BL OR 8419
An Untitled Work
attributed to AbĆ« ÊżAbd AllÄh al-ShÄ«ÊżÄ«
⊠â(O People of the Book there has now come to you Our Apostle making matters clear to you after the interval among the messengers, lest you claim that there has neither come to us) a bearer of glad tidings nor a warner. In fact there has come to you a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and God has power over all thingsâ [Q 5: 19]. Thus they became blind after [having been given] the explanation and denied after [having been given] certainty. They differed after clear evidence and guidance, in revolt on their part and out of envy in their very souls. It is as God, glory to Him, has said about past nations and bygone centuries: âthey did not differ except after the explanation had come to them, in revolt between themâ [Q 45: 17]. And He has said: âGod wishes to explain to you and to guide you with the right practice of those who came before youâ [Q 4: 26]. He also said: âDo not be like those who divided and differed after the explanations had come to themâ [Q 3: 105]. And He said: âGod does not lead a group astray after having guided them unless He has made clear to them what they should guard againstâ [Q 9: 115]. Thus the Apostle of God, may the blessings of God be upon him, and give him and his family peace, warned his community against disunity and mutual difference and he informed them that they will perpetrate what the nations that came before them perpetrated. And so he, on him and on his family be the most excellent of peace, said, âSurely you will follow the practice of the Israelites in a completely identical manner, exactly alike.â ÊżAmr b. ÊżAuf b. áčŹaláž„a al-MuzanÄ«1 reported, âWe were sitting in his mosque with the Apostle of God. Gabriel brought him the revelation. He covered himself with his cloak and remained so a long time. Then Gabriel went away and he took off his cloak. He was sweating profusely and obviously he was holding on to something. At that he said, âDo any of you know what comes forth from the date palm?â The AnáčŁÄr said to him, âO Apostle of God, may our father and mother be your ransom, nothing of the date palm is unknown to us and we are masters of date cultivation.â Then he opened his hand in which there was a date stone and said, âWhat is this?â So they replied, âO Apostle of God that is a date stone.â He said, âA stone of what thing?â They replied, âSanh.â2 He said, âYou are right. Gabriel came to you to contract with you concerning your faith that you shall keep to the path of those who came before you in a completely identical manner and to take after them exactly, whether inch by inch, cubit by cubit or yard by yard, to the point that, were they to enter the burrow of a lizard, you would enter it as well.â â
ÊżUbÄda b. al-áčąÄmit3 narrated saying, â âHow is it that your QurÊŸan readers and your scholars fled to the tops of the mountains out of fear of being killed with you?â They answered, âYes.â He said, âWas not the Torah with the Jews and they lost it, the Gospels with the Christians and they lost them? One evil only follows another evil.â â Al-Mustawrid b. ShaddÄd4 said, âThe Apostle of God said, âThis community will not abandon the practice of previous generations just as this thumb leads the one that follows it.â â កudhayfa b. al-YamÄn5 said, âThere was nothing with the Israelites but that its like will be with you.â A man said, âWill we be monkeys and pigs?â He answered, âWhat causes you to doubt about that, may your mother perish?â6 And, in another ឣadÄ«th reported of him, he said, âWhat excellent brothers of yours are the Israelites, all sweetness is yours and all bitterness is theirs.â ÊżAbd AllÄh b. ÊżUmar7 said, âThe Apostle of God said, âYou will surely follow the path of those who came before you inch by inch, cubit by cubit, exactly alike, to the point that, should they enter the burrow of a lizard, you would follow them into it.â They said, âO Apostle of God, of the Jews and the Christians?â He replied, âThe Jews and the Christians.â â8 God, may He be exalted and thanks be to Him, has said: âAlif lam min; do the people reckon they can escape by saying âWe believeâ and thus not be tried; truly We tried those before them and thus did God come to know those who speak the truth and those who are liarsâ [Q 29: 1â3] in regard to their true faith. Then God said: âThe custom of God is that which was in effect from before and you will find no alteration in the custom of Godâ [Q 48: 23] and âyou will not find that the law of God changesâ [Q 35: 43]. He has said: âSo you find enjoyment in your lot just as those who came before you found enjoyment in theirs and you are so engrossed as were theyâ [Q 9: 69]. He has said: âThey will be humbled just like those who came before were humbledâ [Q 58: 5] and He said: âLikewise those who came before them said the same thing, being like them in their heartsâ [Q 2: 118].
Jacob and Esau were twins and then Esau disobeyed God in regard to Israel and wronged him. So God blessed the progeny of Israel and made among them prophets and pure souls (al-aáčŁfiyÄÊŸ). Similarly HÄshim9 and ÊżAbd Shams were twins; but Umayya opposed HÄshim Muážar. So God blessed the descendants of HÄshim and placed among them the lord of prophets and the seal of the executors (al-awáčŁiyÄÊŸ).10 The [original] name of Israel was Jacob and so when he travelled in the night he was called Israel.11 Subsequently, his name became dominant to the point that when âthe family of Jacobâ was said no one understood it unless it was called âthe family of Israelâ. Similarly, the name of HÄshim was ÊżAmr. When he broke up the bread for the soup of his people, he was called HÄshim (âthe crusherâ).12 That name became so prevalent that when someone said âthe family of ÊżAmrâ it was not understood unless âfamily of HÄshimâ was said, in exactly the same fashion.
Truly did the Apostle of God encounter the same suffering at the hands of the unbelievers of his people as the messengers experienced at the hands of their people, in being called liars, accused of sorcery and being slandered. Indeed Pharaoh and his notables said to Moses: âWhatever sign you bring before us with which to bewitch us we will not believe in youâ [Q 7: 132] and he said: âIf you have come with a sign, then bring it forth if you are one of those who speak the truth; so he threw out his staff and it became a live serpent and he drew out his hand which then became white to those who observedâ [Q 7: 106â108]. At that the notables said: âTruly he is a skilled sorcererâ [Q 7: 109] and they said: âThis is clearly sorceryâ [Q 27: 13]. In a similar way the unbelievers among the Quraysh said to the prophet, âSplit this moon for us.â So he called upon his Lord and the moon was split into two halves. When they saw it, they said, âMuhammad has bewitched the moon.â13 God then said: âThe hour drew near and the moon has become split, and when they see a sign they turn away and say, âThis is the same sorcery as beforeâ â [Q 54: 1â2]. And He said by way of explanation to His prophet: âMessengers before you were accused of lying; so they bore patiently the falsehood said of them and the malice until Our help reached themâ [Q 6: 34]. âBut they said: âWhat is this prophet who eats food and walks about in the marketplace?â â [Q 25: 7]. And God said: âWe did not send before you messengers who did not eat food and walk about in the marketplaceâ [Q 25: 20]. Then next He said: âNothing is said to you that was not said to the messengers before youâ [Q 41: 43]. And He said: âWhat is there to prevent people believing when guidance comes to them or from seeking forgiveness of their Lord except should the custom of the ancients come upon them or the punishment appear immediately before them?â [Q 18: 55]. And the Exalted One said: âEven if We had sent to you a document written on parchment so they could touch it with their hands, those who disbelieve would say, âThis is nothing but plain sorceryâ â [Q 6: 7].
God said: âWhen Jesus, son of Mary, said: âO Israelites, I am the messenger of God to you confirming what I have of the Torah and bringing glad tidings of a messenger who will come after me whose name is Aáž„madâ; but, when he came to them with the evidence, they said: âThis is clearly sorceryâ â [Q 61: 6]. The Apostle of God said to the family of ÊżAbd al-Muáčáčalib14 on the day on which was revealed âAnd warn your close family relationsâ [Q 26: 214], âO family of ÊżAbd al-Muáčáčalib, verily I bring to you explanatory signs; I come to you with the glory of the religion and the nobility of the afterlife. So be in this affair the leaders; do not be the followers.â So when he brought signs consisting of feeding of forty men with the leg of a lamb, a áčŁaÊŸ measure of barley15 and a bowl of milk, and [any one] man of them could have eaten a [whole] lamb (jidhÊż) and drunk a farq16 [of milk], they [the Quraysh] said, âYour master has bewitched youâ and then they laughed together and said to AbĆ« áčŹÄlib, âHe ordered you to listen to and obey this youthâ,17 just like Pharaoh and his notables. God said: âAnd when he brought to them Our clear signs, they laughedâ [Q 43: 47] and He, glory be to Him, He has no partners, said: âRidiculing of prophets occurred before you but those among them who mock are entrapped by what they have ridiculedâ [Q 21: 41]. The Israelites said to Jesus, the son of Mary: âAsk Your Lord to bring down for us a table from heavenâ [Q 5: 112].18 Similarly, the unbelievers among the Quraysh said to the Apostle of God, âAsk your Lord, O Muhammad, to make for us out of this rock gold.â Truly the unbelieving Quraysh ridiculed the Apostle of God as the unbelievers who came before him had done. God said: âWhen they see you, they accept you only in mockery saying, âIs this the one God sent as a messenger?; he might have turned us away from our gods were we not steadfastly with themâ â [Q 25: 41â42]. God said to the unbelieving Quraysh: âWe have destroyed followers of yours before; does anyone remember?â [Q 54: 51]. Then he recounted about those of earlier centuries who asserted that the messengers were lying and so he brought down on them His punishment, vengeance and violence until He reached mention of the people of Pharaoh and said: âTruly the warning came to the people of Pharaoh; they rejected all of Our signs; so We seized them with the grip of power and mightâ [Q 54: 41â42] Then He said: âAre your unbelievers any better than they were, or are you absolved of that in the Psalms?â [Q 54: 43]. The Apostle of God appealed to God against the inhabitants of Mecca. He said: âO God, bring years like the years of Josephâ;19 so they came to eat bones and corpses.
Verily God, when He afflicted the Israelites in the wilderness because of their having disobeyed, the Israelites prayed for rain and Moses used to carry with him a stone. God said: âWe said: âStrike the stone with your staffâ, and then there sprang from it twelve springsâ [Q 2: 60], for the twelve tribes, a gift from God, a great blessing, an honour and an enhancement of the proof of his prophecy. In a similar way the companions of Godâs Apostle during one of their raids became thirsty, their water supply having been exhausted, so they asked the Apostle of God to pray for rain, whereupon he found a small amount of water in the hide belonging to a man. So he filled his mouth with water and chewed on it. Thereafter he watered from it a great army, as a gift from God, a blessing, an honour and an enhancement of the proof of his prophecy.20 Thus he made them realize the blessedness of his saliva and spittle in exactly this manner.
God gave His spirit and His word to Jesus so that he could raise the dead and provide them with what they ate and what they stored up in their houses. In a similar way, God gave His prophet Muhammad knowledge. So a lamb roasting on spit(?) cried out in front of him.21 It said, âDo not eat me, O Muhammad, for I have been poisoned.â22 And the prisoners ransomed ...