Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith

Abd Allah Ibn Sallam:

He is Abu al-Harith al-Israeli. He embraced Islam after coming of the Prophet (S) to al-Madinah. He was one of the Jewish rabbis. From him Abu Hurayrah and Anas ibn Malik and others reported hadith. About him Wahb ibn Munabbih said: Al-Israeli was the most knowledgeable among the people of his time, and Ka’b was the most learned of his time people. He died in the year 40 Hijrah.

How Did They Seize Muslims’ Minds

Unusual and strange means were followed by these rabbis through their astonishing shrewdness, in order to possess and seize minds of Muslims and gain their trust and veneration. Some of these surprising methods are as follows:

Al-Tirmidhi reported from Abd Allah ibn Sallam

256 – who was one of

the distinguished Jews who embraced Islam – that in the first line of Torah it was written: Muhammad the Messenger of Allah is His chosen bondman. His birthplace is Mecca, and migration place is Tibah (Medina). He also reported: The attribute of the Prophet is recorded in the Torah, and that Jesus, son of Mary will be buried with him.

This being what was reported by al-Tirmidhi in regard of Ibn Sallam, which was confirmed by the sage Ka’b: About him al-Darimi reported, under the Prophet’s attribute in the Torah, saying: In the first line (of Torah) it is written: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and His chosen bondman. His birthplace is Mecca, migration is Tibah, and reign is in the Sham. 257

I searched for the second line of this legend till I found it in Sunan al-Darimi, that was reported also from the great sage Ka’b, from whom Dhakwan reported saying: In the first line, it is written: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and His chosen bondman. He is neither rude nor unmannerly, nor clamorous in the markets. He never requites evil with evil, but pardons and forgives. His birth was in Mecca, migration is toward Tibah, and rule being in the Sham.

258

In the second line: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. His followers (ummah) are the praisers, who praise Allah in ease, in adversity, and wherever they be, and be greater than every honour. They are sun observers, who perform the prayers in its due time even if be on the top of a synagogue, wearing a wrapper on their waists, cleansing their limbs, producing voices (of prayers and supplications) during night through the sky atmosphere similar to the voices of bees (bumbles).

This statement was cited by Ibn Sa’d in his Tabaqat, on the authority of Ibn Abbas in a reply he gave to Ka’b. This superstition spread till reaching one of the disciples of Ka’b, who was Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-’As.

Al-Bukhari reported on the authority of Abd Allah ibn Yasar as saying: I met Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-’As and said to him: Tell me about the attribute of the Messenger of Allah that is stated in the Torah. He said: True, by Allah 259 he is described in the Torah with some of his attributes that

are cited in the Qur’an: “O Prophet! Verily We have sent thee as a Witness, and as a Bearer of Good Tidings and as a Warner,” ... and a fortress for the illiterate. You are verily My slave and apostle. I called you the dependent. You are neither rude nor rough, nor boisterous (sakhkhab) 260 through the markets...one who never requites evil with evil, but pardons and forgives. God will never take away his life before straightening through him the tortuous (deviant) creed (millah), making people to say: “There is no god but Allah”, rendering open with it blind eyes and deaf ears and enclosed hearts.

Ibn Kathir added to this: Ibn Yasar said: Then I met the rabbi Ka’b and asked him (the same question)...when he gave me the reply, there was no difference between their answers even in one letter. How would they differ while it was Ka’b who taught him (Abd Allah ibn Amr)!

In al-Itqan, 261 al-Suyuti reported that Ka’b al-Ahbar said:

In the Torah it is stated: O Muhammad! I am sending you a new Torah, that can open blind eyes, deaf ears and enclosed hearts.

Al-Jawaliqi, in Kitab al-Maghrib 262 , is reported to have said:

Ibn al-A’rabi said: It is reported that Ka’b al-Ahbar said: The Prophet’s names recorded in the ancient books are: Muhammad and Ahmad and Himyat, i.e. the Sanctuary Guardian (Hami al-Haram).

Al-Qadi Iyad, in al-Shifa’, 263 writes that Wahb ibn Munabbih said: I read through seventy-one books, noticing in all of them that the Prophet (upon whom be God’s peace and benediction) was the wisest of people and best in opinion. In another narration: In all of them I found that Allah the Exalted, from the outset of the world till its end, never bestowed upon all people of the world the intellect that can be compared to his (S), unless it can be counted as one particle of the world sand.

  1. Ibid, Vol. IV, p. 274.

  2. Abu Hurayrah and Anas ibn Malik were among  those who reported from Abd Allah ibn Salam.

  3. Distinguishing the Sham with rulership in Ka'b's speech has a critical political goal, about which I gave some information, and later on more will come.

  4. In this way his teacher puts him in trouble to make him swear by Allah. There is neither might nor power but in God.

  5. Sakhab with sin, is a word confirmed by al-Farra' and others, but it is more known with sad.

  6. Al-Itqan, vol. I, p. 53.

  7. Al-Maghrib, p. 123.

  8. Al-Shifa', vol. I,  p. 55.