was told that the Torah decrees that the faces of the two delinquents were to be blacked and then they were to be tied back to back while seated on a donkey and paraded through the town. But someone then informed the prophet that the Torah in reality prescribes stoning; merely subjecting the adulterers to the mockery of the public is an impermissible weakening of the divinely mandated punishment. Upon hearing this, Muhammad demanded stoning, citing Sura 5, verse 44: “We sent down the Torah. It contains light and correct guidance. The prophets who turned (their face towards) Allah² render judgment for the Jews…” Because the accused are Jews, Muhammad can only judge according to the law that applies to them, but according to the putatively authentic one, not the watered-down version of the Medinan Jews. “Authentic” and therefore binding for him himself in this case would be a determination contradicting the explicit wording of the Koran, “the word of God.” A satisfactory solution to the question with which Sa’id is wrestling cannot be deduced from the tradition of Abu Hur-

From Human Insight to Superhuman “Knowledge”

179

aira. On the contrary, it implies nothing other than that the prophet allowed himself to be guided by the Jewish law, which had allegedly been superseded by Islam, when he ruled in the first case, against the wording of the Koran, that the married woman who had confessed to adultery be stoned, thus making an independent “decision” that now is to be legitimized after the fact by a Hadith. It is possible that in Sa’id’s time the Hadiths were not yet in circulation with which people sought to cover up this embarrassing fact in an even more embarrassing way: In one we are told that Zaid b. Thabit, one of Muhammad’s scribes in Medina, did not want to write down the relevant words when he sensed [Muhammad’s] repugnance for the contents, [but] ‘Umar naturally knew that they had indeed been sent down, and so he decided according to them; in another we are told that the leaf on which the stoning verse had been written down had been stored under ‘A’isha’s bed and then had been forgotten in the turmoil surrounding Muhammad’s death, and when it was remembered, people discovered that it had unfortunately been eaten by vermin. In Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab’s lifetime, the hadith was on its way to becoming dominant over reason and independent thinking. Whoever hears the Koran, hears Allah’s word, and not only insofar as it transmits his message, but as a manifestation of divine providence in the created order. This principle is carried over to prophetic tradition: The formalization of the guarantee of the hadith by means of a chain of reliable transmitters (in Arabic: al-isnad), attributed to azZuhri (d. 742), served to generate a sense of authenticity that was repeatable in the sense that everyone who listened to a hadith-recitation could participate anew in the power of the prophetic words, a power that the first person in the chain must have once felt when he heard the relevant words – allegedly – from Muhammad. The formalized extension of the effectiveness of Muhammad’s speech into the time of the audience considerably accelerated the triumph of the hadith over independent thinking about issues. As soon as the formal characteristics of the hadith had become generally known, the traditions that satisfied these criteria multiplied with breathtaking speed. Contemporaries capable of sober thinking began to doubt the truth of [many of] the stories said to be warranted under these criteria. Facing this problem, people began to misuse the chain of transmitters as a criterion for the authenticity of the content of the respective Hadith, and moreover, they began to postulate that forefathers like Abu Huraira, now the guarantors of the ongoing salvific efficacy of the words of the imagined prophet, were exempt from any moral flaws; so, just as one had in the meantime become convinced that Muhammad throughout his life must have been an infallible, morally upright man who was always devoted to Allah – otherwise one could not be certain that he transmitted Allah’s message completely and perfectly – so too all of his companions had to be beyond reproach as well.

180

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge”

If this could not be guaranteed, then the ground would unavoidably be pulled out from under Islam, as the Abbasid Caliph Harun ar-Rashid (r. 786 – 809) noted with horror. He is said to have been advised by the Medinan Malik b. Anas (d. 795), founder of the eponymous Malikite school of jurisprudence, that anyone who shows contempt for the prophet should be executed, and anyone who reviles the prophet’s companions should be whipped. The Islamic community cannot survive without the uncontested authority of Muhammad, and equally necessary to its survival is the uncontested authority of his companions. The content of the norms promulgated both directly by Allah and indirectly by the actions of Muhammad finally cannot be justified by arguments based on reason, but only by the authority of those who are said to guarantee it.

The Utilization of “Knowledge” At the time when the formal elaboration of the literary genre of the hadith, sketched above, came to its conclusion, there were men who were thinking through the function [of hadith] for the foundations of the Islamic community and trying to make sense of them via an appropriate conceptual apparatus. Among them the most outstanding was Muhammad b. Idris ash-Shafi’i (d. 820). Having grown up in Mecca, he moved as a young man to Medina in 786 in order to study the prophetic traditions, perhaps guided by Malik b. Anas, and presumably to participate in the debates that were going on at that time about the use of the hadith to develop a specifically Islamic jurisprudence. The Abbasids, who had been in power for a half century, had come to power with the promise that they would replace Ummayad rule, condemned by many as unIslamic, with an Islamic government focused on Muhammad, who was after all a Hashemite like them. But what this promise meant for the area of law was unclear. One could seek inspiration from Koranic instructions, from traditions about the actions of Muhammad and other people from the past, and otherwise accept juristic expertise as determinative. This was the standard approach of the jurisprudence begun by Abu Hanifa, whose representatives had come to occupy key posts. The solution of a specific legal problem could turn out differently under this method [in the hands of different jurists], and this would mean that the submission of the “best community” to divine guidance, as supposedly characterized by Muhammad’s Medina, had at most been begun but by no means achieved: To every legal question there could only be one answer, and this had to correspond perfectly to divine guidance. Ash-Shafi’i dedicated his life’s work to meeting this challenge.

The Utilization of “Knowledge”

181

“Knowledge,” information transmitted by Allah to human beings (cf. Sura 2: 32) which the latter could neither produce, nor alter, nor increase, that is, eternally true “knowledge,” of the sort that Allah’s guidance has placed within the reach of humanity, consists according to ash-Shafi’i on the one hand in the Koran, and on the other in the sunna, the normative example of Muhammad. “(Allah) is the one who has called a Messenger from the midst of a people who as yet had no written revelation, [a Messenger] who recites to them (Allah’s) miraculous signs, who purifies them and teaches scripture and wisdom to them” (Sura 62: 2). “Scripture,” ash-Shafi’i infers from these words, refers to the Koran, Allah’s word; “wisdom” is something else, namely, the sunna put down in the form of a book in the hadith. However, this is of divine origin in the same way that the Koran is; like the Koran it is a trans-historical treasury of knowledge that is immune to any sort of adulteration. It is so diverse in its contents that is must be counted next to the Koran as the second authoritative source of Islamic law and of the Islamic way of life. Complete knowledge of the sunna makes juristic expertise superfluous, it prevents variation in rendering judgments, and thus, it eliminates the deficiencies under which Abbasid jurisprudence still labored. The tireless application of Koran and sunna, if necessary under the supervision of the unanimous opinions of the prophetic companions, who after all lived in the salvific epoch marked by direct divine guidance, will conjure up that time again, and this is the highest goal of absolutely all Muslim juristic practice and governance. Ash-Shafi’i set forth this conviction in a powerful jurisprudential treatise: The present and the future of the Muslim lies in the salvation embodied in the original Islamic community, above all in the figure of the prophet made accessible via the hadith and in the emulation of the sunna modeled by him. So pervasive and dominant is this belief for ash-Shafi’i that he cannot imagine that there was a past in which a man like ‘Umar b. al-Khattab made “decisions,” and also a time in which Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab collected such “decisions” and took pride in knowing them. The Malikite school of jurisprudence was still aware that ‘Umar had issued decrees regarding the collection of sadaqat: “For 24 or fewer camels, small livestock are to be requisitioned, specifically, one sheep for every five camels. If the number of camels comes to 35, then the female foal of a breeding mare is to be collected, and if such a foal is not available, the male foal of a milking mare. If the number comes to 45, then the female foal of a milking mare. If the number comes to 60, then a three-year-old mare that can be covered by a stallion. If the number comes to 75, then a young stallion. If the number comes to 90, then two female foals of a milking mare. If the number comes to 120, then two three-year-old mares that can be covered. If the number exceeds that, then for every 40, one female foal of a milking mare, and for every fifty, a

182

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge”

three-year-old mare…” Then follow equally detailed instructions for small livestock. The authenticity of this document, we are told, is undisputed in Medina, its contents accepted by the scholars. One finds the same stipulations in the wide-ranging handbook of Islamic law put together by students of ash-Shafi’i, of course in a completely altered context. Beneath the title: “How the sadaqa were imposed” we are told: ash-Shafi’i says: al-Qasim b. ‘Abdallah b. ‘Umar tells us on the authority of al-Mutanna b. Anas or of NN b. Anas b. Malik with – ash-Shafi’i is in doubt (about this link in the chain of transmission) – the latter on the authority of Anas b. Malik, who said: “This is the sadaqa. Later the small livestock and others were left out, for the people detested that. In the name of Allah, the merciful, rich in compassion! This is the duty of sadaqa, which Allah’s Messenger imposed on the Muslims, because Allah commanded him. He from whom (the sadaqa) is demanded according to the rules, he must pay it, and he from whom more is demanded, need not pay it. For 24 or fewer camels small livestock are to be required, specifically, one sheep for every five camels…” What follows is the text, translated above, of ‘Umar b. al-Khattab’s document, supplemented at the end with a few clarifications about cases in which the specified three-yearold mare or a young stallion are not available. For ash-Shafi’i, it is no longer conceivable that the caliph should have ruled regarding something as fundamental as the sadaqa without referring back to the prophet. He therefore derives the text from the prophet himself via the insertion of Anas b. Malik, his Khazraj servant. But ash-Shafi’i has no clear idea of how the text should have travelled from Muhammad via his servant Anas to the traditionist who is said to have transmitted it to him. The named al-Qasim b. ‘Abdallah was a descendant of ‘Umar b. alKhattab in the fifth generation; he was active in Medina, where he died in 773. The greatest concern of hadith-scholarship over the coming centuries was to mend such uncertainties regarding the avenues of transmission. Extensive collections will arise in which many thousands of individual traditions are organized according to subject areas, making them easily accessible to specialists in the growing field of Islamic jurisprudence. Vast compendia will be created with the names and dates of the births and deaths of thousands of transmitters in order to clarify whether this transmission could have happened orally or only by means of a written source. In the latter case, the living connection with the original Islamic community would have been broken. The contents of the relevant Hadiths may be complete and may have been correctly transmitted; however, the real spiritual participation in the salvific fullness of the original community, which can only come from person-to-person contact, is lacking. Ritualized public recitations of famous hadith collections, for example that of al-Bukhari (d. 870), for the purpose of warding off threats to the Islamic world at times of dan-

The Utilization of “Knowledge”

183

ger, are attested into the 20th century. Muhammad has not passed from this world; he is present in a unique way in and with the “knowledge” that can be traced back to him.³

Chapter 16: “Knowledge” without History Muhammad once said: “Everyone has a demon and an angel as an (invisible) companion.” “And do you have one too?” “I have one too, but Allah helped me (against the demon), and after this, [the demon] became a Muslim and from then on commanded me to do only good.” Allah strengthened Muhammad with that with which he strengthened no other human being. He distinguished him with traits that lie outside the definition of the miracles of the (rest of the) prophets and the ranks of the friends of God. The marks of the prophethood of Muhammad correspond to his standing with Allah. (Abu Nu’aim al-Isbahani, Dala’il annubuwa, 2nd ed., Hyderabad, 1950, 142 and 183.)

Islamic Rationalism and the Historicity of Muhammad Nothing but truth comes from his mouth, the prophet himself is said to have assured the still very young ‘Abdallah b. ‘Amr al-‘As – an anachronistic statement attributed to Muhammad in a time in which the “Mishna” rejected by ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, the hadith, had triumphed and won its place in Islamic piety and then also in sharia scholarship and theology. “Knowledge” that comes from Allah is free from any taint of the historical, any entanglement in the earthly or the mundane, and this must be equally true of the one through whose mediation it has become present in this world. From the 11th century on, this religious conviction became part of the conventional wisdom of the overwhelming majority of Muslims, of Sunnis as well as most Shiites, the one difference being that Shiites assert that it is above all certain “Imams” descending from ‘Ali who are the bearers of this “knowledge.” However, there had earlier been a small but influential minority that had argued in imaginative ways against removing Allah’s Messenger and his message from history. We must at least briefly pay some attention to this rationalistic school, designated by the name Mu’tazilites, before we explore in depth the majority’s understanding of Muhammad. The conquerors had been able to defend their faith against the religions of the conquered lands only with inadequate arguments. Even in the 9th century, Islam was far from being fully theologically developed, [and] its adherents were able to answer the challenging questions of opponents only with difficulty. If the truth of Islam in the final analysis depended only on the trustworthiness of one man, the prophet, and could be neither supported nor refuted with arguments based on human reason and experience, then the only thing left was to point to the earthly military and political triumph of Islam: Did this not prove https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-017

The Miracles of the Prophet as Proof of his Prophetic Status

185

clearly enough that Allah stood behind the message propagated by the conquerors? This manner of “reasoning” was very common; of course, it sounds plausible only to those who are already Muslims. The Mu’tazilites set themselves apart by daring to meet the representatives of other religions on the field of theology. This approach could only succeed if Muhammad remained a historical figure, perhaps the most important figure in salvation history generally, but in any case capable of being evaluated by earthly standards; and the Koran, too, must not be elevated to a supernatural mode of speech, uncreated like Allah himself, whose contents lie beyond human reason. Rather, the Mu’tazilites taught, Allah’s speech is created and therefore belongs to the rest of the created realm. It has been revealed in its intellectual fullness to the searching mind of human beings endowed with reason; they grasp that it enjoins on them rites, prescriptions, and ways of acting which they must [also] discover [for] themselves by means of careful reflection on the human condition. Muhammad’s prophethood was thus a final push given by Allah to human beings to help them organize their lives in a way that would benefit them in this world and ensure that Allah will judge them favorably on the last day and guide them to paradise. In the opinion of the Mu’tazilites, this world and the next stand to one another in a relationship of achievement and just reward, and it is precisely this conception of justice, inferable from earthly circumstances, that makes the faith that they propagate and justify attractive also for non-Muslims. In any case, this is what the Mu’tazilites hoped. It is obvious that they were unable to gain any ground against the prophetic hadith, which was triumphantly capturing the imagination of the Islamic world during the very heyday of Mu’tazilite theology. [For the Mu’tazilites were arguing] that Muslims could gain salvation through the use of their own reason.

The Miracles of the Prophet as Proof of his Prophetic Status What followed from the Mu’tazilite doctrines when one applied them to the Koran? In an unsurpassable way, [the Koran] put in words the aspects of the human condition that are useful for motivating human beings to use their own minds independently for the purpose of thinking and living successfully in this world. And for this to be possible, the Koran must by its nature be a part of this world, created like everything that makes up this world. However, the Sunnis and a great many Shiites rejected the idea that human beings, [as] creatures, shape their actions according to their own decision-making power. Only the creator has real, actual causal power; by him all created things are determined. The human being is therefore totally incapable of working to gain sal-

186

Chapter 16: “Knowledge” without History

vation independently and on his own responsibility, and he is equally incapable of inferring rules for gaining salvation from evidence gleaned from this world. For Allah, the creator, does not allow himself to be bound by anything created. In truth, the means by which the law is transmitted to humanity, i. e. the Koran and the sunna of the prophet, are an aspect of the divine being in this world. Thus, everything depends on believing in Muhammad and his trustworthiness, for the content of the message conveyed by him but formulated by Allah is not accessible to any earthly critique. What does this mean for the Koran? It is the confirming miracle, belonging to the realm of Allah’s [very] being, that the creator transmitted to his chosen one. The language of the Koran, therefore, must not be misunderstood as the typical representation of earthly circumstances that are entangled in history. On the contrary, it is uncreated, and it makes real in this world Allah’s eternal and immutable speech, which cannot be imitated by human beings. Islamic theological thinking has been working ever since on solving or at least papering over the metaphysical difficulties that result from the real presence of the uncreated, thus of the divine, in the created order; an answer to this question that satisfies all sides has not yet been found and probably cannot be found. Now and again we shall encounter individual aspects of this problem, although beliefs about Muhammad will always be the main focus of our discussion. According to the Mu’tazilite view, the Koran is a unique text because it grasps the human condition in unsurpassably precise language and thereby motivates Muslims, indeed all people, to reflect independently on the most fruitful way of seeking their salvation in their life on earth. For the Sunnis, in contrast, it was unique because they considered it to belong to the unearthly, “hidden” (Sura 2: 3) realm of being, inaccessible to the five senses. Fundamentally, with this characterization of the Koran, its proclaimer, too, was elevated above the plane of this world, at least in part, and the history of the doctrine of Muhammad will try to conceptualize this circumstance in bold speculation. For the Sunnis, as we have said, the revealed words of the Koran counted as Muhammad’s confirming miracle precisely because they were not of this world. But how was one to make this claim plausible? People began to scour the text for evidence of an inimitable, superhuman power of speech and thought that they had found such evidence here and there, but the case remained imperfect and fragmentary. The theologian and sharia expert Ibn al-Baqillani (d. 1013) was the first to grasp that an argument based on individual expressions in the Koran was insufficient, if the Koran in its totality was supposed to be the trans-temporal and eternally immutable word of Allah. Rather, it was necessary to demonstrate that the miraculous character of the Koran permeated the entire book. “The Arabs have (beside the Koran) no speech that manifests such purity

The Miracles of the Prophet as Proof of his Prophetic Status

187

of language and such polished, precise choice of words, such a new and enlightening facility (with words), such a finely-spun sense, united to an always appropriate rhetoric and an apt virtuosity, and this across such length, such a mass (of passages).” Ibn al-Baqillani thus concerns himself with whole sections of the Koran, with Suras, for example Sura 17 or 27. Each of these addresses a multitude of themes, and this applies to most others as well. In Sura 27, after some introductory verses, we read first about Moses and the burning bush; then about Solomon, Salih, and the Tamud; then about Lot; then there are some general reflections about Allah’s creative activity, which in turn establish the plausibility of resurrection of the dead; then a depiction of the Last Judgment; and finally Muhammad presents himself as the warner of the Meccans. Sura 17, too, begins with a reference to Moses and then in its main section discusses variously the general themes of the Muhammadan message. Ibn al-Baqillani summarizes his findings by saying in effect that the creator of the Koran succeeds in weaving the many topics of a Sura into a whole in such a way that the transition from one theme to the next appears not as an incision but as a joint. When we consider the Koran as a series of texts, therefore, it stands out as a meaningful linking of these texts. Alongside of this, al-Baqillani also discerns an equally meaningful vertical organization. For many motifs and topics are taken up again and again. When in Sura 27, verse 7, Moses sees the fire and tells his people to wait, because he wants to go get a burning log so that they can warm themselves, then one must remember the parallels in Sura 20, verse 10, and Sura 28, verse 29. With minor variations in the wording, one finds the same event represented there, and in an equally inimitable way, according to Ibn al-Baqillani. Thus, the vertically organized sayings of the Koran unveil themselves so that, however one tries to approximate the miraculous character of the Koran, any attempt to concoct a rival will be useless; from every conceivable viewpoint, the Koran is untouchable. If the composition of the Koran is unique, then it must not be placed in one of the traditional Arabic literary genres. Ibn al-Baqillani therefore denies that one may subsume it under the category of rhyming prose. The pagan Quraysh and other unbelievers classified it as poetry, [while] many Muslims say it is prose, of course with sentences or phrases that end in a rhyme. Ibn al-Baqillani holds all these views to be unjustified, indeed to be mistaken, because they obscure the incomparability of the Muhammadan message. “Sometimes the Koran is admittedly formed according to the standard of rhyming prose, but it is not that (really). For a text shaped intentionally into rhyming prose can be characterized by a few specific traits. Namely, in speech made in rhyming prose, the meaning follows the expression that the rhyme creates. However, in the sections

188

Chapter 16: “Knowledge” without History

of the Koran where people think there is rhyming prose, this is not the case. The expression here always follows the meaning.” “They should bring a speech that is like it, if they are honest” (Sura 52: 34), we are told in one of the “challenge verses,” and al-Baqillani thinks that this verse should be understood literally. A discourse that is comparable to the Koran, thoroughly and from every viewpoint from which one can dissect and judge a discourse – that is what must be produced by anyone who wishes to successfully discredit Muhammad’s confirming miracle and thus refute his prophethood. It will come as no surprise that, for all the vigilance with which Ibn al-Baqillani carries out his task, he arrives at his conclusions primarily because they are already implicit in his faith. His ideas about the nature of Allah’s word allow no other conclusions, as we can see from a cursory glance at his compendium of theology, the book on which his fame is above all based. That the Koran speaks of things that Muhammad could not possibly have known is one of the reasons why it is the miracle that confirms [his prophethood]; the other lies in the unique composition that makes the Koran one of a kind, a literary type of which there are no other known instances. Ibn al-Baqillani needs this thought in order to answer the objection from non-Muslims that the words of a person who possesses the highest degree of eloquence do not necessarily prove that he is a prophet. Ibn al-Baqillani therefore employs the following consideration: If Allah has granted such outstanding eloquence to someone, and the one in question challenges people to evince the same level of eloquence, and if Allah then does not grant anyone the same eloquence, so that no one accepts the challenge, then the one issuing the challenge is confirmed by the inactivity of Allah. For, if he were a liar, then Allah would have rushed to grant the same eloquence to other people in order to convict the challenger of lying. Ibn al-Baqillani borrows this “proof” from arguments that were current in Sunni Islam in his time for the trans-temporality of Allah’s speech and for the absence of a rationally intelligible relation of this trans-temporal speech to the conditions in this world that have been determined by Allah according to his inscrutable will. – Here we find the exact contrary of the previously sketched Mu’tazilite position according to which the Koran’s wording ensures the perfect comprehension of this world created by Allah. – According to al-Baqillani, an imaginary scenario helps to clarify the nature of trans-temporal speech dwelling within the “soul” of the speaker and independent of the actual prevailing circumstances: In a crowd of subjects that a ruler receives in audience, one of the subjects stands up and announces in an audible voice that he is the fully empowered representative of the ruler in question in all matters; if the ruler remains silent, then the speaker has spoken the truth. There is no evidence beyond the silence of the ruler. And what the one who identifies himself as the representative proclaims is

“Proofs of Prophethood”

189

unique, a circumstance that must be determined again only by disregarding all comparability and forgoing any discernment of effects on the other listeners. More concretely: A master has a chronically disobedient slave, whom he punishes severely for his disobedience, which comes to the attention of the ruler; the ruler wants to know if the punishment was justified, so he summons both the master and the slave and then demands of the master that the slave be put to the test. The master commands the slave to do something, and by giving the command, he naturally hopes that the slave will now be disobedient again. The “soul-speech” of the master contradicts the expressed word, and the same is true of the trans-temporal word of the Koran: It cannot be interpreted by connecting it to the life situations that the reality of the temporal world constantly displays, nor does it interpret these situations. The considerations regarding [the Koran] as the miracle confirming Muhammad’s [prophethood] pertain to a reality that is no longer compatible with the temporal world known by human experience and reason, a reality that merges into the “knowledge” discussed in the previous chapter, a “knowledge” that is elevated above any [human] expertise at all.

“Proofs of Prophethood” Thus, the preconditions and consequences of Muhammad’s emergence that can be explained in mundane, temporal terms cannot be of any interest to Muslims. The disappearance of the Mu’tazilite manner of analytically studying the biography of the prophet and the Koran led also to the disappearance of the capacity for discussing these themes with non-Muslims in a dialogue of equals, and what remained in dealing with them was only the emphatic insistence on being in the right, underscored with frequent allusions to the military successes of Islam. It was therefore primarily for an internal Muslim audience, serving Muslim self-reassurance, that an extensive and growing literature arose, from the 10th century on, undertaking to remove the entire life of Muhammad from the earthly realm. It consisted in a chain of Proofs of Prophethood, the title of a treatise devoted to this theme by the Isfahan scholar Abu Nu’aim (d. 1038/9). The foundational idea of this work is the assumption that Allah’s tireless, ongoing act of creating and guiding the universe was immanent in the figure of Muhammad in a way that was crystal clear and unprecedented. “Allah strengthened Muhammad with that with which he strengthened no other human being. He distinguished him with traits that lie outside the definition of the miracles of the (rest of the) prophets and the ranks of the friends of God. The marks of the prophethood of Muhammad correspond to his standing with Allah.” These marks consist in the impressive verses of Allah’s speech, whose uncreated nature is self-evident to the

190

Chapter 16: “Knowledge” without History

author: Above all, they testify to the immanence of Allah in this world. But not only that! By calling Muhammad, Allah went far beyond merely providing evidence [proving Muhammad’s prophethood]: He explained his law, and indeed in an unmistakable way that left out no detail. Allah acted directly upon the understanding of many human beings, and many immediately converted to Islam. The proofs of prophethood subordinate the weaker levels of immanence, which are manifested in miracles, below the highest level, Muhammad’s expression of Allah’s word and Muhammad’s action under the guidance of Allah, and they infuse the reader with confidence that such guidance to the highest level of immanence still occurs, no longer today in the person of the prophet, who is not in our midst, but in the form of the Koran and the prophetic traditions, still effective today as in the past. In altogether ten chapters, Abu Nu’aim depicts the miracles that have been attested from Muhammad’s birth to his death. He gives detailed accounts of these miracles: That Allah’s Messenger spoke with animals; that trees and stones turned to him to offer him the greeting of peace; that he had the habit of leaning on a wooden beam when he preached in Medina, and when a pulpit was later built [for him to use instead], the beam sighed from longing for his touch; that he miraculously produced food and drink to satisfy the hungry and thirsty. He devotes only two chapters to the actual history of events; in these he discusses the hijra and the military campaigns [of the prophet]. At the beginning of the latter one reads: “…regarding the miracles that occurred during his raids and the deployment of his shock troops: We shall depict them in order, from the raid on Badr to the raid on Tabuk, by making clear the relevant facts that include within themselves the signs (of his prophethood) and the reason why (the activity) is to be interpreted as a miraculous sign. For in all of this lies a proof, as we have already said, that one will not find any circumstance of his life that is free of evidence that bears witness on his behalf, or that is free of a miracle performed by him – which indeed is only fitting and proper, since he was the final prophet and thanks to him the sharia will endure until Judgment Day.” The proclamation of the eternally true, trans-historical word of Allah and its explication in the career of the prophet become intelligible even to the most dimwitted as the most decisive proofs of the immanence of Allah thanks to the miracles that permeate the prophet’s life. Abu Nu’aim regards instruction in these miracle stories as a sort of introductory course which must be taken by all who wish to grasp clearly the core of Islam’s salvific message and never again be tempted by doubts. His treatise moves straight to its goal and does without the elaborate trappings of the [usual] Sunni method of analyzing and assessing prophetic traditions. Indeed, one could criticize Abu Nu’aim from the standpoint of hadith scholarship that he primarily relies on sayings that are only warranted

“Proofs of Prophethood”

191

by one transmitter. For the content of a Hadith to be considered incontrovertibly true, however, it must be attested by multiple sources. The Shafi scholar al-Baihaqi (d. 1066) therefore approached the material with the intention of creating the most complete possible compendium of the proofs of prophethood out of the multitude of prophetic traditions. His multi-volume work, a testament to his stupendous scholarly diligence, likewise consists for the most part of individual traditions. But unlike Abu Nu’aim, al-Baihaqi finds evidence of the miraculous character of the prophet’s life even in the most insignificant episodes. This is proven in such a multitude of ways that it cannot be treated as a matter of individual items. For all the diversity in their various contents, the individual traditions evaluated in their totality amount to the following: “Muhammad b. ‘Abdallah b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib claimed to be the Messenger of the lord of the worlds; miraculous signs happened through him, and he performed confirming miracles by which he distinguished himself from others like him in such a way that with regard to him everyone was certain that Allah had granted him true wisdom – apart from the miraculous sign of the Koran, which exists to the present day in his community.” Al-Baihaqi, in order to mention only him, made an indispensable contribution to stabilizing sharia scholarship, which was now dependent on an anchoring of the norms derived from the Koran and prophetic traditions in a trans-temporal web of events that is itself henceforth to be interpreted as miraculous. Divine governance over creation manifests itself in both the Koran and the sunna, and precisely because of their miraculous character both are immune to any assessment by critical [human] reason. Even the believing Muslim will rack his brains over and over again at the implausibility of many of the sayings from the authoritative texts, but swelling doubts are to be snuffed out by reference to the miraculous. In Sura 2, verse 106, Muhammad’s alter ego says, “Whenever we delete a verse from the Koran or allow it to be forgotten, we bring a better one or one (at least) as good.” But the corrected sayings in the Koran were not always deleted. A simple example can be found in Sura 8: Muhammad first announces that twenty courageous believers can conquer 200 enemy fighters (verse 65), but then he becomes a bit more diffident, saying that 100 Muslims will defeat 200 enemies (verse 66). If the text of the Koran were open to a historical reading, then inconsistencies like this would be easy to explain – but how is one to handle contradictions when everything is a miracle and connects one directly to Allah? What remains is only the prohibition of questioning and thinking. The Mu’tazilites explained the abrogation of one verse in the Koran by another in terms of the categories of “good” and “evil,” which they considered to be common to human beings and Allah: The abrogation is justified by changed circumstances. This way of thinking is an abomination to the Sunnis;

192

Chapter 16: “Knowledge” without History

[their view is that] Allah said one thing first, then another thing; the reasons for this are inscrutable to us, [and] what he said last is what is binding on us. Precisely for this reason, for the sake of the trans-historicity that has to honor “knowledge” by citing the military triumphs of Islam, the miraculous nature of Allah’s word and of the life of his prophet is extended by the 9th century at the latest to the entire original community; the companions of the prophet who belonged to that community and who now are perceived above all as the guarantors of that epoch must be sanctified and elevated above any possibility of criticism.

The Sanctification of the Original Community and hadith Scholarship “The best of this (Muslim) community after the prophet are Abu Bakr, after him ‘Umar, after him ‘Uthman, after him ‘Ali; but many (Sunnis) do not go beyond ‘Uthman. These (three or four) are the ones who walk on the straight path, the caliphs who are rightly guided (by Allah). Then come the companions of God’s Messenger; they are the best human beings after these four. It is not permitted for anyone to mention anything about their bad sides, no one may criticize one of them because of a mistake or a deficiency. If nevertheless anyone does this, the power of the state should chastise and punish him. The state may not forgive him, but rather must punish him and demand repentance from him. If he atones, they may accept it from him; if he persists stubbornly, he must be punished again and thrown in jail until he dies or recants… It is rather sunna¹ to love (the prophet’s companions); blessing (them) brings one closer (to Allah); emulation of them is a means (to gain paradise); to follow in their footsteps is virtue.” These words, to select one example, were written by Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 855) in an outline of Sunni Islam.² Obviously, the Mu’tazilites rejected these opinions every bit as energetically as they rejected the elevation of Muhammad above earthly history. [But] they were not able to block mainstream Islam’s march towards complete dependence on this “knowledge,” a march down a road smoothed by the prohibition of thinking and criticism. But, from the Sunni perspective, how could it be otherwise, when Sunnis not only possess the eternal truth independent of any human cooperation but also the method for transmitting it perpetually unimpaired from generation to generation? The so-called “science of challenging and establishing the integrity of the guarantors” is therefore the core of hadith scholarship; whoever masters it determines the content of what counts as salvific truth. The judgments made about the individuals named in the chains of transmission of prophetic traditions are rarely unani-

The Sanctification of the Original Community and hadith Scholarship

193

mous; a finely worked out scale of evaluations came into use and filled the relevant standard works: This person evaluates that one in this way, another evaluates him or her differently, a third compares the relevant transmitters with others and reaches the conclusion that this one in comparison to the others is possibly more reliable than those with regard to this topic, and so on and so forth. In addition, the biographical details have to be taken into account: Transmitter A is said to have received Hadith X orally from Transmitter B; is this even possible with regard to time and location? In other words, [we are dealing here with] a vast, confusing mass of data that is very difficult to organize in a coherent manner, yet pored over to the present day with a holy seriousness. Ibn abi Hatim ar-Razi (d. 938/9), one of the very greatest in this field, displays for us the kind of certainties that seize the minds of the hadith scholars, widely held to be the most important pillars of the community, as they ply their trade: Allah called Muhammad to be a prophet to all of humanity and sent down to him the scripture so that he could explain everything – and “everything” is meant literally here. Ibn abi Hatim buttresses this allusion to Sura 16, verse 89 with verses 44 and 64 of the same sura, where, to be sure, there is no mention of “everything,” but rather only a reference to the earlier revelations that Muhammad shall clarify according to Allah’s will as well as to the debates among the people of the book, which are to be settled once and for all by the renewed revelation of Allah’s word. “Allah’s Messenger therefore was the one who, on the authority of Allah and his book, set forth Allah’s commands, that is, the meaning of everything that was transmitted to human beings, and what Allah intended and meant by it, what he stipulated as his religious practice, as his judgments, as the duties to him, and as urgent necessities (for human beings), as manners and rules recommended by him, as his customs (in Arabic: assunna) that he introduced, as his valuations according to which he measures, as his transmitted works, the knowledge of which he disseminates.” What were in the Koran instructions on which the people of the book were supposed to reflect (Sura 16: 44), so that they might cease their bickering about the right path through this world, has now become a complete reestablishment of human society according to the standard of Allah’s message, a message that regulates all [human] affairs, a message that the prophet illuminated in all of its aspects and that he proclaimed and modelled to his contemporaries in the Hijaz. “Thus he worked for 23 years in Mecca and Medina in order to inculcate in the people the characteristics of their religious practice, to impose on them their religious duties, to establish their customs, to implement values, to forbid what is forbidden, to permit what is permitted, in short, to guide human beings in word and deed on the path of the true. With this the prophet was constantly occupied, until Allah took him to himself – may Allah pray while facing him and offer

194

Chapter 16: “Knowledge” without History

him the greeting of peace, to him and also to his family may Allah devote the most sublime, the most pure, the most complete, the most fragrant, the most perfect, the most fruitful prayer! (The prophet) was equipped with the irrefutable argument of Allah against his creation, because (the prophet) at Allah’s command transmitted and explained what constitutes the equivocal and the unequivocal, the specific and the general, the abrogating and the abrogated parts of (Allah’s) book, everything that Allah promised and everything of which he warned. Allah himself says: ‘… as Messenger and warner, so that human beings will not be able to make an argument against Allah after the death of this Messenger…’” (Sura 4: 165). The message that Muhammad conveyed by preaching the Koran is so comprehensive in its origins that no one will be able to excuse himself before Allah’s judgment seat by claiming that he committed some sin because of a lack of divine guidance. But how can one ever learn the contents of the religion and the Koran reliably and completely, Ibn abi Hatim asks, and he immediately gives the reader the answer: “By means of the ‘healthy’ [sound] traditions traced back to Allah’s Messenger and his noble, intelligent companions – his companions who experienced the revelations and came to know the interpretation, may Allah be pleased with them! If now one asks further: ‘How can one distinguish the healthy [sound] traditions from the sick [unsound] ones?’ the answer is: ‘By the critical examination conducted by scholars skilled in money changing, whom Allah has equipped with excellent talent and knowledge in every era’… The people of ‘knowledge’ unanimously acknowledge (their expertise). But Allah did not give them this rank because the people of ‘knowledge’ accorded this to them. Rather, he had already elevated them to be outstanding experts in his religion, lighthouses for his straight path, and clothed them gloriously with their good works.” Finally it is Allah who arranged everything to be as it is, and who would still wish to doubt [the obvious truth] that things could not have been different in any way? Muhammad’s life is reduced to the clarification of all-encompassing rules of law and manners, legitimized once and for all by “proofs of prophethood.” What kind of attention could the historical Muhammad now arouse, the man of whom Sura 25, verse 7 tells us that he was a normal man who ate food and walked about in the markets? What attention could be paid now to his struggle against his Meccan adversaries, his participation in intraQuraysh factional battles, his attempts from Medina to block the caravan routes to ash-Sha’m, his infamous annihilation of all enemies? The Meccan polytheists would have gladly discovered something miraculous about him in order to believe in him (Sura 25: 8). Three hundred years later the Muslims made him into a miracle-man for themselves, admittedly in a way that Muhammad and his Meccan enemies could never have foreseen. The non-Muslim who finds all

The Sanctification of the Original Community and hadith Scholarship

195

of this strange is still referred to Sura 25, verse 7, so that he might understand that this miraculous dissolving of Muhammad in the complete transmission of Allah’s norms is the beginning of the lived everyday reality of Muslims to the present day, no more – and with that, it is hoped, he will refrain from further questions.³

Chapter 17: The Eternal Role Model (Those who know the prophetic traditions) form the overwhelming majority, with them are knowledge and judgment, understanding and prudence, caliphate and governance, lordship and leadership: they are the lords of the Friday religious services and the other religious ceremonies, of the gathering places and the places of prayer, of the rituals and the feast days, of the pilgrimage and the jihad… They followed Allah’s Messenger on his path, they, whose self-denial is honored everywhere, whose breath is remembered across the ages, whose footsteps will always be followed, they, whose admonishing sermons restrain the people, they, whose path serves those who come after them as an example, they, to whose graves one goes in pilgrimage, they, whose scent never dissipates and will remain unforgotten no matter how many days pass. Allah teaches hearts to love them and will raise them from the dead without the inclination towards them ever disappearing. (Al-Lalaka’i, Hibat Allah b. al-Hasan, Shar usul i’tiqadat ahl as-sunna wal-jama’a, ed. Ahmad Sa’d Hamdan, Eight parts in four volumes, Mecca 1402 AH, I/1, 25)

A Handbook on the Details Regarding Muhammad’s Exemplariness Following the eternally valid, God-given example of Muhammad liberates the Muslim from the arduous duty of exercising his own responsibility in inferring, from the maxims of Allah’s revealed word, the actions required of him in the situations of daily life. If the Mu’tazilites characterized Allah’s creative activity as “good” and required that Muslims prove themselves worthy of the “goodness” of God’s activity in self-determined “good” actions of their own, thereby earning their reward in the next life, then the Sunnis regarded “good” as a man-made category of judgment that cannot be applied to Allah’s creative activity; precisely because Allah “creates” the actions of human beings, too, such judgments also cannot apply to actions that only appear to proceed from human agents but really are created by Allah. Ethics is therefore replaced by imitation of Muhammad’s example. Here we cannot even begin to survey the vast literature that seeks to delineate this example for Muslims in the most excruciating detail and to apply it to everyday life. In the brief space available to us, we shall discuss only two authors whose writings are still widely read today. The first is Ibn al-Jauzi (d. 1201), a preacher and scholar who was closely connected to the Abbasid court in Baghdad. In his work The Life Circumstances of the Chosen One, he seeks to give an overview both of the proofs of Muhammad’s prophethood and also of the exemplary character of his life. In the introduction of this work, he writes: “Know that our lord, the Messenger of Allah, is https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-018

A Handbook on the Details Regarding Muhammad’s Exemplariness

197

the quintessence of being and the precious gem at the center of (every) necklace. Neither man nor angel can approach the court of his glory, no creature can reach the blessed place reserved for him in the next life, even if he is on the path (to Allah). (The prophet) was already thought of before Adam was created. The other prophets received the command to give tidings of him to humanity. Never was a prophet before him sent to a community other than the one that was assigned to him alone, but Muhammad was given the honor of addressing his call to the entire world. With his sharia, he rescinded many laws brought by earlier prophets.” In this book, Ibn al-Jauzi wishes to explain Muhammad’s true merits to all of those who exercise authority among the Muslims but have only been imperfectly instructed on this important topic. Everything that is reported to us about the events of his life proves the “condition” that is the true content of all the traditions, namely, its trans-temporal aspect, which has by no means become again as inaccessible to us after his death and burial as it had been before he was called to be a prophet. Ibn al-Jauzi’s book therefore also includes a discussion of Muhammad’s ongoing activity: He does not decompose in his grave; he appears to Muslims in dreams, and when they see him in a dream, it is actually him they are seeing and not an image similar to him; they need not worry about being deceived, since Satan is incapable of assuming his form. The prophet’s life was salvation for the Muslims, since he conveyed Allah’s word to them, but he guarantees salvation even after his death, because the deeds of Muslims are perpetually presented to him for judgment, and if they are good, he praises Allah, and if they are bad, he immediately requests that they be forgiven. Muhammad’s life history evaporates into a multitude of individual episodes and sayings as well as descriptions of his physical appearance and nature, all of which is supposed to testify to this one truth; the overall historical context of the traditions has become irrelevant.¹ Ibn al-Jauzi thus organizes his material in thematic chapters which can assist not only the layperson who wishes to learn about Muhammad but also the preacher who must assure his listeners again and again that the priceless superiority of Muslims over all other people lies in submission to Allah’s Messenger. A summary of the contents of the handbook gives to the reader who is unfamiliar with such literature a vivid impression of this type of edifying writing: 1. The beginnings of our prophet: Since the days of Adam, there have been tidings of Muhammad’s coming. Mecca and its shrine, too, were already mentioned in ancient holy scriptures, for example in Isaiah, chapter 42, where we read: “And the palaces of the clan of Kedar will fill the free land and the cities, they will sing praise and call down from the mountain peaks, they, who honor Allah and spread his glory across the land and the sea” (cf. verse 10). The cornerstone that Allah sets in Zion (Isaiah 28: 16) is the black stone of the Kaaba. The

198

Chapter 17: The Eternal Role Model

haram zone in Mecca is the land where the wolf and the camel peacefully pasture together, and the many passages in which Isaiah announces the annihilation of Godless enemies refer to the Battle of Badr. Muhammad’s tribe, the most noble conceivable, corresponds to the message handed down to him [i. e. the Koran, the most noble revelation]. His grandfather ‘Abd al-Muttalib, the towering figure in pre-Muhammadan Mecca, upon once falling asleep in the semicircular enclosure next to the Kaaba, dreamed of a tree that had grown up into heaven and whose branches covered the East and the West; Arabs and all other peoples prostrated themselves on the ground before the tree; a few Quraysh clung tightly to the tree, others wanted to cut it down, but every time they laid a hand on it, a radiantly beautiful young man blocked their way, broke their backs, and ripped out their eyes. In the prehistory of the birth of Muhammad and in the first days of his childhood, it was ‘Abd al-Muttalib who decided everything, even though he had been told in this dream that he himself would not experience these salvation-bringing events. Everything that Muhammad did before the day of his calling was totally consistent with his primordial vocation. 2. Muhammad’s prophethood: Muhammad’s mission was manifested in a multitude of ways in the years before the hijra; stones and trees greeted him. Gabriel taught him prayer and ritual purification. The satans were chased out of heaven. At Muhammad’s request, Allah performed a miracle; his favorite should no longer have to be plagued by self-doubt: Muhammad called, and a tree came to him, plowing a furrow in the ground, and then at [his] command, it returned to its place. “By Allah, the Quraysh who call me a liar will never bother me again.” From then on, he endured the insults of the unbelievers with equanimity; he directed his persecuted followers to go into exile in Ethiopia. Despite all the hostility and also ostracism by the Banu Hashim and Banu l-Muttalib, he escaped to al-Ta’if after the death of Khadija and Abu Talib, after this effort failed he offered himself to the tribes gathered in Mecca for the pilgrimage. Eighteen months before the hijra he experienced the ascension into heaven. In the thirteenth year of his mission he concluded the treaty with the Medinans at al‘Aqaba. – The reader that Ibn al-Jauzi has in mind is supposed to regard this mixture of miracle stories and reports about individual episodes from the Meccan years as the first level of the completion of the prelude to the salvation history set in motion by Allah and sketched out in the first chapter. This is the single idea that unites this exceedingly colorful material. 3. The hijra: Accompanied by Abu Bakr, Muhammad escaped from a hostile Mecca. In Medina, people could hardly contain their joy when he finally arrived there after having been protected miraculously on the journey. He settled down as best he could with the active assistance of his companions and the Medinans,

A Handbook on the Details Regarding Muhammad’s Exemplariness

199

assisted with his own hands in the construction of a mosque, and gave instructions regarding religious worship. The institution of Ramadan fasting is the last important event that Ibn al-Jauzi mentions in this chapter; it thus encompasses a period of perhaps 18 months after the departure from Mecca. With this, the superficial and minimal recounting of the main historical events comes to an abrupt end. 4. Muhammad’s miracles: In 32 short sections, Ibn al-Jauzi covers the events that authenticate Muhammad’s prophethood. The Koran is only one of the miracles that he is able to cite; it is of course the most significant. The rest can be summed up as follows: Allah’s Messenger knew of events that occurred spatially or temporally far from him, but in such a way that he could not have been told of these events; he performed many miracles of feeding people; pebbles that he held in his hand praised Allah; he vanished before the eyes of enemies who attacked him; many of the people who aggravated him died a surprising death; the satan assigned to [tempt] prophets could not harm him, for at Allah’s command he converted to Islam; gazelles and lizards spoke with Muhammad; he answered questions put to him by the Jews that only a prophet could have answered; he saw in the dark as well as he saw in the light; and last but not least, if he requested something from Allah, it was granted to him. 5. Muhammad’s precedence over all other prophets: Ibn al-Jauzi gathers here the traditions in which Allah or Muhammad himself stresses the unsurpassable superiority of the proclaimer of Islam: “Allah took Abraham as his friend, [and] he conversed with Moses. But he chose me to be his favorite!” And Allah swore: “By my power! I most certainly prefer my favorite to [other] friends and confidants!” “I received five things that no one received before my time: I was sent to all of humanity; the whole world was made ritually pure and a place of prayer for me; I was permitted to take war booty, but no (prophet) before me was permitted that; I was granted victory through the spreading of terror in such a way that the enemy succumbs to terror when he is still one month’s journey from me. And (after these four) I was asked: ‘Request (the fifth item) and it will be granted to you!’ But I kept my request to myself, so that I could use it to intercede for my community on Judgment Day. Then, if Allah wills, it will be shared with all who associate nothing with Allah.” “I received the keys to this world, brought on a piebald horse covered with a brocade saddle cloth.” And when Muhammad had approached Allah within the span of two bows (cf. Sura 53: 9) on his ascent into heaven, Allah said: “My favorite! Muhammad!” “Here I am, O lord!”, answered the prophet. And Allah continued, tenderly: “Does it trouble you that I have made you to be the last prophet?” “No, O lord!” “Then bring my greetings to your community and assure them that I have made them the last of the communities for this reason, in order to dishonor these (others) before them, but not

200

Chapter 17: The Eternal Role Model

in order to dishonor the Muslim [community] before the (others).” From this superiority of Muhammad flows the duty to obey him, indeed, to love him more than one’s own father or son, more than oneself. “Do not treat me the way a traveler treats his cup!”, Muhammad demanded; the traveler takes his cup from his baggage only when he is thirsty. That is far too little: “Place me at the beginning of a conversation, in the middle, and at the end!” 6. Muhammad’s physical characteristics: From the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, Allah’s Messenger corresponded to the ideal man, and even the most insignificant details were such that one could not possibly imagine anything more pleasing. His body exuded a refreshing aroma, according to his servant Anas b. Malik. After festive ceremonies, his companions used to grasp his hand in order to rub it over their faces, “and behold, it was cooler than ice and more fragrant than musk.” 7. His character: He possessed in the highest degree prudence, wisdom, modesty, generosity, courage, joviality, mercy, and all other good characteristics. He abhorred gossip; he was unceasingly filled with loving concern for his people. 8. His behavior: Here the Muslim learns that the prophet’s right hand carried out only ritually pure actions; Ibn al-Jauzi also instructs the reader about what the prophet said when he stood up or when he sneezed, how he spoke, gestured, propped himself up or lay down, how he walked, smiled, laughed, received or gave gifts, or swore oaths. Muhammad always paid attention to good omens, was always concerned that people speak well of him, understood a few fragments of Persian, consulted affably with his companions, had poetry read to him now and then. 9. His self-control: He cared nothing about amassing earthly goods; only when it came to weapons did he make provision for the future. 10. His manner of carrying out ritual actions: Ibn al-Jauzi divides this extensive body of material into six sections, devoted to: ritual purification, obligatory prayer, fasting, the greater and the lesser pilgrimage, his exemplary humility towards Allah, and free (that is, not prescribed in obligatory rites) invocations of Allah. Again, the reader encounters countless details that are highly important for the Muslim; for if he imitates them in painstaking detail, he may be certain that the rituals will be counted fully in his favor in the next world. Religious rituals must be carried out with an attitude of the deepest humility, marked by scrupulous self-criticism and fear; Muslims must rid themselves of any hope of a good outcome on Judgment Day. Clouds, lightning, and thunder should cause them deep fear, reminding them of Allah’s anger. The best thing is for the Muslim to groan in constant contrition over his imperfection and to beg Allah for forgiveness at every opportunity.

A Handbook on the Details Regarding Muhammad’s Exemplariness

201

11. through 17. Muhammad’s household and his lifestyle: Ibn al-Jauzi gathers together many individual traditions that inform us about the furniture used in Muhammad’s household, his clothing, his riding animals, his servants. One learns about his physical hygiene and grooming and the utensils he used for this purpose; we are also told in detail about his table manners and about the food and drink that he had prepared for himself, and finally about his habits regarding going to sleep and waking up. 18. His medical treatments: Muhammad suffered often from illnesses; he was also once bewitched by a Jew so that he suffered from hallucinations. He applied henna to wounds, and he often used a cupping glass. 19. How Muhammad conducted sexual relations: By his own testimony, Muhammad had a weakness for perfume and for women. He accumulated a large number of wives and concubines, and indeed Allah endowed him with an astounding virility, equal to that of 30 normal mortals. Thus he was capable of satisfying his 11 wives one after another. He carried out sexual intercourse without looking at the woman; he pulled his cloak over his head and required the woman to do likewise, and admonished her: “Keep calm and behave with dignity!” Whenever he punished a wife for any sort of misdeed, he did so by avoiding her for a period of time (cf. Sura 4: 34), for example, if she asked him for additional income, or complained about him having sex with a slave girl, or questioned whether he had distributed gifts fairly among the members of his harem. 20. On journeys: “Allah, you are the companion on the journey and my representative with my family! Allah, with you I seek refuge from any temptation underway and from homesickness in foreign lands! Allah, shorten the distances and make the journey easy for us!” Muhammad uttered this prayer every time he set out [on a journey]; he preferred to begin a trip on a Thursday. At various points [on a trip] particular appeals to Allah are recommended to ensure a safe return. 21. His weapons: He owned a mail shirt, helmet, bow, sword, lance; he also used military standards. 22. His military campaigns: In this chapter, Ibn al-Jauzi again links his discussion to historical events. He briefly lists a total of 27 military campaigns. 23. The raids ordered by him: Only in order not to cause the Muslims any inconvenience did Muhammad refrain from joining these less important affairs, whose number comes to 56. Ibn al-Jauzi does not give any details, [but] merely cites the words that Allah’s Messenger customarily addressed to the commanders as they set off. 24. His letters to rulers: Ibn al-Jauzi summarizes the reports about the embassies that Muhammad sent to the patriarch of Alexandria, the Byzantine Emperor, the Sassanid Shah, and Arab princes.

202

Chapter 17: The Eternal Role Model

25. The embassies of the tribes to him: Ibn al-Jauzi names a selection of 11 delegations who called upon the prophet in Medina in order to offer their submission. Unfortunately, the author does not inform the reader about the criteria he used in making his selection. 26. Muhammad’s last years: After the prophet had returned to Medina from the so-called farewell pilgrimage, he appointed Usama b. Zaid to lead a military campaign to the north. Ibn al-Jauzi also treats here the three “anti-prophets” who appeared in Muhammad’s lifetime. 27. His last sickness and his death: A Jewish woman from Khaybar served Muhammad a poisoned [piece of] roast sheep. Although he only ate a very small amount, this was the beginning of a long chronic illness. Before it entered its acute phase, Muhammad read through the Koran one more time, under the guidance of Gabriel, in order to detect any possible errors. As soon as the prophet had become bedridden, he asked Abu Bakr to care for him. Muhammad explicitly rejected the eternal life [on earth] that Allah wanted to make possible for him. Ibn al-Jauzi summarizes the familiar traditions regarding the death and burial of Muhammad and describes [Muhammad’s] grave and the way in which pilgrims are supposed to pray there. 28. Resurrection and Judgment: The earth over Muhammad’s grave will be the first to open up on Judgment Day. Together with Jesus, he will be the first to be raised up, followed by the other prophets. Beside a basin of refreshing water, he will await the resurrected Muslims, for whom he will intercede with Allah for a favorable judgment. He will assist them as they cross the narrow bridge over hell, and he will be the first to enter paradise, where he will occupy the highest rank. The number of Muslims who will attain blessedness without a trial will be 70,000 times 70,000. “My lord gave to me (beyond any measure) – and that is no (vain) self-praise! Allah forgave all earlier and later transgressions and granted to me that my community will not go hungry and will never be defeated. And he gave me the Kautar, a river in paradise which flows into my waterbasin. And he granted me power, [and] torment, [and] the terror that hastens before my community to the distance of a month’s journey. He granted me that I will be the first prophet to enter paradise; to me and my community he authorized the appropriation of war booty and permitted us much that he had strictly forbidden to those [who came] before us – in these things he freed us from any restrictions!”

Two Widely Read Devotional Books

203

Two Widely Read Devotional Books The two arguably most successful devotional books both come from the pen of the Syrian scholar an-Nawawi (d. 1277). These books extol as the standard for Islamic life both the hadith as well as episodes from the life of Muhammad and his companions. We first turn our attention to his selection of the 40 most important prophetic traditions, a work that is, so to speak, one of the staple components of Sunni “knowledge.” The first four Hadiths impress upon Muslims that all of their deeds will be judged according to the intention behind them; their hijra must therefore by no means aim at earthly gain, but must aim only at the increase of profit in the next life. Of course, we must accept what Allah has predestined for us. According to a saying of Muhammad that is missing from the canonical collections, only an appeal to Allah can fend off a calamity that he has imposed. The commands and prohibitions of Islam are laid down once and for all; if Muslims keep them and are honest and unified among themselves, then they will spread Islam across the entire earth (Hadiths 5 – 9 and 13). We should eat only from the portion granted to us by Allah and not worry about things that are none of our business. We should humbly fulfill all ritual duties and be certain that no one can harm us against Allah’s will. It is precisely the egoism of the soul that drags us to damnation. According to the words of the prophet cited by an-Nawawi, ritual fidelity means action pleasing to God in itself; it is to be understood as self-control in the face of the temptations of this world (Hadiths 10 – 12 and 14– 31), self-control in the sense that earthly things do not deform one’s focus on God during the performance of rituals (cf. Sura 29: 45); he does not have in mind asceticism in the sense of renunciation of any sort of pleasure. Muslims must not offend or harm one another; they should observe one another and, if necessary, direct each other onto the right path (Hadiths 32– 35). Noble descent does not help anyone to enter paradise, but only the tireless recitation of the Koran and the study of [prophetic] traditions. Good actions, which are predetermined like everything in this world, will be counted by Allah towards our profit in the next world only if they are carried out without any inner compulsion; if honest effort is added to them, the reward will be multiplied. With voluntary acts of divine worship, one can approach so near to Allah that one finally loses one’s own ego and “(Allah’s) ear becomes the ear with which one hears, his eye the eye with which one sees…” Despite this ideal of complete self-emptying, in which one is totally integrated into divine creative activity, Allah forgives the mistakes and venial sins of Muslims, just so long as they do not frivolously hope for a good future that possibly has not been predetermined for them (Hadiths 36 – 41).²

204

Chapter 17: The Eternal Role Model

An-Nawawi follows the position taught by ash-Shafi’i, that prophetic tradition elucidates the Koran, and he organizes the many chapters of his other popular work, the Pastures of the Pious, accordingly. [His guiding principle is that] the unmediated word of God and Muhammad’s words and actions regulate the life of the Muslim. An-Nawawi divides the Pastures into several different long books, the first of which begins with a consideration of devout worship of God and deduces from it the essential modes of interaction with Allah. Already here he emphasizes Allah’s command to strictly observe the sunna, so it comes as no surprise that under this title he also discusses themes such as, for example, the rights that a husband can claim from his wife and his duty to support his family to the best of his ability. The second book an-Nawawi devotes to what he describes as good breeding (in Arabic: al-adab). Here he discusses discretion, promise-keeping, but also the rules of decorum: at a banquet, one should take food from the outer edge of the plate inwards, ideally with three fingers, one should not blow on one’s drink or place one’s mouth on the waterskin. In the same book an-Nawawi discusses clothing, retiring to bed, and the customs to follow when exchanging greetings: Here he also includes the rules regarding the treatment of corpses. The next book deals with behavior while travelling. Then an-Nawawi shifts his focus. If, up until this point, he has discussed the way a Muslim should behave according to the counsel of Allah and his prophet, now he instructs his audience regarding sublime actions (in Arabic: al-fada’il), which go beyond these good norms. Thus, for example, it is highly recommended not to read the Koran alone in the silence of one’s own room, but together with one’s fellow believers; wherever this happens, Allah’s mercy rules, and a crowd of angels envelopes the group of Koran readers. This book contains a multitude of details regarding supererogatory rites. Short books describe in addition ritual stays in mosques (in Arabic: al-i’tikaf), pilgrimage, and jihad. Individual books are also devoted to the rules for dealing with slaves, praising Allah, and the use of the expression, “May Allah pray while (turned toward the prophet).” Then an-Nawawi takes up a topic on which he [also] wrote a longer treatise: the expressions that one should utter in a wide variety of situations, according to the advice given by Muhammad. Even spontaneous, voluntary, petitionary prayers require a particular approach. After this comes an extraordinarily large book on forbidden things. It begins with a warning against slanderous speech and an urgent admonition always to watch one’s own tongue. Soon it turns to offensive modes of behavior that a Muslim must absolutely not engage in. Under no circumstances may he be in the same room with an unrelated woman; men may not make themselves similar to women. Keening or lamenting the dead is forbidden, as is the depiction of animals on carpets or stones. Countless prohibitions must be obeyed during ritual activities: During prostra-

Two Widely Read Devotional Books

205

tions, the faithful must never lift their heads; they must never rest their hand on their hip or allow their glance to rise skywards. The final books are very brief. They deal with eschatology; with the prayer for forgiveness that is pleasing to Allah because it gives him the opportunity to be generous. At the very end, an-Nawawi describes for Muslims the delights that await them in paradise. Again and again, the Koran verses and Hadiths that an-Nawawi cites reinforce the message that the path to paradise must be marked by deep contrition, suppression of all hope, and constant fear. Weeping is the appropriate expression of the fear that characterizes creaturely existence: No one knows what destiny Allah has determined for him or her in the next life! In the face of this uncertainty, one derives small comfort, if any, from the occasional reassurances that this or that verbal formula will preserve one from the fires of hell. Only the most scrupulous emulation of Muhammad will open up at least the possibility of salvation; for was not his life predetermined by Allah in every detail? That Muhammad, Allah’s favorite, has been granted salvation, is unquestionable; will Allah damn a Muslim who has imitated the prophet in everything? The vast literature on Muhammad as the eternally true model is to be understood as the unavoidable consequence of the suppression of individual responsibility for salvation. The just Allah in whom the Mu’tazilites had believed would have had no need for an omnipresent prophet.³

Chapter 18: The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet The reports about all of this have been written. The qualities (of the prophets), namely the perfection, the physical beauty and beauty of character, as well as all of their other good characteristics, are well known to all. Therefore we do not wish to dwell on this topic any longer. You, however, should pay no attention to whatever contradicts this in the books of many ignorant (Muslim) historians and Koran commentators! (al-Qadi ‘Iyad alYahsubi, Kitab ash-shifa bi-ta’rif huquqal-mustafa, reading edition in two parts, Beirut n. d., I, 152.)

What May Not and What Must Be Said About Muhammad? How can one render credible the claim that Muhammad is the one and only source of the God-given and thus true “knowledge” that human beings need to lead a successful life in this world and to attain happiness in the next? That the Koran is Muhammad’s confirming miracle is an unshakeable certainty for any convinced Muslim who considers the evidence adduced in support of this claim. The political and military success [of Islam] also could impress non-Muslims. But those who come from a different sort of religious tradition can quite rightly point out that prophets do not usually spread their message with the sword. A further difficulty arises with the triumph of the Islam that stakes its claim to the truth on the hadith, for which every aspect of Muhammad’s life must be miraculously elevated above earthly affairs, precisely because in it the inaccessible supernatural realm has expressed itself. In the face of the abundance of traditions surrounding the life of the prophet, how can one establish with certainty that there is not a single case in which divine guidance cannot be verified? If such a case could be found, then logically it would follow that one could with equal justification cast doubt on the presence of immediate divine guidance in countless other traditions. It is a precarious matter to assert the unlimited temporal validity of an equally unlimited supernatural authority, as Ibn Hisham (d. ca. 828) noticed when he set about deleting from Ibn Ishaq’s biography of the prophet all the traditions that could be regarded as offensive. The prohibition against making any derogatory judgments about the companions of the prophet faces the same problem. Regarding Muhammad himself, this prohibition must be imposed and enforced even more rigorously. The Qadi [judge] ‘Iyad al-Yahsubi (d. 1148/9), a scholar of the Maliki school of jurisprudence from Ceuta, thought this problem through from every conceivhttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-019

Allah’s Reverence and Tact towards Muhammad

207

able angle and wrote down his insights in a work to which he gave the title Book of Healing through Proclamation of the Rights of the Chosen One. With rare clarity, this title indicates what matters most to the author: Whoever is infected by doubt as to whether Muhammad was guided throughout his life by Allah himself should reflect on the rights that Muhammad has against everyone as Allah’s chosen one and the transmitter of all divine norms. The work is divided into two parts, the first of which contains a depiction of the character traits and merits by which Allah honored his final Messenger above all other creatures; the second part discusses the obedience and veneration that other mortals owe him, then treats the question of which aspects of human life may be attributed to him at most, and which may never be mentioned in connection with him at all, and finally explains the punishments that are to be imposed for violations of these principles. Much of what the Qadi has to say was already well-established before his time, but his work is the most comprehensive compendium ever assembled of the dogma surrounding the figure of Muhammad, and it has thus held its place as one of the most important Islamic writings down to the present day.

Allah’s Reverence and Tact towards Muhammad “Salla llahu ‘alaibi wa-sallama!” When addressing a Muslim audience, whenever the speaker mentions Muhammad, he is supposed to pause briefly so that the pious among his listeners can whisper these words, which stem from Sura 33, verse 56. This statement must be uttered after every mention of the prophet’s name; in handwritten manuscripts and in modern printed works one finds separate abbreviations or ligatures for this sentence. It is hardly worthwhile to count the many ways in which these words have been translated into [English]; one often encounters phrases like “May Allah bless him and grant him salvation!” The translations most often fail egregiously to give readers any sense of the actual meaning of the original formulation. The reason for this is presumably diffidence about acknowledging openly the downright outrageous exaltation of a human being that is expressed in these words that have been [and continue to be] repeated many thousands of times: “May Allah perform the ritual prayer while turned toward him and grant him the greeting of peace!” This is the literal translation of the sentence. But one must guard against the misunderstanding that the prayers here are petitionary prayers [by Allah for Muhammad]. “May Allah perform the ritual prayer while turned toward him!” means the same as “May Allah profess to him the highest reverence” in just the way that creatures show [such reverence] to their creator.

208

Chapter 18: The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet

The Qadi ‘Iyad devotes a part of a chapter in the Book of Healing to this topic. He begins his discussion by citing Sura 33, verse 56: “Allah and his angels perform the ritual prayer while turned toward the prophet;” the Qadi ‘Iyad does not quote the second part of the verse; he drives the point home so his Muslim readers will remember it: “You who believe! You also perform the ritual prayer facing him and offer to him the greeting of peace in the most emphatic way!” Sura 33 stems from Muhammad’s late Medinan period, the years in which he perceived himself as the victor rushing from one triumph to another, called to make the entire world, so far as it lay within his ken, submit to belief in Allah, whether by exhortation to peaceful conversion or by jihad. The greeting of peace, “as-salamu ‘alaika!”, “peace be upon you!”, was presumably a distinctive characteristic of Muhammad’s followers already in Mecca; it replaced the forms of greeting that had been customary among pre-Islamic polytheists and is said to have been used only among Muslims. But how is one supposed to imagine that Allah himself turns to face Muhammad in prayer? The first interpretation introduced by the Qadi ‘Iyad is that this refers to the action with which Allah sends down his mercy upon the prophet; at least, he raises no objections to this interpretation. In any case, he says, one may not claim that it is an act of blessing. In another context he finally asserts that these words express only the exaltation and honoring of Muhammad by Allah and consequently the wish of the Muslims that Allah may not omit anything in this respect. For, according to the Qadi ‘Iyad, Allah’s behavior vis-à-vis Muhammad unceasingly manifests the deepest reverence: “No one who has acquired even a little knowledge or who has even the tiniest glimmer of intelligence can be unaware that Allah has exalted the rank of the prophet – may Allah perform the ritual prayer while turned toward him and offer him the greeting of peace! – and so richly endowed his person with merits and excellent attributes that no human measure is capable of grasping this; indeed, Allah points out Muhammad’s outstanding rank so often that tongue and pen wear out before they can exhaust this subject. The Sublime One has clearly expressed this in his book: He has drawn our attention to Muhammad’s towering worth, extolled the exemplary character traits and manners of the prophet, and urged human beings to be guided by these and to follow what he prescribed. Thus it was the Sublime One who showed this grace to Muhammad and granted it to him, who purified him and made him irreproachable, who then praised and extolled him for these very qualities, and then finally rewarded him in the richest way! Muhammad therefore deserves precedence at the beginning (of human existence) and at the return (on Judgment Day), praise in this world and in the next! Among his merits is further that he manifested himself to human beings in a totally perfect and sublime manner; that he was honored with beautiful

Allah’s Reverence and Tact towards Muhammad

209

qualities, praiseworthy character traits, noble manners, and countless virtues; that he was confirmed by powerful verifying signs, irrefutable proofs, obvious miracles granted to him as favors, which his contemporaries witnessed with their own eyes and which all who were too young to understand at least saw, signs, proofs, and miracles from which all who were born after him have a certain knowledge; finally, the knowledge of the truth of all of this made its way to us, and his light flooded over us – may Allah repeatedly turn to him in prayer and offer the greeting of peace!” This section concludes with a Hadith in which an unreasonable creature is instructed about Muhammad’s rank: “On the night of his journey (into heaven) the (winged riding animal) Buraq with bridle and saddle was led before the prophet. It bucked before Muhammad, so that Gabriel admonished it: ‘You do that with Muhammad, when no one has ever ridden you who is more valuable to Allah than he?’ Then Buraq almost dissolved in sweat out of embarrassment and shame.” Allah himself insisted that Muhammad be granted deeply felt honors. From a Muslim viewpoint, the Koran proves this on nearly every page. For example, Allah addresses all other prophets by their proper name; not so Muhammad. Allah respectfully calls him “Messenger,” “prophet,” or “you who have wrapped yourself in your robe” (Sura 73: 1), or “you who have wrapped yourself in your cloak!” (Sura 74: 1). Even in the moments when Muhammad, gripped with horror, tries to avoid being addressed by Allah, the latter is so delicate as not to address Muhammad by name. That would be an intrusive and inappropriate way to address the most excellent of all messengers. Allah himself has emphasized the unsurpassable precedence of Muhammad above all other prophets in many verses of the Koran. The Qadi ‘Iyad adduces a number of them and provides commentary, for the most part by citing other scholars. One example will have to suffice: “Allah once made the prophets promise: ‘What I have given you of scripture and wisdom: If afterwards a Messenger comes to you who confirms what you hold in your hands, then you have to believe in him and support him! Do you accept this and pledge yourselves to this?’ Then the prophets answered: ‘we accept this,’ whereupon Allah continued ‘Then testify to it, and I will testify with you!’” (Sura 3: 81). Allah never granted such precedence to any other prophet as he did to Muhammad! Muhammad’s special honor and fame are based not only on the fact that God Himself has joined the ranks of those who have sworn unconditional loyalty to the last link in the chain of prophets. Rather, the Qadi writes, the Koran commentators infer from the words of Sura 3, verse 81 that Allah put every prophet to whom he ever spoke under an obligation to Muhammad, that is, an obligation such that if, in his lifetime, Muhammad should be called [to begin his career as a prophet], then [the other prophet] must without hesitation place himself and his community under Muhammad’s authority. ‘Ali

210

Chapter 18: The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet

b. abi Talib had already interpreted the verse in this way. According to the Qadi, the verse contains the indisputable demand that the people of the book, Jews and Christians, should convert to Islam at the earliest opportunity. The author fills page after page with examples of the tact and sensitivity that Allah showed in his dealings with Muhammad, of the all-encompassing care and concern that he tirelessly bestowed on him. If one assumes all of this, then what could be the meaning of Sura 93, verse 7? “Did (Allah) not find you erring?” If one were to take this literally, then it would follow that there was a time when the prophet did not enjoy the constant attention of Allah. An intolerable thought! From birth on, Muhammad always stood under diving guidance, indeed even before his birth Allah had decided that this man should be immune to any of the temptations and afflictions that mark the lives of all other creatures. The Qadi knows of two options for interpreting away this irritating [verse.] Either one holds that the text actually means, “Did Allah not find you, and then guide the erring ones onto the right path through you?” Try as one might, the wording does not support this interpretation, and so it seems more apposite to backtrack from Sura 93 to the following interpretation: “Allah did not neglect Muhammad, even though he was still young… that is, already even before he knew (Allah). (Allah) neither broke with him nor abhorred him. How could he have, after he had already chosen and honored Muhammad?” If nothing else works, then even Allah’s eternally true word must just be forced to fit the dogmatic requirements.

Muhammad, the Divine Light There was no point in time when Muhammad was not directly united to Allah. As the Qadi ‘Iyad now explains, a Muslim need not first deduce this insight from individual verses of the Koran; rather, it follows necessarily from the core of the prophet’s nature. Quite simply, one could say that Allah and his final prophet are named in one breath in the Koran, conjoined by a simple “and”: “Obey Allah and his Messenger!” (Sura 3: 32 and passim), or “Believe in Allah and his Messenger!” (Sura 3: 179 and passim). This “and” creates a commonality; whenever Allah is mentioned, so too is Muhammad; the lordship of Allah and the prophethood of Muhammad are two mutually complementary facts. In the Islamic profession of faith, every Muslim testifies to this several times a day: Allah is the One, Muhammad is his prophet. But, as the Qadi asserts, it is the Koran’s metaphor of light, related to Muhammad, that clarifies most impressively the bond between the prophet and the creator. “You people of the book! Our Messenger came to you in order to present to you much of what you have suppressed in the scriptures… A light came to you from Allah, a clear book” (Sura 5: 15).

Muhammad, the Divine Light

211

“Prophet! We have sent you forth as a witness, a proclaimer, a warner, as someone who, with Allah’s permission, calls [people] to Allah, as a lamp shining bright” (Sura 33: 45 f.). Nowhere are Muslims told in more touching words about the light-bearing character of Muhammad – a character that withdraws Muhammad from the everyday human world – than in the light verse (Sura 24: 35): “Allah is the light of the heavens and of the earth…” And the second light, referred to in the continuation of the verse, must be Muhammad, according to Qadi ‘Iyad. “With his light it is like this,” namely with the light of the prophet, which shines in the backbone of his forefathers as in a niche – his forefathers, who only married women according to Islamic law and thus never followed pagan customs – “this light shines in a lamp” – in Muhammad’s heart – “the lamp within a glass.” The glass means his breast, which Allah broadened for him, as Sura 94, verse 1 testifies. That glass is “like a sparkling star,” full of faith and wisdom. The Lamp “is fed (with the oil) of a blessed olive tree,” the light of Abraham, Qadi ‘Iyad explains. “The oil shines almost before the fire has touched it;” Muhammad’s prophethood was virtually known to human beings even before he spoke to them in the name of Allah. The traditions that speak of how the divine light was passed down among the male ancestors of Muhammad stretch back into the early Islamic era. The Qadi refers especially to texts that are vouched for by Ibn al-‘Abbas, a cousin of Muhammad, and that may have been important for legitimizing the Abbasid caliphate; these [texts] assert that, in [the Abbasids], there is a spark of that charisma possessed fully by Muhammad alone. From Muhammad himself Ibn al‘Abbas claims to have heard, among other things, the following: “The life-breath of the prophet was a light before Allah for two thousand years before (Allah) created Adam. Allah praised this light, and so did the angels, echoing his praises. When Adam was created by Allah, he placed this light in Adam’s backbone. Allah send me down to the earth in the backbone of Adam, then transplanted me into Noah’s [backbone], later into Abraham’s, and then Allah transferred me from then on from one noble backbone into another, from one pure mother’s womb into another, until he led me out from my parents (into this life). (My ancestors) never united in illicit intercourse.” In another passage the Qadi ‘Iyad cites from the widely known verses with which al-‘Abbas b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad’s uncle, is said to have praised him: Before birth, Muhammad dwelt in the shade in paradise, then he came down to earth, not yet in the form of a man; as a drop of sperm, Muhammad was on Noah’s ark, and was then transferred many times from backbone – the place where the sperm of the man is located, according to ancient Arab belief – to mother’s womb, until he was finally born in the noble tribe of the Quraysh; the world was bathed in his light: “In this glow, this light, we measure the paths of the correct way of life. O you, for whose sake

212

Chapter 18: The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet

the fire grew cold for Abraham, you, the cause of the innocence of that fire that burned all the same!” (cf. Sura 21: 69 – 71 and 37: 97 f.). In studying the many qualities that the Koran attributes to Allah, the Qadi ‘Iyad stumbles across a fact that is for him extremely noteworthy: All of these attributes are also mentioned in connection with Muhammad! Among the names of Allah in the Koran is “the clear truth” (in Arabic: al-haqq al-mubin) (cf. Sura 24: 25). “Truth means an existing thing (in Arabic: al-maujud) that is confirmed to exist by testing. Likewise with ‘the clear,’ that is, that whose nature and divinity are clear. But mubin also has the meaning: the one who explains to his slaves their religion and the return (after the end of the world). With these words in his scripture, Allah describes the prophet, for it says: ‘To you came the truth and a clear Messenger’ (Sura 43: 29) and ‘Say: I am the clear warner’ (Sura 15: 89; cf. 29: 50 and 46: 9 and passim) and ‘The truth has come to you from your lord’ (Sura 10: 108) and ‘They denied the truth when it had come to them’ (Sura 6: 5).” This is related either to Muhammad or to the Koran. Muhammad’s sincerity is likewise demonstrated, the Qadi continues; what Muhammad proclaims, and indeed in general his rank as a Messenger of God, is clear, and what he conveys to human beings is guaranteed by the creator himself. – Muhammad is compared to a light (Sura 5: 15) or a lamp (Sura 33: 46); in Sura 24, verse 35 Allah describes himself as the light of the heavens and of the earth. – What Muhammad recites are “the words of a noble (in Arabic: karim) Messenger” (Sura 69: 40 and 81: 19); “noble” is likewise a label applied mostly to Allah in the Koran. – According to Sura 2, verse 255, Allah is “the high, the mighty one” (in Arabic: ‘azim); the sobriquet “the mighty one” is used in connection with Muhammad in Sura 68, verse 4: “You are of a mighty nature.” In the Book of Genesis it is written that Ishmael “will testify to a mighty one for a mighty people” (in Arabic: al-umma). – In the first book of Moses [Genesis], chapter 25, verses 12 to 18, the sons of Ishmael are admittedly named, but a corresponding prophecy is lacking, unless one were to understand chapter 21, verse 13 in this way: “But also the son of the maidservant I will make into a people, because he is your son.” – What the Qadi is driving at with these reflections is nothing less than the assertion of a similarity of natures between Allah and Muhammad. To be sure, he cannot move directly to this conclusion; otherwise he would be condemned by his fellow believers, for whom the unfathomably wide difference in nature between Allah and creation is a foundation stone of Islam. Thus he presents an anthology selected from the writings of Sunni theologians whose clarity on this question leaves nothing to be desired. Still, those who are firmly grounded in their monotheism to this extent may take note of sentences such as the following, which he has discovered in the sayings of the sixth Imam of the Twelver Shiites, Ja’far ash-Shadiq (d. 765): “Allah knows that his

Muhammad, the Divine Light

213

creatures are too weak to obey him. Therefore he awakened in them a knowledge of this fact so that they will know that they can never attain the purest form of service to him. Then he placed between himself and human beings a creature, according to his external form of their species. Do not compassion and mercy belong to his qualities? As a sincere ambassador he gave this creature to human beings and explained that to obey him means to obey Allah, to agree with him means to agree with Allah. In this sense Allah said: ‘He who obeys the Messenger has shown obedience to Allah’ (Sura 4: 80) and ‘We have only sent you to human beings out of mercy’ (Sura 21: 107).” Like all prophets, Muhammad, too, was created before the beginning of earthly history, and this [history] begins with Allah imposing an obligation on all his future messengers to work towards the mission of the last and greatest Messenger (Sura 33: 7 and 3: 81), who according to his nature will be sinless and infallible – and who consequently will not be guilty of any error even in his childhood. All prophets would be subjected to the usual trials and tribulations of human life, but none of this would touch the inner core of their nature. “This is a sign of Allah’s perfect wisdom (in Arabic: al-hikma). That is, he will reveal the high rank of his prophets in these situations, display their significance, and perfect his word to them. By sending them tests, he will make manifest their human nature and remove confusion with regard to the prophets among those who are weak in understanding. That is, because of the miracles that the prophets perform, they shall not fall into error in the way that the Christians [did] with regard to Jesus, the son of Mary. Finally, in the testing to which they are subjected there shall be a consolation for their religious community, a rich supply of compensation that is stored up for them with their lord for the perfection of the grace that shall be bestowed on the one who does good for them.” Clearly, the suffering of a prophet leads to an increase in the eternal happiness of his community. But the Qadi does not pursue this point any further. He tries instead to gain a more precise understanding of the difference in nature and, as concerns Muhammad, to prove it by means of citations from authoritative sources. “A few discerning experts think that these accidents and alterations that are mentioned affect only their human body, with which they resist other human beings (who seem to belong to the same species in terms of their external appearance) and with which they shall endure them.” Their external appearance, resembling that of ordinary human beings, is only camouflage or an external hull veiling the light-bearing inner core of their nature, which earthly beings could not bear to behold. “In their interior, of course, the prophets are for the most part elevated above this suffering and protected against it; they are closely connected to the highest [heavenly] assembly and the angels, because in their interior [nature] they receive instructions from them and also receive [divine] rev-

214

Chapter 18: The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet

elation. Therefore Muhammad said: ‘My eyes sleep, but not my heart.’ ‘I am not of your constitution. For I spend the night receiving food and drink from my lord.’ ‘I do not forget. People make me forget, so that they might follow my example.’ With these words, the prophet announced that his heart, his interior, his spirit are different from his body and his exterior, and that the suffering that affects his exterior, the weakness, the hunger, the sleeplessness, the sleep, does not touch his interior at all. This is different from what happens to other human beings and their interior: As soon as they fall asleep, sleep floods their body and also their heart. His heart, however, is as conscious when he is sleeping as when he is awake. So, we are told in several traditions, because his heart is awake in his sleep, he was protected from incurring ritual impurity [by falling asleep]… Similarly, when an ordinary human being becomes hungry, the body weakens, strength disappears, and finally the whole person is extinguished. But he tells us that none of this happens to him, rather that he experiences something completely different, as he already said: ‘I am not of your constitution. I spend the night receiving food and drink from my lord.’ Thus I say that in all conditions of prolonged illness, sickness, (black) magic, or anger, nothing disturbs his interior, nothing proceeds from his tongue and his limbs that could damage his worth, as happens to other human beings…”

Muhammad’s Infallibility Muhammad’s sinlessness does not stem from a struggle for insight into the good and the true, it is not the fruit of striving to realize the good; it is rather the necessary consequence of the unearthly inner core of his nature. Consequently, his infallibility in transmitting the divine law is also necessitated by his nature; it is not owing to a sincerity or a love of truth of the sort that human beings know and cherish; human beings can fall prey to error in spite of having the best of intentions. But sharia scholars want to be absolutely certain of the divine origin of the authoritative texts with which they work. The dogma of the unearthly, light-bearing, essential inner core of the prophets gives them this certainty, but it also deprives them of any possibility of understanding the reasons for the authoritative teachings of these texts. The wording, on the one hand, and the external appearance of a situation, on the other, must enter into their deliberations – nothing more. Even Muhammad was dependent in his legal judgments on the external appearance of a situation, on the testimony of witnesses under oath, and finally on his own knowledge of the facts, writes the Qadi ‘Iyad. But one may wish to consider what a high measure of divine wisdom is manifested in precisely this circumstance! “For whenever Allah revealed to the prophet the innermost secrets

The Punishment of Those Who Diminish Muhammad’s Authority

215

of human beings and the hidden impulses of his religious community, so that (Muhammad) was able to judge about them solely according to (divine) knowledge and the certainty (pertaining to the creator), without depending on an admission, a proof, an oath, or an appearance, (then this would be best). But because Allah commanded his religious community to follow Muhammad and to imitate him in his deeds, life circumstances, decisions, and behavior towards others, and because if (Muhammad’s judgments) had derived solely from the knowledge that Allah had reserved only for him, then the religious community would have had no possibility of imitating him in any of those (judgments). Then no one could extract a sharia argument from one of the decisions of the prophet. For we would not know what Allah revealed to him in the relevant case (at the moment) of decision. This would have been based on a hidden knowledge that Allah would have given him by disclosing the innermost secrets of the [people] involved, things that the community cannot find out. Therefore Allah made the judgments dependent on the external findings that the prophet knows in the same way as ordinary people. In this way Allah wants to ensure that the religious community will follow the prophet by examining his decisions and judgments precisely, understanding them as the foundation (of jurisprudence), that is, that everything that they do in this connection they shall do in the knowledge and the certainty of the sunna of the prophet.”

The Punishment of Those Who Diminish Muhammad’s Authority It is obvious that statements about Muhammad that have the effect of raising doubts about his authority and truthfulness cannot be tolerated. For the indisputability of his authority is simply the cornerstone on which rests the entire edifice of Islam, which bases its way of life on sharia; and equally undisputed must be the authority of the prophetic companions, for there is no other argument for the normative force of a Hadith than the reliability of those who transmitted it. According to Qadi ‘Iyad, the prohibition against insulting Muhammad can be found already in the Koran; whoever violates it is threatened with punishment in this world and the next (cf. Sura 33: 57). Muslims reached the conclusion that the offender must be killed. “Everyone who insults or dishonors the prophet or maligns him by alleging a deficiency regarding his person, his genealogy, his religious practice, or anything else, or who makes (derogatory) insinuations concerning him, or compares him to anything in order to insult him, make him contemptible, diminish his importance, damage his prestige, revile him, disparage him, therefore falls under the judgment that the sharia imposes on anyone

216

Chapter 18: The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet

who insults Muhammad: He is killed, as we shall demonstrate. In this endeavor we shall omit no section of this chapter and leave nothing in doubt, whether it be obvious or hidden. (This applies in the same way to anyone) who curses or execrates (the prophet) or wishes that he suffer some harm, anyone who attributes anything to him in order to reproach him or that is unbefitting to the rank of the prophet, anyone who frivolously expresses foolish, unseemly, or odious words, or even lies, regarding his splendid person, or who chastises him for any misfortune or trial that the prophet had to endure, everyone who manifests contempt for him due to human deficiencies that are conceivable for a prophet and documented in the case of Muhammad.” Even mentioning the life circumstances of Muhammad that are documented in the Islamic historical sources, if done in a way that allows him to appear in an unflattering light, would be evaluated as an instance of this crime. The Qadi ‘Iyad reminds his reader again of Sura 93. The prophet’s right to veneration by Muslims stands above historical truth. The very broadly defined prohibition of speaking or thinking [certain things about the prophet] “corresponds to the consensus of the scholars and those who are authorized to issue fatwas since the days of the prophetic companions and from then on forever.” Most scholars, we are told, ruled for the death penalty in such cases, among them Malik b. Anas, Ahmad b. Hanbal, and also ash-Shafi’i; this legal opinion rests on a saying of Abu Bakr, according to which repentance and retraction by the one found guilty of such an offense may not be accepted. Abu Hanifa and a few other legal scholars of the early Abbasid era equate insulting Muhammad with apostasy from Islam and therefore refer to the [measures] stipulated in such cases; these call for the apostate to be commanded to repent, which includes returning to Islam; if he complies, then he saves his life. The Qadi ‘Iyad does not agree at all with this legal opinion and cites many scholars who support his severe attitude. Malik b. Anas and his followers, of whom the Qadi is one, summarize their opinion to the effect that anyone who reviles the prophet or even only refers to him with words that a Muslim might construe in a disparaging way is doomed to die, whether it is a Muslim or an “unbeliever.” The Muslim authority is only free to decide either to execute him or treat him like a political insurrectionist and crucify him (Sura 5: 33). The Qadi ‘Iyad was not the last to take up this topic. Legal scholars such as Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328) of the Hanbali school and Taqi ad-Din as-Subki (d. 1355) of the Shafi school took the work of the Maliki [Qadi ‘Iyad] as a model and demonstrated that, according to their legal schools, one must proceed in the same way. Only the Hanafis had difficulties, precisely because the founder of their school had connected the crime of insulting the prophet with that of apostasy, thus granting the offender the possibility of repenting and thereby saving his life.

The Punishment of Those Who Diminish Muhammad’s Authority

217

The Ottoman sultanate, which followed the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, tried to solve the problem by examining the previous life of the accused person; if there was evidence that he had already made repeated contemptuous remarks about the prophet, then the death penalty was to be imposed immediately. The Syrian legal scholar Ibn ‘Abidin (d. 1836), who was trained in the Shafi school of jurisprudence but then converted to the Hanafi school, could not accept that his new spiritual homeland did not give the possibility of immediately imposing the death penalty on one who insulted Muhammad but instead provided the same escape hatch that was granted to the penitent apostate. He employed all his cleverness to derive the desired conclusion from the Hanafi manuals and commentaries, too – but in vain. So he finally fell for a stunningly simple recommendation: Every judge may send difficult decisions up to the next-highest court; thus his Hanafi colleagues, when dealing with the offense in question, should present the matter to the higher-ranking qadi above them, however not to a Hanafi qadi, but to a member of one of the other three schools. In this way the merciless extermination of the villain will finally be achieved.¹

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet The scholars say: “When the sublime Allah wanted to bring his creation into existence, he caused the light (of Muhammad) to come forth before all others. Then he created from it all creatures corresponding to his foreknowledge, whether belonging to the trans-lunar or sublunar world. After this he called (Muhammad) to be a prophet and concluded with him a covenant to the effect that he, Allah, is the lord.” (Al-Hulwani, Ahmad b. Ahmad b. Isma’il, Mawakib Rabi’ fi maulid ash-Shafi’, Cairo 1877, 22.)

The Genesis of the Birthday Celebration of the Prophet In the year 1877, a certain Ahmad al-Hulwani, a pupil of the famous mid-nineteenth-century Shafi scholar and teacher at Al-Azhar University Ibrahim al-Baguri, published a voluminous treatise in which he collected all of the beliefs and ideas that Muslims associate with the celebration of the birthday of their prophet. They celebrate this festival on the twelfth day of the month of Rabi’ al-auwal. According to al-Hulwani, this day epitomizes the decisive turning point in the salvation history set in motion by Allah: Allah’s creative activity begins with the creation of the Muhammadan light from which Allah causes the entire temporal world to proceed; creatures are initially unaware of the originating substance from which they are made, and it is only with the prophet’s entry into earthly existence on the twelfth day of Rabi’ al-auwal in the “year of the elephant” that this originating substance becomes evident to everyone. Therefore, the first days of this month should be devoted to reflection on the pre-earthly existence of Allah’s Messenger, the phases of which are presented at length by alHulwani. As a good Sunni, he must back up all his assertions with Hadiths. In the six canonical [hadith collections], however, he does not find what he needs, and so it is only with great uncertainty that he can explain the origins of his proofs: A number of people cite them. Thus, he tells us that Muhammad said: “The first thing that Allah created was my light, and from my light he created everything (else).” But more impressive is a teaching vouched for by ‘Umar: “Do you know actually who I am, ‘Umar? I am the one whose light Allah created before all others! It (immediately) threw itself down before Allah and remained prostrate for 700 years. The first thing to prostrate itself before Allah was thus my light, and that is no idle boast! Do you actually know, ‘Umar, who I am? I am the one from whose light Allah created the throne, and the footstool, and the table, and the pen, and the sun and the moon, and the eyesight, and the understanding, and the knowledge in the heart of the believers, and that is no idle boast!” https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-020

The Genesis of the Birthday Celebration of the Prophet

219

Al-Hulwani discovered this text in the Proofs of Prophethood by al-Baihaqi (d. 1066), and it can also be found even earlier in al-Hakim an-Naisaburi (d. 1014), famous for a book on hadith scholarship. The cosmos [consisting of] Muhammad [alone] provided the requisite worship of Allah, and as soon as the earthly Muhammad had been born, he also prostrated himself [before Allah] in the same way! “Every human being behaves according to his habit,” comments al-Hulwani. Muhammad’s birth brings to an end the eon in which the salvific destiny of the temporal world was hidden from view and initiates the eon in which it is made public; what before could [only] be discerned with painstaking study of the world is from now on immediately obvious – which, incidentally, is why no one is justified anymore in remaining a non-Muslim. Neither the celebration of the birthday of the prophet nor this interpretation of his birth can be traced back to the earliest stages of Islam. This is made evident by al-Hulwani’s futile effort to find early proofs, and ‘Umar would have found it difficult to make the hijra the starting point of the Islamic calendar if these beliefs had already existed. For the Qadi ‘Iyad, the postulate of Muhammad’s light-bearing inner core served the purpose of making his infallibility and sinlessness plausible; it was not yet a theme around which both widespread theosophical speculation and a popular pious literature had grown. At the end of the 12th century, however, one sees the first traces of a rapidly growing veneration of Muhammad that had sprung up in the meantime. Thus the Abbasid Caliph an-Nasir li-Din Allah (r. 1180 – 1225) designated a building in Mecca as Muhammad’s birthplace and had it sumptuously decorated. – However, the Islamic topographical literature of the Middle Ages was quite aware that in Mecca since ancient times there were many places at which pilgrims were able to commemorate the beginnings of their religion, not just one, especially since it was by no means certain that Muhammad had been born in Mecca; still, al-Hulwani assembled the relevant traditions in his book. – We do not know if the birthday of the prophet was commemorated with a celebration at the new birthplace memorial in Mecca already during the reign of an-Nasir. On the other hand, it is indisputable that the Shiite Fatimids celebrated the 12th of Rabi’ al-auwal with great pomp; of course they commemorated on that day not only Muhammad, but also his daughter Fatima and ‘Ali and his two sons al-Hasan and al-Husain, and at the climax of these festivities the caliph appeared before the crowds. Thus the proceedings served the purpose of strengthening the legitimacy of the ruling dynasty. In the early 13th century – the Fatimids had been annihilated by Saladin in 1171, and in Baghdad the aforementioned an-Nasir reigned – we hear for the first time about Sunni celebrations on the occasion of Muhammad’s birth. They were sponsored by Muzaffar ad-Din, the minor prince of Erbil who had distinguished

220

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet

himself in service to Saladin. Because at that time people were not certain whether Muhammad had been born on the 8th or 12th of Rabi’ al-auwal, the festival alternated between these dates from year to year. People streamed to these events in Erbil from far away, legal scholars, Sufis, preachers, Koran reciters, poets. The first began arriving already in the month of Muharram, and the crowd of visitors steadily swelled until Rabi’ al-auwal. Muzaffar ad-Din had 20 or more wooden stands erected of four to five stories each, one for himself, the others for the various ranks of dignitaries from his court. At the beginning of Safar, these structures were decorated in the grandest manner. A group of singers, puppeteers, or musicians were placed in each of the stands. Normal daily routines ceased at the beginning of the actual festivities; people gave themselves over to traipsing about, standing, gawking; the stands were distributed all over Erbil and the city resembled a fairground. Muzaffar ad-Din was wont to circulate among the crowds, walking from one stand to another, watching the performances. Two days before the birthday, the maulid, camels, cows, and smaller livestock were driven in great numbers to the main square; the slaughtering commenced, cauldrons were hung over fires, and every conceivable variety of meat dish was prepared, to be ready on the eve of the birthday. After Muzaffar ad-Din had led the obligatory prayer in the castle after sunset, he rode down into the city. Before him went a procession of people bearing countless lit candles, among them two or four that otherwise would only be used during official military parades. They were so heavy that each one had to be placed on a mule, behind which a man walked in order to prop it up. The procession ended in one of the two Sufi lodges in the city. On the following morning, special honorary vestments were brought down from the castle in great numbers, and every Sufi from the lodge received one, presenting themselves with their bundles to the gawking crowds in a long line. Then the ruler went again into the lodge, where the elite of society awaited him. A podium was set up for the preachers, [and] Muzaffar adDin took his place in a wooden tower with windows facing in one direction towards the lodge where the dignitaries were assembled, in another direction towards the square where troops had been mustered at his command. “At one moment he would look out at the mustered troops, at the next he would glance at the people and the preachers in the lodge. Thus he acted until the muster was done. At this time bread and dishes would be served out to beggars in the square, one table open to the public laden with an indescribable abundance. A second festive table was set up in the lodge specifically for all those who had mounted the podium.” They, too, had been honored with special vestments during their preaching. Now they feasted, and many of them brought food home with them from the feast. So things proceeded into the late afternoon. The eve-

Poetry on the Birthday of the Prophet

221

ning and the following night Muzaffar ad-Din spent with the Sufis listening to their singing.

Poetry on the Birthday of the Prophet Muzaffar ad-Din’s celebration shows clear parallels to that of the Fatimids; the person of the prince forms the actual focal point. Soon after this, however, come private maulid events at which popular veneration of the prophet comes to the fore, veneration that is no longer controlled by sharia scholars. The suspicion arose that, at these festivities, the norms of Islamic propriety were not always being followed; first of all we must clarify which sayings of Muhammad were theologically tolerable and were therefore permissible in the paeans of praise [to the prophet]. Summaries of the permissible themes came into existence. Let us consider one of them, written by an Egyptian who was primarily active in the Hijaz, Ibn Hajar al-Haitami (d. 1567). 1. Thanks to his message, which encompassed human beings, jinns, and angels, on Judgment Day Muhammad will stand at “the glorified station” (in Arabic: al-maqam al-mahmud), which will cause every creature to envy him; for not only the earlier prophets but even angels in immediate proximity to the One will be dependent on him. Muhammad will proclaim: “O Allah, it is unacceptable to me that even a single member of my community shall remain in hell!” In response to this intercession, Allah will escort all of them out of [hell]. For, in the final analysis, Allah did not only grant this privilege to Muhammad, but distinguished him as his chosen one in many other ways as well: by the ascent into heaven and, in connection with it, in having led all the other prophets in prayer; by explicit divine confirmation as well as by the testimony of the Islamic religious community that he transmitted the message completely and accurately; by the perfection of the grace [given] to him (cf. Sura 5: 3) and by the granting of every conceivable form of assistance; by the purification of his heart and by the elevation of his prestige; by the protection that the angels gave him during his wars, and by the composure (in Arabic: as-sakina) that Allah sent down on him and his community in the tumult of battle; by the granting of all his requests, especially those whose fulfillment was postponed until the moment when nothing else could help the Muslims; by the oath that Allah swore on the life of his prophet; by the miracles that Allah performed at Muhammad’s request, for example the healing of sick people or giving him knowledge of what was hidden; by the prayers that Allah and his angels continuously offered while turned towards Muhammad; by hearing the prayers of those who appeal to the

222

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet

creator via mediators, namely via Muhammad’s family, his caliphs and companions, and all who act rightly after him. 2. His family tree becomes uncertain as soon as one wants to go back into the past beyond Quraysh; but that is not decisive. What matters is something else: “Know that Allah honored his prophet through the primordial conferral of prophethood. That is to say, when Allah’s will turned to the creation of his creatures, he caused the Muhammadan nature (in Arabic: al-haqiqa al-muhammadiya) to proceed out of the pure (absolute being), even before the being of all the individual creatures that would arise had begun. Then he peeled off (as in skinning an animal, from absolute being) the species (of future individual things). Then he instructed Muhammad about his predestined prophethood and promised him his weighty mission. All of this happened when Adam still had not been brought into being. Now the sources of all varieties of spirit sprang from Muhammad” – thus Muhammad is the bearer of the divinely promulgated law and the refiner of the appetitive soul into an obedient, faithful soul (cf. Sura 89: 27 f) – “whereupon he became visible in the heavenly assembly as the one origin from which the natures of all (future individual things) nourished themselves.” 3. When Allah wanted to incarnate Muhammad, he ordered Gabriel to fetch a piece of clay from the heart of the Earth. Accompanied by the angels of paradise and the “highest companionship” of the Holy Ones (in Arabic: ar-rafiq al-a’la),¹ Gabriel descended to the Earth, took clay from “the place of the honored grave” – meaning Muhammad’s grave in Medina – “i. e. originally the clay came from the place of the Kaaba, to which (later) the flood [of Noah] was sent.² After this the clay was kneaded with water from the spring of Tasnim, from which only those in the presence of Allah drink (Sura 83: 27). Then the lump of clay was dipped into the rivers of paradise, where it became like a white pearl. With it, the angels circled the throne and the footstool of Allah and paraded through the heavens and over the Earth and the seas: All angels and the whole of creation knew our lord Muhammad before they knew Adam. Adam saw the light of Muhammad at the canopy of the throne; there the name of the prophet stood written together with that of Allah. Allah turned to Adam: ‘This is the prophet from your offspring. His name is highly exalted in heaven (in Arabic: ahmad) and praised on Earth (in Arabic: muhammad) (cf. Sura 61: 6). If Muhammad did not exist, I would not have created you, and also not the heaven and the Earth!’ Adam requested of Allah that he might forgive him his (future sins) by appointing Muhammad as intercessor. Allah (agreed to that) and forgave Adam.” As soon as Adam had been formed from clay, “our prophet” was taken from the backbone of the still non-living first human being and he received his mission, then the covenantal promise was taken from him before all other prophets; after he

Poetry on the Birthday of the Prophet

223

had given that, he was placed back in Adam’s backbone. Only then was the spirit breathed into Adam’s form, and from the now-living Adam, Allah brought forth all other future human beings so that they could make the same promise. “Thus our prophet is the one on whom every other creature is dependent, he is the central pearl in the necklace, the Messenger of the messengers; Allah took this oath from all of them, so that they would be Muhammad’s followers.” – The Koran passage to which these sentences allude has an entirely different meaning. In Sura 7, verse 172, Allah commands the as-yet-unborn human beings to swear an oath that he, Allah, is their lord; on Judgment Day, no one will be able to claim that he or she knew nothing of this fact. However, in the writings on Muhammad’s birthday, Muhammad has been inserted between Allah and all other creatures. Before all other creatures, who remain in a highly incomplete state of being, “our prophet” professes his submission to Allah, and only after this has happened does the process of creation continue, thus giving all other creatures the opportunity to confess Allah to be their lord. – Al-Haitami infers from the presented material that Muhammad has been sent to the whole of creation and that on Judgment Day all the prophets shall assemble beneath his banner. When the creation of Adam was completed, his brow shone with the light “of our prophet Muhammad;” Eve was created from one of Adam’s ribs, and only after Adam had performed the ritual prayer three times, or even 20 times, while invoking the name of Muhammad, was he allowed to take possession of her. In the infinite wisdom of Allah, Adam was expelled to the Earth. For this event had to happen – as did the fall of Eve, which led to this punishment – so that Allah, during the earthly life of Adam’s offspring, “could call our prophet into existence, within his community, which is the best one ever founded (Sura 3: 110).” Eve gave birth to twins 20 times on earth; only Seth was born alone. For he alone was to inherit the prophethood and the knowledge of his father; he was the transmitter of the Muhammadan light. According to Adam’s legacy, this light was passed on across many generations into the time of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, inherited only by sons conceived by pure women. 4. With the “year of the elephant,” the supposed year of the prophet’s birth, Ibn Hajar al-Haitami comes to an actual historical event. When Amina was pregnant with Muhammad, Allah sent birds against the Ethiopians; all of the attackers were destroyed before they could reach the Kaaba. 5. ‘Abdallah, Muhammad’s father, was to be sacrificed by ‘Abd al-Muttalib; but, for the sake of the light, he failed to fulfill his oath. 6. With Amina, ‘Abdallah conceived the prophet Muhammad; the light moves from ‘Abdallah into her womb. All creation rejoices over the conception of “the lord of this community.” Miracles accompany the pregnancy.

224

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet

7. Dreams confirm for Amina the importance of the fruit of her womb. Muhammad is born, either during the day or at night. A light fills the room in which this happens; the stars approach so close to the house that people fear they will fall from heaven. In the West and in the East, people perceive this light, but especially in ash-Sha’m. For Muhammad will end up there; it is the region from which prophets either come or to which they go. During his night journey, Muhammad was carried there and lifted up into heaven. In ash-Sha’m, Jesus will walk the Earth again; it is the land in which humanity will be gathered for the Last Judgment. 8. When [Muhammad] was born, he landed on the ground and immediately seized chunks of earth with both hands, to signify that he will rule the whole world. Moreover, he is said to have been born kneeling, his eyes scanning the heavens. A white cloud picked him up and in a short time gave him a tour of the whole physical world. Once again he claims ownership of the world; he holds three keys in his hands, one symbolizing victory, one symbolizing mindfulness of God, one symbolizing prophethood. 9. He has, since birth, the seal of prophecy between his shoulder-blades. 10. His birth means the extinction of all other religions. 11. ‘Abd al-Muttalib gives him the name Muhammad. For he dreamed that from his backbone a silver chain appeared linking heaven and earth, east and west; it then took on the form of a tree; a light shone from every leaf, and human beings clung to the branches. The dream was interpreted as meaning that ‘Abd al-Muttalib will have a son who will be praised by the inhabitants of heaven and earth – hence the name “the praised one.” The date of birth is uncertain, but Rabi’ al-auwal seems to be the correct month. In any case, he was born on a Monday, in Mecca. It is forbidden to believe anything else. 12. The first years of life Muhammad spent in the care of the wet nurse Halima. 13. When he is 12 years old, he accompanies his uncle Abu Talib to ashSha’m; the monk Bahira recognizes in the boy the future Messenger of Allah.

The Cosmic Muhammad So much for Ibn Hajar al-Haitami! For him, too, Muhammad is the first and most all-encompassing witness of the act of divine creation; al-Hulwani adduced evidence for this idea, which apparently dominated maulid songs, reaching back into the 11th century. We do not know for certain that it was thought through and already mainstream in Sunni Islam at such an early date. Among Sunni authors of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, it was Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) who dis-

The Cosmic Muhammad

225

cussed this idea in depth. His reflections on this topic have had an influence on Sunni spiritual life to the present day that can hardly be overestimated, whether because they were joyfully taken up as a welcome supplement to the sterility of sharia scholarship, or because they were sharply condemned as a threat to the supremacy of sharia over Muslims. We are told in Sura 51, verse 56, that Allah created human beings and jinn – thought to be equally endowed with reason – only to serve him. In his influential, monumental magnum opus, Meccan Openings, Ibn ‘Arabi develops the thought, derived from these words, that Allah operates continuously as the creator, precisely because being a creator is a necessary aspect of his divine omnipotence. In this respect, creation renders him an indispensable service; for without it, he could not experience himself as the omnipotent being that he is. And it is the cosmic Muhammad more than any other created being who makes this experience possible for Allah, and this with the clearest awareness and in a way that is unclouded by any inclination contrary to the divine will.³ Thanks to the reason granted to them, human beings and jinns are capable of understanding this deepest foundation of their own existence. They are supposed to give conscious expression to this knowledge in the performance of the rituals prescribed for them. But they are fallible, and it can happen that they provide this service in a deficient manner, or even defiantly refuse to render it at all. The rest of creation, in contrast, renders the service required of it by Allah spontaneously, simply by existing. Ibn ‘Arabi intertwines his interpretation of Sura 51, verse 56 with the idea of a cosmos consisting of concentric spheres. He depicts the beginning of [this cosmos] as follows: “Immediately at the beginning of time by (the setting of the spheres in) motion, Allah had already created the all-controlling spirit, namely the spirit of Muhammad, and only then did the other spiritual beings proceed from it during the motion [of the spheres]. Thus, the spirit of Muhammad already existed in the hidden realm of being, but not (from the beginning) in the public [realm]. Allah instructed him about his prophethood and promised it to him when Adam still was between water and clay, as (Muhammad) said. Then finally time brought the veiled name, fulfilling Muhammad’s true nature, to the point when his body came into existence and the (aforementioned all-encompassing spirit) united to this body. At this moment, sovereignty over time changed over (from its hidden) phase to its public [phase]: Muhammad became visible in (the fullness) of his being as (a union of) body and spirit. Thus he first possessed sovereignty in a veiled fashion, specifically regarding various sorts of sharia that had been revealed by prophets and divine messengers, and then sovereignty came to him publicly. Now, thanks to the sovereignty of the publicly proclaimed name, he abrogated every law that the veiled name had enacted, in order to clarify that there is a difference between the sovereignty of the one and the other,

226

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet

even if the lawgiver was always one and the same, namely he, the (actually) authorized lawgiver. For Muhammad spoke in this way: ‘I was prophet…’⁴ and he did not speak, for example, in this way: ‘I was a human being…’ or ‘I was existing…’ But prophethood exists only in connection with a law confirmed by Allah. Muhammad instructed (human beings with his words) regarding this, he, who was the possessor of prophethood even before the other prophets lived, who were his representatives in the temporal world.” The sovereignty of these representatives naturally came to an end with the birth of the real possessor of prophethood. The question arises of how the death of Muhammad is to be interpreted, when his birth, after all, is said to be the beginning of the age of the public proclamation of the true sharia, and the possibility of a diminution or loss of salvation, which might at least be considered, is nowhere even hinted at by Ibn al‘Arabi. On the contrary, it is nothing to worry about! For the first and outermost heavenly sphere continues to rotate after the death of the earthly Muhammad. The salvific knowledge given to the cosmos through it does not, as was the case in the previous age, become public via [mere] representatives of the true prophet and hence in deficient form. For, visible only to a few, men are actively working among the Muslims to prevent any diminution in the certainty of salvation. These are the friends of God (in Arabic: al-wali, pl. al-auliya’) who maintain intact the connection with Muhammad, who now as in the past is present in the hidden realm of being. They fulfill perfectly the duty that in principle exceeds the ability of the sharia scholars, who concern themselves exclusively with the interpretation of the authoritative texts. For in the ranks of the Muslim friends of God there are a few to whom Allah causes either Muhammad or Gabriel to appear. “This spiritual appearance tells (to a friend of God) the sharia judgments (according to the standard) of the Muhammadan manifestation; then, as soon as the transmission has ended and (the spiritual appearance) departs from the terrified heart of the friend of God, the mind of this beholder understands all of the judgments contained in the transmission that have been revealed in this Muhammadan community. The friend of God accepts them, for he has been granted a moment of attendance at the (divine) court. – In exactly this way, the Muhammadan manifestation had (in the past) accepted the sharia, and it received the command to pass on this knowledge to the community. – The friend of God then returns to a normal state of consciousness, having understood what the Muhammadan manifestation had shared with the spirit” – that is, the aforementioned spiritual appearance that functions as the transmitter – “and knows with certainty, indeed with complete certainty, that (the knowledge acquired in this way) is true. He memorizes the instruction of this ‘prophet’ and acts according to it, because he possesses a proof from his lord.” In contrast, Ibn al-‘Arabi ex-

The Mantle Poem

227

plains in the Openings, the sharia scholars who argue by means of the authoritative texts always rely on the statements of dead people, statements that were transmitted by equally dead people, and now we can understand why traditional sharia scholars in many cases read his writings with hatred and rage and also rejected the celebration of the birthday of the prophet: Censuring the festivities as contrary to sharia served as a pretext for rejecting the whole body of ideas that were disseminated by the songs sung on this occasion. – If we glance back at Ibn Hajar al-Haitami, then we notice that he admittedly speaks of the pre-existence of Muhammad but omits the theme of the ongoing activity of the person of the prophet in the hidden realm of being. – As the very starting point of creation, Muhammad is “the perfect person,” the macrocosm, who is present in the manifold phenomena of the microcosm; then as now, he appears to spiritually advanced people, not only in dreams, for example, but even in a condition of heightened sensory awareness, as the Egyptian scholar as-Sujuti (d. 1505) explained in a treatise based on his own experience.

The Mantle Poem Once upon a time a pagan poet insulted the prophet with mocking verses, and Muhammad declared him to be outside the protection of the law so that anyone could kill him with impunity; this induced a change of heart in the poet; down to the present day he has been composing frequently-quoted poems in praise of Muhammad, recited these poems to Muhammad, and was granted forgiveness. So deeply moved was the insulted [prophet] by these verses that he took off his mantle and laid it over the shoulders of the repentant poet, and the verses entered history as the “mantle poem.” Six and a half centuries later another mantle poem arose; since then these have become the most beloved verses in praise of Muhammad, and no celebration of his birthday would be complete without their recitation. If one believes the words of the author, a certain al-Busiri (d. ca. 1295), he earned his living by means of the shameless flattery of princes. But one day a stroke paralyzed half of his body, rendering him bedridden; this was an opportunity for him to reflect. He brooded over his impious life and had to admit to himself, to his own horror, that he had made no provision whatsoever for his own eternal salvation, but had considered his work in the courts of the powerful to be more important. Hoping to recuperate, he composed a poem in praise of the prophet, verses that would soon become famous throughout the Islamic world. He recited them over again and again, and finally, Muhammad appeared to him in a dream. “With his blessed hand he stroked my face and threw his mantle on me. I woke up and discovered that I could stand up.” On

228

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet

the street, al-Busiri met a friend of God who asked him to give him the verses, then, by way of explaining his request, [he explained] that he had watched in the hidden realm as someone had recited the poem to Muhammad. The prophet had rocked back and forth in delight and had finally thrown a mantle over the one who was reciting. Al-Busiri handed over the verses to the stranger and soon the “mantle poem” was being recited everywhere. In these verses, al-Busiri sheepishly admits that he only ever performed the obligatory rites; he never made the effort to accumulate eternal merit beyond that. How, then, would he fare on Judgment Day? “I violated the sunna of the one who filled the darkness (of night, as if it were as bright as day) with life by praying while standing until his swollen feet throbbed with pain!” The prophet bound stones around his body in order to still his hunger pangs; in all the misery he suffered, not even mountains of gold could tempt him to stop fasting. “How could tribulation lure to the world him for whose sake the world was created out of nothing? Muhammad is the lord of the manifest and the hidden (cosmos), of human beings and of jinns, of both the human races of Arabs and nonArabs! Our prophet, who commands and forbids – no one is more trustworthy than he, whether he says yes or no. He is Allah’s favorite, for whose intercession one hopes, he defied every horror.” Anyone who clings to Muhammad has grasped a rescue rope that will never break. At his birth, the unsurpassable quality of his nature was revealed; for his entry into the manifest world was accompanied by events that happened far from the Hijaz: The audience hall in the palace of Ctesiphon burst, the sacred fire was extinguished. The jinns, accustomed to listening in heaven, were chased away with shooting stars and scattered, exactly like the army of Abraha or, later, the enemy fighters at whom Muhammad threw a handful of pebbles. The sub-rational portion of creation spontaneously understood the unique nature of Muhammad; stones prostrated themselves before him, trees move from their places in order to give him shade. Al-Busiri positively revels in the multitude of such miracles, which he spreads out before the listener: Pearls show their true beauty best when placed on a string, but even when considered individually, their worth does not diminish. But what are they in comparison to Muhammad’s greatest miracle, the Koran? It rescues human beings from the hell-fire! Only one whose eyes are ailing could think to deny the light of the sun. Was it not so that all the other prophets showed the highest honor to Muhammad when he was lifted from Jerusalem into heaven? This honor should also be shown to the Muslims: “An indestructible pillar of (divine) providence is ours! Because Allah called our Caller to obedience towards him, thanks to the most noble of the messengers we became the most noble community! The sons of his mission cast terror into the hearts of their enemies, as a light noise puts shepherdless sheep to flight. Again and again he met his ene-

Muhammad, the Guarantor of Salvation in this World and in the Next

229

mies in battle until, thanks to the lances (of his troops), they came to resemble lumps of meat on a butcher’s chopping block. They longed to flee, and (in their desire to escape the battle), they almost envied the limbs torn from them that were being carried away by birds of prey.” In contrast, those who wage war knowing that Allah’s Messenger is on their side will always be victorious, as the prophet’s biography teaches: “(Muhammad) gave his community protection in the secure refuge of his religion, like a lion safe with its young in its thicket.”

Muhammad, the Guarantor of Salvation in this World and in the Next Everything came, and comes, into manifest being through Muhammad as the primordial creation. And what holds good for the cosmos also holds good for the individual: the certainty of this is precisely what al-Busiri celebrates in his “mantle poem,” a certainty that covers over all thoughts of one’s own failings and induces blissful happiness. The fundamental connectedness of all creation with the creator is guaranteed by the prophet; this is how Allah arranged things before his creative activity began to generate the manifest realm of being. Up to the moment of Muhammad’s conception, the salvific status of the manifest realm was latent; it was, to be sure, ontologically guaranteed, and the earlier prophets and divine messengers had indicated this fact, but only inadequately. As soon as Muhammad had been conceived, and only fully after he had been born, this changed: it became possible to understand perfectly that the temporal world was destined for salvation, not least due to Muhammad’s transmission of Allah’s word; the world had, so to speak, found itself. The external evidence of this were the many miracles that accompanied the course of Muhammad’s life. Because now creation as a material fact and its only legitimate interpretation, the primordial Muhammad in his perfect temporal appearance, had been brought into alignment, all earlier religions became from now on invalid, precisely because they were able to express inadequately at best the manner in which the temporal world is destined for salvation. Because the true intentions of the creator are accessible in the figure of the cosmic and earthly Muhammad, [even] after his death he possesses the right of effective intercession on Judgment Day on behalf of all who follow him; hell must relinquish them. Obsequious supplication is still advisable, however, as is remorse over the fact that one still all too often insists on having one’s own way, when in truth everything is under Allah’s control. Immeasurably generous is the forgiveness that the prophet obtains from Allah or, indeed, which he is able to pronounce virtually in the perfection of his own authority, if one follows al-Busiri’s exact words. And, the more often he does this,

230

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet

the more sublimely is his unapproachable majesty revealed – just as an earthly ruler, too, acquires prestige above all when he forgives violations of rules that he has enacted himself; this naturally holds true only vis-à-vis people of whose submission he is fundamentally convinced. For it is equally clear to the poet that all the human beings who do not believe in Muhammad, both in this world and in the next, from the moment of the prophet’s conception, have no rights. They must be annihilated, because they fall permanently outside of the Islamic harmony of the creative activity and legislating word of Allah. In the Sunni world-view, awakening to this harmony is the ultimate goal of life, a goal that lies far beyond ethics; this is the point of al-Busiri’s “mantle poem.” Let us return once more to al-Hulwani! The cosmic, primordial Muhammad is the one Messenger to whom all creatures must submit, he writes. “His prophethood was confirmed and revealed to all spiritual beings and angels, so that they might know it and affirm it, when Adam was still a lump of clay, in the time-span separating the creation of a body without spirit and the moment in which this spirit is breathed into it. It is as if Muhammad said: ‘I was honored inasmuch as prophethood entered me when the creation of the father of all prophets, indeed of all human beings [i. e. Adam], had not yet been concluded. By this I was honored above all other prophets. The confirmation and revelation (of my prophethood) is linked to those (extraordinary) circumstances, for it marks the beginning of the entry of spirit into body, and the honor was at that time, (in which there was still no other being), the most perfect and most conspicuous.” The primordial Muhammad was placed under the obligation of recognizing Allah as the one lord. This first conclusion of a covenant guarantees that the whole of creation is saved, lifeless matter as well as everything living. Only later were human beings brought forth from the backbone of Adam, after he had been fully created and infused with spirit, so that, as the Koran says, they might expressly confess that they have no lord but Allah (Sura 7: 172). Thus the covenant between Allah and creatures must be narrated twice, if the primordial Muhammad is to be the final form of creatures. The salvation of creation is guaranteed anyway in the case of creatures not endowed with reason; human beings and jinns of the first eon may of course hope for mercy if they worshipped Allah deficiently due to the inadequacy of their understanding. But in the second eon, the conclusion of the second covenant becomes completely efficacious; for now, thanks to the divine message proclaimed by Muhammad after he has entered into earthly existence, no error is possible anymore. Rational beings must be converted to Islam so that Allah’s intention might now be realized, an intention that was fundamentally discernible already from the creation of the primordial Muhammad: All creation is directly [linked] to Allah and is in a state of salvation (im Heil); and no one doubts even for a moment that this is so.⁵

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World The teachings (Muhammad) left for us if put into practice in their true spirit and proper way will bring a happy life in this world and besides the indubitable rewards that will be received by those who believed in them in the life after death. In this sense, Islam is a worldly religion which cares first for the worldly affairs of humanity. The Hereafter is merely a continuation of the worldly life. It is difficult to portend that man can be saved in the Hereafter without being saved in this world. The safe way is to follow the way shown to us by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). When his wife, ‘Aishah, was asked by a companion about the Prophet’s (PBUH) daily conduct, ‘Aishah replied that the conduct of the Prophet (PBUH) was the Qur’an which is the guidance from Allah and Muhammad (PBUH) was given authority by Allah to interpret it. That is why his conduct was the exemplary of human conduct. Islam as brought by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is very much misunderstood, as a religion perceived to contain [only] souls and rituals like prayers, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage. Thanks to the new developments in the world, Islam is now looked upon in a wider perspective than the narrow-minded view in the past. (http:// web.archive.org/web/20070829050509/www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/prophet/as blessing (accessed February 1, 2018))

The Obliteration of the Contrast between this World and the Next The temporal world, continuously being created by Allah, precisely because it is directly [connected] to Allah in all of its phenomena, is already, totally, in salvation (im Heil), and not in need of redemption. Thus, the Mu’tazilite distinction between “the house of action” and “the house of reward” is totally inappropriate; for it only applies on the condition that here and now there is a realm of being in which human agents act on their own responsibility within a framework of conditions created by Allah, and that one day there will be another, differently ordered realm of being, which will in fact be determined by Allah down to every last detail, because then every human being will receive rewards and punishments corresponding to his or her actions in the temporal world. If, however, the temporal world is already determined by Allah at every moment, then a metaphysical distinction between this world and the next is meaningless from the standpoint of salvation history. The question, explored in the 10th and 11th centuries, of why Allah had to enact a law at all, when, after all, creatures do not have the capacity to follow it by their own power anyway, is answered precisely in the aporia that was brought to the attention of the spokesmen of Sunni Islam in their https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-021

232

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World

debates with the Mu’tazilites. A satisfactory answer has never been found. Instead, the response has been to repeat as emphatically as possible the words of Muhammad and his companions about the torments of the grave, the Last Judgment, and the punishments and delights that await human beings after judgment. Thus, for example, the Warning of the Heedless by as-Samarkandi (d. 983) has been widely read right down to the present day in order to cultivate a fear of what is to come.¹ The more the connection between earthly action and eternal reward loses any plausibility, the more energetically are Muslims urged by legal scholars to practice contrition: Uncertainty regarding one’s eternal destiny cannot be removed by the scrupulous observance of sharia, [or] by the efforts of the one tormented by fear. On the contrary, it is possible that someone could fulfill the law throughout his life and that Allah could allow him to go astray at the very end – we are powerless against Allah’s fickleness! The relevant literature is full of examples of this. How consoling was the message that Muhammad is the beginning and the epitome of Allah’s creative activity! In the ideas surrounding the primordial Muhammad, the contrast between this world and the next is completely dissolved. Salvation history no longer moves from a loss of salvation upon expulsion from paradise towards a triumphant regaining of paradise after the end of earthly existence. It is divided into a first eon and a second that began with the birth of Muhammad, [and] it has already entered into the era of its consummation. Muslims, the people who have recognized this transition, are already living in salvation (im Heil). The deniers will be annihilated. With the unavoidable victory of Islam, which is thought of as an event within the temporal world, salvation history will be fulfilled. In the evolutionary history of Muhammad, which leads him from the [role of] Gnostic warner to the resurrected Abraham of the never-resting Allah of the hanifs, the Muslim obliteration of the metaphysical distinction between this world and the next is already predetermined. “(My lord), ensure that later generations will regard me justly, and make me one of the heirs of paradise!”, Abraham begs in Sura 26, verse 84 f.: He who holds firmly to Allah “inherits” paradise at the end of time (cf. Sura 19: 63 and 23: 11); it is the eternal reward of the one who fears God (Sura 43: 72; cf. also Sura 7: 43). The “inheritance” that Allah grants to him after the Judgment is described twice as “the land” (Sura 21: 105 and 39: 74). Already in the mid-Meccan period, we find, alongside references to the next world, the idea that the “inheritance” takes place in this world. Thus, Pharaoh and his people are stripped of their possessions, which are given to the Israelites as their “inheritance” (Sura 26: 59 and 44: 28). The peoples who did not follow their prophets came to a bad end; they were annihilated, [and] Allah “inherited” their wealth (Sura 28: 58), their land (Suras 15: 23, 19: 40, and 21: 89) – in order to give it to those “whom people had regarded as weak” (Sura 28: 5). We

The Emphasis on Temporal Expectations of Salvation

233

have already discussed Sura 7 and its implicit threats aimed at the Meccans; it refers three times to such a “transfer of inheritance” (verses 100, 128, and 137) in which the power and property relations in the temporal world are to be overthrown. Muhammad sees the first fulfillment of this announcement in the collapse of the Meccan tribal coalition during the Battle of the Ditch and also in the annihilation of the Banu Qurayza and the appropriation of their wealth and lands: Allah has granted to the Muslim fighters the “inheritance” that is their due (Sura 33: 27). Allah, after all, controls the inheritance of the heavens and of the earth – how is it then possible for a person not to commit himself to fighting for Allah’s cause? Those who entered this fight early stand above those who long hesitated, says Muhammad in Sura 57, verse 10, and he thereby anticipates the principle according to which ‘Umar b. al-Khattab will later measure out military pensions.

The Emphasis on Temporal Expectations of Salvation Since the 18th century, the Muslim observer of world history has no longer been able to avoid seeing that “the best community” (Sura 3: 110), of which he sees himself, after all, as a member, has been further than ever from the triumph promised to it by Allah. The “inheritance of the land,” the salvific expectations focused on the temporal world that especially nourished the dogmatically shaped career of Muhammad, therefore became a central concern. It was not enough to reassure oneself anew that Muhammad was “the perfect person.” One had to explain how the biography of the prophet could be used to overcome the political, scientific, and economic deficits of the Islamic world. The Light of Certainty: On the Life of the Lord of the Divine Messengers is the name given by the Egyptian legal scholar Muhammad al-Hudari (1872– 1927) to the short book in which he tries to do just this. Al-Hudari published many treatises in his capacity as professor at the Cairo Academy of Sharia Court Jurisdiction, an institution devoted to traditional Islamic law, unlike the Ecole Khédiviale de droit that had been founded in 1868; by this time, the monopoly once enjoyed by Islamic law had long since been called into question [as Muslim countries] borrowed from European law. In his foreword, the author says that reading the biography of the prophet had been a source of great satisfaction to him since childhood. Muhammad proved himself to be the most significant educator of Muslims, showing them how to think by persevering despite insults and steadfastly calling people to the truth and, for the sake of this truth, even leaving his home-town. For “he pointed out to them the things in which they must follow him and the things they must avoid, so that they would (again) rule as their ancestors ruled.”

234

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World

From his example rulers were able to learn how to unite opposing forces; military leaders learned how one can achieve victories with powerful military forces; simple folk hear how to maintain unity against all other communities. “Therefore, reading the biography of the prophet brought about deep peace within me. But I often regretted that Muslims neglect this subject.” The books that one could read around 1900 to inform oneself on this topic were in fact no longer in tune with the times, and so he felt compelled to write his own book. The most important sources that al-Hudari relied on, other than the Koran and the hadith, were The Book of Healing of the Qadi ‘Iyad along with its revised edition by alQastallani (d. 1517), the biography of the prophet by Burhan ad-Din al-Halabi (d. 1635), and the Revival of the (manifold) Knowledge of the Practiced Faith by alGhazali (d. 1111), writings, that is, that are precisely not about the historical Muhammad but about his trans-temporal presence among Muslims, however that is understood.² “And I pray to Allah that he may in his overflowing grace grant success to our imams and emirs that they might imitate our lord and master Muhammad and lend new life to the practice of our faith…” The so-called reformed Islam of the late 19th century spoke of the need to return to the faith of the “pious predecessors” (in Arabic: as-salaf as-salih) in order to stop the evident decline of the Muslim world and lead it back to what was regarded as the greatness that it deserves. But that did not lead to a new effort to reconstruct the biography of Muhammad from the historical sources, the interpretation of which serves for example as the basis of the representation of the historical person of the prophet of this book; rather, the dogmatically established figure was and is – with very few exceptions – passed off as the historical one, a pattern that is by now familiar to us. [Any attempt] to tear away this veil of dogma, and thus to engage in one’s own project of historical research, came to be seen consequently as an attack on Muslims’ expectations of earthly salvation, indeed on Islam itself. Modern Muslim authors who discuss Muhammad, in whatever literary genre, as a rule presuppose that they have to answer a polemical challenge, one that they can parry only through unconditional acceptance of this dogma. In the process, the specifically religious content of Muhammad’s preaching recedes into the background to an astonishing degree. Instead, these writers convey to their Muslim readers the feeling of belonging, thanks to their pious veneration of Muhammad, to a community that has been chosen by Allah and that is by far the most advanced of all human communities in all earthly matters – regardless of what the sad reality may be! In contrast, the churches in secularized Western society have learned to seek answers to controversial questions that are rooted in aspects of their own tradition that are empirically or rationally based, making these aspects into useful tools for reaching judgments on such problems. Moreover, due to the plurality of world-views,

The Emphasis on Temporal Expectations of Salvation

235

these judgments must somehow be made intelligible to people with fundamentally different viewpoints; merely emphasizing the words of Jesus as religious truth-claims would not lend greater weight to ecclesiastical statements, but would [actually] weaken them. [Here we see a stark] contrast to the Islamic milieu, where now as in the past the [mere] invocation of the message and person of the prophet suffices to establish a point. To an astonishing degree, this liberates those who speak for Islam from any argumentative engagement with [the modern world]. Current events appear quite frequently in the statements of Muslim scholars, but mostly as events having to do in one way or another with the final victory of Islam guaranteed by Muhammad and meriting attention only under the aspect of its imminent arrival. Two examples will serve to illustrate this way of speaking and thinking. They are taken from an issue of the journal Minbar al-Islam – i. e. “the pulpit of Islam” – published in March 1977 on the occasion of the birthday of the prophet. Under the title “A Religious Community in the Middle,” Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (from 1996 to 2010 Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar) writes: “That is the religious community of Muhammad, which has reached the pinnacle of virtue, mounted the throne of noble qualities, and risen to the summit of righteousness, so that it has bejeweled itself with their jewels, [and] adorned itself with their garments! Therefore it was worthy to testify (to the truth of its faith) before all other communities. The proof for this is Allah’s word: ‘Thus we made you a religious community in the middle, so that you may be witnesses before humanity and the Messenger a witness before you’ (Sura 2: 184 [translator’s note: this should be 2: 143]). This means: ‘We made you into a community of the righteous and the good.’ For the best things are those in the middle, as the lord of all messengers, the lamp of righteousness of jinns and men, the lighthouse of happiness in this world and the next, said. Zuhair b. abi Sulma wrote: ‘They are the middle ones, human beings bow to their judgment whenever one of the bad nights comes over them!’ The sublime Allah spoke in the same vein in the unambiguous text that he sent down by making clear the importance, the extraordinary value, and the sublime status of the religious community of Muhammad: ‘You are the best community that was every founded for human beings. You command what is right and forbid what is wrong’ (Sura 3: 110). And Muhammad – may Allah perform the ritual prayers while turned towards him and grant him the greeting of peace! – said, as Abu Sa’id relates: ‘Truly this community (on Judgment Day) will be the seventieth among seventy, the best, most noble, and last of all!’” Muhammad is the best of all creatures, and because of their faith in him, Muslims are the best of all communities. The speaker continues with variations on this theme and finally concludes his stream of citations from the hadith and Arabic poetry with this exhortation: Come back into the enclosure (in Arabic: al-hazira)

236

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World

of Islam, [for] then you will have the power to liberate Jerusalem and, at the side of President Anwar as-Sadat and the Saudi King Khalid, heal the internal divisions of the Arab world. Ibrahim ‘Ali an-Nassar, too, sees in Muhammad – likewise on the occasion of his birthday – the rescuer of humanity: “If the nations and peoples of the world celebrate the birthdays of their scholars and philosophers, their thinkers and reformers, then it is the undeniable duty of the whole world to celebrate the birthday of the divine Messenger Muhammad b. ‘Abdallah. For it is he who rescued humanity from misery and lifted it up from the abyss, led it out of the darkness of unbelief and ignorance into the light of belief and knowledge. He is the rescuer of the Arab nation: ‘It is (Allah) who called among the pagans a Messenger from their midst, who was to recite (Allah’s) miraculous signs to them, purify them, and teach them the book and the wisdom, even if prior to this they had been sunk in error’ (Sura 62: 2). He is the rescuer of the people of the book, the Jews and Christians, as Allah makes clear: ‘You people of the book! Our Messenger came to you in order to present to you much of that from the book which you hide, and to forgive you for much. From Allah came to you a light and a clear book, through which Allah leads on the paths of salvation those who seek his favor. He will lead them according to his approval out of the darkness and into the light and onto a straight path’ (Sura 5: 15). Indeed, he is the rescuer of the whole of humanity, as Allah says: ‘Say: You people! I am the Messenger of Allah to all of you, Allah, to whom belongs sovereignty over the heavens and the earth. Beside him there is no god, he grants life and death. Therefore believe in Allah and his Messenger, the pagan prophet, who himself believes in Allah and his words. Follow him, and perhaps you will walk in the right path!’ (Sura 7: 158), and further, ‘As a proclaimer of a good message and as a warner we sent you to all human beings, but most do not know (that)!’ (Sura 34: 28).” Through Islam Allah has exalted the earlier followers of the prophet, and through them Islam has been exalted, whose message was for them balsam for the heart, peace for the mind, illumination for the intellect, and so, undaunted by death, they threw themselves into the military expansion by which this message was disseminated. On the campaign to Badr, one of the believers assured Muhammad: “We believe in you, we affirm that you are right, we testify that what you teach is nothing but the truth that comes from Allah. To this we swear our oath and our vow of alliance. So unite and divide men according to your will, take from our property what you wish, leave us what you wish! By Allah, what you take from our property is more dear to us than what you leave us! We hold our ground in war, we fight truly in battle. Hopefully Allah will show you through us what joy you have! Therefore set out under the blessing of Allah!” In this way the men set out to spread the “message of love, of goodness,

Muhammad’s Biography, A Lesson-Plan for Earthly Triumph

237

of peace,” “balsam for tormented humanity, whose wounds they bound up, whom they imbued with new optimism, whose ranks they unified, whose darkness they illuminated – through the generous doctrines of Islam.” It was thanks to such men that the world was led out of the darkness of polytheism into the light of belief, from tyranny to the justice of Islam, and for this reason they quickly rose to become “the masters of this world, the kings of the earth, the rulers of the world.” But because the Muslims neglected their religion, foreign powers conquered them. Yet the successful crossing of the Suez Canal in Ramadan 1393 (October 1973) gave them back their self-confidence. The triumph promised by Allah is near at hand. We note in passing that these types of assurances of earthly salvation are frequently mixed in with clichés borrowed from European political civilization of the past two centuries. The idea of progress, which in its essence is totally alien to Islam, for example, is supposed to find its true realization in the submission of the whole world to the doctrines of the Koran, which, because they were brought by the last of the prophets to be called by Allah, are supposedly tailored to a humanity that has reached adulthood. The ideas of socialism, too, supposedly have their true origin in the brotherhood that ought to prevail among Muslims, as preached by Muhammad. To pursue in further detail this Islamic appropriation and modification of European concepts would, of course, take us too far afield from our main theme. Here we emphasize only the very typical, obvious linking of an expectation of earthly salvation and success to a universal, religiously grounded claim to truth: The figure of Muhammad is taken to be “proof” that this linkage is not only permissible, but even urgently obligatory. A founding figure who could have provided a transcendent validation of the promise of temporal salvation was, of course, lacking in European totalitarian ideologies, to the extent that these ideologies believed the overcoming of religion to be an aspect of progress. Islam, at least in its current stridently propagated form, undertakes to guarantee both triumph on earth and in heaven.

Muhammad’s Biography, A Lesson-Plan for Earthly Triumph The image of Muhammad corresponding to this body of ideas found expression in exaggerated form in a publication series that appeared in 1981 and has now grown to eight volumes, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah (i. e., as-sira, the biography of the prophet). In the foreword of this work, supported by the Muslim Schools Trust in London, the president of King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz University in Jidda emphasizes that it is imperative that, in the Muslim world itself, Islam rules the whole of life, and moreover, that new Muslim communities in other countries are

238

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World

supplied with materials that show the priceless achievements that the message of the prophet has brought to the whole of humanity. Muhammad, we are told, is in a sense the embodiment of this divine message, and even non-Muslims cannot deny “the infinite range of the prophet’s concerns, his deep commitment to the destiny of man, his faith, his love, his compassion, the moral excellence of his precepts and the relevance of his Sunnah to the life of our times.”³ Muhammad’s influence on culture cannot possibly be appraised highly enough, the reader learns already in the first volume. This influence is owed to the Koran, for even the most minor allusion to some apparently incidental matter opens up to humanity broad horizons of knowledge. Allah taught Adam to understand the nature of all things, and only in the deficient Western way of doing science does one separate the knowledge revealed to us by Allah from that which human beings are able to achieve by their own efforts. The Islamic harmonization of material and spiritual needs led to powerful cultural advances. Thus, it is not surprising that the authors of the encyclopedia describe Muhammad as the most important architect, physicist, chemist, sociologist, and to the extent this is possible, representative of fields of knowledge from the distant Islamic past; the modern era and the present in this respect understandably receive no consideration. Even archaeology, which really is not an Islamic achievement, finds in the Koran its unshakable standard. For all discoveries are to be evaluated under the viewpoint of the punishment legends; Allah annihilated the peoples who did not follow the call of his prophets (cf. e. g. Sura 25: 35 – 39 and Sura 38: 12– 13). “Thus the Qur’anic approach to the study of archaeology is fundamentally different from the modern Western approach. The latter is totally confined to studying the material achievements of the ancient people in terms of their architecture, art and statues and measures their progress and achievements only on the basis of these material things. It pays no attention to their beliefs, morals and ways of living. Whether they believed in God or gods, whether they rejected His Messengers or accepted them, is no concern of the modern archaeologists. Whether they indulged in immoral ways of living and spent their life in obscenity and evil does not affect their archaeological conclusions because such things are not a part of their study.”⁴ There is no need for us to spend any more time on such nonsense, which stems from the hackneyed, decades-old charge of an [alleged] contrast between the – morally reprehensible – materialism of the West and the – wholesome and humane – spirituality of the East. It is self-evident that Muhammad was also the greatest military commander of all time. His many wars were of course of an entirely defensive nature, for the non-Muslims got in the way of his interests and ambitions, thus also of the interests of Allah and Islam. The potential for damage to Islam, however, obligates

Muhammad’s Biography, A Lesson-Plan for Earthly Triumph

239

Muslims to participate in warfare, which in such cases is to be regarded as an act of divine worship (in Arabic: al-‘ibada). As regards leadership in war, Muhammad long ago anticipated the insights of a von Clausewitz – strangely enough, this name is known to the authors – and of others. The prophet conducted all military preparations in the strictest secrecy. In order to be informed about the enemy, Muhammad dispatched spies. “He also organized a commando unit to achieve specific objectives in secret; without bloodshed and without disturbing the peace. A unit of fifth columnist (sic) (!) was also organized to spread rumours and harassment among the people in order to demoralize the enemy. These units worked hard to prepare men” – here he presumably means Muslims – “to a state of the utmost self-discipline and a spirit of extreme sacrifice for the cause of Islam. Muhammad made full use of these units in destroying mischief mongers, troublemakers and their ring-leaders and spreading harassment among the enemy lines.” In short, he did everything that is necessary in defensive wars. “His strategy was based on the principle of surprise, speed, security, offensive (!) action, and economy of loss of human life.”⁵ In the course of reading the Encyclopedia – reading that is admittedly not very compelling – the reader notices that the transcendent element, the only thing that gives real meaning to a religion, is largely absent. With mind-numbing repetition, it is hammered into the reader that Muhammad elevated humanity to the highest level of its development by means of his brilliant unification of the material and the spiritual. Thus, a chapter entitled “The Achievements of the Prophet Muhammad”⁶ treats the following themes: 1. The human being is the midpoint of the world; “If anybody taking command of the world were asked to decide between man without the world and the world without man, he would definitely prefer the first, provided, of course, he were also endowed with understanding and prudence.”⁷ 2. The depths of the human heart are more difficult to discern than the universe; “Man is the essence and substance of this universe” – here the idea of the “perfect human being” seems to live on – “(he is) the elixir or flower of all Creation, and the noblest Sign among the Signs of Great Creator [sic].”⁸ 3. Human nature is unfathomable; “the cognizance, nobility, forbearance and kindliness of man, the gracefulness and finesse of his consciousness, his self-respect as well as his humility, his living awareness of Allah and the urge to seek Divine fellowship, his altruism and nobility, his unending quest for knowledge and his desire to unmask the secrets of nature, indicate but a few dimensions of his self which bedazzle even shining intellects.”⁹ 4. Muhammad took on his prophethood under extremely unfavorable circumstances; morals were brutalized, if not downright bestial. – Given how the author has just extolled human nature, one wonders how that could have come about. – Be that as it may, Muhammad’s prophethood apparently uncovered those praise-

240

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World

worthy characteristics. 5. Muhammad’s activity, which has the character of the miraculous, is shown by every follower of the prophet. 6. The hearts of his followers were filled with reverence for Allah, for they never lost sight of the next world. Consequently, Muslims acted and act in a manner that is upright, conscientious, generous, impartial, patient in difficult situations. 7. The first followers exemplified all of these excellent character traits in their manner of ruling, likewise 8. Early Islamic society, 9. Later generations, and 10. Outstanding individual Muslims into the 16th century. 11. Thus, Muhammad’s prophethood is an eternally flowing source of illumination.

A Muslim Path to the Historicity of Muhammad? How can such thinking find a way out of the iron cage in which it is imprisoned? Muhammad and the Koran that he transmitted are said to be the measure of all things. Humanity long ago left its golden age behind, [and now] it can only strive to create anew those circumstances in Medina that were shaped by Muhammad’s divinely guided leadership; Islamization will make this possible. – It is obvious that such self-centeredness, one could even say autism, impedes a fruitful exchange of ideas with the representatives of other religions and especially with defenders of a secularized world-view, indeed, even more disastrously, it impedes access to wide swaths of one’s own Islamic intellectual heritage. For the hasty and, upon closer examination, untenable equation of “Islam” with “knowledge,” preached ad nauseam for decades, means that statements like those in the Encyclopedia of Seerah are taken at face value. The surrender of reason to the Koran and the “knowledge” derived from the words and actions of Muhammad, or so one is falsely promised, will, on the one hand, make true “scientific” understanding possible by reducing the world to a single unambiguous concept, and, on the other hand, it will banish once and for all the dangers conjured up by a Western science defamed as godless. The Pakistani scholar Fazlur Rahman (1919 – 1988) courageously confronted such illusions among his co-religionists. He relentlessly exposed how they result in an unacceptably narrow view of reality and also of the Koran and the hadith. The authoritative texts of Islam are being misused to extract “evidence” taken out of context with which one “proves” the alleged godlessness of individual aspects of Western civilization, for example its financial system resting on the charging of interest, and the superiority of Islam. Neither the entirety of Western civilization nor the entirety of the Koranic message and its historical background are taken into account, Fazlur Rahman criticizes; slogans have replaced the

A Muslim Path to the Historicity of Muhammad?

241

search for knowledge. Muslims can only correct this malady by preparing the way for a new overall evaluation of the prophetic biography and the Koran. We shall conclude this study simply by dwelling on Fazlur Rahman’s thoughts regarding the modernization of Islam. It is not true, Fazlur Rahman writes, that the Muslim attitude towards the sciences has been thoroughly positive. On the contrary! Since the late Middle Ages, Muslims have disparaged entire branches of scholarship as bad – philosophy, music – or as “useless” – mathematics.¹⁰ The Islamic prayer, “Lord, increase my knowledge!” (Sura 20: 114) has been neglected.¹¹ The adoption of Western science in the modern period, which became unavoidable, has not led to a new attitude. Either one has damned Muslims who have been open to it, accusing them of endangering the “purity” of “original Islam,” or one has asserted that all the Western achievements were really already “in Islam” long ago. What Fazlur Rahman rightly regrets as missing [in the Islamic world] is an intellectually honest coming to grips with, on the one hand, the intellectual ideas flowing from the West, and, on the other hand, the totality of the Islamic legacy. Fazlur Rahman is concerned that the Koran’s indirectly expressed injunction to increase one’s own knowledge not be used as a pretext for sealing oneself off from foreign knowledge. Rather, he demands that this knowledge be deliberately welcomed on the basis of a newly conceived Islam. But Muslims can succeed in doing this only after making considerable efforts of their own. The fundamentalists, driven by anti-Western resentment, sought a return to a “pristine” Islam, which encompasses all “knowledge” within itself, and the modernists likewise believed that one must embark on a search for the “true” Islam in order to discover in it everything that makes the technical-scientific civilization so desirable. According to Fazlur Rahman, neither of these schools of thought takes the Koran or the biography of Muhammad seriously. For both wrongly suppose that they have done all the necessary work merely by presenting a passage from the authoritative texts that supports their opinions. By no means, asserts Fazlur Rahman: “It is the biographers of the Prophet, the Hadith collectors, the historians, and the Qur’an commentators who have preserved for us the general social-historical background of the Qur’an and the prophet’s activity and in particular the background (sha’n al-nuzul) of the particular passages of the Qur’an – despite the divergence of accounts about the latter in some cases. This would surely not have been done but for their strong belief that this background is necessary for our understanding of the Qur’an.”¹² – Here Fazlur Rahman argues for exactly what the Qadi ‘Iyad had so decisively rejected: For historicizing the figure of the prophet and his message. The rejection of this historicization has led to the retreat of Islamic thinking into the iron cage that allegedly offers protection from a changing world.

242

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World

It is strange, Fazlur Rahman continues, that there has never yet been an effort to analyze the content of the Koran by taking the traditions as a basis for the chronology of the emergence of the suras. “If this method is pursued, most arbitrary and fanciful interpretations will at once be ruled out, since a definite enough anchoring point will be available.”¹³ It is only because one has never yet regarded the Koran as a whole whose unity is based on the prophet’s biography, but only as a quarry from which one can take pieces as needed, that the arbitrary use of its verses has gone unchallenged. Basing the interpretation of the Koran on the life of the prophet and on the social and religious environment in which he worked, therefore conducting an exegesis in the real sense of the word, will not lead to “monolithic” results, but to fruitful diversity, that is, to assertions that are open to revision. Fazlur Rahman hopes that Muslims, inspired by the life’s work of Muhammad, will develop their own Islamic access to the reality of this world.¹⁴ If they should succeed in doing so, however, they would have to abandon the illusory assumption that they possess trans-temporally true rules that apply to everything and everyone. Arbitrarily selected fragments from their authoritative texts can no longer be passed off as eternal truths; such intellectual laziness must become a thing of the past. Fazlur Rahman’s words still strike us as those of a lonely voice in the wilderness. But the ways of God are wondrous and unpredictable.¹⁵

Appendix 1: Muhammad and his Position in Ancient Arab Genealogy General Points Arabian society in pre- and early-Islamic times, according to its own self-understanding, was organized into tribes, each united by descent from a common male ancestor. The members of a tribe accordingly considered themselves related by blood, although this belief was in many cases more fiction than fact. The tribes were in turn divided into sub-groups, each tracing itself to a male ancestor who had lived a few generations earlier; the tighter relationship of such a sub-group will in most cases have corresponded to the facts. But even the larger tribes were considered to be related to one another¹ in ways that were of considerable political importance, as can be observed in the time of the Umayyad dynasty (which ruled in Damascus ca. 660 – 749). For the fictitious relationship of the tribal ancestors to one another and above all to the male ancestor of the caliphs’ dynasty was what guaranteed the loyalty of the tribal leaders to the ruler. Furthermore, the boundaries of blood relationship were also the boundaries of any sort of social obligation. One recognized ties of loyalty to the members of a foreign tribe only under narrowly construed conditions that were defined by custom. In general, the further the real or fictitious blood relationship was from the lived experience of daily life, the weaker was the feeling of solidarity. Yet even clans that belonged to one and the same tribe could wage unending feuds against each other, and the same was true especially for the individual tribes within a larger tribal grouping resting on alleged descent from a common male ancestor. Muhammad regarded this system, in which each person’s identity was defined by descent from his or her male ancestors, as instituted and sanctioned by God. He strove to solidify this system in pure patrilineal form by means of the marital rules that he promulgated in Medina (cf. Chapter 13 and, in greater detail, MLL, 324– 335).

Ishmaelite Arabs and Others The genealogy of all the tribes that achieved trans-regional significance up to Muhammad’s time in Arabia, whether it be the Kindites, who had imposed an ephemeral rule on the peninsula in the 6th century, or the vassals of the Sassanids – namely the Lakhmids in Hira – or those of the Byzantines – namely the Ghassanids in ash-Sha’m (Table IX) – differed in one essential point from the gehttps://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-022

244

Appendix 1: Muhammad and his Position in Ancient Arab Genealogy

nealogy of the Meccan Quraysh, who brought Arabia under their power thanks to Muhammad and Islam: unlike the Quraysh, they did not trace their family tree back to Ishmael. In Muhammad’s lifetime and during the rule of the Umayyads all non-Ishmaelite tribes were viewed as Arabs of Yemeni origin. Fragments of legends exist telling of their migration to the north. A certain Qahtan is named as their first common male ancestor. In opposition to these “Yemeni” or “south Arabian” tribes were the “northern Arabs,” who descended from Ishmael and through him claimed as their own the biblical forefathers up to Adam. It was at the latest during the Umayyad era that the Quraysh claimed to be the noblest branch of the “northern Arabs.” Naturally, the genealogists did not know how many generations separated the “northern Arabs” from the son of Abraham. In any case, they traced Ishmael’s descendants down to a certain Nizar, to whom they attributed the sons Mudar and Rabi’a. Important northeast-Arabian tribes like the Christian Banu Taglib as well as the Banu Hanifa and the Banu Shaiban recognized in the latter [Rabi’a] a common ancestor; these Rabite tribes came under Muhammad’s power only very late, so we can dispense with a sketch of their genealogy. In contrast, the Quraysh saw themselves as the descendants of Mudar, whom they credited with being already a Muslim and thus the true heir of Ishmael; more than all other Arabs, the Quraysh considered themselves duty-bound to continue this legacy. Among the Ishmaelite Mudarite Arabs were also the Ahabis, who cooperated with the Quraysh, and also the Banu Tamim (Table I), a tribe respected especially in eastern Arabia with links to the Sassanids. When Muhammad was a young man, the Banu Tamim protected in various ways the interests of the Quraysh, which is evidence of the Iranian influence on Mecca, something that is also attested elsewhere. To be sure, the Quraysh for their part made much of the fact that they were not formally dependent on anyone. As Mudarite Arabs they also led the Qaisite tribes; among them the Banu Thaqif from al-Taif, the Hawazin, Sulaim, Ghatafan, and ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a (Table II) played a prominent role in the life of Muhammad. They rejected his claim to power and posed a threat to the Medinan community.

The Quraysh Let us turn now to the Quraysh! Their Meccan clans by no means stood in a single relationship to their male ancestor Fihr, who bore the nickname Quraysh (Table III). First let us consider the descendants of Qusayy, who was said to have seized control over Mecca from the “south-Arabian” Khuza’a. Three lines became important in the history of the city: that of ‘Abd ad-Dar, who held the keys to the Kaaba; that of Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza, who, unlike the rest of the Qur-

The Quraysh

245

aysh, wanted to open Mecca to Byzantine influence, thus making himself unpopular. – Khadija, Muhammad’s first wife, was his granddaughter, [and] az-Zubair, whom Muhammad praised as his disciple due to unusual bravery in war, was his great-grandson (Table VI). – Finally, [there was] the line of ‘Abd Manaf: Muhammad descended from his son Hashim, [and] the Alids and Abbasids also traced their lineage to Hashim. A grandson of Hashim, Abu Lahab (Table IV), was, however, one of Muhammad’s harshest critics. The descendants of ‘Abd Manaf’s son ‘Abd Shams also rejected the prophecy of Muhammad, with the sole exception of ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan, who was an early convert to Islam (Table V). Due to the great importance in the life of Muhammad of the Quraysh clan of the Banu Makzum as well as of Abu Bakr, Talha b. ‘Ubaidallah, and ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an of the clan of Taim b. Murra, their position in the genealogy of the Quraysh is also shown; the same applies to the genealogy of the clan of the Banu ‘Adi b. Ka’b, to which ‘Umar b. al-Khattab and Muhammad’s predecessor Zaid b. ‘Amr b. Nufail belonged (Tables VII and VIII). Confederacies between individuals or clans, sealed with oaths, created ties that went beyond mere blood kinship. They served above all to strengthen the efficacy of individuals or groups, but at the same time they formed the first beginnings of institutions that facilitated the pursuit of goals that a single kinship group could not have achieved. For example, in the conflict over the legacy of Qusayy, which was a struggle for power in Mecca, the clan of his son ‘Abd adDar entered into the so-called confederacy of the “blood-lickers” with the clans of Sahm, Jumah, Makzum, and ‘Adi b. Ka’b. Opposed to them were the followers of ‘Abd Manaf, who had entered into the confederacy of the “perfumed ones,” namely the kin of ‘Abd Manaf and the clans of Zuhra b. Kilab, Taim b. Murra, Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza, and al-Harith b. Fihr. In the confederacy of the “eminences,” in which Muhammad is supposed to have participated, the confederates promised no longer to tolerate that commerce in Mecca might be disrupted by attacks on [visiting] merchants who, in a tribal society, would in principle have been fair game (MLL, 41 f. and 54). An examination of the partners in this confederacy reveals some facts about the relationship of the Quraysh clans at the end of the 6th century: the confederacy of the “eminences” appears to be a continuation of the confederacy of the “perfumed ones,” for among its members were still the clans of Zuhra and Taim b. Murra; the clan of Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza has left, presumably because of its unpopular inclination towards Byzantium; of the clan of ‘Abd Manaf only the descendants of Hashim are still mentioned, [and] the clan of ‘Abd Shams has in the meantime attached itself to the Banu Makzum, who had risen to a position of wealth and power.

246

Appendix 1: Muhammad and his Position in Ancient Arab Genealogy

The Yemeni Arabs The non-Ishmaelite Arabs were represented in Mecca and its environs by the Khuza’a (Table X), who had in the past been stripped of power by Qusayy. Nonetheless they continued living there. Muhammad’s mother Amina bint Wahb of the Quraysh Banu Zuhra b. Kilab had a Khuza’a grandmother, whose father Abu Kabsha Wagz b. Galib had worshipped Sirius, the Dog Star, (cf. Sura 53: 49) as a deity that surpassed all others (cf. Chapter 4). In memory of this man, Muhammad was named Ibn abi Kabsha due to his monotheistic teachings in Mecca (MLL 120). But Muhammad’s relationship to non-Ishmaelite clans was much closer even than this. In Medina, alongside the Jewish tribes of the Banu Qaynuqa’, Banu n-Nadir, and Banu Qurayza, there lived two “south-Arabian” tribes, the Aus and the Khazraj. Muhammad’s great-grandfather Hashim sired by Salma bint ‘Adi of the Khazraj (Tables XI and XII) his son ‘Abd al-Muttalib, who spent his childhood in Medina. In the relevant clan of the Khazraj, moreover, the name “Muhammad” was used already three generations before the prophet of Islam (MLL 100). The Hashemite connections to the Khazraj endured into the time of Muhammad. His father ‘Abdallah was with this Medinan clan when he died roughly at the time of the future prophet’s birth. Muhammad lived there for a few months as a child. In Muhammad’s adult years, the Aus and the Khazraj waged a violent, lengthy feud against each other, which ended in the early years of Muhammad’s mission with victory for the Aus. Upon arriving in Medina, Muhammad would take up residence with the Khazraj kin of Malik b. an-Najjar and from then on he would favor with all his might the Khazraj, for example, among other things, by expelling and partially annihilating the three Jewish tribes mentioned above, of which the two that owned land in Medina, the Banu n-Nadir and the Banu Qurayza, were confederates of the Aus.²

Genealogical Tables

Table I. The Descendants of Mudar; the Quraysh, the Banu Tamim, the Banu Bakr b. ‘Abd Manat, and the Ahabis

Table II. The Most Important Qaisite Tribes

Table III. The Clans of the Quraysh

Table IV. The Descendants of ‘Abd Manaf: The Hashemites

Table V. The Descendants of ‘Abd Manaf: ‘Abd Shams and the Umayyads

Table VI. The Descendants of Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza

Table VII. The Quraysh Clans Taim b. Murra and Makhzum

Table VIII. The Banu ‘Adi b. Ka’b

Table IX. Yemeni Tribes: the Kindites, Lakhmids, and others

Table X. Yemeni Tribes: the Ghassanids, the Khuza’ites; the Aus, Khazraj, and others

Table XI. The Aus

Table XII. The Khazraj

Maps

Map 1: Caravan routes in the Arabian Peninsula in the Time of Muhammad

Map 2: The Region around Mecca

Map 3: The Region around Medina

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad [from MLL, 835 – 846]

1. A Survey of Recent Scholarship on the Life of Muhammad The Dictionary of Islam, published in 1941, contained all those articles from the previously completed Encyclopedia of Islam that dealt primarily with religion. Many of these articles were considered at the time to be in need of revision, but not so the article on Muhammad. It was written by the Danish scholar Frants Buhl, who had died in 1932. His biography of Muhammad, published in Danish already in 1903, had been published in a German translation in 1930 (reprint Darmstadt 1961). It was regarded as the definitive treatment of the topic into the second half of the 20th century, at most requiring supplementation by Tor Andrae’s work Muhammad: His Life and Doctrine (German ed. 1932), a book with a focus on religious history. In the meantime, a completely new edition of the encyclopedia has been published. If one looks up the article in it entitled “Muhammad,” one makes a surprising discovery: The article on the life of the Islamic prophet, published in 1993 in the seventh volume, turns out to be an only slightly revised version of the piece by Buhl, which had been regarded as unsurpassable as long ago as 1941. How can we explain this astounding, or even disturbing, persistence of Buhl’s findings? Have there been no new discoveries in nearly a century of scholarship? That is certainly not the case. But the scholarly consensus on the question of whether, and if so how, it is possible to write the biography of Muhammad evaporated long ago. This is an inescapable fact for anyone who approaches this topic as a scholar. Recent works on the prophet of Islam are correspondingly disparate in their methodologies and representations. They range from gushingly infatuated narratives inspired by the tradition of Islamic hagiography (examples: Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet [New York: HarperCollins, 1992] and Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources [Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1983]) all the way to the denial of the historicity of Muhammad (examples: Cook/Crone, Hagarism, and Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Die dunklen Anfänge). It is obvious that it will not do to search for a middle path between these two mutually exclusive positions. It is necessary to make a new beginning, and to this end, it is essential first to review soberly the methodological problems that have led scholarship into a seemingly inescapable dilemma. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-023

264

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad

Buhl was already basically aware of the problems. He writes in the foreword to the German edition of his biography of Muhammad: “I feel acutely the difficulties encountered at every turn by one attempting to draw a portrait (of Muhammad), and the defectiveness of every attempt to transform his words in the Koran and traditions into a figure of flesh and blood.” The Koran and the traditions (in Arabic: al-hadith) frequently contradict each other so that, if one does not wish to emphasize one side arbitrarily, one ends up with an unsatisfactory “double picture.” But in spite of this fact, one is nonetheless justified in drawing conclusions about “his own religious life from the lively and powerful spiritual movement called forth by Muhammad;” of course, in doing this, one enters a terrain “where our logically consistent manner of thinking not infrequently” fails us. Tor Andrae’s book also was unable to contribute anything towards solving this fundamental problem. However, he did raise the question about the position of Islam within the religious history of southwestern Asia by attempting to explain the Koranic conception of “a religion of the book” as a Manichaean influence. The problem of the irreconcilability of the Koran and the hadith also concerned W. Montgomery Watt. In the middle of the 20th century, he was the only one to attempt in principle to move beyond the state of knowledge achieved by Buhl, Andrae, and a few others. Unlike, for example, Buhl, Watt clearly distinguishes between the historical tradition regarding the life of Muhammad – for example the sira of Ibn Ishaq and the maghazi of al-Waqidi – and the hadith, to which he assigns the function that it has in Islamic scholarship, namely grounding the norms of sharia; only from time to time does Watt use it as a historical source. The problems identified by Buhl, of course, are not thereby solved, but they do lose some of their sharpness. For, at first glance, the material in the sira and maghazi can more easily be brought into agreement with the Koran than with the hadith, which are of relevance to sharia jurisprudence. The hadith obviously document another, later developmental phase of Islam than does the Koran. This had become clear since the research of Ignaz Goldziher at the end of the 19th century; but Buhl had still assumed that in this later stage of development the earlier was present in disguised form. Watt tacitly abandoned this hope – in any case except in the individual cases in which he nonetheless believed himself justified in citing the hadith. But he did not investigate in depth the way in which the Koran and hadith differ in their content. Thus, in the end, he did not in essence move beyond Buhl. Because Watt intensively analyzed the narrative historical sources (sira, maghazi), however, he did succeed in shedding light on decisive social and economic aspects of the life of the prophet, so that the events of [Muhammad’s] life appeared more reliably embedded than before in a “material” background.

1. A Survey of Recent Scholarship on the Life of Muhammad

265

This way of understanding Muhammad’s material and social environment has been pursued further above all in Israeli scholarship – [Meir] Kister and his students, for example [Michael] Lecker and [Uri] Rubin – and this school has made very important contributions, which can be summed up as follows: The traditional historical sources on Arabia are far more illuminating than previously assumed. People had always been inclined to dismiss their contents as later inventions, especially in the cases in which they manifest ideas that are proclaimed in the Koran; it was taken for granted that these were pious fictions that took what counted as “true” or “Islamic” [for a later generation] and projected it back into the distant past. However, this type of assertion is a petitio principii that is not corroborated by independent witnesses; moreover, it overlooks the fact that the Muslim understanding of history stresses precisely the unbridgeable gulf between the pagan conditions that are condemned by Allah (in Arabic: al-jahiliya), on the one side, and those of Islam, on the other, so that an intentional projection of “true” sayings into the time of “untruth” is hardly to be expected (cf. MLL, Ch. VI). The conclusions of Israeli scholarship therefore make it necessary to analyze anew the Koran and the narrative sources on the life of Muhammad, for the conclusions reached by these scholars show that we can no longer regard the prophet of Islam as an erratic boulder in an impenetrable landscape that is beyond our capacity to explore; rather, they suggest that he and his life’s work are to be interpreted as part of the much broader religious and social history of southwest Asia. So far this has remained undone. The reason for this, now as in the past, is to be found in the incompatibility between Koran and hadith, as diagnosed by Buhl. For, as C. H. Becker asserted in a programmatic essay (“Grundsätzliches zur Leben-Muhammadforschung,” in Islamstudien I, Leipzig, 1924, 520 – 527), the hadith stand in a close – and, as people think, fatal – relationship to the sira literature. Even the achievements of the Jerusalem School have not been able to do away with this incompatibility; for that is impossible. But they have sharpened our appreciation for the knowledge that, with the hadith, a new element penetrates into a content-rich historical tradition [and] gradually subverts this tradition, subordinating it to its own requirements, which precisely do not consist in a historicizing of the past. The core questions that anyone must address who sets out to write a biography of Muhammad are therefore these: 1. What is the meaning of the Koran’s message in relation to the “pagan” world surrounding Muhammad, and where shall we locate this message in religious history? From this question one is immediately forced to confront the second core question: 2. How can the content of the Koran’s message be related to the life of the prophet, when, after all, the hadith, much of which overlaps with the sira, already offers the later, normative, ahistor-

266

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad

ical interpretation of this life? How can we get behind this normative interpretation? The discouraging answer, which the scholarship has been giving for several decades, is: We cannot at all! A consequence of this pessimistic conclusion were studies that sought to approach the history of early Islam in a completely new way on the basis of a few pieces of evidence in non-Islamic sources from the seventh century. The figure of Muhammad, whose vigorous personality Buhl thought he still detected behind the statements of the sources, faded into a mere specter (Michael Cook, Muhammad, Oxford 1983). The disappearance of the historical Muhammad – by the way a surprising victory for the Muslim hadith scholars who had aimed at precisely this outcome! – is directly connected to a sensational development in Western Koran scholarship since the 1970s: The Koran, or so some scholars thought, is not the authentic testimony of a man who felt himself called by God to be a prophet and who had far-reaching religious and political ambitions; rather, the Koran is a corpus of texts with kerygmatic and edifying content that grew over centuries as the result of an anonymous redaction process (John Wansbrough, Quranic Studies, Oxford 1977; idem: The Sectarian Milieu, Oxford 1978). An interpretation of the origins of Islam that assumed an actual person named Muhammad was considered no longer possible (Cook/Crone, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World, Cambridge 1977). Because, of course, the emergence of a significant military-political power in the first half of the seventh century is attested by numerous non-Arabic sources and thus cannot be denied, these scholars drew a distinction between Arabic-Islamic sources with a religious content and those that focused on the history of events. One could regard the former [either] as true in their entirety – this is the faith-stance of Muslims – or one must dismiss them entirely as fiction – which, we are told, is the position of historical-critical scholarship; only if there is a “specific” reason may one, exceptionally, give any weight to an Arabic-Islamic text relating to the emergence of the religion of Islam (further information on the scholarly-historiographical background of this approach can be found in my study Medinensische Einschübe in mekkanischen Suren, Göttingen 1995, 7– 13). In the end, this means that the extremely extensive Arabic-Islamic source material on Muhammad and on the emergence of Islam may only be taken into consideration according to the subjective preconceptions of the individual researcher – for what is a “specific” reason? – and these are subjective because, on the one hand, there is no objective standard available for identifying the statements about the history of events and for separating them from the mass of statements that are “religious” in content, and because, on the other hand, it cannot be explained why the meager, often vague and contradictory allusions of foreign [i. e. non-Arabic and non-Islamic] sources standing outside of the events [in question] should be considered

1. A Survey of Recent Scholarship on the Life of Muhammad

267

more reliable [than the Arabic-Islamic sources] (see Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It, Princeton 1997, for a collection of such texts). Cook, Crone, and Wansbrough are highly qualified experts who know the relevant Arabic sources. Their arguments therefore carry some weight and can only be refuted by means of an analysis that goes further and deeper than theirs, something which is thoroughly possible, as we shall explain shortly. It is a different matter with the works of Karl-Heinz Ohlig and his circle, which are not compatible with previous scholarship. Presumably due to a misinterpretation of the hypotheses discussed above, Ohlig and his circle regard knowledge of the Arabic source material on the life of Muhammad and the early history of Islam as dispensable, indeed as misleading. In the foreword of his 2000 book Weltreligion Islam, Ohlig explicitly boasts about his ignorance of Arabic, which, he tells us, protects him from reading the relevant sources and thus being robbed of his impartiality of judgment (Vorwort, 12). In Ohlig’s opinion, Islam is really a Christian sect, muhammad is not a proper name – a prophet by this name never existed – and both the Koran and the entire Arabic tradition regarding this Muhammad and early Islam are a gigantic fraud perpetrated in the Abbasid era (after 749). Perhaps only one who does not know pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabic literature could fall into the erroneous idea that a few people got together and invented a good 150 years of history, with a cast of thousands of people, with religious and political streams contending against each other, with different interpretations of one and the same event, etc. Such an unusual event, probably unprecedented in world history, would require a closer exploration and justification. This, however, is not offered. Instead, the reader is told that in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the inscription dating from 691/2, muhammad ‘abd Allah wa-rasulu-hu is not to be translated as “Muhammad is the slave of Allah and his Messenger,” but means “praiseworthy is the slave of Allah and his messenger,” both of which refer to Jesus the Messiah.¹ Now, a beginning student of Arabic learns at the latest in the second week that muhammad in this syntactical position cannot be an – indeterminate – predicate nominative but, according to the sense, only a determinate subject; only in the function of a proper name can a noun that is indeterminate by its grammatical form have a determinate meaning. One would have to give a plausible explanation of why such a striking violation of the rules of grammar would appear in the inscription and on coins that were coming into circulation at the same time. Because muhammad, the alleged title of Jesus, cannot be Arabic, according to Ohlig it stems from ancient Aramaic (7th to 4th century B.C.) (cf. also the summary of his thesis written by Ohlig himself in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21 November 2006, 41 and 43), or following the most recent interpretation even from Ugaritic (V. Popp in Ohlig, ed., Der frühe Islam, Berlin 2007, 23 f.). Thus the elimination of Muhammad from world

268

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad

history raises more questions than it answers; for how is one to imagine that, of all things, an Ugaritic term, which describes the exquisite quality of, for example, gold, should have survived for 2000 years, in order then to have popped up far from Ras Shamra as a flattering nickname for Jesus? There remains, moreover, the question, much more difficult to answer, of how a Muhammad expelled from world history could yet return to it as a specter of such astounding potency. Let us return to the discussion of scholarship in the strict sense! Cook and Crone paid shockingly little attention to the emergence of the indisputably existing, vast, and manifold source material. Instead they asserted their thesis with vehemence and zeal. They disparaged those who worked with the main types of source material on Muhammad and early Islam, for according to their viewpoint such scholarly work appeared outmoded, but they did promote study of the history of the late antique Near East in the first half of the seventh century. The results of a number of symposia devoted to this topic since 1984 were published in the series Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam and shed welcome light on conditions in those regions penetrated by the armies of the Arab-Islamic conquerors. Gradually, in the wake of such studies, the stage was set for a return to the Arabic-Islamic sources, in which of course the question of the person of Muhammad, of the content of his religious ideas, and of their influence on his actions and on the course of early Islamic history, was mostly excluded (cf. on this the remarks of F. E. Peters, “The Quest of the Historical Muhammad,” Journal of Middle East Studies 23 (1991): 291– 315). A further peculiar detail is that the farreaching and long-lasting effects brought about by the reign of Justinian (r. 527– 565), not least his religious policy, and precisely in Syria, Palestine, and the bordering regions to the south, remained largely unexamined. Thus, one dared not discuss Muhammad as the proclaimer of a new religion, whether because one doubted, like Cook and Crone, that he ever existed, or because one regarded him as historical, but did not know how to derive tenable evidence about him from the sources. The latest state of the discussion was documented in a collection entitled The Biography of Muhammad: The Issue of the Sources (Leiden 2000), which contains the ten contributions at a colloquium of experts held in October 1997 in Nijmegen. In his preface, the editor and initiator, Harald Motzki, points out the dilemma in which Muhammad scholarship finds itself, and not only in his opinion: On the one hand, it is impossible to write a biography of Muhammad without being accused by one’s academic colleagues of using the sources uncritically; on the other hand, if one approaches the sources critically, it is impossible for one to write a biography of the prophet. All the authors who gathered at Nijmegen shared this opinion, more or less, which is why I shall focus here only on Motzki’s contribution, which is also the most extensive.

1. A Survey of Recent Scholarship on the Life of Muhammad

269

Motzki is convinced, however, that scholars are not in a hopeless situation. To make progress in analyzing the sources, something that has not been done adequately hitherto, in his opinion, he recommends that one make use of the formal criteria that the relevant Muslim traditions offer. This material takes the form of hadith, mostly very short textual units, each of which is preceded by a chain of transmitters (in Arabic: al-isnad). If one studies this together with the text (in Arabic: al-matn), one will be able to determine which of these texts are reliable and which, for one reason or another, are not. As soon as one has completed a sufficiently large number of such studies, the contours of the historical Muhammad will gradually emerge from the clutter of the fictitious material. Motzki published an example, in the volume mentioned above, of his procedure and the results one can achieve with it (“The Murder of Ibn abi l-Huqayq: On the Origin and Reliability of some Maghazi Reports,” ibid., 170 – 239). The example deals with the assassination ordered by Muhammad of one of his Jewish critics (cf. MLL, Ch. IV). What conclusion does Motzki reach? The event is handed down via four main chains [of transmitters], each of which splits after around 740 into a whole group of younger transmitters. From this Motzki concludes that the traditions are themselves older than this date, after which they are handed on via numerous paths. Consideration of the basic texts, which differ slightly [from each other], also leads to the insight that the reported history is “much older” “than one would expect”; he thinks the last third of the seventh century. But in one essential point the four texts do not agree: the person who murdered Ibn abi l-Huqayq. If one knew who the murderer really was, then one would possess the historical truth, according to Motzki. He tries to come nearer to the truth by asking whether a report on the event could have been used, and thus falsified, in early Koranic exegesis or later in justifying sharia norms. Unfortunately, his efforts do not lead to any clear conclusion. Besides, we have to ask whether the utilization of the report in the aforementioned context would already have to count as evidence that the content has been falsified. What follows from his painstakingly detailed study? He himself draws the conclusion. He himself insists, first of all, that biographies of Muhammad by modern historians do not yield a trustworthy depiction of the life of the prophet. For example, what they write about the murder of Ibn abi l-Huqayq cannot be taken for historical fact, [for] they have carelessly failed to find out “which of the sources is the most reliable” . – How a judgment about this could be made is nowhere plausibly explained; in the end, Motzki, too, ends up [allowing] the “specific” reasons that Cook and Crone had already allowed to count for accepting or rejecting a tradition, that is, intuition, although he speaks of “reliability.” – “Historical truth,” Motzki avers, cannot in any case be found in the biographies of Muhammad that have been published up till now, and to this extent

270

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad

the radical critique advanced by Cook and Crone was correct. However, they were wrong to assert the impossibility of reconstructing the facts. He, however, has discovered a means of approaching reality in the aforementioned technique of textual analysis by means of the isnad-cum(why cum?)-matn method. However, hundreds of studies of this type must be completed before one may dare to write a biography of the prophet (p. 233 f.). Now, Motzki’s procedure of considering a text and its chain of transmitters together in order to place the diffusion and variation of certain ideas into a historical context is not as new as he thinks. But first an observation on this point! For now, let us underscore that it is a mystery, how a plausible whole is supposed to emerge from the multiplication of such studies, each of which deals with one tiny aspect; the piling up of small change leads to a pile of small change, and if it is a lot, then the pile will be a big one. In other words, unless guided by a leading idea, diligence remains unfruitful; even the natural sciences do not proceed solely by means of the sheer accumulation of empirical data. What would really be gained for the biography of Muhammad if we could convict the true murderer of Ibn abi l-Huqayq? As far as we can tell, based on what we know, nothing, and thus uncertainty about this matter should not prevent us from pursuing much more illuminating and thoroughly answerable questions. For, in the final analysis, Motzki’s method tells us nothing that we have not known for a long time already, namely, that in the first half of the 8th century, the hadith was given its mature form. It is a calamitous error, faithfully regurgitated and chewed over since C. H. Becker, to tacitly presuppose that everything other than the Koran that recounts something about early Islamic history is hadith and that consequently the sira and al-Waqidi’s maghazi, in order just to name these, must simply be placed into this category. A great deal of older material, for example the decisions of Muhammad and his earliest followers that are called qada’, were only transformed into hadith after the end of the 7th century (cf. e. g. the examples given in MLL, Ch. VIII). Since that time, an unhistorical veil has been thrown over the historical tradition (cf. my essay, “Verstehen oder Nachahmen – Grundtypen der muslimischen Erinnerung an Muhammad,” in: Jahrbuch des Historischen Kollegs 2006, 73 – 94 [See Appendix 3 for the translation of this essay]), and what Motzki and those who follow his method are worrying about is nothing more than the constant description of this veil. For an understanding of events in the early 8th century, especially religious-political currents, the procedure recommended by Motzki and used for a long time is thoroughly useful; for example, if one wants to investigate the wide diffusion of chiliastic thinking around the year 100 of the hijra (which began on 3 August 718), and know how the earliest history of Islam was interpreted in that thinking, then one must analyze together the text and chain of transmission of every single Ha-

1. A Survey of Recent Scholarship on the Life of Muhammad

271

dith. But in order to write a biography of Muhammad, one must aim to see through the veil, and that is naturally an endeavor that is fraught with the risk of error. The “isnad-cum-matn” method may occasionally reduce [the risk], but that is not decisive. It is the fate of all research to be replaced someday by new, further-reaching knowledge. But without the gamble, there will be no later revision! To an astonishing degree, Motzki’s procedure imitates the very differently motivated striving for security of the hadith scholars, who were, and are, permeated by the belief that there is an immutable, true knowledge which one must possess with certainty once and for all. Since time immemorial, they have thought that a good isnad guarantees the truth of the matn, but they too are furtively looking to see if a well-attested matn will come to them just when they need it, or not. For the notion that the inclusion of a Hadith in one of the canonical collections was based purely on a strict assessment of the isnad belongs in the realm of legend. In truth, the content of the Hadith was of decisive importance, as is shown by the very different theological orientations of, for example, the collection of al-Bukhari and that of at-Tirmidhi. Thus, individual source-critical investigations dominate the field of research on the life of Muhammad. The reasons for this have been delineated. In certain sections of the prophet’s biography, one can clarify matters in this way (an example: M. Schöller, Exegetisches Denken und Prophetenbiographie: Eine quellenkritische Analyse der Sira-Überlieferung zu Muhammad’s Konflikten mit den Juden, Wiesbaden 1998). But a break-through to a satisfactory overall interpretation is still pending. It must offer a plausible answer to the central question, raised already by Buhl, about the relationship between the Koran and the hadith, and this answer must emerge out of the life’s work of Muhammad himself, thereby at the same time eliminating the doubts about the historicity of the figure of the prophet. It seems to me a truism that this can only be achieved within the framework of a hermeneutic that focuses on the total complex “Muhammad and the emergence of Islam”; only under this precondition is there any prospect of substantial progress in our knowledge. And one will develop such a hermeneutic only if one undertakes carefully and attentively to register what the sources in their manifold genres actually tell us. After our depiction of the trials and tribulations of the past few decades, perhaps it will be helpful for the field of Islamic Studies, too, to point out for once what should be self-evident for any field of historical scholarship (M. Schöller, Methode und Wahrheit in der Islamwissenschaft, Wiesbaden 2000).

272

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad

2. The Biography of Muhammad in the Context of Tilman Nagel’s Scholarship Already in several earlier studies (Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des abbasidischen Kalifats, Bonn 1972; Rechtleitung und Kalifat: Versuch über eine Grundfrage der islamischen Geschichte, Bonn 1975), the sparseness of our knowledge about Muhammad’s activity in Medina and about the history of the first decades after his death became painfully obvious to me. Even the epoch of his first four successors was generally held to be virtually impenetrable. Because, however, the main focus of my interest lay in another era, a closer investigation into the obscuring flecks that we saw, and still see, whenever we look at history from the viewpoint of the Muslim sources was for the time being not an urgent matter for me. In 1980, the Beck publishing house proposed to me that I write a monograph on the Koran; colleagues who had previously been approached had turned the project down, I was told, which was understandable, for in those years Wansbrough’s thesis was stirring up a great deal of controversy, and if it had been confirmed, one would no longer know what the Koran is. After some hesitation, I nonetheless accepted the offer, because I was convinced that a much more thorough study of the whole body of Islamic revelation could not fail to be useful for a scholar of Islam. The conclusions I reached in connection with this work (Der Koran, Munich 1983) were the following: a. Wansbrough was wrong; the Koran testifies to an experience of God that is subject to an internally consistent development and is related to the “external,” historical stages of this development; Crone’s recommended exclusion of the analysis of the religious aspect block’s one’s view of this fact; b. the Koranic experience of God, which lies at the foundation of Muslim monotheism, sharply differentiates itself from the Christian and Jewish [experiences]; c. the same can be said of the concept of prophethood that the author of the Koran develops; it is clearly different from the understanding of prophethood in rabbinic Judaism and eastern Christianity. Also important for my further work was the insight that the conclusions reached by the formally-focused compilation of the textual history of the Koran (Nöldeke/ Schwally; R. Bell) are essentially confirmed by an analysis of the content from the standpoint of the phenomenology of religion. Wansbrough and his followers are unable, moreover, to render plausible how, from initially disconnected kerygmatic and edifying texts, a corpus can emerge that satisfies points a. through c., above.

2. The Biography of Muhammad in the Context of Tilman Nagel’s Scholarship

273

I was encouraged to engage in a more in-depth investigation of the life of Muhammad by my study of the content of the Koran with a special focus on Medinan interpolations into the Meccan Suras, [interpolations] that are expressly identified as such in many Koran editions. The verses in question are attested in a tradition stretching back into the 7th century, but this has been overlooked by Koran scholarship. Thus, Theodor Nöldeke writes (Geschichte des Korans, I, 153), without any further proof, that this tradition’s assertion that verses 1– 3 of the Joseph Sura were revealed in Medina, is “untenable and unfounded.” However, if one accepts this assertion [from the tradition], then it implies that the Joseph Sura admittedly arose in Mecca, but was first incorporated into the developing corpus of the Koran in Medina. For the biography of Muhammad, this in turn implies that Muhammad only gradually became aware that the result of his being addressed [by Allah] was to be a “scripture” or a “Koran,” an insight that found its confirmation in a completely different way (cf. on this my essay, “Vom ‘Qur’an’ zur ‘Schrift’, in: Der Islam 60 (1983): 143 – 165). The study of the other Medinan interpolations that are documented in the aforementioned tradition, combined with an examination of the relevant source material in each case in the sira and maghazi (presented in my detailed treatise Medinensische Einschübe in mekkanischen Suren, Göttingen 1995), led to a series of further important conclusions: a. Muhammad developed political ambitions already in Mecca; the notion, current in Muslim literature on Muhammad and also in European historical scholarship, that the prophet was a patient sufferer in Mecca, and became a political agent for the first time in Medina, is untenable. b. The origins of this notion reach back into the last years of Muhammad’s life. Its purpose is to portray the hijra as the act that truly founded the first specifically Muslim political community, whose foundation was said to have consisted in the implementation of Muhammad’s interests by military means. c. In this way, Islam is portrayed as a deliberate break by Muhammad with his roots in the Quraysh clan of ‘Abd Manaf, or a deliberate break with the Meccan Quraysh; this is the interpretation given to Muhammad’s life’s work by those among the Meccan hijra companions who held power after Muhammad’s death. After Muhammad had taken possession of his hometown in 630, his manner of acting contradicted these notions; the conflict with his hijra companions who were not descendants of ‘Abd Manaf was only imperfectly papered over at that time. After Muhammad’s death in 632, the divisions persisted and worsened (cf. also my progress report in Stefan Wild (ed.), The Qur’an as Text, Leiden 1996, 59 – 68).

274

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad

Consideration of a hitherto neglected or discarded tradition thus has made it possible to distinguish between what probably [actually] happened in a certain set of events in the prophet’s life, [on the one hand], and the interpretation of these events, already imposed very early and for a recognizable purpose, [on the other]. This result suggests that one should continue down this path: The Koran and the traditions regarding the life of the prophet can be brought into a fruitful dialogue. However, one must regard both sources as independent and clearly acknowledge that the traditions on the life of the prophet did not arise as an interpretation of the Koran. This would have already been the later Muslim view of things, which, moreover, tacitly presupposes that the traditions regarding the sira and maghazi lose their historical character and were transformed into trans-historical hadith (cf. on this my reflections in “Hadith – oder die Vernichtung der Geschichte,” in XXV. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Vorträge, ZDMG Supplementa 10, Stuttgart 1994, 118 – 128; examples can be found in my book Geschichte der islamischen Theologie, Munich 1994, 78 – 86). Rather, the sira and maghazi are presentations of Muhammad’s life’s work. Confirmed in this view by Uri Rubin’s book, The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muhammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims (Princeton 1995; cf. 226 – 228), I began an analysis of the sira and maghazi literature in the broadest sense, as well as the sources on the history of the city of Mecca and on the pre-Islamic history of the Quraysh. The latter gave a view of the binding loyalties and fault-lines within Muhammad’s tribe, which, as [I have] already indicated regarding the interpretation of the hijra, actually makes intelligible for the first time many details in the sira and also numerous statements in the Koran, linking them to pre-Islamic political quarrels and religious ideas. This research also succeeded in relating the content of Muhammad’s message to the late-antique religious history of southwest Asia better than had been done before (cf. “’Der erste Muslim:’ Abraham in Mekka” and “’Abraham der Gottesfreund:’ Deutungen muslimischer Korankommentatoren,” in: R. Kratz/T. Nagel (eds), “Abraham unser Vater,” Göttingen 2003, 133 – 149 and 150 – 164; “Theology and the Qur’an,” survey article for the Encyclopedia of the Qur’an). However, I do not give a systematic treatment of this set of problems in my presentation of the life-history of Muhammad, for all too often that would have made longer digressions necessary. The information on this, which in my opinion is indispensable, can be found in a few of the appendices (Zusätze) [in MLL, 873 – 979] (cf. in addition Der Koran und sein religiöses und kulturelles Umfeld, Volume 72 of the Kolloquien des Historischen Kollegs, Munich 2008). Alongside the continuous dialogue between the Koranic message and the vast source material on the life of the prophet – to which other materials add much that is valuable, e. g. the Kitab al-Aghani of al-Isbahani as well as other works that cannot be enumerated here in which biographical information

2. The Biography of Muhammad in the Context of Tilman Nagel’s Scholarship

275

about Muhammad’s contemporaries is compiled – it is also essential, as follows from what was said above, to shed light on how, already in Muhammad’s lifetime, certain factions whose emergence is discernible interpreted the events to which they were witnesses. The aforementioned book by Uri Rubin contains a few ideas on this subject, but it does not assign to the individual factions the central motives of the interpretation of the life’s work of Muhammad that is built into the sira literature. It is, however, possible to do this. But in order to gain clarity on this matter, the presentation of the life of Muhammad must include a treatment of the first five decades after his death. I made a rudimentary attempt along these lines in my study of the Medinan interpolations (cf. there, 169 – 185; also my article, “Die Inschriften im Felsendom und das islamische Glaubensbekenntnis: Der Koran und die Anfänge des hadith,” Arabica 47 (2000): 329 – 365). In this way, essential developments in the early history of the Islamic political community become clear. Especially worthy of attention due to its retrospective effect on the sira literature is the fateful way in which Muhammad’s monopoly on access to the “hidden” [realm], belief in which is obligatory according to Sura 2, verse 3, was imposed. My book Muhammad: Leben und Legende in this respect stands in a close connection with another book that I was writing at the same time. This book [Allahs Liebling] discusses the doctrine of Muhammad, its content, and its manifestations, and it analyzes above all the Islamic literature that arose on the prophet after the 12th century. In a lengthy first section, however, I explain how, after the development of sharia, this monopoly over the transmission of knowledge was ascribed to Muhammad, and I took as my starting point the developmental stage reached at the end of the 7th century, precisely the stage from which, in the presentation of the life of Muhammad, I had to look back at him again and again.

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation? Basic Varieties of Muslim Recollection of Muhammad [Translation of Tilman Nagel, “Verstehen oder Nachahmen? Grundtypen der muslimischen Erinnerung an Muhammad,” Jahrbuch des Historischen Kollegs 2006 (Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007), 73 – 94, http://www.his torischeskolleg.de/fileadmin/pdf/jahrbuch_pdf/Jahrbuch_2006.pdf]

1. The Caliph’s Court and the Scholars Rarely are scholars successful businessmen. This is a very old piece of knowledge, even if people choose to ignore it today and would like to make us all into entrepreneurs in our subject areas, above all in order to enrich our respective universities. In any case, I have sympathy for a Medinan member of my guild who supported himself and his family after a fashion by working in the wheat trade in the 8th century. But one day his debts piled up and he found himself bankrupt. “Why are you sitting around here?”, his wife nagged him, “The vizier of the ‘commander of the believers’ knows you, he asked you to go to visit him at his office!” Our scholar, Muhammad b. ‘Umar al-Waqidi (d. 822/3), had nothing intelligent to say in reply to these reproaches. He made his way, penniless, from Medina to Iraq. He discovered underway that the destination of his journey was not Baghdad, because the Caliph – Harun ar-Rashid (r. 786 – 809) – and his vizier, Yahya b. Khalid al-Barmaki, could only be found in ar-Raqqa on the middle Euphrates.¹ This happened in the 180th year of the hijra (which began on 16 March 796). Already as crown prince, Harun had led military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire from this region. For, since the early Islamic era, summer campaigns against Anatolia had become what one could almost term “a fond habit” of Muslim rulers of whatever dynasty, and so it was not surprising that Harun, too, for around ten years [now] “commander of the believers,” continued the war against Byzantium.² The prophet Muhammad himself was his role model in this respect. By the way, the Abbasids used their family connection and “spiritual” proximity to Muhammad to legitimize their rule, having seized power about a half-century earlier from the Damascene Ummayads. A few legal scholars under Harun in these very years were working out the sharia principles governing such obligatory wars and attempting to derive them from the inherently hostile relationship https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-024

1. The Caliph’s Court and the Scholars

277

between the “domain of Islam” and the “domain of war,” naturally basing their judgments on the Koran and prophetic traditions. [Some] people have misleadingly described the [doctrine of warfare] that was developed at this time, and is still being taught with a few modifications at sharia faculties till today, as an “Islamic law of nations.”³ Be that as it may, both Harun’s military and jurisprudential exertions made it logical for him to move his residence from the Tigris to the Euphrates. The ruins of the impressive royal palace, covering about ten square kilometers, were excavated and described by the German Archaeological Institute of Damascus in the 1980s and 1990s.⁴ Al-Waqidi was forced to change direction, and he completed the last leg of his trip by ship together with other impoverished travelers. He arrived at his destination clothed in rags. The reason for his confidence, and the incident of which his wife had reminded him, was this: In spring 791, the Caliph had made the pilgrimage and chose the route to Mecca that passed through Medina.⁵ Arriving there, he ordered the Vizier to find a knowledgeable man who could lead him around to all of the notable places in Medina and to the graves of the martyrs, but above all, he wanted a tour guide who knew where Gabriel came down to the prophet and brought him the revelation. Yahya b. Khalid asked around, and again and again people mentioned the name of al-Waqidi, and thus he sought out this man and told him to be ready outside the great mosque after the night prayer. Out of the darkness appeared candelabra, held by two people, each riding on a donkey; he recognized one as the Vizier. He was told to go ahead of them, and thus they made their way through Medina in the night; al-Waqidi explained things as they went and took them to the place where Gabriel had come down; both of them dismounted and said the obligatory prayers, appealing to Allah, and then they continued on their way from one site to another; morning was dawning already when they returned to the great mosque. Moved by feelings of deep piety, Harun wept openly. “We must depart today!” said the Caliph, handing the scholar a bag containing 10,000 dirhams, “do not hesitate to seek us out wherever we are!” But seeking him out was not a simple matter. All those who already enjoy the favor of a great lord work jealously to ensure that new-comers are not able to elbow them aside. However, we will pass over the scandalous things that al-Waqidi has to say on this topic to his pupil Ibn Sa’d (d. 845); we jump ahead now to the evening audience held by the Vizier and describe al-Waqidi’s first appearance before this illustrious circle. “Yahya began questioning me, but it was as if my mouth was nailed shut, and others gave answers that were quite contrary to my own view of things. When the night had passed, the people were leaving, and I followed behind one of them. Suddenly, a servant caught up to me me and instructed me: ‘The Vizier asks that you come back tomorrow evening,

278

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

but earlier than the time you came today.’” A sack with 500 gold dinars removed any fear that this order could portend something bad. As requested, al-Waqidi came to the gate the next evening, having meanwhile acquired clothing fit for an audience at the court, and he was immediately brought before the Vizier, who greeted him joyfully: “I began to narrate the report that (Yahya) had asked about, and answered him, and [my answer] was totally different from the one that those people had given [the night before]. I glanced over at them and noticed that they furrowed their brows at my answer. Yahya paid attention to me (alone) and asked me about this and that report, and I answered, while the others remained silent…” The prayer after sunset, followed by the evening meal and the night prayer, interrupted the scholar’s conversation; when it resumed, the Vizier tried to draw the others in, but this time it was they who could find no words to respond.⁶

2. The Hadith, a Specifically Islamic Literary Genre This text will presumably be a riddle to most readers, and not only because of my highly abbreviated summary of it. I assure you that I have only omitted details that contribute nothing by way of clarification, for example the description of how our scholar was able to clothe himself and acquire a riding animal and servant and send money back to his starving family in Medina, thanks to the unhoped-for monetary gift. The key Arabic word in this episode is “al-Hadith”, which I have translated as “report.” In another context, one could also translate it as “conversation” or “narration;” it always involves a situation in which one or more “transmitters of the report” are in contact with one or more recipients [of it]. The contents of a written chronicle would by no means be labeled a Hadith. In the 8th century, however, in addition to the usual connotations, which do not disappear, the word assumes the status of a technical term. It means simply reports that are illuminating for a Muslim, namely, those having to do with the prophet Muhammad and the circumstances of his life. This leads us to the obvious question of how this could be possible when, as just noted, a chronicle can never be called al-Hadith. It is, of all people, the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid b. Yazid (r. 743 – 744), described in the orthodox Islamic tradition as the epitome of frivolity,⁷ to whom we owe what is presumably the oldest didactic poem⁸ that summarizes the core idea of Islam. The one true faith, we read there, is that of Ahmad; he is the Messenger of the Lord of the throne, he is the warner, the transmitter of the Koran; Allah will lead this faith, which he founded himself, to triumph. Whoever obeys Allah, does right, whoever rebels against him or his Messenger, will

2. The Hadith, a Specifically Islamic Literary Genre

279

fail. Muhammad no longer lives, but we have, to quote, “the Koran and the right guidance, the path – they both remained, when the Messenger departed. It is as if he were still in your midst, living and healthy, because (thanks to both of these) he stayed with you! If you nonetheless step off of his path, then you go astray!”⁹ In the past, in the era of the original [Islamic] community, obedience to Muhammad had been identical to obedience to Allah; in the Medinan Suras, this was impressed upon the audience over and over again (e. g. Sura 4, verse 80):¹⁰ Whoever is submissive to Allah and the Messenger may count on paradise (e. g. Sura 4, verse 13).¹¹ Thus Muhammad guaranteed with his person the acquisition of salvation: He demanded obedience not only to the words of the Koran but to all of the instructions that he issued.¹² In them, Allah’s will was directly expressed. The death of the prophet did not change anything in this direct guidance (Arabic: al-huda) of the Islamic community by Allah, alWalid asserts. The person of Muhammad is still present, now as in the past, thanks to the Koran and what we know of the words, actions, and commands of the prophet. To understand this better, we must briefly consider the ideas about the nature of the cosmos that are contained in Muhammad’s message. Though we cannot go into detail here, these ideas consist of a late antique amalgamation, first, of monotheistic concepts of the sort one finds, for example, in Philo of Alexandria, and second, of Stoic doctrines, according to which the logos that permeates and shapes the cosmos can be understood as reality, as spirit, but also as Zeus, that is, a personal God.¹³ For Muhammad, it is clear that there is no being that is not directly determined by Allah, who is likewise thought of as a person. What we perceive as this world through our five senses are the effects of this continuous causal determination, arranged in a temporal series of before and after. Human beings themselves possess no causal power of their own. But they enjoy imagining that they can accomplish things by their own power; Islam, the exclusive orientation of all one’s thinking, striving, and acting towards Allah, cures them of this insanity. Because of its confusing multiplicity, this world, the one revealed to us by our five senses, is, as we have said, prone to lead us into this insanity. Now the prophet refers to our duty to believe in the realm of invisible being in verse 3 of Sura 2, a Sura that arose in the early Medinan period in which he summarizes his doctrines and laws, a realm that is hidden from our five senses and precisely for that reason one in which Allah’s causation cannot be misinterpreted by human beings. What goes on there is called amr in the Koran, and, according to Sura 17, verse 85, it also appears as a manner of being that is described as spirit (Arabic: ar-ruh), precisely that quality that makes itself known to the prophet as the word of Allah.¹⁴ Because amr is its root, the Koran is a pure manifestation

280

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

of the creative, causal activity of Allah, which normally is only manifested to human beings in the material world, where it is prone to misinterpretation. Several decades after Muhammad’s death, the conviction arose that it is not only in the Koran, but also in what the prophet said and did, but above all in what he commanded, that divine causal activity and the seamless integration of his person into this activity becomes tangible. Visualizing what Muhammad said and did becomes, as al-Walid indicates in his poem, a living form of correct guidance. “It is…as if he was alive and healthy in your midst!” – and thus one can continue to obey him, now as in the past, in order to obey Allah and reach paradise. When al-Walid was expressing these thoughts in verse, the literary genre that would satisfy the need for the visualization of correct guidance was still in formation; a half a century later, when al-Waqidi was justifying himself to the Vizier, it was complete. And not only that, it had come into fashion! Ishaq b. Ibrahim al-Mausili (d. 850), the most famous singer at Harun’s court, was very proud of being well-versed in the hadith and was himself an amateur hadith scholar.¹⁵ Those who belong to the “in” crowd naturally provoke envy among those who do not. In Basra there was a poet by the name of Ibn Munadir, who had composed verses in praise of Harun. While making a pilgrimage journey, the Caliph was passing through Basra; Ibn Munadir was allowed to recite his poetry to him and went home 20,000 dirhams richer. Yet despite this success, he became dissatisfied with his fate as a poet. For Sufyan b. ‘Ujaina (d. 813/4), one of the famous hadith experts, outstripped him in popularity; the crowds thronging around Sufyan were a thorn in his eye. One day he snuck up to Sufyan’s house and bellowed in well-turned verses the following message: “It is only thanks to ‘Amr and az-Zuhri and the forefathers that you enjoy your high standing among the eminent people… I have examined the matter carefully! And this is my conclusion: It is only for the sake of money that you flap your gums!” The object of this insult appeared with a club and beat the trouble-maker till he took flight. And now I come to the insight that is to be gleaned from such anecdotes: [The poet, Ibn Munadir,] had once heard how Sufyan quoted and praised poetry. Ibn Munadir faced him and demanded: “Please dictate those words to me!” “But it is your [poetry]!”, Sufyan replied with surprise. But Ibn Munadir persisted: “Even so! I would like you to dictate it to me. If I then transmit it on your authority, it will be easier to market than if I identify myself as its author!”¹⁶ The key word here is “transmit”. Sufyan b. ‘Ujaina’s intellectual work has nothing to do with originality; on the contrary, originality is positively frowned upon.¹⁷ His prestige rests on his proficiency in all things that can be traced back to the “founding fathers” [of Islam], those who knew the prophet first-hand; it rests on virtuosity in using the methods that go back in part to the aforementioned az-Zuhri (d. 742),¹⁸ and on the reliability of the material that Sufyan pre-

2. The Hadith, a Specifically Islamic Literary Genre

281

ferred especially to take from ‘Amr b. Dinar (d. 743/4), because every one of his Hadiths was worth more than twenty from any other source.¹⁹ This detour through a squabble among intellectuals in Harun’s era makes us deeply curious about the hadith: What is so special about this literary genre? How does it fulfill the functions demanded of it, namely, of visualizing the era of the first [Islamic] community and bringing to life the “correct guidance” [embodied in the person of Muhammad]? Every topic becomes an episode [depicted in the] hadith. As a randomly chosen example, I select what is said in one of the large collections about whether, when one is in the consecrated state of a pilgrim in Mecca, one may eat the flesh of an animal killed while hunting. On this question the source offers four Hadiths – the individual units as well as the genre bear this title [capitalized here to distinguish between the two]. One says: someone asks a companion of the prophet: “Have you heard that Allah’s Messenger received the upper leg of a slain wild animal as a gift, but rejected it with these words: ‘I am in the consecrated state’?” The one who was asked responds: “Yes.” The second Hadith provides some additional details surrounding the simple prohibition that is to be deduced from Muhammad’s words: A certain al-Harith was the governor of al-Taif under the third Caliph ‘Uthman. One day he prepared a meal for ‘Uthman consisting of partridges and venison. The Caliph called for ‘Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet: The runner found him as he was cutting brush for his camel stallions. ‘Ali interrupted this activity on the spot, followed the runner, and was still brushing the leaves from his sleeves when he met the Caliph. “Eat!” people were urging the Caliph, but he refused again and again: “Give it to someone who is in a profane condition, for I am in a consecrated state!” ‘Ali asked the people gathered there: “Is there anyone here from the tribe of the Asga? And, addressing them, he continued: “Do you know that someone gave to Allah’s Messenger, who was in a consecrated state, a wild donkey, but the Messenger refused to eat it?” “Yes!” they answered. The longer version does not provide any more guidance authorized by the prophet – the key Islamic concept here – than the shorter one does; in this respect, the two Hadiths contain the same information. But the second satisfies better than the first one the need for direct tangibility, the need to be there [with the prophet], and in a two-fold sense. ‘Ali turns to the Asga, and by doing this, it is suggested to the listener that something must have happened with the Asga that they, the ones being addressed, still can remember; the prohibition is embedded in an event that they recall and is no longer an abstract norm. We are not told what this event was, and I have not been able to find anything concrete in the vast body of material concerning the biography of the prophet to clarify what is being alluded to here. We are apparently dealing here with fabricated concreteness. The same applies to ‘Ali, who brushes away

282

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

the traces of his activity in order to appear appropriately in front of [the Caliph and his retinue]. We have here an example of narrated authentication, mixed with partisanship in the quarrel over how far the so-called prophetic family possesses a special knowledge of correct guidance; this quarrel does not just divide Sunnis and Shiites down to the present day, but also led to controversies within Sunni Islam. If ‘Ali points out the relevant statement by Muhammad, then one must not doubt its truth. But above all, in dealing day in and day out with such stories, one sees the situation surrounding the testimony come alive before one’s eyes: the son-in-law of the prophet, leading an austere life, but even so, exuding a charisma that cannot be outweighed by any amount of luxury, and over against him the ignorant Caliph, leading a self-indulgent life, but acting cautiously, or else he would have no reason to allow ‘Ali’s superiority to be put on display. This scene, too, is thus a piece of fabricated concreteness; the aforementioned az-Zuhri owes his fame not least of all to the novelty of now incorporating these trappings, too, into the written registers of the Hadiths about which we already hear in the 7th century.²⁰ We now come to the third and fourth Hadith concerning the refusal of wild game in the consecrated state. We are confronted with an example of the brief statements concerning the “permitted” and the “forbidden” that are recorded at the beginning of the development of this literary genre. We are told with laconic brevity: I heard Allah’s Messenger say: “(Eating) slain terrestrial animals is permitted to you (in the consecrated state), insofar as you have not slain them and they have not been slain (expressly) for you.” Here too there is a longer version. A companion of the prophet by the name of Abu Qatada – he has the nickname “the horseman of Allah’s Messenger”²¹ – was together with Muhammad on the journey from Medina to Mecca and fell some distance behind with a few others. Suddenly he discovered a wild donkey. He jumped on his horse and asked his companions to hand him his lance and whip, which they refused to give him. Undeterred, Abu Qatada grabbed his lance and whip himself, we are told, leapt upon the wild donkey, and killed it. A few of his companions ate of its flesh, others did not. When they had caught up to Muhammad, they asked him what was the right thing to do. He answered: “It is a matter of a dish that Allah gave you to eat.”²² This concrete description of the situation in which Muhammad gives instruction is not fictitious, [for] it is located in the biography of the prophet. After the so-called Battle of the Ditch, when the Meccans, supported by a broad tribal coalition, failed in their attempt to conquer Muhammad in Medina, he decided that the time had come for him to advance against his hometown. In late winter 628, it became known that he was moving on Mecca with a large host of followers: he planned to enter the city and, cost what it may, perform the rites of pilgrimage.

2. The Hadith, a Specifically Islamic Literary Genre

283

Because the Meccans would certainly regard this as an affront, a violent confrontation had to be expected. Muhammad accordingly had in his train not only a large number of followers prepared for the pilgrimage – and therefore bound to proceed peacefully – but also 700 armed men in a “profane” state. The Meccans had set up their military camp at a strategically favorable location, and their cavalry alone was powerful enough to be more than a match for Muhammad’s military force. At al-Hudaybiya, a settlement one day’s journey from Mecca, negotiations took place in which Muhammad had to make substantial concessions, but in which he was able to secure a ten-year truce – an agreement that naturally worked to his advantage as the more dynamic of the two parties. On the march to Mecca, so we read in al-Waqidi’s indispensable chronicle of [Muhammad’s] military campaigns, provisions ran short. The Muslims encountered some Bedouins. Muhammad called upon them to convert to Islam – in his view, they would then be obligated to support him. They apparently saw the matter in the same way and rejected conversion. Nevertheless, they did not want to alienate him completely, so they offered him some milk and milk products as a gift. For his part, he told them he did not accept anything from “associaters” or polytheists; he insisted on paying at market rates. A few of the fighters accompanying him purchased from the Bedouins three large lizards. Those in a consecrated state now wanted to know from Muhammad if they were allowed to eat the lizard meat. He answered them with the words quoted above: eating the meat was permissible “insofar as you have not slain them and they have not been slain (expressly) for you.”²³ And it was much the same at that time with Abu Qatada: he, the “horseman of the prophet,” belonged to the fighters and thus was not in a consecrated state; he brought the slain wild donkey, whose flesh had already been prepared, to the main body of Muhammad’s column of pilgrims and fighters, and those in a consecrated state hesitated to eat of it until the prophet himself tucked in.²⁴ Hunger on the march to Mecca in Spring 628 thus forms the background for the third and fourth Hadith. Abu Da’ud, the compiler from the 10th century, naturally notices the contradiction between them and the first two. He therefore gives the reader some advice on how to deal with this: “Whenever two reports that originate from the prophet are in conflict with each other, it is necessary to examine which one his companions followed.”²⁵ Thus, according to the opinion of the Sunni Hadith collectors, the historical circumstances that could have led to the enactment of a rule are not to be explicated: in our case they could perhaps be summed up in a principle that is also not unknown in sharia jurisprudence, namely, “necessity excuses one from any rule whatever.” This would require that one historicize the matter, that is, that one consider the context within which the transmitted prophetic saying arose. But according to the

284

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

principle of the visualization of the early Islamic community and its correct guidance, this is not only not desired but positively harmful, for two reasons: First, it would make it impossible for one to experience correct guidance as contact with the enduring “now” of divine determination, a contact that is transient yet indefinitely repeatable; but this contact with correct guidance is exactly what is supposed to occur in the moments when one perceives the transmitted words or actions of the prophet. And because correct guidance occurs in this way, that which appears in the Hadith is the witnessing of an eternally lasting, indestructible truth – as indestructible and unassailable as Allah himself. Contact with the enduring and hence trans-historical “now” of correct guidance, and the absolute truth of the content of this correct guidance, are mutually dependent on each other. The most important conclusion to draw from this regarding the use of prophetic traditions is that one may, to be sure, use the written collections of Hadiths as aids to memory, but one may never regard them as adequate substitutes for bringing to life the actual experience of correct guidance. Only what is captured in the form of the spoken word allows the listener to participate in the eternal “now” of the original Islamic community. Grappling with the preservation of this two-fold character of correct guidance, struggling constantly to reassure oneself of this character, is one of the fundamental constants of Islamic culture, comparable in its scope to the Christian search for an answer to the question of what it actually means that God has become a human being.

3. The Meaning of Historicity In keeping with this striving for an experience of correct guidance and confirming its truth, the 10th century Hadith collector recommends that contradictions among prophetic traditions be solved by means of broadening the field in which the eternally enduring truth appears to include the companions of the prophet. In our example, this is to be done with reference to the four Hadiths that he has deliberately assembled on this topic. Any additional study of the vast and not easily surveyed literature on the life of Muhammad is considered unnecessary. That on which ‘Ali sought confirmation from the Banu Asga is naturally worth knowing, since it has to do with the prophet. Considered in a purely formal sense, the Banu Asga were also companions of the prophet, since they saw him on at least one occasion, as the tradition implies. But what are they compared to the daring and loyal companions who accompanied him on the dangerous journey to al-Hudaybiya and who, moreover, are known by name, the consecrated and profane alike? The argumentum ad hominem wins out over the argumentum ad rem in the “correct guidance” based on the Hadith,

3. The Meaning of Historicity

285

and it does so in a way that is both overwhelming and depressing. From a multitude of variously applied argumenta ad homines, Hadith scholarship has worked out a finely spun web of comparative judgments about how closely this or that tradition, vouched for by this or that source, corresponds to the ideal case of tangible, true, correct guidance, or how closely it at least approximates it. Just studying the vast literature on the degrees of authority of individual Hadiths and on the people named in the chains of transmission can convey only a weak impression of the power of the salvific idea that is implicit in all of these exertions, which continue unabated right down to the present day. One must listen to an explanation of the system by a trained Azhari, and then perhaps one will be able to see how powerfully this belief system still shapes his world-view. And with that, we come back to al-Waqidi. The clever Vizier saw that one could not put him together in the same room with the other scholars. Today we would almost say that it was not practical or realistic to allow two incompatible modes of discourse to collide in this way. Al-Waqidi represented the discourse that was doomed to die out; his opponents were at the height of fashion, they outnumbered him, the future belonged to them. Of course, no one could have known that at the time, and Yahya b. Khalid – and presumably Harun ar-Rashid – followed the course of events with a sense of unease. For how was the authority of the Caliph, the successor to Allah’s Messenger or the representative of Allah – both interpretations were given to the ruler’s title – to hold its own against a “correct guidance” whose claim to regulation was extending in the meantime to the entire life of the Muslim, but whose contents were sealed off against any access by the ruler? It was positively alarming that in the final analysis the whole of Islam stands or falls depending on the trustworthiness of a few companions of the prophet, as Harun recognized in a debate with a scholar; he had to acknowledge that he now felt obligated to think only good things about at least the first transmitters who had seen Muhammad with their own eyes.²⁶ Independent reasoning is forbidden even for the governing authorities, and this came about even as the Hadith scholars, whose numbers were rapidly growing, thanks to the material they were working with, did not merely transmit the right prescriptions, but above all sought to re-create the joyful feeling of participating in the original [Islamic] community. The weakness of institutionalized governance that has been an aspect of the Islamic world for centuries, right down to the present day, has its origin here: Neither the knowledge of earthly things nor the roots of this knowledge in the salvific message [of Islam] is possessed by those who control these institutions. Men like al-Waqidi were bearers of hope for the caliphate. For what did their insistence on the historicity of Muhammad mean? By no means did it mean any

286

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

sort of deviation from the teachings of the Koran. For why should it be taken as settled that the amr by which Allah controls his creation at every moment and which is also manifested in the words of the Koran and the actions and sayings of Muhammad stands for an eternal, uncreated, divine being, as the champions of the living correct guidance presupposed, for the most part tacitly? If one adopts a strictly monotheistic viewpoint, then must one not attribute this amr also to the realm of created being and thus also to the world apprehended through the five senses, which Allah conserves in existence by means of [this selfsame] amr? Thus, if one drew a strict ontological dividing line between the perfectly transcendent being of Allah, on the one side, and the manifestation of this creative activity, on the other, then everything that the Hadith scholars were doing or claiming for themselves was pure illusion. That is, the world was entirely temporal: it was not first shaped by a transcendent amr in every moment of its existence [different from] the way it appears at any given moment. Rather, the amr was the intelligibility that Allah imparted to his creation: Because this amr exists, the human being endowed with reason has the potential to understand the processes that he observes in this world and to draw conclusions from this both with regard to the course of his life and the appropriate norms for living and, especially important, with regard to the connection between this world and the next, between earthly action and heavenly recompense. The role of the prophet changes when one takes a different approach to drawing this line between “created” and “uncreated, divine.” He goes from being a crystallization of divine immanence to being an exemplary human being, a galvanizing warner who, in a specific historical situation, reminds us that we must translate into action the conclusions that we are able to make thanks to the intelligibility of this world if we are to enjoy a happy destiny in the next world. A consequence of this is that the Koran itself has the ontological status of a created thing, and neither it, nor what is reported about Muhammad and his companions, is eternally valid, trans-historical, or outside of time. If one makes such assumptions, then one can study the Koran and [prophetic] tradition – which is not [now] Hadith in the sense defined above – with a two-fold goal in mind. The Koran, as Allah’s word, is the unsurpassably perfect verbal representation of the intelligible processes of this world – this thesis was instrumental to the rapid blossoming of Arabic philology in the 8th century. And if one wants to understand the Koran appropriately, then the philological study of Allah’s word is not [by itself] sufficient; rather, one must also investigate in a detailed way the life circumstances of the one who transmitted this word. The usefulness for the caliph is that, in what Muhammad did or commanded in specific, understandable situations, he grasps how he himself, mutatis mutandis, must also act; that

4. The Historian – Fighting for a Lost Cause

287

is, now, two hundred years after Muhammad, he is the “Imam of correct guidance.” Let us illustrate this matter with at least one episode. The main figure is a certain Safwan b. Salih (784/5 – 851/2), who oversaw the role of prayer-caller [muezzin] at the great mosque of Damascus. The Hadith scholars regarded him to be trustworthy, although occasionally he endorsed traditions that came from unreliable authorities.²⁷ – Thus he is also an example of the bad habit that can be observed so often in the literature of the [Hadith scholars] of neglecting the allegedly so strict standards for the crucial argumentum ad hominem, if only the testimony to the “true” position can be made plausible, and this bad habit can be found in Safwan. The episode, narrated by one of his acquaintances, has to do with exactly this issue. Whenever Safwan entered the mosque, he hurried over to his study circle and began reciting Hadiths. Suddenly one day he stopped doing this. When asked why, he excused himself by saying that the ruler had forbidden him to continue. “For God’s sake! Recite the Hadith!”, the questioner implored him, “because I have heard that even the inhabitants of paradise (in the next world) need scholars, just as we need them in this world! A messenger comes (to the inhabitants of paradise) and says: ‘Ask your Lord!’ The answer: ‘He gave us everything we asked for, and everything we did not ask for!’ But the messenger persisted: ‘Ask your Lord!’, to which they replied: ‘We don’t know what else we should ask for.’ The messenger repeated a third time: ‘Ask your Lord!’ They discussed among themselves: ‘Let us go to the scholars whom we sought out every time something was unclear to us in the previous world so that they can tell us what to do!’ So they went to the scholars (in paradise) and said: ‘A messenger of our Lord came to us and ordered us to request something. But we don’t know what we should ask for. Therefore Allah shall enlighten the scholars. They shall say: Ask for this or that! And then ask them, and it will be given to them!’ Therefore, recite the Hadith, so you will hopefully be one of (the scholars in paradise)!” Moved by these words, Safwan was no longer able to resist their entreaties.²⁸ In this milieu, the rulers and their ministers appear far off in the distance, pushed into irrelevance; they appear at most as trouble-makers who hinder or even forbid the ceaseless recitation of correct guidance by the Hadith scholars.

4. The Historian – Fighting for a Lost Cause We do not know what the Vizier and his circle thought about eating wild game when in a state of consecration for the pilgrimage. But, as we have shown, one can glean from al-Waqidi the context in which Muhammad held that the flesh of

288

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

the wild donkey is “a dish that Allah has given you to eat.” It struck al-Waqidi’s hadith-believing contemporaries as strange that he acquired this knowledge as he did, that is, without listening to Hadith-recitations in a circle of scholars. “I asked every son of a companion of the prophet, or of a martyr, and every one of their wards, whom I met, ‘Have you not heard how someone from your clan told you at what location this one or that one fell [in battle]?’ And if he gave me the information (I requested), I sought out that location, so that I could see it for myself.” Someone reported that he met al-Waqidi in Medina; supplied with a water-skin, he was just setting out for Hunayn, where Muhammad had narrowly escaped defeat in January 630 in a battle with the tribal federation of the Hawazin after his occupation of Mecca.²⁹ But not only that! From the monumental work on Muhammad and early Islam that al-Waqidi’s Baghdad secretary Ibn Sa’d composed, we know that on his restless travels to investigate historical events, he had people show him written documents that individual clans or the residents of a number of towns had received from Muhammad. With such “decrees,” “Allah’s Messenger” had very unsystematically regulated in each case the relationship of loyalty to him, the new strong man of Arabia. Al-Waqidi wrote copies of the texts and inserted them into his traditions. To his critics among the Hadith scholars, such efforts are unworthy of any recognition. Rather, they became agitated because, in presenting his findings, he summarized the statements of his sources on a specific topic simply in a single text; this independent treatment is an abomination to them – precisely because of the unique characteristics of the Hadith, described above, which do not come to the fore in this manner of presentation. Incidentally, however, we hear that many of the great scholars of the Hadith were still treating their material in exactly the same way in the first half of the 8th century. But in the meantime this had become intolerable.³⁰ Al-Waqidi’s way of thinking was focused on the content, not on the ways of making it come alive for an audience, and he expressed this point in a saying quoted by Ibn Sa’d: “In every one of these scholars, the amount he has written down exceeds the amount in his head; with me, it is the other way around.”³¹ Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 855), the dominating father figure of the Baghdad Hadith scholars, was scandalized by al-Waqidi’s alleged carelessness in dealing with the confirmation of prophetic traditions by an appropriate chain of transmitters. He proved that al-Waqidi had attributed a Hadith to an unreliable transmitter and deduced from this the predictable argumentum ad hominem: He is a liar, and one must not believe anything he says. When Ahmad learned of al-Waqidi’s death, he is said to have drily observed: “For a long time now I have used his writings as scrap paper.”³² Al-Waqidi was the last outstanding representative of the historicity of the prophet and thus of the analytic study of the circumstances of his life. He did

4. The Historian – Fighting for a Lost Cause

289

not live long enough to experience how the Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813 – 833), one of the sons of Harun ar-Rashid, set up an Inquisition to attempt to get the upper hand over the Hadith scholars, whose popularity was becoming a threat to the stability of the empire. Apparently the aforementioned Safwan b. Salih was affected by these measures. For more than two decades, the Caliphate wore itself out in its battle with them and made them, above all Ahmad b. Hanbal, into the role models of a steadfast, “true” Islam,³³ whose quintessence consists in imitation of Muhammad for the sake of securing salvation. One or two generations before al-Waqidi, the signs of the two-fold division of discourse about Muhammad were already clearly discernible. What was at that time open to debate can be shown by means of two examples. Al-Waqidi owes a great deal of his chronology to a man by the name of Ibn abi Sabra (d. 778/9), who earned his living as a qadi, first in Mecca, then at the end of his life in Baghdad. The verdict of the Hadith scholars on his work on early Islam was devastating.³⁴ But from him al-Waqidi got the dating for two events, whose symbolic value cannot be overestimated for the Islam that seeks salvation through imitation of Muhammad. Eighteen months before the hijra, according to Ibn abi Sabra, Muhammad had the vision in which he ascended from the place of prayer at the Kaaba into heaven, and six months after this, he experienced the equally miraculous night journey to Jerusalem. For the Hadith scholars, the story was quite different: The ascent into heaven happened from Jerusalem, and therefore the night journey to Jerusalem must have taken place before the ascent into heaven. The analysis of the relevant texts leads to the conclusion that Ibn abi Sabra is right: for the seam in the composition between these two traditions, which have clearly been stuck together, is easy to see. Incidentally, while Muhammad in the older version climbs laboriously up the ladder from Mecca into the heavens, one no longer asks this of him in Jerusalem; admittedly, a ladder is set up for him there, too, but the winged riding animal that transported him from Mecca to the distant town [of Jerusalem] bears him aloft [into the heavens]. This legend, which arose near the end of the 7th century and finds its architectural expression in the Dome of the Rock, describes the foundational act of the Islamic way of life that is fulfilled by imitation of Muhammad. For in the highest heaven, Allah himself informs him of the number of obligatory prayers. They are, of course, mentioned in the Koran, Allah’s word, but how they are to be performed cannot be gleaned from the Koran. One knows this only after Muhammad had returned to the earth and immediately performed the prayers and the Muslims began to imitate every one of his motions and bodily postures.³⁵ As this example proves, a detailed knowledge of the biography of the prophet fatally undermines the fiction of the uninterrupted continuity of correct guidance via Muhammad, the tacit presupposition of all the efforts of Hadith scholar-

290

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

ship. It therefore comes as no surprise that a few of its representatives came to be of the opinion that history in general is to be condemned;³⁶ the Arabic word for history, at-ta’rih, means at root “dating,” and it retains this connotation to the present day. And with that I come to the second example, Ibn Ishaq (d. ca. 768), the author of the prophetic biography that European scholarship has always used as the only main source for the life of Muhammad. European scholars followed the advice that they found in the relevant bio-bibliographical literature of the Muslims: Everyone who wishes to study this subject must rely on Ibn Ishaq. He, too, lived in conflict with the Hadith experts. One of them, his younger Medinan compatriot Malik b. Anas (d. 795), he mocked as follows: “To hell with the Hadiths of Malik! I am the (right) doctor for the sickness in his Hadiths!” Malik took revenge by comparing Ibn Ishaq with the great liar who will sow confusion in the world just before the end of time. Ibn Ishaq could not survive in Medina any longer, and the collectors of Hadith ignored as far as possible what he had learned about Muhammad.³⁷ His work on Muhammad did not come down to us in its original edition; rather, it came to us in an edition revised by a certain Ibn Hisham (d. 828 or 833), who in his introduction openly and honestly tells us what does not fit into his template: He excludes all material that is not directly connected to the prophet; that cannot be related to a verse in the Koran; that cannot be understood as an explanation of material restricted by these criteria; he further deletes all material for which he cannot find evidence elsewhere; and finally, he deletes everything of which it is better not to speak, since it could be offensive to many people.³⁸ Thanks to the fragment of another revised edition, which was published in 1936 by a Syrian colleague, we can determine what Ibn Hisham regarded as offensive. There we read, for example, that it was neither on his own nor under instruction from Allah that Muhammad came to the insight that is foolish to render animal sacrifice before man-made idols; rather, it was Zaid b. ‘Amr, a relative of the second caliph ‘Umar (r. 634– 644) who persuaded him to abandon this pagan custom.³⁹ It is impossible to reconcile such traditions with the religious postulate of a duty to imitate the prophet’s entire life in every detail. But they are consistent with the text of the Koran, study of which reveals that Muhammad did not advocate – if for brevity’s sake I am allowed to use the term – the “Islamic” doctrines of monotheism from the beginning. Rather, he came to this position [i. e. monotheism] for the first time when he began preaching in public in Mecca using the core of what we today know as Sura 53. Here I cannot pursue further this matter, which is highly important for the analysis of Muhammad’s career. In any case, it is immediately obvious that the idea of the prophet as living according to God’s will in every detail of his life, an idea that receives its legitimation in

4. The Historian – Fighting for a Lost Cause

291

the ascent into heaven from Jerusalem, cannot tolerate such historical reports and the relentless questioning of the historian. The tremendous success enjoyed by Ibn Hisham’s sanitized text can be inferred not only from the great number of surviving manuscripts. It is also evident from the fact that the work underwent further revision. For the scholars doing the revising, the issue was not the correction of a few serious errors by Ibn Ishaq in the chronology of Muhammad’s military campaigns, errors that had already become evident to Ibn Hisham but which he simply left standing in the text.⁴⁰ [The errors] remained – and, after everything that was said about faith in the Hadith, they were irrelevant anyway. Instead, with great diligence, scholars went to work transforming Ibn Hisham’s text into a sort of Hadith collection; wherever possible, they replaced the original traditions that went back to Ibn Ishaq with ones that were vouched for according to the standards of Hadith scholarship, as described above. In the back of one’s mind was the epochal book of the Andalusian Qadi ‘Iyad al-Yahsubi (d. 1148/9), with the distinctive title, “Book of Healing by Means of the Proclamation of the Rights of the Chosen One,” namely the rights that Muhammad claims vis-à-vis all Muslims as the source of all the knowledge that is needed and permitted for mastering human life. If one keeps these rights constantly before one’s eyes, then one will know well how to protect oneself from all temptations, such as the ones posed by the writings of historians. From Muhammad and the prophets before him, one can learn how to rid oneself of the desire to acquire knowledge on one’s own and how to accept everything in humility and follow what has been transmitted to us. The result of the healing of which the Qadi speaks should be a sincere, intensely uncritical simplicity, of the sort that was already being urged upon Harun ar-Rashid, often expressed in an active or even aggressive manner, “Just so and not otherwise!” “Disregard what you find in the books of a few ignorant” – the adjective has the connotation “pagan” – “historians or Koran interpreters…”, warns Qadi ‘Iyad in one passage, in words that cannot be misunderstood.⁴¹ And to make sure that his warnings do not go unheeded, he presents all the arguments he can to reinforce the position that a Muslim who expresses the slightest doubt about the full authority and exemplary character of Muhammad is to be killed. For this crime is to be punished even more severely than apostasy from Islam. The apostate must be given the chance to repent and return to the fold: in contrast, one who doubts [Muhammad] must not be shown such leniency; for, the Qadi frankly admits, his thoughts and conjectures undermine Islam, an edifice of religious doctrines that depend on the unimpeachable authority of a single man, a man who must therefore be protected from any arguments based on this-worldly criteria. Qadi ‘Iyad was a Malikite – recall Malik’s quarrel with Ibn Ishaq. Comparable writings arose later in the other schools of jurisprudence: In the framework of

292

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation

sharia, all the schools of jurisprudence had to find reasons why doubters must be punished even more harshly than apostates. Right down to the present day, the Qadi’s book is regarded as probably the most important source on the life of Muhammad; an English translation has appeared in the meantime.⁴² It is the most important reference book [supporting] the widespread Muslim refusal to break out of the iron cage of allegedly eternally valid truths and to enter into a dialogue of equals with the other cultures of the world. This refusal is a sign of fear and weakness, not of strength. Al-Waqidi’s most important work, the history of Muhammad’s military campaigns, has survived the passage of time in only a single manuscript; it stems from the 11th century and goes back to his activity in Iraq.⁴³ Let us be thankful to his wife, that she stuck to her guns at a time of urgent financial need and sent him where a clever Vizier and then a number of other influential men as well as his secretary Ibn Sa’d knew enough to treasure his knowledge. In a decisive way, they made it easier for us, before it was too late, to understand Muhammad and, indirectly, also to understand the circumstances that prompted the Muslims to imitate him.

Clarification of a Few Concepts (A Brief Glossary) Ash-Sha’m: For those oriented towards the East, the region on “the left hand”; Muhammad and his contemporaries understood this term to mean regions under Byzantine rule in modern-day Jordan, Israel/Palestine, and Syria. Calendar: The lunar calendar introduced by Muhammad shortly before his death has 354 days; in a cycle of 30 years, however, there are a total of 11 leap years of 355 days. The names of the months of the original Arab calendar that matched the solar seasons are: Muharram, Safar, Rabi’ al-auwal, Rabi’ at-tani, Jumada l-ula, Jumada l-ahira, Rajab, Sha’ban, Ramadan, Shauwal, Du l-Qa’da, Du l-Hijja. Fatwa (or fetwa): Advisory opinion of a sharia scholar determining whether a certain action is obligatory, recommended, permitted, discouraged, or forbidden according to the standards of sharia. Ghassanids: An Arab princely dynasty that ruled in a few regions of ash-Sha’m under the Byzantines. hadith: The totality of traditions traced back to Muhammad containing his normative words, actions, and omissions. The hadith consists of thousands of individual, generally short texts, each of which is also individually referred to as a Hadith [capitalized here to distinguish the individual text from the texts considered collectively, which are referred to here as hadith]. By around 800 the literary form of this genre was definitively set. An individual Hadith is divided into two main parts. The first is the chain of transmitters or tradents [in Arabic: al-isnad], that is, the series of guarantors stretching back to Muhammad, the first of whom is said to have directly witnessed Muhammad’s action or statement, while the following members of the chain vouch for the correct oral transmission through the centuries until it was written down; after the chain of transmitters comes the actual text [in Arabic: al-matn]. Kindites: Yemeni-Arab tribe whose leaders in the sixth century sought to extend their sovereignty over the entire Arabian Peninsula. Lakhmids: Arab princely dynasty that ruled in Hira in lower Iraq mostly under the Sassanids. Sassanids: Iranian ruling dynasty (226 – 651). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-025

294

Clarification of a Few Concepts (A Brief Glossary)

Sharia: The sysem of evaluating the totality of human action, based on Allah’s legislating will, the foundation for Islamic jurisprudence and the regulation of the thinking and acting of every single member of the “best community” (Sura 3: 110).

Annotations In this book I summarize the findings of my research into Muhammad and the earliest history of Islam. I published preliminary studies in my work Medinensische Einschübe in mekkanischen Suren [Medinan Interpolations in the Meccan Suras] (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, dritte Folge, Nr. 211, Göttingen 1995), in which I show that the composition of the text of the Koran began even before Muhammad was driven out of Mecca, and in which I also show what follows from this for the description of the life of the prophet of Islam. What I could only sketch out briefly in this study I worked out in detail in two books, Mohammed: Leben und Legende [Muhammad: Life and Legend] (hereinafter MLL) and Allahs Liebling: Ursprung und Erscheinungsformen des Mohammedglaubens [Allah’s Favorite: Origins and Manifestations of the Doctrine of Muhammad] (hereinafter AL, both published by Oldenbourg Verlag, München [Munich], 2008). In these books I relied on the extensive and multi-layered relevant source material that has come down to us. Both works therefore contain thousands of references to the sources as well as numerous detailed discussions the repetition of which is not possible in a summary of the findings. Therefore, in this book, I limit the footnotes to just a few explanations; I refer the reader who is interested in documentation of the sources and further details to the three publications mentioned above, especially the two books published in 2008. So the reader can quickly find out where to look in them, I note the relevant sections of these two books at the end of each chapter in the present book. [For a survey of recent scholarship on the life of Muhammad, and the way in which my scholarship is related to it, see Appendix 2, a translation of the relevant section of MLL.]

Introduction  For a more detailed discussion, see my essay “Verstehen oder Nachahmen? Grundtypen der muslimischen Erinnerung an Muhammad,” Jahrbuch des Historischen Kollegs 2006 (Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007), 73 – 94, http://www.historischeskolleg.de/fileadmin/ pdf/jahrbuch_pdf/Jahrbuch_2006.pdf [See Appendix 3].  The term hadith [lower-case] refers to the totality of traditions traced back to Muhammad containing his normative words, actions, and omissions. The hadith consists of thousands of individual, generally short texts, each of which is also individually referred to [in the present work] as a Hadith [upper-case]. By around 800 the literary form of this genre was definitively set. An individual Hadith is divided into two main parts. The first is the chain of transmitters or tradents [in Arabic: al-isnad], that is, the series of guarantors stretching back to Muhammad, the first of whom is said to have directly witnessed Muhammad’s action or statement, while the following members of the chain vouch for the correct oral transmission through the centuries until it was written down; after the chain of transmitters comes the actual text [in Arabic: al-matn].  The Arabic name of the oasis settlement was Yathrib; the name Medina, which I use throughout, comes from the Aramaic and was already common in the time of Muhammad. It is not true that the proper name “Medina” comes from an abbreviation of the Arabic madinat an-nabi, that is, “the city of the prophet.”  The hanif movement aimed at rescinding the sublimation of the bloody sacrifice of animals that had occurred in Judaism and Christianity (cf. Chapter 8). Thus both the hanif movement https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-026

296

Annotations

and Islam are to be understood as pagan reactions against the forceful attempts in the Christian Byzantine empire to stamp out the pagan cult of [animal] sacrifice.  Tariq Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 7.  Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet, 211.  Third ed., Aschaffenburg 2007 [in English: Ali Dashti, 23 Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammed, trans. F. R. C. Bagley (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1994).]  Dashti, 23 Years, 37 f and 306. [Translator’s note: The reference is to the German edition.]  As long ago as 2001 the “European Commission against Racism and Intolerance” recommended that Islam be represented “correctly,” so that it cannot be perceived as a threat; what the characteristics of a “correct” representation would be was not clarified. The protection suggested here, not of individuals, but of a system of belief that demands agreement and submission (cf. especially Chapters 19 and 20), was extended on 27 March 2008 (among other occasions). On this date the U.N. Human Rights Commission approved a resolution, with 21 votes in favor, 10 against, and 14 abstentions, which goes considerably further: it takes aim in particular at “Islamophobia,” again without defining what it is. In principle any statement that a Muslim finds objectionable can count as evidence of “Islamophobia.” Germany at least was one of the ten states that voted against this resolution. [Translator’s note: On 25 October 2018, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the conviction in the Austrian courts of an Austrian citizen for making comments about Muhammad that “could only be understood as having been aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not worthy of worship;” the court found that the “right to freedom of expression” must be “carefully balanced” with “the rights of others to have their religious feelings protected, and to have religious peace preserved…” ECHR 360 (2018), 25.10. 2018, https:// www.strasbourgconsortium.org/common/document.view.php?docId=7568 (accessed 13 November 2018).]  cf. MLL, 837– 839 [See Appendix 2].

Chapter 1: Mecca  The fatwa of a certain Sheikh (Dr.) ‘Abdalqadir Al-Murabit (as-Sufi) is dated 19 Dec. 1995 and bears the description “authorized by the Amir [Leader] of the Community of Muslims in Weimar Hajj Abu Bakr Rieger” and was published in the Islamische Zeitung No. 5, 1995. ‘Abdalqadir is a member of the Islamic political movement “Al-Murabitun,” which works for the creation of a thoroughly Islamized society and the restoration of the Caliphate; his book The Return of the Khalifate was published in the USA and is distributed over the Internet. Abu Bakr Rieger was until Fall 2007 a member of the board of the Islamic Council, one of the larger Islamic organizations in Germany.  Sassanids: Iranian ruling dynasty (226 – 651).  Ash-Sha’m: For those oriented towards the East, [this means literally] the region on “the left hand”; Muhammad and his contemporaries understood this term to mean regions under Byzantine rule in modern-day Jordan, Israel/Palestine, and Syria.  MLL 19 – 85 and 874– 901.

Annotations

297

Chapter 2: The “Year of the Elephant”  Al-Ahnes b. Sariq is an exception inasmuch as his father had already entered an alliance with the Quraysh Banu Zuhra b. Kilab, an alliance that the son continued (MLL 748, note 248).  Cf. on this point also Tilman Nagel, Staat und Glaubensgemeinschaft im Islam: Geschichte der politischen Ordnungsvorstellungen der Muslime, two volumes (Zürich and Munich: Artemis Verlag, 1981), I, 44 f.  MLL 41– 110.

Chapter 3: Purity  In another likewise often cited tradition, a healer resolves to travel to Mecca in order to free the possessed Muhammad from his ailment; when the foreigner arrives in Mecca, Muhammad has already learned that he was spoken to by the Almighty (AL, 31).  MLL 95 – 117 and 901– 915.

Chapter 4: The “Lord of the Dog Star”  The hymns of Romanos Melodos are available in translation: Johannes Koder, trans., Romanos Melodos: Die Hymnen I-II, Bibliothek der griechischen Literatur, Volumes 62 and 64 (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 2005/6), and can be consulted for comparison.  MLL 117– 162 and 901– 924.

Chapter 5: The “Satanic Verses”  Proskynesis [prostration] was alien to the Meccans. It was yet another practice borrowed by the hanifs from sixth century Christianity. At that time, in eastern Christendom, the idea became widespread that in icons of Christ the one represented was present, so that one had to bow respectfully before the icon. Prostration, too, could be a part of the veneration of icons (Mischa Meir, Das andere Zeitalter Justinians: Kontingenzerfahrung und Kontingenzbewältigung im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003), 531 f.). In Sura 84, verse 21, it is rebuked as a mark of infidels that they do not prostrate themselves when the Koran is recited, that is, when Allah is present in the form of his words. On this, cf. the article by Roberto Tottoli, “Muslim Attitudes towards Prostration (sufud), I, Arabs and Prostration at the Beginning of Islam and in the Qur’an,” Studia Islamica 88 (1998): 5 – 34.  MLL 187– 222 and 928 – 932.

298

Annotations

Chapter 6: Moses and Pharaoh  Cf. on this topic my essay, “Verstehen oder Nachahmen? Grundtypen der muslimischen Erinnerung an Muhammad,” Jahrbuch des Historischen Kollegs 2006 (Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007), 73 – 94, http://www.historischeskolleg.de/fileadmin/pdf/jahrbuch_pdf/ Jahrbuch_2006.pdf [see Appendix 3].  MLL, 162– 250 and 925 – 935.

Chapter 7: The Expulsion  On the Islamic understanding of this Koran verse, cf. my article “Abraham, der Freund Gottes,” in Reinhard G. Kratz and Tilman Nagel eds., Abraham, unser Vater: Die Gemeinsamen Wurzeln von Judentum, Christentum, und Islam (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003), 150 – 164.  Another interpretation of the night journey to Jerusalem, supplementing this one, relates to the repeatedly attested tradition that prophets came from ash-Sha’m (cf. below, Ch. 19). Therefore, the journey to the heavens beginning from the Kaaba had not been sufficient to confirm Muhammad’s claim to be a prophet transmitting God’s own religion. In addition, his prophethood had to be linked to ash-Sha’m, which happened by means of the vision of the night journey. In this way the traditional chronology of the visions becomes plausible: first, 18 months before the expulsion, the journey into heaven, then, six months later, the night journey.  MLL, 250 – 269, 880 f and 933 – 935.

Chapter 8: The Pagan Prophet  The question of the sublimation of [animal] sacrifice was a core theme in the late antique debates between Christianity and the pagan tradition. Adherents of the latter vigorously defended the traditional custom of animal sacrifice and resisted efforts to prohibit this practice in the core regions of the Byzantine Empire until far into the sixth century: cf. Frank R. Trombley, Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370 – 529, (Leiden: Brill, 1993).  In the Islamic Koran chronology, one attempts to push the origin of Sura 1 to the earliest possible point in Muhammad’s mission; but the knowledge survived that it arose in Medina. Moreover, the content of Sura 1 argues against dating it to the Meccan period.  MLL, 271– 297 and 314– 341.

Chapter 9: War against Mecca  MLL, 297– 324.

Annotations

299

Chapter 10: The Bid for Power  The Jewish tribes in Medina possessed ample stockpiles of weapons, as the sources mention repeatedly, as did their co-religionists in Khaybar. Had they not mastered the art of war, they would not have been able to hold their own against the nomads migrating up from the south; according to their recollection, in any case, they were the original inhabitants (MLL, 935 f.).  This formula first arose somewhat later and was retroactively interpolated into the text; cf. the remarks at the end of this chapter.  The denominal Arab verb salla (derived from as-salah, prayer, which in turn is borrowed from the Syriac) is said by a few Arab lexicographers to have the meaning, exclusively in this formula, of “to glorify or exalt;” according to others it means here only as much as “to bless.” In this way one arrives at the translation that is often heard today: “May Allah bless him and grant him salvation!” The point of these arbitrary assumptions – if one related this to Sura 33, verse 56, one would arrive at the claim that human beings should follow the example of Allah and unceasingly grant him salvation – is to weaken the exaltation of Muhammad that is there in the literal meaning of the formulation but sounds downright blasphemous to adherents of other religions (cf. below, Chapter 18). The Muhammad-cosmology that is explained in Chapter 19 would be unthinkable if Sura 33, verse 56 were not to be understood in the literal sense.  MLL 336 – 376, AL 146 – 152.

Chapter 11: The Occupation of Mecca  [Translator’s note: Eventually, however, Muhammad decided they could be allowed to stay on as tenants, paying one-half their annual harvest to their new Muslim overlords. Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955), 515 – 516.]  [Translator’s note: Muhammad ordered that a fire be kindled on Kinana’s chest and then, when he was nearly dead, that his head be cut off. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 515.]  [Translator’s note: Cut off and surrounded, the walled city of al-Taif would surrender a few months later, in the 9th year of the hijra. Ibn Ishaq reports: “Then [the Thaqif] took counsel among themselves and decided that they could not fight the Arabs all around them, who had paid homage and accepted Islam. … [they] said to one another, ‘Don’t you see that your herds are not safe; none of you can go out without being cut off.” Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 614– 615. Muhammad then ordered them to destroy their idol Al-Lat and convert to Islam (Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 615 – 616).]  An oke corresponds to 37 grams.  MLL 363 – 428.

300

Annotations

Chapter 12: Jihad  By “yellow, white, and black fruit” is meant either metals (gold, silver, and iron) or, a less probable interpretation, the yields of different types of soil.  MLL 429 – 465.

Chapter 13: The Dying Prophet  Because people often ask for information regarding Muhammad’s many marriages – he made himself an exception to the rule limiting men to four wives at the time [he promulgated the rule] (Sura 33: 50 f.) – here follows the synopsis given in MLL, 939 – 942: Islamic historiography contains various lists of Muhammad’s wives, composed from various points of view. Ibn Hisham attributes to the prophet nine “mothers of the faithful,” that is, wives who bore him children – not including female slaves and concubines. Because Khadija is not included in this list, only those spouses have this honorific title who married him freely and survived him in the time when Muhammad’s followers called themselves “the believers.” These nine are: ‘A’isha bt. Abi Bakr, Hafsa bt. ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, Umm Habiba bt. abi Sufyan, Sauda bt. Zama’a…b. ‘Amir b. Lu’aiy, Umm Salama bt. abi Umayya of the Banu Makhzum, thus a total of five Quraysh; in addition: Zainab bt. Jahsh (whom he took with Allah’s permission from his freedman Zaid b. Haritha, cf. Sura 33: 37), Juwayriya bt. al-Harith of the Banu Khuza’a, Maimuna bt. al-Harith of the Banu ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a, Safiya bt. Huyayy b. Akhtab. In addition there were two wives who died before him: Khadija bt. Huwailid and Zainab bt. Huzaima of the Banu ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a. Two further women were to have married Muhammad, but the marriages never came about: Asma’ bt. an-Nu’man from the Kindite clan Akil al-Murar (Muhammad discovered a patch of leprosy on her body and released her with compensation) and ‘Amra bt. Yazid of the Banu Kilab (When she was brought to Muhammad, she is said to have cried out: “I seek my refuge with Allah!” He then sent her back to her clan). The chronology of Muhammad’s marriages yields the following picture: Khadija bt. Huwailid was until her death the only wife of Muhammad. Sauda bt. Zam’a b. Qais b. ‘Abd Shams b. ‘Abd Wudd of the Quraysh Banu ‘Amir b. Lu’aij was the first woman that he married after the death of Khadija; she had been married before to as-Sakran b. ‘Amr b. ‘Abd Shams b. ‘Abd Wudd, a member of the same clan, an early Muslim and exile in Ethiopia; he is said to have died there; via Sauda, to whom Muhammad was never able to cultivate a very close relationship, he became related as an in-law to the afore-mentioned clan, which was very influential in Mecca: One of the Meccan negotiators at al-Hudaybiya was Suhail b. ‘Amr b. ‘Abd Shams, a brother of as-Sakran and a granduncle of Sauda.

Annotations

301

‘A’isha bt. abi Bakr’s marriage to Muhammad dates back to the Meccan period; the contract was concluded when she was a six-year-old child; Muhammad consummated the marriage in Medina when she was nine years old. Abu Bakr was a member of the clan of Banu Taim b. Murra (b. Ka’b b. Lu’aiyb. Jalib b. Fihr = Quraysh); Taim’s brother Kilab is the father of Qusayy, whose descendants handed down to each other the religious offices of Mecca. The Banu Taim b. Murra thus did not belong to the highest levels of society. However, ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an, who in the time before Muhammad’s mission played an important role in Mecca and even had connections to the Sassanids, belonged to another line of this clan. He is an example of the rise of families that did not descend from Qusayy, whom ‘Abd al-Muttalib and then his grandson Muhammad sought to thwart with religious innovations. Hafsa bt. ‘Umar b. al-Khattab came from the marriage of ‘Umar to Zainab, a sister of ‘Uthman b. Maz’un. Hafsa was born five years before Muhammad’s mission began; this shows how far back in the past ‘Umar’s links to the family of the defender of the strict Hanif religion [i. e. ’Uthman b. Maz’un] reach. ‘Umar’s initial opposition to Muhammad would have had to do with this fact, until the magic of the recitation [of the Koran] overpowered him, as we have mentioned. In her first marriage, Hafsa was wed to Hunais b. Hudafa of the Banu Sahm, with whom she had immigrated to Ethiopia and then to Medina. Hunais died of wounds received either at Badr or Uhud. ‘Umar is said to have offered his widowed daughter first to Abu Bakr and then to ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan, but they rejected the offer. Abu Bakr justified his rejection on the grounds that Muhammad had secretly already cast a covetous eye at her. Zainab bt. Jahsh b. Ri’ab traced her genealogy on her father’s side back to Asad b. Huzaima b. Mudrika b. Iljas b. Mudar. The Quraysh are among the descendants of Asad’s brother Kinana. Zainab’s mother was Umaima, a daughter of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, so that on her mother’s side there was a close connection to the Hashemites. According to the testimony of the sources, Muhammad married her under scandalous circumstances because he found her irresistibly attractive (cf. MLL 423 and AL 44, 60, 72). Zainab bt. Huzaima of the Banu ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a he married in Ramadan of the year 3 (which began on 15 February 625). She died only eight months later. Her first husband had been ‘Ubaida b. al-Harith, an early follower of Muhammad from the clan of al-Muttalib b. ‘Abd Manaf, which, as we have mentioned, was allied to the Hashemites in the confederation of the “perfumed ones.” ‘Ubaida had fallen at Badr; one can assume that this was a charitable marriage [intended to support the widow of a fallen supporter]. Umm Salama bt. abi Umayya b. al-Mujira of the Banu Makhzum had first been married to the Makhzumite Abu Salama, one of the early Muslims. With him she had participated in both emigrations to Ethiopia and then had ended up in Medina. He was gravely wounded at Uhud and then died in Jumada l-ahira in the year 4 (which began on 8 November 625); Muhammad married her a quarter of a year thereafter. Juwairiya bt. al-Harith Muhammad succumbed to her beauty after the battle at al-Muraisi’ (cf. MLL 364 f.). (Rayhana bt. Zaid belonged to the Banu Qurayza; it is doubtful that Muhammad was able to persuade her to marry him, cf. MLL 499.) Umm Habiba Ramla bt. abi Sufyan b. Harb, an aunt of ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan, had been married to ‘Ubaidallah b. Jahsh, an ally of Harb b. Umayya b. ‘Abd Shams. With ‘Ubaidallah she had gone to Ethiopia in the second emigration [there], where her husband converted to Christianity and soon thereafter died. A few sources assert that she returned to Mecca with her daughter Habiba, born in exile, [but could this be] confusing her with the afore-mentioned Umm Salama? For according

302

Annotations

to other [sources] she remained in Ethiopia. From Medina, Muhammad had his offer of marriage conveyed to her, after the treaty of al-Hudaybiya had been concluded. In the year 7 (which began on 11 May 628), she appeared in Medina, where Muhammad married her. By way of recognizing the marriage, her father Abu Sufyan is said to have commented on Muhammad’s zeal to marry: The prophet is “a camel stallion who will not be stopped from mounting a camel mare even by being hit on the nostrils.” In fact, several of the marriages concluded up to this time can be seen as chess moves intended to increase his power: via Hafsa, he bound ‘Umar and the clan of Ibn Maz’un to himself; via Sauda and Umm Habiba, he established connections to the powerful clans of Mecca, and the same is true of Umm Salama. In this way, too, he set the stage for taking control of his hometown. Safiya bt. Hujaij of the Banu Qurayza had fallen into his hands as part of the war booty from Khaybar. He either had taken her while exercising his right to first choice from the booty, or acquired her as part of his portion. Maimuna bt. al-Harith from the Banu ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a’ had first been married to a Thaqifite, [and] then to Abu Ruhm b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza of the Banu ‘Amir b. Lu’aiy. Abu Ruhm appears frequently in the circle of the family of Hashim; he is said to be the one who brought the inheritance of Hashim, who died in Gaza, back to Mecca; later he married Barra, a daughter of ‘Abd al-Muttalib. This marriage produced a son, who fell at Badr fighting for the Muslim side. Muhammad married Maimuna after the death of Abu Ruhm, specifically, after he had made the pilgrimage promised to him in the treaty of al-Hudaybiya. His uncle al-Abbas is said to have brought about this marriage; Maimuna was the sister of the mother of his eldest son al-Fadl as well as of the later famous ‘Abdallah. This last marriage of Muhammad may have served to prepare the way for the occupation of Mecca, like the marriages to Umm Salama and Umm Habiba. Perhaps al-Abbas saw that the time was approaching when the descendants of ‘Abd al-Muttalib [would rise again].  That is, “you will be brutally murdered” (MLL 802, note 11).  MLL 462– 506 and AL 15 – 30.

Chapter 14: The Return of Muhammad  Cited in Tilman Nagel, Staat und Glaubensgemeinschaft im Islam, (Zürich and Munich: Artemis Verlag, 1981), Volume I, 24.  One drachma, or in Arabic one dirham, amounted to 3.12 grams of silver.  ‘Uthman did not participate in the Battle of Badr, in which he would have had to have fought above all against his fellow clan members. Allegedly Muhammad had explicitly wanted ‘Uthman to stay in Medina to guarantee the protection of his daughter Ruqayya in case the Muslims suffered defeat; nonetheless, ‘Uthman is said to have been treated like one of the fighters at the division of the booty: Marsden Jones ed., The Kitab almaghazi of al-Waqidi, (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), 101. Four years later, after the expedition to al-Hudaybiya, the Meccans accepted ‘Uthman as Muhammad’s emissary. Thus ‘Uthman had already served in Muhammad’s lifetime in the position of a mediator between the Muslims and the old elite.  MLL 507– 641.

Annotations

303

Chapter 15: The Roots of “Knowledge”  For my conclusions on this topic, see my study Medinensische Einschübe in mekkanischen Suren, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, philologisch-historische Klasse, 3. Folge, Nr. 211, (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995).  That is, those who, in Muhammad’s opinion, follow the authentic God-given rules, like Abraham and Muhammad himself.  MLL, 676 – 719 and AL 59 – 84.

Chapter 16: “Knowledge” without History  The concept of “sunna” here has the meaning of a good custom, the following of which is urgently recommended.  Cited in Tilman Nagel, Rechtleitung und Kalifat: Versuch über eine Grundfrage der islamischen Geschichte (Bonn: Selbstverlag des Orientalishen Seminars der Universität, 1975), 270 f.  AL 85 – 132.

Chapter 17: The Eternal Role Model  The early hadith collections, for example al-Bukhari’s Sahih, admittedly contain many elements of a chronologically constructed salvation history that begins with creation and ends with Muhammad’s death. But this salvation history exhibits interpolations devoted to themes like the praiseworthy character of the prophetic companions or the “helpers,” described with a view to the salvific aspects of the events. Otherwise the reports about individual events are not organized in the hadith collections in a way that follows the progression of events step by step; rather, a knowledge of this progression [on the part of the reader] is presupposed, and individual scenes are singled out for attention: The exploitation of historiography along the lines of e. g. Ibn al-Jauzi is beginning.  Cf. the summary of this book in Tilman Nagel, Im Offenkundigen das Verborgene: Die Heilszusage des sunnitischen Islams (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002), 608 – 610.  AL, 199 – 211 and 265 – 276.

Chapter 18: The Dogmatization of the Figure of the Prophet  AL 135– 197.

304

Annotations

Chapter 19: The Birthday of the Prophet  An allusion to Sura 4, verse 69; to be accepted into this companionship is said to have been Muhammad’s last wish (MLL 493).  During the flood [of Noah], the original Kaaba was lifted up into heaven (MLL 19).  In this concept of a Muhammad-cosmology we see a logical extension of the relationship of reciprocal attention and devotion between creature and creator that is proclaimed in the Koran. Allah honors Muhammad with ritual devotion (Sura 33: 56) precisely because, without Muhammad, he would not be the one omnipotent creator and law-giver (cf. the conclusion of Chapter 10, and Chapter 18).  “I was already prophet when Adam was still between water and clay,” says a Hadith that is not attested in any of the canonical collections. In ‘Uthman Yahya’s edition of the Openings, the references to Ahmad b. Hanbal, al-Bukhari, and Muslim (Volume II, 512, No. 69) are not accurate.  AL 301– 356.

Chapter 20: The Guarantor of Salvation in This World  So, too, the Egyptian ‘Abd al-Wahhab ash-Sha’rani (d. 1565) revised the frequently used handbook on life after death by Shams ad-Din al-Qurtubi (d. 1273) so that all of the grammatically difficult passages in it were made easier to read, precisely because they tended to distract the thoughts of the listeners from the weeping and sobbing that the recitation of the traditions is supposed to induce (ash-Sha’rani, Muhtasar tadkirat al-Imam al-Qurtubi, Cairo 1968, 2).  I discuss the books mentioned here by al-Qastallani and al-Halabi in AL 229 – 245.  Afzalur Rahman, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah, Volume I (London, UK: The Muslim Schools Trust, 1981), vi.  Rahman, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah, Vol. I, 423.  Rahman, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah, Vol. I, 519 – 520.  Afzalur Rahman, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah, Vol. IV (London, UK: The Muslim Schools Trust, 1986), 593 – 602.  Rahman, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah, Vol. IV, 593.  Rahman, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah, Vol. IV, 594.  Rahman, Muhammad: Encyclopedia of Seerah, Vol. IV, 594.  Fazlur Rahman, Islam & Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1982), 135.  Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 134.  Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 143.  Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 143.  Rahman, Islam & Modernity, 130 – 145.  AL, 15 – 24 and 357– 365.

Annotations

305

Appendix 1: Muhammad and his Position in Ancient Arab Genealogy  Therefore, behind the names in the genealogical tables are hidden often not individual people, but larger collectives of people. Thus, in Table I, Qais (b.) ‘Ailan is a tribal formation, but one which appears in the genealogical system as an individual person, namely the name of the alleged common male ancestor of the tribal formation. The names of collectives that are important for the life of Muhammad are placed in italics, while important individual people appear in boldface. Moreover, the tables are not by any means complete, but document only the family relationships between individuals and collectives that are of great importance for the events under discussion.  MLL 876, 881– 883, 938, 980 – 996.

Appendix 2: The State of Scholarship regarding the Life of Muhammad  [Translator’s note: the Arabic term muhammad literally means “praiseworthy” or “one who is worthy of praise,” from the Arabic verb hamida, meaning to praise.]

Appendix 3: Understanding or Imitation? Basic Varieties of Muslim Recollection of Muhammad  This information comes from a report of al-Waqidi written down by his pupil and secretary Ibn Sa’d: see Ibn Sa’d, Kitab at-tabaqat al-kabir, ed. Eduard Sachau et al., Volume V (Leiden 1905), 315; hereinafter, “Ibn Sa’d.”  Cf. on this topic: Ralph-Johannes Lilie, Byzanz unter Eirene und Konstantin VI (780 – 802) (Berliner Byzantinistische Studien 2, Berlin 1996), 155 – 169.  Two works by Majid Khadduri discuss the relevant literature that arose at this time, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1955), and The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s Siyar (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1966). A brief overview of the subject can be found in Tilman Nagel, Das islamische Recht: Eine Einführung (Westhofen: WVA-Verlag, 2001), 96 – 112.  Harun ar-Rashid resided in ar-Raqqa from 796 – 808. The reason that is always given for his choice of this locale for his royal residence is its proximity to the Byzantine border. This is certainly correct, but a domestic-political reason should also be given consideration: since the collapse of the Umayyad caliphate, Syria was shaken by disturbances that were aimed at the Abbasids. Moreover, the Syria/Iraq border region was in those decades frequently plagued by Kharijite insurgents, for example in 777 and in 797; cf. Khalifa b. Khaijat, Tarih Khalifa, ed., Akram Dija al-‘Umari (Najaf, 1967), 475 – 477 and 485 – 490. Already the Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754– 775), the founder of Baghdad, had recognized the significance of the region, and in 772 he laid out a new city to the west of the later ar-Raqqa (on this and on ar-Raqqa especially, see Michael Meinecke, “Raqqa on the Euphrates: Recent Excavations at the Residence of Harun ar-Rashid,” The Near East in Antiquity: German Contributions to the Archeology of Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt (II/1991), 17– 32.)

306

Annotations

 At-Tabari, Annales, ed. Michel Jan Goeje et al. (Leiden, 1879 – 1902), second series, 610.  Ibn Sa’d, Vol. V, 315 – 318.  This image is probably not accurate. Thus it is reported that Sa’id b. ‘Amr, a Quraysh scholar from Kufa famous in his day, who especially collected traditions from ‘A’isha, the Medinan leaders, and Mu’awija, was in contact with al-Walid b. Yazid; see Ibn Hajar, Tahdib at-tahdib (Ed. Hyderabad/Dekkan, 12 volumes, 1325 – 1327 AH = 1907– 1909) Vol. IV, 68, No. 115. One may ascribe an interest in religious questions to al-Walid.  Al-Walid’s didactic poem is classified as inauthentic, [but] without consideration of the content, by Manfed Ullmann, Untersuchungen zur Rajazpoesie (Wiesbaden 1966), 49. But even apart from the content, there is already evidence from 714/5 of the form chosen by al-Walid, as Ullmann himself says, and this form has already “made a breakthrough” by around 800 (Ibid., 50).  Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani, Kitab al-Aghani, ed. Muhammad Abu l-Fadl et al. (Cairo 1974), Vol. VII, 58; hereinafter, Kitab al-Aghani.  Further evidence: Der Koran: Kommentar und Konkordanz, by Rudi Paret (Stuttgart 1980), 99.  Further evidence: Ibid., 92.  In the 2nd century AH (or 8th century AD), the topic of “the two important things” (Arabic: attaqalan) that the prophet left behind for his community became widely disseminated. The Shiites consider these two things to be the Koran and the family of the prophet; the Sunnis consider them to be the Koran and the Sunna; see Tilman Nagel, Rechtleitung und Kalifat (Bonner Orientalistische Studien 27/2, Bonn 1975). The didactic poem was thus at the height of this trend. On the issue of the incarnation of the universal authority [of Muhammad], see Ch. VIII of my book, Mohammad: Leben und Legende (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2008).  Theologische Realenzyklopädie XXI, 435.  The concept amr as the name for the divine providence that operates in the invisible realm of being presumably stems from the Syriac, where it can be translated as the Greek logos. In Numbers 24: 4, the words that God places in the mouths of the prophets are referred to with a concept that derives from the same root as amr; see Theologische Realenzyklopädie XXI, 435.  Kitab al-Aghani, V, 269.  Ibid., XVIII, 184 and 191 f.  ‘Abdallah b. Mubarak (d. 797/8), one of the greatest hadith authorities, summed up in a poem the dangerousness of thinking for oneself: “You who seek knowledge! Go to Hammad b. Zaid” – a transmitter (or “tradent”) regarded as especially reliable – “and ask him for knowledge! But then bind it with strong fetters! Do not act like Taur (b. Yazid), like Jahm (b. Safwan), like ‘Amr b. ‘Ubaid!” For these three had made important contributions to theological discussions, whereby Taur and ‘Amr had emphasized above all the human capacity for independent reasoning: Allah only establishes the framework of conditions that the individual must respect. ‘Abdallah b. Mubarak condemns these doctrines lock, stock, and barrel (Ibn Hajar, Tahdib at-tahdib, II, 35, No. 57). Da’ud b. al-Muhabbar (d. 821) wrote a “Book of Understanding” (Kitab al-‘aql); he was to begin with a disciple of the hadith, but then converted to rationalism. Ahmad b. Hanbal, one of the most vehement defenders of the unlimited authority of prophetic tradition, said disparagingly about Da’ud that he had no idea what hadith is (Ibn Hajar, op.cit., III, 199 f., No. 381).  He is considered to be not only the “inventor” of the chain of transmitters [al-isnad] but he also handed on the text of a Hadith in its “entirety,” that is, with all of its parts, not only the single sentence identifying what is “forbidden” or “permitted.” In other words: We only have a Hadith before us when we have all the details that enable us to visualize the scene in which Muhammad, so to speak, appears “on stage” as present before the audience. Cf. Tilman Nagel, “Hadit – oder: Die Vernichtung der Geschichte,” in: XXV. Deutscher Orientalistentag,

Annotations

307

Vorträge (Stuttgart 1994), 118 – 128, and idem, Das islamische Recht: Eine Einführung (Westhofen 2001), 209.  Ibn Hajar, op.cit., VIII, 30, No. 45.  Cf. above, note 16. Stetter speaks of situational clichés which, as he rightly emphasizes, are due to editorial activity (Eckart Stetter, Topoi und Schemata im Hadit [phil Diss. Tübingen 1965], 34.) However, Stetter does not examine the function of these clichés. The analysis of the function of a topos – Muhammad is supposed to have said, “Whoever puts lies in circulation at my expense, his place in hell is certain!” – is carried out by Gauthier H. A. Juynboll, Muslim Tradition: Studies in Chronology, Provenance, and Authorship of Early Hadith (Cambridge University Press, 1983), 96 – 133.  Ibn Hajar, Kitab al-isaba fi tamjiz as-sahaba (Ed. Hyderabad/Dekkan, 4 volumes, 1328/1910), Vol. IV, 158, No. 921.  Abu Da’ud, Sunan, manasik 40 = Sunan Abi Da’ud, ed. Muhammad Muhji d-din’Abd alHamid, 4 volumes (Cairo 1950), Vol. II, 232 f., Chapter 598, Nos. 1849 – 1852.  The Kitab al-Maghazi of al-Waqidi, ed. Marsden Jones (Oxford University Press, 1966), 575.  Ibid., 576.  Abu Da’ud, loc. cit.  Tilman Nagel, Mohammed: Leben und Legende, Ch. VIII/3.  Ibn Hajjar, Tahdib, IV, 422, No. 735.  Ibn ‘Asakir, Ta’rih madinat Dimasq, ed. Muhibb ad-Din ‘Umar al-‘Amrawi (80 volumes, Beirut 1995 – 2000), Vol. XXIV, 141.  Al-Hatib al-Bagdadi, Ta’rih, Baghdad (14 volumes, Cairo 1931), Vol. III, No. 939, 6.  Ibid., 16.  Ibid., 6. The Hadith scholars filled page after page with one and the same saying of Muhammad, in each case with a different chain of transmitters.  Ibid., 15.  Cf. my detailed discussion in Rechtleitung und Kalifat.  Ibn Hajjar, Tahdib at-tahdib (ed. Hyderabad, 1325 – 1327/1907– 1909, 12 volumes), Vol. XII, 27 f., No. 138.  I discuss this in detail in my book: Mohammed: Leben und Legende, Chapter VIII/1.  As-Sahawi (d. 1497), an important Cairo Hadith scholar, wrote a polemic against those among his colleagues who condemn history – or, more precisely, dating. His most important argument is the usefulness of history, which is based on the fact that it serves the science of Hadith as a handmaid (dates of the lives of the transmitters; knowing which of two contradictory statements of Muhammad is the more recent and thus the normative one) and provides examples of good and bad actions and their consequences; see Franz Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography (Leiden 2nd. Ed. 1968), 273 – 332.  Ibn Hallikan, Wafajat al-a’jan wa-anba’abna’ az-zaman, ed. Ihsan ‘Abbas (8 volumes, Beirut 1968), Vol. IV, 276 f., No. 612. Incidentally, in this passage we read that in the first half of the 8th century men like Ibn Ishaq were still being approached by Hadith scholars for information regarding the accuracy of what their masters, e. g. az-Zuhri, were transmitting to them.  Ibn Hisham, as-Sira an-nabawiya, ed. Mustafa as-Saqqa, Ibrahim al-Abjari, and ‘Abd al-Hafiz Salabi (4 volumes, Cairo 1936), I, 4.  Ibn Ishaq, Kitab as-sijar wal-maghazi, ed. Suhail Zakkar (Damascus 1976), 118.  Cf. the survey in my book Muhammad: Leben und Legende, Zusatz to Note 336 from Chapter IV.

308

Annotations

 Al-Qadi Abu l-Fadl ‘Iyad al-Yahsubi, Kitab ash-Shifa bi-tarif huquq al-mustafa (wa-qad daijala-hu bil-hasija al-latifa al-musammah Muzil al-hafa’ ‘an alfaz ash-shifa lil-‘Allama Ahmad b. Muhammad ash-Sumunni) (2 volumes Beirut n.d.) Vol. I, 152. Cf. on this topic in detail, my book Allahs Liebling: Ursprung und Erscheinungsformen des Mohammedglaubens, Part II, Chapter 1.  [Translator’s note: Qadi ‘Iyad Ibn Musa al-Yahsubi, Muhammad: Messenger of Allah: AshShifa of Qadi ‘Iyad, trans. Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley (Inverness, Scotland: Madinah Press, 1991; paperback 2011).]  The Kitab al-Maghazi, V.

General Index Aaron 53, 65, 66, 95 Abbasids 83, 156, 180, 181, 196, 211, 216, 219, 245, 267, 276, 305 ‘Abd ad-Dar b. Qusayy 24, 25, 26, 64, 69, 71, 72, 128, 244 ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (r. 685 – 705) 173, 174, 175 ‘Abd al-Muttalib b. Hashim xi, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 33, 34, 35, 41, 57, 68, 70, 71, 73, 83, 84, 118, 123, 129, 155, 191, 198, 211, 223, 224, 246, 301, 302 ‘Abd al-‘Uzza b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib 57, 58, 73, 250, 252, 302 ‘Abd al-‘Uzza b. Qusayy 24, 25, 28, 30, 34, 71, 244, 245, 252 ‘Abd ar-Rahman b. ‘Auf 122, 132 ‘Abd Manaf b. Qusayy 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34, 41, 56, 57, 69, 71, 74, 166, 170, 245, 250, 273, 301 ‘Abd Manat 13, 31, 71, 98, 247 ‘Abd Shams b. ‘Abd Manaf 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 57, 58, 71, 73, 79, 82, 83, 84, 124, 131, 148, 167, 245, 251, 300, 301 ‘Abdallah (a son of Muhammad) 36 ‘Abdallah b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib (father of Muhammad) 3, 34, 124, 191, 223, 236, 246 ‘Abdallah b. Abu Bakr 85 ‘Abdallah b. (al‐)’Abbas 156 ‘Abdallah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As 176, 184 ‘Abdallah b. Jahsh 84, 98, 99, 101 ‘Abdallah b. Jud’an 16, 23, 27, 67, 80, 245, 301 ‘Abdallah b. Mubarak 306 ‘Abdallah b. Saba’ 159, 168, 169, 175 ‘Abdallah b. Ubayy 112, 113, 114 ‘Abdallah b. ‘Umar b. al-Khattab 176, 182 Abraha 3, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15, 19, 20, 21, 23, 27, 33, 34, 40, 41, 43, 48, 56, 60, 66, 72, 76, 77, 78, 87, 88, 90, 91, 106, 143, 145, 148, 199, 211, 212, 228, 232, 244, 274, 298, 303 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-027

Abraham xii, 3, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15, 25, 27, 40, 41, 48, 56, 60, 66, 72, 76, 77, 78, 87, 88, 90, 91, 95, 106, 117, 143, 145, 148, 149, 150, 199, 211, 212, 232, 244, 274, 298, 303. Abrogation (of Koran verses, Hadith) 3, 53, 157, 158, 172, 191, 192, 194, 225 Abu ‘Amir “the monk” 106, 112, 114, 118, 140, 141 Abu Bakr 27, 79, 80, 85, 113, 124, 142, 148, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 161, 162, 163, 164, 167, 169, 171, 172, 178, 192, 198, 202, 216, 245, 301 Abu Basir, adopted member of the Banu Zuhra b. Kilab 128 Abu Hanifa 180, 216 Abu Huraira 165, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179 Abu Jahl (cf. also ‘Amr b. Hisham al-Mujira) 69, 85, 100, 108 Abu Jandal, son of Suhail b. ‘Amr 125, 127 Abu Kabsha (nickname of Wajz b. Galib) 41, 42, 246 Abu l-Haitam b. at-Taijihan 82 Abu l-Huqayq 127 Abu Lahab: see ‘Abd al-‘Uzza b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib Abu Nu’aim 184, 189, 190, 191 Abu Qais b. al-Aslat 106 Abu Sa’id 235 Abu Salama ‘Abdallah b. ‘Abd al-Asad 84 Abu Sufyan b. Harb 16, 100, 112, 113, 118, 119, 129, 132, 170, 302 Abu Talib b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib 20, 35, 57, 58, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 83, 198, 224 Abu ‘Ubaida b. al-Jarrah 153, 167 Acquiring of salvation 44 – 45, 55, 181, 185 – 186, 197 – 198, 205, 229 – 240 ‘Ad (ancient people) 40, 47 Adam 5, 130, 197, 211, 222, 223, 225, 230, 238, 244, 304 Administrator (Ar. al-wasi) 168 Adultery 152, 177, 178, 179

310

General Index

Adulthood of humanity 237 Ahabis 15, 16, 17, 71, 244, 247 Ahmad al-Hulwani 218 Ahmad b. Hanbal 192, 216, 288, 289, 304, 306 ‘Aijas b. abi Rabi’a 138 ‘A’isha 135, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 176, 179, 300, 301, 306 Al-‘Abbas b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib 83, 155, 156, 211 Al-Ahnes b. Sariq 20, 297 Al-Arqam b. abi l-Arqam 37, 58, 68 Al-Aswad al-‘Ansi 160 Al-’Attab b. Asid 131 al-Baihaqi 191, 219 al-Bukhari 182, 271, 303, 304 al-Busiri 227, 228, 229, 230 al-Fitra: see Nature of the creature, original al-Ghazali 234 al-Hakim an-Naisaburi 219 al-Halabi, Burhan ad-Din 234, 304 al-Harith b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib 129 al-Harith b. Fihr 26, 245 al-Harith (grandson of Umayya b. ‘Abd Shams b. ‘Abd Manaf) 20, 83, 116, 281, 300, 301, 302 al-Hasan 196, 219 al-Hudaybiya Treaty xiii, 122 – 125, 127 f., 138, 283, 300, 302, 302 al-Husain 219 al-isnad 179, 269, 293, 295, 306 Al-Khattab 84 al-Lat (pagan deity) 41, 42, 53, 54, 61, 299 Al-Mugira b. Su’ba 124 al-Mutanna b. Anas 182 al-Mutanna b. Haritha 80 al-Muttalib b. ‘Abd Manaf 18, 71, 301 al-Qasim, descendant of ‘Umar b. al-Khattab 182 al-Qasim, grandson of Abu Bakr 171, 172 al-Qastallani 234, 304 al-‘Uzza 42, 53, 54, 61 al-Walid b. Muslim 165 al-Waqidi 69, 71, 136, 137, 138, 176, 264, 270, 276, 277, 278, 280, 283, 285, 287, 288, 289, 292, 302, 305, 307

‘Ali b. abi Talib 122, 132, 135, 142, 155, 156, 161, 162, 168, 169, 175, 184, 192, 209, 210, 219, 281, 282, 284 Alids 156, 245 Allah (as lawgiver) 1 – 6, 30, 31, 50, 74, 88, 92 – 94, 96, 109, 149 – 152, 193 – 194 Allah (as never-resting Creator and sole causal power) 40 – 45, 51 – 52, 60, 76, 77, 94, 103 – 104, 133, 189, 196, 229, 231 Allah (turning one’s face towards) 44, 45, 55, 77, 78, 90, 91 Allah’s Boundaries (al-hudud) 93, 141, 151, 152 Allah’s deference to Muhammad 48, 120 – 121, 122, 207 – 208, 299, 304 Allah’s Favorite (= Muhammad) 198, 199, 205, 228, 295 “Allah’s People” 14 Allah’s word (cf. also Word of Allah; Koran) 30, 37, 171, 179, 181, 188, 190, 192, 193, 197, 229, 235, 286, 289 Allowance 165, 166 Almsgiving (and alms-tax) 32, 60, 74, 92, 142, 146, 165, 231 Alter ego (of Muhammad) 48, 49, 54, 65, 77, 78, 84, 88, 89, 111, 120, 191 Ambassadors (cf. also Embassies) 22, 123, 136, 138, 152, 160, 213 Amina bt. Wahb (mother of Muhammad) 34, 35, 223, 224, 246 Amr (cf also Providence, divine) 279 – 280, 286, 306 ‘Amir b. Rabi’a 84 Amorality 5, 99, 230 ‘Amr b. al-‘As 62, 128, 131, 137, 164, 167, 176 ‘Amr b. Hisham al-Mujira (cf. also Abu Jahl) 69, 85, 100, 108 ‘Amr b. Ma’dikarib 160 an-Nadr b. al-Harith 64, 69 an-Nasir li-Din Allah (r. 1180 – 1225) 219 an-Nawawi 203, 204, 205 an-Nu’man b. al-Mundir 79 Anas b. Malik 158, 182, 200 Angel (angels, archangel) 20, 29, 40, 43, 51, 85, 94, 102, 103, 107, 121, 122, 141,

General Index

184, 197, 204, 208, 211, 213, 221, 222, 230 Animal sacrifice 23, 95, 96, 130, 148, 149, 290, 295, 298 Apostasy from Islam 159, 216, 291 ‘Aqaba, meetings at 82, 97, 161, 198 Arabian peninsula 10, 11, 14, 19, 22, 23, 136, 163, 243, 259, 293 Arabs 7, 11, 18, 21, 27, 31, 32, 37, 41, 42, 67, 79, 80, 81, 99, 137, 148, 149, 160, 164, 165, 167, 171, 186, 198, 228, 243, 244, 246, 297, 299 Arbitration panel 169 Archaeology 238, 277 Army (cf. also Military forces, Troops) 17, 19, 23, 100, 112, 123, 132, 140, 161, 228 as-Samarkandi 232 as-Sujuti 227 Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza b. Qusayy 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 34, 71, 244, 245, 252 As’ad b. Zurara 82, 85, 106, 107, 111 Ascent into heaven, Muhammad’s 77, 82, 198, 199, 221, 289, 290 f. Asceticism 3, 61, 62, 106, 203 ash-Shafi’i 180, 181, 182, 204, 216 ash-Shahrastani 38 ‘Asim b. ‘Adi 106 Assassination 111, 167, 269 Atonement 17, 121 Attempts on Muhammad’s life 85, 202 Aus 24, 27, 81, 82, 83, 84, 87, 99, 102, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 122, 161, 162, 246 Aus Manat/Allah, clan of 84, 117 Authentication of prophethood, prophetic status 50, 185 – 192, 194, 196 – 202 Authenticator of the Prophets 120 Authenticity of Allah’s word as proclaimed by Muhammad 48, 145, 177, 179 – 180, 186, 214 – 217 Authority of the Prophet, all-encompassing 181, 183, 194, 196 – 205, 214 – 217 az-Zubair b. al-‘Auwam 161, 167, 169 az-Zuhri 179, 280, 282, 307 Azar 77 Badan 127

311

Bahira 224 Banishment 110, 178 Banu ‘Abd ad-Dar 26, 69, 71, 72, 128 Banu ‘Abd al-Ashal 105, 161 Banu ‘Abd al-Muttalib 20, 155 Banu ‘Abd Manaf 71 Banu ‘Abd Shams (b. ‘Abd Manaf) 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 57, 58, 71, 124, 167 Banu ‘Adi b. an-Najjar 35 Banu ‘Adi b. Ka’b 26, 84, 245 Banu ‘Amir b. Sa’sa’a 114, 300, 301, 302 Banu ‘Amr b. ‘Auf 83, 84, 87, 106, 115, 140, 141 Banu Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza 25, 28, 34 Banu ‘Auf 115, 116 Banu l-Aus 115, 116 Banu Bakr b. ‘Abd Manat b. Kinana 31 Banu Bakr b. Wa’il 79, 80 Banu d-Dil 142 Banu Damra b. Bakr b. ‘Abd Manat 98 Banu Ghatafan 17, 119, 122, 125, 126, 163, 244 Banu Hanifa 161, 163, 244 Banu Hashim 16, 33, 56, 69, 70, 198 Banu Israel 89 Banu Jadima 71 Banu Jumah 26, 61 Banu Jusham 115 Banu l-Harith 115 Banu l-Harit b. Ka’b 138, 139 Banu l-Muttalib 16, 69, 70, 71, 72, 198 Banu Madhig 160 Banu Makhzum 26, 28, 37, 56, 57, 58, 62, 68, 69, 71, 72, 78, 84, 100, 300, 301 Banu Malik b. an-Najjar 85 Banu Mudlig b. Murra b. Kinana 98 Banu Muzaina 81 Banu n-Nabit 115 Banu n-Nadir 81, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 117, 118, 122, 125, 154, 165, 246 Banu n-Najjar 97, 115, 116, 119 Banu Qaynuqa 110, 111, 112, 114, 119, 246 Banu Qurayza 5, 81, 106, 110, 112, 114, 119, 122, 154, 233, 246, 301, 302 Banu Sa’d b. Bakr 35 Banu Sahm 16, 26, 301 Banu Sa’ida 115, 161

312

General Index

Banu Shaiban 79, 80, 99, 163, 244 Banu Sulaim 119, 122, 135 Banu Taglib 161, 244 Banu Taim b. Murra 16, 27, 67, 301 Banu Tamim 11, 14, 18, 33, 160, 161, 171, 244, 247 Banu Thaqif 16, 20, 21, 71, 73, 129, 132, 244 Banu Umayya b. ‘Abd Shams 84 Banu Zaid b. Malik b. ‘Amr b. ‘Auf 141 Banu Zuhra b. Kilab 15, 16, 246, 297 Battle of Badr 71, 99, 100, 105, 106, 150, 151, 198, 302 Battle of Hunayn 135, 143 Battle of the Ditch 118, 122, 129, 133, 134, 160, 167, 233, 282 Battle of Uhud 84, 114 Bedouin 9, 10, 81, 113, 114, 118, 123, 126, 129, 132, 133, 134, 164, 283 Belief (vs. Islam) xiii, 107 – 109, 133 – 135, 144 – 147, 168 Believers (vs. mere Muslims) xiii, 101, 107 – 109, 133 – 135, 144 – 147, 168 Birthday of the Prophet 218 – 224, 227, 304 “Blood lickers” 26, 245 Blood relations (cf. also Kinship ties) 7, 115, 117, 120, 169, 243, 245 Blood vengeance, blood money 16, 92, 114, 115, 124, 130, 139, 150, 169 Book (Koran as) (cf. also Scripture) 47, 50, 90 – 91, 94, 102, 150, Book of Jubilees 40 Booty, apportioned to win people to Islam 71, 101, 129, 135 Booty, as special privilege accorded to Muhammad 146, 199, 202 Booty, fifth of 99, 117, 134 – 135 Boycott (of the Hashemites) xii, 68 – 72, 74 Bridal gift, bridal money 36, 120, 151 Brotherhood between Helpers and Emigrants 99, 108 Byzantines, Byzantine Empire xi, 11, 12, 13, 21 – 26, 45 – 46, 51, 59, 62, 79, 122, 123, 139, 140, 152, 163, 164, 201, 243, 245, 276, 293, 295, 296, 298, 305 Calendar 11, 14, 34, 143, 149, 150, 166, 219, 293

Caliph, meaning 285 Caravan traffic 11, 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 98, 100, 108, 259 Causal power of Allah 40 – 45, 51 – 52, 60, 76, 77, 94, 103 – 104, 133, 189, 196, 229, 231, 279 Challenge verses 188 Charitable donations: see Almsgiving Chosroes 33, 80 Christ (cf. also Jesus) 19, 51, 138, 297 Christians, Christianity xii, 3, 13, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 30, 31, 35, 45, 46, 48, 56, 59, 61, 62, 79, 87, 88, 89 – 91, 92, 95, 96, 137, 138, 139, 142, 143, 145, 161, 164, 165, 210, 213, 236, 244, 267, 272, 284, 295, 297, 298, 301 Civil War 110, 161, 162, 175 Clausewitz 239 Client relationship 24, 176 “Commander of the Believers” 99, 101, 276 Commanding the right and forbidding the wrong 87, 141, 146, 169 Commandment to fight 149 – 150 Community, the best xii, 87, 92, 125, 145, 153, 159, 167, 177, 233, 235 Community formation 60 – 61, 68, 84 – 85 Companions of the prophet 158, 165, 174, 175, 176, 181, 192, 206, 215, 216, 284, 285, 303 Compulsion in religion (cf. also Koran 2: 256) 62, 89, 90 Confederacy (supplementing kin-based alliances) 26, 56, 70, 245 Consecrated state (of pilgrims) 123, 281, 282, 283 Constantine 13 “Constitution of Medina” 113 – 117, 137 Contact with foreign tribes 78 – 80 Conversion to Islam 165 – 166, 209 – 210 Correct guidance 10, 92, 138, 144, 178, 280, 281, 282, 284, 285, 286, 287, 289 Covenant with the Prophets 90, 218, 222, 230 “Cow Sura” (cf. also Sura 2) xii, 95 – 96, 102 Createdness of the Koran (Mu’tazalite view) 185 Creation, ongoing act of 51 – 52, 94, 286

General Index

313

Cross 20, 123 Cult (cf. also Religious practice) 10, 13, 14, 15, 25, 45, 70, 72, 79, 82, 91, 105, 296 Curse of Allah/God 56, 95

Expulsion from Mecca (cf. also Hijra) xii, 46, 58, 62, 64, 66, 74, 76, 82, 84, 85 f, 91, 92, 98, 122, 143, 171, 298 Ezra 138, 143

Dashti, Ali 5, 296 Dating systems (cf. also Calendar) 19 Daughters of Allah 42, 54 Debts 93, 102, 112, 276 Defense 108, 238 – 239 Demon (cf. also Jinn) 49, 50, 184 Devil 48, 149 Dietary rules 62, 89 Division of Islamic society into Muslims and believers: see Believers (vs. mere Muslims), and Belief (vs. Islam) Diwan 165 Dog Star (Sirius) xi, 20, 40, 41, 42, 246 Dome of the Rock 267, 289 Doubt regarding Muhammad 206 f Dream 30, 34, 74, 82, 85, 105, 123, 125, 197, 198, 224, 227 Du Nuwas (Yusuf) 22, 138

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi 51 Farwa b. ‘Amr al-Judami 139 Fasting 30, 92, 93, 130, 151, 199, 200, 228, 231 Fatima, daughter of Muhammad 161 f, 219 Fatima bt. al-Khattab 50 Fatimids 219, 221 Fazlur Rahman 240, 241, 242, 304 Fear 205 Fear of God 55, 107, 134 Female slave who has born a son for her master (umm walad) 174 Fihr (= Quraysh, progenitor of Quraysh clan) 244, 301, 249 Fornication 60, 82, 130 Friday religious service 82, 87, 88, 196 Friends of God (al-wali, pl. al-auliya’) 184, 189, 226

Ego, loss of 4, 203 Embassies (cf. also Ambassadors) 201, 202 Emigrants, first (or early) 109, 118, 128, 131, 152, 153, 156, 164, 166, 167, 169, 173 Emigrants 99, 101, 104, 105, 108, 109, 115, 118, 128, 129, 131, 140, 145, 150, 151, 152, 153, 156, 161, 162, 164, 166, 167, 169, 173 Emigration to Ethiopia xi, 60, 61, 62, 68, 78, 83, 84, 98, 128, 198, 300, 301, 302 Eminences, confederacy of 16, 17, 26, 28, 56, 245 Eon 219, 230, 232 Epilepsy 35, 72 Ethics 196, 230 Eve 5, 223, Evil eye 36 Exaltation of the person of Muhammad: see Muhammad, exaltation of person of Execution of those who doubt Muhammad’s authority 215 – 217, 291 Exodus, Book of 40, 47

Gabriel 29, 30, 74, 85, 141, 198, 202, 209, 222, 226, 277 Gambling 93 Garrison cities (cf. also Military bases) 168 Genealogy xv, 7, 13, 15, 26, 31, 79, 81, 120, 150, 172, 215, 243 – 258 Genesis, Book of 51, 212 Genesis Rabba (Midrash) 41 Ghassanids 11, 24, 25, 127, 243, 256, 293 Gnostic themes (in Koran, Muhammad’s early preaching) 38, 39, 42, 45, 46, 55, 232 Goethe 9, 10 Gospel 51, 74, 87, 90, 133 Gratitude to Allah 43 f, 45, 60, 149 Greeting of peace 114, 121, 138, 190, 194, 207, 208, 209, 235 hadith (genre) xiii, xiv, 2, 3, 51, 146, 157, 158, 172, 173 – 183, 184, 185, 190, 192 – 195, 203, 206, 218, 219, 234, 235, 240, 264 – 274, 278 – 292, 293, 295, 303, 306

314

General Index

Hadith as the living reality of Muhammad’s words 179, 182 – 183, 278 – 284 hadith scholarship 182, 190 – 195, 219, 284 – 285, 287 – 292, 303, 306 Halima (Muhammad’s foster-mother/wetnurse) 35, 224 Hani’ b. Qabisa 80 Hanif xi, xiii, 3, 16, 38, 39, 44, 45, 46, 51, 53, 54, 56, 59, 61 – 62, 67, 72, 76, 77, 78, 82, 84, 88 – 96, 105, 106, 114, 141, 148 – 152, 165, 166, 232, 295, 297, 301 Hanif religion, “generosity” or “broadness” of (in Muhammad’s version) 3, 62 – 63, 203, 301 Harb b. Umayya 27, 57, 301 Harun ar-Rashid (r. 786 – 809) 180, 285, 289, 291, 305 Hashim b. ‘Abd Manaf 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 35, 61, 71, 81, 84, 155, 245, 246, 302 Hashemites: see Banu Hashim Hassan b. Thabit 97, 111, 135 Hatma, clan of the Aus tribe 106 Hawazin 35, 129, 132, 244, 288 Head tax (poll tax, jizya) 136, 143, 145, 163 Hell, hellfire 37, 38, 46, 55, 57, 58, 67, 73, 92, 94, 102, 103, 107, 110, 141, 152, 202, 205, 221, 228, 229, 290, 307 “Helpers” (Ansar) xiii, 99, 101, 102, 105, 106, 109, 114, 115, 118, 122, 127, 129, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 145, 146, 147, 150, 152, 161, 166, 171, 303 Heraclius 123, 127, 140, 164 Hidden realm 49, 225, 226, 227, 228 High-religious ideas, influence of 21 – 22, 25, 27, 35, 42, 50, 51, 59, 177, Highest lord xi, 37, 40, 41, 42, 43 Hijra (cf. also Expulsion from Mecca) 83, 84, 85, 124, 166, 167, 169, 190, 198, 203, 219, 270, 273, 274, 276, 289, 299 Himyarites 55, 138 Hisham b. ‘Amr b. Rabi’a 71 Historicity of Muhammad 7 – 8, 184, 240, 263 – 275 Historiography 4 – 6, 206, 216, 290 History of events 190, 197, 266 Holy 12, 27, 123, 222

Holy Ground (or Sacred Zone, Territory) xi, 12, 13, 14, 19, 31, 98, 123 Holy months: see Months, holy Homage 41, 83, 122, 124, 133, 299 Homage exclamation 41 Horses 43, 80, 100, 110, 112, 117, 119, 129 Hubaib b. Yusuf 101 Hubal (pagan deity) 54, 55 Hud 47 Human being 43 – 45 Human rights 7, 296 Hymns 22, 48, 297 Hypocrites (al-munafiqun) 106, 107, 109, 134, 142, 173 Ibn abi Hatim ar-Razi 193 Ibn abi Kabsha (nickname for Muhammad) 41, 42, 246 Ibn ‘Abidin 217 Ibn al-Baqillani 186, 187, 188 Ibn al-Jauzi 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 303 Ibn ‘Arabi 224, 225 Ibn Hajar al-Haitami 221, 223, 224, 227 Ibn Hisham 36, 54, 148, 206, 290, 291, 300, 307 Ibn Ishaq 28, 31, 32, 34, 36, 71, 84, 103, 118, 124, 142, 156, 162, 206, 264, 290, 291, 299, 299, 307, 307 Ibn Taymiya 216 Ibrahim, son of Muhammad 127 Ibrahim al-Baguri 218 Ibrahim ‘Ali an-Nassar 236 Ideology, Islam as 237 Idolatry: see Polytheism Imam 61, 158, 169, 173, 184, 212, 234, 287, 304 Imitation of Muhammad: see Muhammad, imitation of Impediments to marriage 130, 174 Individual 59 Infallibility of Muhammad: see Muhammad, infallibility of Inheritance, right of 92 Inheritance 65 – 68, 91, 120, 130, 148, 160, 174, 232 – 233

General Index

Insight (al-fiqh) into the implications of Islam 177 Inspirations (Muhammad’s) 30, 57, 72, 85, 102, 176 Intercession (with Allah) 38, 42, 43, 53, 62, 146, 199, 202, 221, 222, 228, 229 Inviolability (of Mecca, Kaaba) 20, 21, 31, 41, 98 Inviolability (of people, property) 16, 67 Isaac 91 Isaiah 197, 198 Ishmael, Ishmaelite xv, 11, 13, 15, 17, 21, 25, 81, 88, 90, 91, 99, 143, 212, 243, 244, 246 “Islam” as concept absent in earliest revelations 39 Islam as concept borrowed from early hanifs 55 Islam as dissolving traditional social and political framework 137 Islam as distinct from belief: see Belief, Believers Islam as governing whole of human life 96 Islam as religion of the desert 9 – 10 Islam, contradictions in 3, 7, 60, 76, 94, 109, 133, 177 – 178, 191, 231 f., 264, 284, 307 “Islam, domain of” (vs. “domain of war”) 277 “Islam” first mentioned in mid-Meccan Suras 55 Islamic calendar 84, 150, 166, 219, 293 Islamic conquest movement 161, 163, 164, 165, 166, 173, 175 Islamic Jurisprudence: see Jurisprudence, Islamic Islamization, violent 136, 139, 142 – 144 “Island of the Arabs” 164 – 165 ‘Iyad al-Yahsubi (Qadi ‘Iyad) 206, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 216, 219, 234, 241, 291, 308 ‘Iyad b. Himar al-Mujasi’i 32 Jacob 91 Ja’far ash-Shadiq 212 Jerusalem 13, 82, 85, 86, 88, 91, 123, 228, 236, 265, 267, 289, 291, 298

315

Jesus 27, 46, 56, 83, 88, 91, 138, 159, 202, 213, 224, 235, 267, 268 Jethro 47 Jews, Judaism 13, 46, 56, 62, 77, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 95, 96, 102, 110, 111, 112, 114, 116, 117, 118, 126, 136, 137, 138, 142, 143, 145, 178, 199, 210, 236 Jihad xii, 7, 108, 115, 126, 127, 131, 133, 134, 135, 140, 143, 144, 145, 147, 152, 162, 175, 196, 204, 208, 300 Jinn (cf. also Demon) 53, 85, 221, 225, 228, 230, 235, Jizya: see Head tax Jonah 49, 54 Joseph 129, 155, 273, Jubair b. Mu’tim 132 Judgment Day (cf. also Last Judgment) 29, 44, 76, 77, 104, 134, 190, 199, 200, 202, 208, 221, 223, 228, 229, 235 Jurisprudence, Islamic 2, 151, 152, 180, 181, 182, 206, 215, 217, 264, 283, 291, 292, 294 Justice in the name of Allah, administration of 137 Justinian 22, 268, 297 Kaaba 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 41, 55, 56, 66, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 82, 87, 88, 90, 91, 98, 108, 118, 125, 128, 129, 131, 148, 149, 160, 197, 198, 222, 223, 244, 289, 298, 304 Ka’b b. al-Ashraf 111, 112 Ka’b b. Malik 140 Kedar 197 Khadija bt. Khuwaylid 25, 30, 33, 35, 36, 37, 41, 46, 57, 71, 72, 73, 79, 95, 167, 170, 198, 245, 300 Khalid b. al-Walid 128, 139, 161, 163, 164, 166 Kharijites 169 Khazraj 24, 26, 27, 81, 82, 85, 87, 88, 97, 99, 102, 102, 110, 111, 113, 114, 116, 119, 122, 135, 140, 161, 162, 182, 246, 256, 258 Khuza’a 13, 14, 15, 21, 23, 27, 28, 31, 41, 57, 81, 98, 119, 124, 128, 244, 246, 300

316

General Index

Kilab (father of Qusayy) 13, 15, 16, 31, 34, 245, 246, 301 Killing of enemies 91, 133, 141, 143, 151 – 152 Kinana b. abi l-Huqayq 127, 299 Kinanites 31 Kindites 11, 243, 293 King 11, 18, 25, 55, 80, 236, 237 Kinship ties (cf. also Muhammad, clan of, and Blood relations) 70 – 71, 84, 99, 108, 115, 120, 245 Knowledge xiii, xiv, 4, 7, 89, 90, 142, 156, 157, 171, 172, 175, 176, 177, 180, 181, 183, 184, 189, 192, 194, 203, 206, 234, 303 Koran, abrogation of verses: see Abrogation Koran as Allah’s literal, perfect, unadulterated word 1 Koran as contradicting hadith 152, 177 – 179, 264 – 265 Koran as expression of Allah’s legislative will 2 Koran as miracle 186, 188, 189, 206, 228 Koran as uncreated vs. created (cf. also Mu’tazilites) 184 – 186, 189 – 190, 286 Koran, completion of canonical edition of 171 – 174 Koran, concept of “Sura” in 30 Koran, content of oldest revelations in 36 – 39 Koran, earliest verses of 29 – 31 Koran, inimitability of 50, 186, 187 Koran, recitation of 49, 60, 62, 101, 159, 171, 204 Koran reciters 82, 85, 159, 220 Koran, writing down of began in Mecca 50, 102, 171 Lakhmids, Lakhmid 23, 243, 255 Land-tax (al-kharaj) 165 Lashes (or whipping) 135, 152, 177, 178 Last Judgment (cf. also Judgment Day) 37, 38, 42, 61, 90, 96, 145, 187, 224, 232 Late converts (to Islam) 128, 163 – 167 Law, lawgiver (cf. also sharia) 3, 4, 8, 31, 33, 35, 36, 87, 109, 150, 151, 180, 181, 182, 186, 190, 194, 197, 211, 214, 222, 225, 226, 231, 232, 233, 277, 279, 304, 305

Leap-month 14, 149 Legitimation of power 66, 154, 157, 158, 168, 170, 219 Letters to non-Muslim rulers 127, 139, 201 Light (of prophecy) xiv, 34, 74, 144, 178, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 218, 219, 222, 223, 233 Loan 133 “Lord of the heavenly hosts” 39 Lot 47, 48, 187 Magic, magician xii, 36, 64, 65, 66, 214 Maimuna bt. al-Harith 153, 300, 302 Majestas domini 51 Malik b. Anas 180, 216, 290 Manat (pagan deity) 24, 42, 53, 61 Mansur b. ‘Ikrima al-Abdari 69, 70 Mantle of the prophet xiv, 227, 228, 229, 230 Manumission (of slaves) 176 Market, marketplace 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 59, 100, 119, 143, 174, 194 Marriage-based connections 57, 72, 73, 95 Marriage by purchase 150, 151 Marriage regulations 36, 120, 130, 131, 150 – 152, 174, 176 Mary 27, 138, 143, 213 Maslama (Musaylima), Prophet 160 – 161 Massacre 5, 119, 154 Mediator 82, 222 Mercy 44, 53, 54, 74, 87, 94, 130, 137, 200, 204, 208, 213, 230 Messenger of Allah (rasul) 37, 50; prophet (nabi) as distinct from, 6, 46 – 47, 50, 56, 74 – 75, 79, 87 – 96 Messiah 41, 143, 267 Michael (angel) 20, 74 Midrash 41 Militarized religiosity (cf. also Belief; Believers; Jihad; Military community) xii, 107, 168 Military bases (cf. also Garrison cities) 164 Military community, believers as (cf. also Militarized religiosity) 127, 135, 144 – 145 Military forces (cf. also Army, Troops) 17, 234

General Index

Military service, duty to provide (cf. also “Pledge of Women” and Promise of protection and ‘Aqaba, meetings at) 82 – 83 Military service in the cause of Islam: see Belief (vs. Islam) and Believers (vs, mere Muslims) Miracles xiv, 85, 114, 184, 185, 189, 190, 191, 199, 209, 213, 221, 223, 228, 229 Miraculous signs xi, 30, 40, 43, 54, 66, 74, 90, 94, 96, 97, 104, 181, 191, 236 “Miraculous signs,” Koran verses as 30 Mishna 171, 172, 184 Mockery of Muhammad’s message 47, 48, 64, 71, 104, 129, 227 Monasticism 62, 89 Monolatry 42, 55 Monotheism 39, 42, 45, 50, 51, 54, 66, 72, 91, 212, 246, 272, 279, 286, 290 Months, holy (or sacred) 14, 15, 91, 98, 142, 149 Moses xii, 9, 13, 40, 42, 46, 47, 53, 56, 60, 64, 65, 66, 68, 76, 77, 81, 83, 88, 91, 95, 187, 199, 212 Mosque of dissension (cf. also Opposition mosque) xiii, 140, 141 Mu’ad b. Jabal 131, 160 Mu’awiya b. abi Sufyan 18, 132, 161, 167, 169, 170 Mudar 11, 13, 79, 149, 171, 244, 301, 244, 247 Mudarite Arabs 15, 17, 21, 67, 171, 172, 244, 247 Muhammad, best of all creatures 235 Muhammad, clan and tribe of (cf. also Blood relations, Kinship ties) 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 33, 56 – 58, 61, 109, 245 – 246, 250, 273 Muhammad, doctrine of 6, 186, 275, 295 Muhammad, essential nature of 212 – 214, 222 Muhammad, exaltation of person of 120 – 121, 122, 207 – 210, 299, 304 Muhammad, imitation of 157 – 158, 196, 205, 289 Muhammad, infallibility of 177, 179, 207, 213, 214 – 215, 219

317

Muhammad, sinlessness of 1, 4, 177, 179, 213, 219, 227 Muhammad, special rights of 120 – 121 Muhammad al-Hudari 233 Muhammad as exemplary role model 1, 4, 6, 157 – 158, 177, 196, 205 Muhammad as “the perfect person” 227, 233 “Muhammad” as proper name 35, 266 – 267 Muhammad as sole inhabitant of original cosmos 219 Muhammad as the origin of all things 211, 218, 222, 229 Muhammad b. Habib 18, 32 Muhammad’s birth, pre-history of 33 – 34, 35, 190, 219 Muhammad’s character 200 Muhammad’s claim to political power 59, 65, 66, 68, 76, 78, 90, 91, 93, 98, 108 – 109, 111, 116, 117, 122, 131, 136 – 147, 150, 160, 273 Muhammad’s marriages 300 – 302 Muhammad’s ongoing activity after his death 226 Muhammad’s return 159, 168, 175 Muhammad’s scribes 85, 171 – 172, 179 Muhammad’s visions 40, 51, 74, 77, 82, 289, 298 Muhammad’s year of birth 33 Muslim: see Belief (vs. mere Islam), and Believers (vs. mere Muslims) Muslim b. al-Hajjaj 157 Mu’tazilites 184, 185, 186, 188, 189, 191, 192, 196, 205, 231, 232 Mut’im b. ‘Adi 70, 71, 74, 78, 83, 97, 132 Muzaffar ad-Din 219, 220, 221 Nasr (pagan deity) 46, 55 Nature of the creature, original (al-fitra) (cf. also Koran 30: 30) 38, 44, 46, 55, 62 Naufal b. ‘Abd Manaf 27, 74 Negus 22, 23, 26, 62, 68, 69, 128 Night Journey 82, 85, 224, 289, 298 Noah 40, 46, 47, 48, 211, 222, 304 Non-Muslims (cf. also Christians, Jews, Pagans, Polytheists, Unbelievers, Zoroas-

318

General Index

trians) 4, 7, 50, 127, 142, 144, 166, 173, 185, 188, 189, 206, 238 Numbers, Book of 95, 306 Oath-based alliance: see Confederacy Oaths (in Koran) 49 Obedience to Allah and his messenger 46, 47, 82, 90, 94, 97, 104, 105, 120, 124, 133 – 134, 137, 158, 159, 199 – 200, 207, 210, 213, 278 – 280 Offensive war 133 Offices in pagan Mecca 14, 24, 25, 28, 69, 71, 301 Omnipotence of Allah 43, 44, 89, 148, 225, 304 One-on-one combat 101 “Opening,” the (Sura 1 of Koran) 87, 96, 298 Opposition mosque (cf. also Mosque of dissension) 106 Oppressed, the (cf. also Weak, those whom one regards as) 65, 66, 67, 68 Pagans, paganism 3, 13, 16, 17, 23, 25, 27, 37, 42, 45, 50, 51, 60, 61, 65, 71, 72, 74, 82, 89, 90, 93, 101, 129, 143, 145, 187, 211, 236, 265, 290, 296, 298 Paradise 5, 38, 82, 89, 133, 141, 146, 185, 192, 202, 203, 205, 211, 222, 232, 279, 280, 287 Path of Allah (cf. also Way of Allah) 91, 92, 105, 106, 108, 152 Patriarch of Alexandria 127, 139, 201 Patrilineality 31, 150, 151, 243 Peace 15, 16, 80, 92, 107, 115, 116, 117, 133, 142, 143, 305 “People of the Book” (cf. also Christians, Jews, Scripture folk) 50, 90, 110, 111, 120, 125, 143, 193, 210, 236 “Perfect person, the” (i. e. Muhammad) 227, 233 “Perfumed ones,” confederacy of 26, 34, 69, 70, 245, 301 Persecution of Muhammad’s followers 61, 65, 66, 67, 68, 83 Pharaoh xii, 47, 53, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 76, 107, 232

Pilgrims, pilgrimage 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 41, 42, 55, 69, 73, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 89, 90, 93, 95, 98, 105, 122, 123, 125, 128, 130, 131, 141, 142, 143, 148, 149, 150, 160, 161, 164, 196, 198, 200, 202, 204, 219, 231, 277, 280, 281, 282, 283, 287, 302 Pilgrims’ attire 32 “Pledge of women” 82 Poets, poetry xiv, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 97, 135, 140, 187, 200, 220, 221, 227, 230, 235, 280 Poll tax: see Head tax Polytheism, polytheists 14, 50, 51, 55, 58, 65, 76, 82, 142, 143, 148, 194, 208, 237, 283 Possession (demonic) 49, 50, 65, 297 Power, claim to: see Muhammad’s claim to political power Prayer, call to 87, 88, 128, 143 Prayer, direction of (al-qibla) 56, 82, 88, 91 Prayer, ritual (as-salat) 10, 44, 48, 60, 72, 74, 88, 92, 94, 97, 121, 122, 130, 131, 142, 146, 207, 208, 223, 135 Prayer, time of 130, 131, 149 Prayer leader 154 – 155, 157, 158 Pre-existence of Muhammad 211, 218, 219, 222, 227 Predestination (cf. also Causal power of Allah) 133 Prisoners of war (cf. also War captives) 99, 102, 107, Profane; the “profane ones” 32, 15 “Profaners,” the 15, 32 Progress, idea of 237 Prohibition of thinking 192, 216 Promise of protection (cf. also “Pledge of Women” and Military service, duty to provide) 74, 83, 130, 139 Proofs of prophethood xiv, 87, 88, 189, 190, 191, 194, 196, 209, 219 Property xii, 117 – 118, 165, 174, 232 – 233 “Property of Allah” 165, 168 “Property that has been reclaimed” (al-fay) xii, 110, 117, 118, 120, 135

General Index

Prophet, the pagan xii, 74, 75, 87, 88, 96, 236, 298 Prophet (nabi): see Messenger of Allah (rasul) Prophethood: see Proofs of prophethood Prophetic companions: see Companions of the prophet Proskynesis: see Prostration Prostration (Proskynesis) 46, 48, 61, 62, 71, 146, 297 Protection, promise of: see Promise of protection “protection of Allah and his Messenger” (addhimma) 139, 166 Providence, divine (cf. also Amr) 43, 44, 105, 149, 165, 179, 228, 279 – 280, 286, 306 Punishment, threats of: see Punishment legends Punishment: see Allah’s Boundaries (alhudud); Punishment legends; Hell, hellfire Punishment legends 46, 48, 59, 64, 66, 67, 76, 87, 105, 107, 238 Purification payment (az-zakat) 17, 60, 165 Purity xi, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 37, 38, 42, 43, 44, 60, 71, 148, 186, 214 Qadi ‘Iyad: see ‘Iyad al-Yahsubi Qais (b.) ‘Ailan 15, 16, 18, 244, 248, 305 Qais b. Muharrit 101 Qaraza b. Ka’b 172 Quda’a 13 Quraysh (cf. also Fihr) xi, xiii, xv, 9 – 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 41, 46, 58, 61, 62, 65, 67, 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 93, 97 – 103, 105, 106, 108, 111 – 116, 123 – 125, 128, 129, 131, 132, 135, 142, 143, 148, 149, 159 – 162, 164, 166, 167, 170, 171, 187, 194, 198, 211, 222, 244, 245, 246, 247, 249, 253, 273, 274, 297, 300, 301, 306 Qusayy 12 – 16, 18, 21, 24 – 26, 28, 31, 56, 64, 66, 69, 71, 78, 98, 170, 244, 245, 246, 249, 250, 252, 253, 301 Quss b. Sa’ida 59 Qutam 35

319

Rabbis, rabbinic 143, 144, 272 Rabi’a, Rabites 67, 79, 80, 244, 247 Rajab 98, 99, 138, 140, 149, 293 Ramadan 30, 70, 92, 93, 101, 199, 237, 293, 301 Ramadan fast 30, 92, 93, 130, 151, 199, 200, 231 Ramadan, Tariq 4 – 5 (quotation from), 296 Ransom 102, 115, 135, 151 Rayhana 153, 154, 301 Reading (recitation), liturgical (Koran as) 29, 49, 50, 60, 62, 71, 90, 92, 96, 97, 101, 104, 155, 159, 171, 172, 173, 181, 203, 212, 236, 297 Reason, human 77, 174, 177, 179, 180, 184, 185, 189, 191, 214, 225, 230, 240, 285, 286, 306 Religious community 60 – 61, 76 – 78, 90 – 91, 107 – 109, 215, 235 – 236 Religious practice (cf. also Cult, Rites) 3, 20, 26, 30, 49, 55 – 56, 58, 60, 62, 66, 71, 73, 77, 78, 90, 95, 99, 193, 215 Rescuer of humanity, Muhammad as 236 Responsibility for decision-making 38, 44, 185 – 186, 196, 205, 231 Resurrection (of the dead, of the body) 37, 42, 59, 60, 187, 202 Revelation, circumstances of 241 Revelation (cf. also Inspirations) xi, 4, 25, 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 38, 40, 50, 85, 109, 111, 114, 138, 144, 181, 193, 194, 198, 272, 277 Reward 37, 44, 85, 89, 104, 122, 132, 133, 135, 138, 141, 145, 161, 166, 185, 208, 203, 208, 231, 232 Rhyming prose 48, 187, 188 Rites (cf. also Cult, Religious practice) xi, 6, 12, 14, 17, 23, 27, 31, 32, 33, 44, 46, 72, 78, 79, 82, 89, 90, 91, 95, 96, 105, 117, 122, 125, 141, 142, 143, 145, 149, 150, 160, 161, 163, 185, 200, 204, 228 Rustam 24 Sabbath 22, 76, 77, 82, 119 Sabi’ans 38, 83, 101 Sacred (vs. profane, in pre-Islamic Mecca) 15 Sacred Territory or Zone: see Holy Ground

320

General Index

Sacrifice, sublimation of (cf. also Animal sacrifice) 95, 295, 298 Sacrifice of son (by ‘Abd al-Muttalib) 34, 70, 223 Sa’d b. abi Waqqas 164, 166 Sa’d b. Haitama 84, 85 Sa’d b. Mu’ad 105, 119 Sa’d b. ‘Ubada 83, 135, 161, 162, 163 Sa’id b. al-Musaiyab 177, 178, 179, 181 Saif b. di Jazan 23 Sajah, female prophet 161 Saladin 219, 220 Salih (ancient people) 47, 187 Salma bt. ‘Amr 26, 35 Salvation xiv, 33, 37, 38, 44, 45, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 131, 152, 167, 174, 181, 185, 186, 197, 198, 205, 207, 218, 226, 227, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 236, 237, 279, 289, 299, 303 Salvation history 33, 61, 167, 185, 198, 218, 231, 232, 303 Sassanids xi, 11, 15, 17, 21, 23, 45, 62, 67, 79, 80, 81, 102, 123, 160, 163, 164, 166, 243, 244, 293, 296, 301 Satan xi, 5, 29, 51, 53, 62, 83, 103, 149, 150, 197 Scholars, Islamic 5 Scripture (cf. also Book) 30, 35, 38, 40, 42, 60, 87, 88, 89, 90, 119, 138, 149, 171, 172, 181, 193, 197, 209, 210, 212, 273 Scripture folk (cf. also Christians, Jews, People of the Book) 87, 88, 89, 90, 119, 138, 171, 172, 210 Seal of the Prophets 168 Self, the 4 Seth 223 Sexual intercourse 13, 35, 93, 151, 152, 174, 201 Shaiba b. Rabi’a 79, 148 Sharia (cf. also Law) 4, 151, 184, 186, 190, 191, 197, 214, 215, 221, 225, 226, 227, 232, 233, 264, 269, 275, 276, 277, 283, 292, 293, 294 Shiites, Shiite Islam 2, 45, 154, 155, 156, 159, 169, 184, 185, 212, 219, 282, 306 Shooting stars 50, 228 Shu’aib 47, 60, 65

Sinlessness of Muhammad: see Muhammad, sinlessness of Sirius: see Dog Star Six days of Creation 51 Solidarity (clan, tribal, Islamic) xii, 7, 16, 17, 25, 58, 66, 67, 72, 73, 99, 115, 130, 131, 137, 243 Solomon 187 Soothsayers 34, 48, 49, 50 “Soul-speech” 189 Sozomen 13, 34 Spiritual appearance of Muhammad 226 – 227 Spirituality 4, 5, 182, 225, 238, 239 Stars, belief in 41 – 42 State, Islamic xiii, 163, 165, 167 Stoning 152, 178, 179 “Strict ones, the” 31 – 33, 42 Sublimation of sacrifice: see Sacrifice, sublimation of Suhaib b. Sinan 67 Suhail b. ‘Amr 74, 124, 125, 127, 162, 300 Summons to Islam 127, 136, 139 Sunna 181, 186, 191, 192, 193, 204, 215, 228, 238, 303, 306 Sunni Islam, Sunnism 2, 45, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 159, 184, 185, 186, 188, 190, 191, 192, 196, 203, 212, 218, 219, 224, 225, 230, 231, 282, 283, 306 Sura 30 Suwa’ (pagan deity) 46 Talha b. ‘Ubaidallah 113, 161, 167, 169, 245 Talha (Tulaiha), prophet 160, 163 Tamud (ancient people) 21, 40, 47, 64, 187 Tantawi, Muhammad Sayyid 235 Taqi ad-Din as-Subki 216 Temporal world as destined for salvation 229, 230, 231, 232 Temptation 38, 53, 91, 104, 105, 108, 201, 203, 210, 291 Terror, spreading of 110, 113, 120, 146, 199, 202, 228 Theft 82, 124, 152 Theology, Islamic 45, 184, 185, 188 Threats to Salvation 45, 59, 60 Throne of Allah 40, 51, 218, 222, 278

General Index

Tithe, the 11, 12 Torah 31, 74, 87, 90, 133, 172, 178 Torture 5, 58, 67, 68, 127 Tradition (cf. also Hadith and hadith) 2, 172 – 183, 269 – 271, 276 – 292 Tragedy 4 – 5 Trans-historicity of Muhammad, the Koran, hadith (cf. also Trans-temporality of Muhammad, the Koran, hadith) 181, 190, 192, 274, 284, 286, Trans-temporality of Muhammad, the Koran, hadith (cf. also trans-historicity of Muhammad, the Koran, hadith) 186, 188, 189, 191, 197, 234, 242 Transmitters (of hadith; cf. also al-isnad) 3, 156, 179, 182, 191, 193, 269, 270, 278, 285, 288, 293, 295, 306, 307 Treasures of the earth (granted to Muhammad) 146 Trial by ordeal 139, 169 Tribal society 7, 243 – 247 Tribute payments 130, 136, 137, 145, 161, 175 Troops 22, 71, 79, 97, 100, 101, 104, 105, 107, 113, 123, 126, 129, 132, 140, 153, 163, 164, 190, 220, 229 Truth (proof of) 49 – 52, 87, 102, 144 – 145, 167, 169 – 170, 176 – 177, 184 – 185, 191 – 192, 196 – 197, 206, 212 f, 233 – 234, 236, 242 Ubayy b. Ka’b 171 ‘Umar b. al-Khattab 50, 53, 68, 69, 80, 87, 99, 113, 117, 124, 152, 153, 162, 164, 171, 172, 176, 181, 182, 184, 233, 245, 300, 301 Umayma bt. ‘Abd al-Muttalib b. Hashim 84 Umayya, clan of the Aus 106 Umayya b. abi-s-Salt 51 Umayya b. ‘Abd Shams 83, 84 Umayyads 18, 24, 31, 87, 170, 173, 174, 175, 243, 244, 251, 278, 305 Umma document: see “Constitution of Medina” Unbelievers (cf. also Christians, Jews, nonMuslims, Pagans, Polytheists) 50, 65, 70, 77, 89, 91, 92, 94, 97, 103, 104,

321

105, 107, 117, 119, 120, 138, 142, 144, 146, 149, 152, 187, 198 Universality of message of Allah, Muhammad 7, 67, 117, 237, 306 ‘Urwa b. az-Zubair 156 ‘Urwa b. Mas’ud 124 Usaid b. Hudair 161 Usama b. Zaid b. (al‐)Haritha 153, 202 Usurper 12, 23, 156, 168 Usury, usurious interest, charging of interest 93, 130, 133, 139, 150, 240 ‘Utba b. Rabi’a 82 ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan 58, 113, 124, 167, 245, 301 ‘Uthman b. al-Huwairit 24, 79, 148 ‘Uthman b. Maz’un 61, 78, 84, 301 ‘Uthman b. Talha 128 Uxorilocal marriage 35, 36, 57, 150 Veneration of paternal ancestors 58 Victory xii, 21, 61, 101 – 104, 107, 111 – 112, 122, 129, 132, 146, 163, 166, 199, 224, 229, 232, 235 Violence, state-sanctioned: see Allah’s Boundaries; Belief; Believers; Execution of those who doubt Muhammad’s authority; Jihad; War Wadd (pagan deity) 46 Wahb b. ‘Abd Manaf 34, 41 Wa’il, clan of the Aus 106 Wajz b. Galib 41, 42 Waqif, clan of the Aus 106 War (cf. also Belief; Believers; Jihad) xi, xii, xiii, 14 – 15, 22, 46, 65, 69, 82 – 83, 97, 115 – 116, 124, 127, 133, 135, 143, 145 – 146, 153, 161, 298, 305 War captives (cf. also Prisoners of war) 58, 67, 115, 126, 135, 174 Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad b. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza 30, 35 Warning (of the Last Judgment), Muhammad as warner 29 – 30, 33, 37 – 38, 40, 46 – 49, 58 – 59, 64 – 66, 80, 92, 125, 187, 194, 211 – 212, 232, 236, 278, 286 Wars of Apostasy (al-ridda) 161 – 163 Way of Allah (cf. also Path of Allah) 91, 133, 134, 144

322

General Index

Weak, those whom one regards as (cf. also Oppressed, the) 67, 68, 73, 102, 104, 232 Whipping: see Lashes Wine 3 – 4, 36, 93 Wisdom 77, 90, 91, 181, 191, 200, 209, 211, 213, 214, 223, 236 Wives of Muhammad 300 – 302 Women as fields for men to plow 93, 151 Women as prisoners of men, under total control of men (al-‘awani) 150 – 151 Women slaves, sexual intercourse permitted with 174 Women as worth half as much as men 151 Word of Allah (cf. also Allah’s word) 1, 138, 142, 173, 186, 190, 230, 279 Word of Allah, Jesus as 138 Wrath of Allah 65, 68, 96, 105

Writing 29, 50, 102 Writing down of the Koran 29, 50, 102, 171 Yagut (pagan deity) 41, 46, 47 Yazdagird III 164 Yazid b. abi Sufyan 132 Zaid b. (al‐)Haritha (Muhammad’s freedman) 73, 120, 152, 153, 300 Zaid b. ‘Amr b. Nufail (early hanif influence on Muhammad) 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 66, 73, 88, 95, 245, 290 Zaid b. Khalid 178 Zaid b. Thabit 85, 179 Zainab bt. Jahsh 120, 300, 301 Zam’a b. al-Aswad 70, 71 Zoroastrians 24, 136 Zuhair b. abi Umayya 71

Index of Koranic citations Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

1 – 87, 96, 298n2 2 – 3, 88, 89, 90, 92, 95, 96 2: 1 – 5 – 94 2: 3 – 50, 186, 275, 279 2: 8 – 20 – 110 2: 23 – 30 2: 32 – 4, 181 2: 35 f – 5 2: 37 – 5 2: 40 – 44 – 110 2: 67 – 71 – 95 2: 73 – 95 – 96 2: 80 – 110 2: 83 – 85 – 110 2: 106 – 191 2: 113 – 121 – 89 2: 124 – 143 2: 129 – 90 – 91 2: 135 – 91 2: 136 – 138 2: 143 – 235 2: 144 – 56, 88 – 89 2: 150 – 91 2: 178 – 149 2: 184 – 92, 235 2: 185 – 30, 89 2: 187 – 93, 151 2: 189 – 32, 89 2: 191 – 99 2: 193 – 128, 145 – 146 2: 213 – 93 2: 217 – 99 2: 219 – 223 – 93 2: 223 – 151 2: 226 – 238 – 93 2: 230 – 151 2: 234 – 151 2: 252 – 94 2: 253 – 94 2: 255 – 94, 212 2: 256 – 62, 89 2: 257 – 94 2: 275 – 133

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674989-028

Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

2: 275 – 284 – 93 2: 282 – 102 2: 285 – 94, 138 3 – 88 3: 32 – 210 3: 64 – 90 3: 65 – 68 – 90 3: 81 – 209, 213 3: 81 – 83 – 90 3: 84 – 138 3: 93 – 97 – 89 3: 104 – 87 3: 110 – 87, 95, 111, 125, 169, 223, 233, 235, 294 Sura 3: 130 – 133 Sura 3: 137 – 64 Sura 3: 179 – 210 Sura 4 – 151 Sura 4: 2 – 34 – 151 Sura 4: 13 – 279 Sura 4: 16 – 121 Sura 4: 34 – 201 Sura 4: 51 – 119 Sura 4: 69 – 304n1 Sura 4: 80 – 213, 279 Sura 4: 97 – 108 Sura 4: 97 – 98 – 102 Sura 4: 160 – 89 Sura 4: 161 – 133 Sura 4: 165 – 194 Sura 4: 171 – 138 Sura 5: 3 – 152, 221 Sura 5: 12 – 83 Sura 5: 15 – 210, 212, 236 Sura 5: 17 – 19 – 138 Sura 5: 33 – 216 Sura 5: 33 – 39 – 151 – 152 Sura 5: 44 – 178 Sura 5: 90 – 92 – 3 Sura 6: 5 – 212 Sura 6: 11 – 64 Sura 6: 74 – 83 – 77 – 78 Sura 6: 136 – 42

324

Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

Index of Koranic citations

6: 152 – 17 6: 161 – 78 7 – 65, 66, 74, 108, 232 – 233 7: 43 – 232 7: 54 – 51 7: 73 – 21 7: 100 – 233 7: 104 – 110 – 64 7: 119 – 137 – 66 7: 128 – 160, 233 7: 137 – 66, 233 7: 156 – 158 – 75 7: 157 – 87 7: 158 – 236 7: 161 – 163 – 85 7: 172 – 223, 230 8 – 97, 101, 102, 107, 108, 109, 113, 127 8: 1 – 8 – 97 8: 9 – 19 – 103 – 104 8: 20 – 43 – 104 – 105 8: 39 – 128 8: 41 – 99 8: 47 – 100 8: 43 – 49 – 105 – 106 8: 50 – 71 – 107 8: 58 – 111 8: 65 – 66 – 191 8: 72 – 75 – 108 8: 75 – 99, 115 9 – 142 9: 1 – 7 – 142 9: 8 – 143 9: 9 – 16 – 143 9: 13 – 143 9: 28 – 34 – 143 – 144 9: 30 – 138 9: 34 f. – 144 9: 37 – 14, 143, 149 9: 60 – 132 9: 64 – 30 9: 86 – 30 9: 86 – 89 – 144 9: 104 – 121 9: 107 – 110 – 141 9: 111 – 133, 141 9: 112 – 141 9: 118 – 140

Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

9: 124 – 30 9: 124 – 129 – 144 9: 127 – 30 10: 2 – 65 10: 18 – 47 10: 38 – 30 10: 78 – 65 10: 108 – 212 11: 13 – 30 11: 87 – 60 12 – 273 12: 92 – 129 – 130 12: 109 – 64 14: 37 – 10 15: 23 – 232 15: 37 – 40 – 149 15: 79 – 61 15: 89 – 212 16 – 3, 80 16: 3 – 10 – 43 16: 36 – 64 16: 44 – 193 16: 44 – 64 – 193 16: 89 – 193 16: 90 – 80 16: 103 – 47 16: 106 – 67 16: 112 – 10 16: 119 – 122 – 76 16: 121 – 54 17 – 187 17: 1 – 85 17: 1 – 9 – 85 17: 7 – 13 17: 60 – 85 17: 71 – 61 17: 85 – 279 17: 90 – 95 – 85 17: 93 – 129 19: 40 – 232 19: 63 – 232 20 – 50 20: 10 – 187 20: 57 – 65 20: 63 – 65 20: 89 – 54 20: 114 – 241

Index of Koranic citations

Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

21: 69 – 71 – 212 21: 89 – 232 21: 105 – 232 21: 107 – 213 22: 39 – 41 – 146 22: 52 f. – 53, 62 23: 11 – 232 24: 1 – 30 24: 2 – 152, 177 24: 4 – 152 24: 11 – 20 – 135 24: 25 – 212 24: 35 – 211 , 212 25: 4 f. – 64 25: 7 – 194, 195 25: 8 – 194 25: 20 – 176 25: 35 – 39 – 238 26 – 47 26: 2 – 9 – 47 26: 10 – 67 – 47 26: 35 – 65 26: 59 – 232 26: 68 – 47 26: 84 f. – 232 26: 185 – 65 26: 210 – 227 – 48 26: 212 – 50 26: 214 – 109 27 – 187 27: 7 – 187 28: 4 f. – 65, 67 28: 5 – 232 28: 29 – 187 28: 57 – 10 28: 58 – 232 28: 85 – 76, 85, 109, 159, 168 29: 45 – 60, 203 29: 50 – 212 30 – 45 30: 2 – 4 – 45 30: 9 f. – 64 30: 18 – 30 – 44, 89 30: 30 – 45, 55, 62 33 – 120, 121, 134, 208 33: 6 – 120 33: 7 – 213

Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

325

33: 25 – 27 – 120 33: 27 – 233 33: 27 – 160 33: 35 – 40 – 120 33: 37 – 300n1 33: 40 – 145, 168 33: 45 f. – 211 33: 46 – 212 33: 50 – 120, 300n1 33: 53 – 49, 121, 157 33: 56 – 121, 207, 208, 299n3, 304n3 33: 57 – 215 34: 16 – 81 34: 28 – 236 34: 31 – 33 – 67 35: 44 – 64 36: 12 – 61 37 – 51 37: 1 – 8 – 51 37: 97 f. – 212 38: 12 – 13 – 238 39: 38 – 42 39: 74 – 232 43: 29 – 212 43: 72 – 232 44: 28 – 232 46: 7 – 65 46: 9 – 212 47: 13 – 84 47: 20 – 30 48 – 125 48: 18 – 124 48: 18 – 20 – 122 48: 27 – 123 49: 7 – 18 – 134 49: 13 – 130, 150 51: 32 – 55 51: 56 – 225 52: 34 – 188 53 – 36, 37, 42, 51, 61, 290 53: 1 – 18 – 40 53: 9 – 199 53: 22 – 53 53: 23 – 42, 62 53: 26 – 43 53: 33 – 62 – 40 53: 49 – 41, 246

326

Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

Index of Koranic citations

53: 51 – 21 56: 7 – 14 – 38 56: 88 – 94 – 38 57: 10 f. – 133, 233 57: 26 f. – 89 59: 1 – 6 – 110 59: 6 – 117 59: 7 – 9 – 118 60: 3 – 59 60: 12 – 82 61: 6 – 222 62: 2 – 181, 236 67: 3 – 51 68: 4 – 212 68: 35 – 55 68: 48 – 49 69: 40 – 212 71 – 47 71: 1 – 7 – 46 71: 15 – 51 71: 26 – 28 – 47 72: 8 f. – 50 72: 14 – 55 73: 1 – 209 74 – 30, 33, 37 74: 1 – 209 74: 1 – 5 – 29

Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura Sura

74: 35 – 55 – 38 74: 38 – 38 77: 1 – 10 – 49 79: 1 – 7 – 49 79: 17 – 64 80: 33 – 37 – 76 81: 18 – 212 83: 1 – 3 – 17 83: 27 – 222 84: 21 – 62, 297n1 85: 18 – 64 87 – 37, 42, 60, 61 87: 14 – 19 – 60 89: 9 – 21 89: 27 – 222 93 – 216 93: 7 – 54, 210 94: 1 – 211 95 – 37 96 – 29, 30 98: 1 – 3 – 50, 138 105 – 19, 71, 73 106 – 9, 10, 18, 71 108: 2 – 60 111 – 58 113 – 36