The Role of Holy Imams in Revival of Religion

A Summary of Our Discussion

In the previous lesson, from among the Caliphate schools narratives, we narrated and studied the fable regarding the first divine revelation. This fable stated: The Holy Prophet (s.a.w) doubted the revelations of the Lord, and he thought that the angel delivering the revelations was a jinn or devil - God Forbid! After wards we stated the truth behind the occurance from the narratives related to this event in the Ahlul bait (a.s) school.

In this discussion we study a bigger lie than the previous one, a lie which has gained vast publication in the historical and biographical texts of the Caliphate school, and that being the Gharaniq Fable.

A summary of this fable has been narrated by Tabari and many other scholars as such:

When the Prophet (s.a.w) was reciting the Surah Najm and came to the celebrated verse:

'---Arabic text---'

Satan caused him to say: 378

'---Arabic text---'

and the Prophet recited these words among the Quranic verses in his recitation. The idolators were gladened that the Prophet spoke such words in description of their idols and prostrated along with the Muslims while Valid, who was one of the Quraishite leaders, took a fistful of earth and prostrated on it since because of his advanced age he could not bend over.

News of this occurance reached the immigrant Muslims in Abyssinia, they thought that the idolators of Mecca had accepted Islam. They returned to their homeland but upon arrival saw that the idolators had remained firm in their idolatry.

After this event Gabriel appeared to the Prophet and informed him that the aforesaid verses were from Satan and the Prophet became greatly saddened and unhappy and God sent this verse to console him:

'---Arabic text---'

This was a summary of this enormous lie and fabricated, dangerous fable, and we said in a description of its many weak and defective points that: This fable centered around verses from the Surahs Najm and Hajj. In the part concerning the Surah Najm the verses which mention the three famous Arab idols are included in a group of this Surahs' verses which are verses 17-30. This group of the Surah Najms verses and unified and uniform as to the subject matter of their topic of discussion, and all of their remarks revolve around the three Arab idols. The Quran had repeatedly refuted them with a series of impressive reasons and ridiculed the idolators beliefs regarding them since they believed that those idols were the angels and daughters of God and would intercede for them on resurrection day. Following this very aim, these verses in Surah Najm say: "They thought of the angels as being girls and women and addressed them likewise". And adds, "are you to have sons and the lord daughters?" Also in the Surah Saffat it has also come to us: 'Then ask them whether your lord has daughters and they have sons. Or did we create the angels females.....? 379

In a continuation of the battle with the beliefs possessed by the idolators the verses of Surah Najm say: These idols are not symbols or signs of forgiveness nor angels and they have no power of intercession; up until the point where it is said: "There are many angels in heaven...who possess no power of intercession....." With this statement the Holy Quran makes man realize: When the intercession of angels has no effect how can the lifeless, mindless statues you think of as images of angels have any benefit or intercession?

These types of verses in the Holy Quran debate with the idolators and ridicule their beliefs regarding Lat, Uzza and Manat, and these are the clearest and most explicit verses in the Quran on this subject. Anyone who understands Arabic words and language will see that adding the satanic verses to these verses would be completely unharmonious, and this is understandable to anyone familiar with the Arabic language. This inharmony can in no way remain hidden just as a piece of coal in a bowl of sugar cannot remain hidden from the sighted person.

This was the result of the study of the verses in Surah Najm and the lies that have been forged regarding it interpretation, and the fables they fabricated regarding them.

In Surah Haj, however, the discussion concerns the verse:

'---Arabic text---'

and also the fables they narrated on an interpretation of it. This verse has also been revealed among a group of verses which possess unified subject-matter and a relationship with one another which may be realized after a short deliberation. This group begins with verse 92, the place where God says: "And if they reject you, then already before you did the people of Nuh and Ad and Samud reject their prophets".

This statement continued and He says: "And (as for) those who strive to oppose our communications, they shall be the inmates of the flaming fire. And We did not send before you any apostle or prophet, but when he desired, the Shaitans made a suggestion respecting his desire, but Allah annuls that which the Shaitan casts then does Allah establish His communications, and Allah is knowing, Wise".

The verses in this Surah are so apparent with the flow of words continuing as such up to verse 57, that we can summarize them like this: O' Prophet! your rejection by your people and their efforts to destroy your "school of thought" are not peculiar to you and your religion alone. The idolators among the previous nations also acted the same way with their Prophets Noah, Saleh and Abraham etc. They all strove to destroy Gods' verses and there was no prophet who was not tempted by Satans' suggestions in the way of establishing his Holy aim. In all eras Satan has strived to prevent the prophets from obtaining their desire regarding the peoples' guidance. Of course God destroyed all of Satans plots and efforts and established his own verses.

God has also said the same in another place: "And thus did we make for every prophet an enemy, some of them suggesting to others varnished falsehoods to deveive (them), and had your lord pleased they would not have done it, therefore leave them and that which they forge". 380

God annuls all of these types of Satanic inspirations and suggestions and abrogates their effects. This was satanic inspirations and suggestions and abrogates their effects. This was satans ways and means for confronting the Prophets efforts in the way of the peoples guidance and divine grace.

The meanings of the Quranic verses in these surahs are in all clarity and free of ambiguity, just as they were presented to you here, but this is only if we possess an impartial mind and refer to the Quran without any form of pre-judgement. Unfortunately, however, we must say that if we refer to the Hadiths which exist in the Caliphate Schools books of history, commentary and the Prophet biography, just as we have seen, the matter is presented in a way completely opposed to the Quran. By relating and studying those narratives, however, the truths below appear:

A- According to their content these narratives contain several contradictions:

1- These narratives say: When the Holy Prophet (s.a.w) was reciting the Surah Najm and came to the names of the famous Arab idols (Lat, uzza and Manat), Satan inspired him to say:

'---Arabic text---'

and the Prophet unknowingly recited them.

When Gabriel informed him that these words were not revelations, however, he was saddened and God revealed verse 52 of the Surah Haj for his consolation All of this was said even though the Surah Haj is Medinan, meaning that it was revealed in Medina while the Gharaniq fable says that this event occured many years before that in Mecca and before the migration to Mecca.

2- Some of these Hadiths have contradictions and contrast with others in content, especially the second Hadith (which .is also the most detailed, in which various parts in it contain clear contrariety.

3- The contents of all these narratives are inconsistent with the prophet (s.a.w) infallibility, at least with regard to their reception of revelations and their propagation, while they are also contradictory to explicitly and veritable Quranic texts which state that Satan has no form of severeignty over the believers and the devoted.

4- This fable is contradictory to the Prophets natural disposition which has been introduced by successive witnesses in histories, narratives and biographies, because all of these records pronounce that from childhood he spoke in nothing but ill terms regarding these idols.

These were examples of the contradictions and contrasts present in the texts of these narratives.

B- The narratives spoken of are also discredited by several weaknesses and difficulties in their "chain of transmitters", in which, with the exclusion of one narrative, all of them originate with persons who not only did not witness the time of the event they were also all from the class following the companions called the followers (Tabe'in).

As for the narrative which was narrated from Abdullah ibn Abbas, even though he is know as one of the Prophets' companions, since he was born in the third year before the mission, he had not yet been born at the time of this occurance which took place in the first years of the mission and even if we assume that he had been born he was so young that he couldn't have understood such an event or even gain presence there.

Therefore, room for this question is made: How can these narrators relate an event at which none of them were present?

Discovering The Truth.

All of these narratives say: The first person to speak the sentence '---Arabic text---' was the Holy Prophet (s.a.w) and the Quraishites heard it from him and used it. Ibn Kolby, the creditable historian and student of Imam Ja'far ibn Mohammmad al-Sadeqh (a.s), however, removes the veil from the truth of the event.

In his famous book Al-Asnaam, he says on this matter; "The Quraishites on their processions around the Ka'aba would say:

'---Arabic text---'

They believed that their idols were the daughters of God and possessed intercession with him.

When the Prophet was appointed, however, God revealed to the Prophet in annulification of this belief that:

"Have you then considered the Lat and the Uzza, and Manat, the third, the Last? What! for you the males and for Him the females! This indeed is an unjust divisions! They are naught but names you have named, you and your fathers; Allah has not sent for them any authority".

Just as it was researched, Hesham Ibn Kolby a student of Imam Sadeqh (a.s) school of thought, 381 raises the curtain from before the truth of the event and shows the falsity of the above mentioned hadiths. 382

The care and extent existant in Hesham Ibn Mohammad Kolbys' writings is but a small indication of the scholarly care and extent of their thinking in Imam Sadeqh's school of thought.

Here it is possible that a seeker of the truth would ask: "Then where is the root of these narratives?" The answer to this question has been given by the old Islamic scholar, Mohammad ibn Eshaq ibn Khazimeh.

He wrote a book on the matter and proved with firm reasons and proof that: These false narratives were fabricated and furnished by the atheists and dualists.

This humble servant of God has spoken in detail of how the dualists went about fabricating hadiths in order to inspire doubt in the minds of the Muslims, in the introduction to the first volume of the book Abdullah ibn Saba and the book "Khamsoon wa Me'ata Sahabi Mokhtaleq".

At any rate, unfortunately the narrative of Imam Sadeqhs student (Ibn Kolby) , which clarifies the truth, has not gained publication and only those narratives have been published which the dualists, atheists and enemies of Islam have fabricated. It is interesting to note that no scholar of the Ahlul Bait (a.s) school has narrated the narratives of the Gharaniq Fable except those who wished to critisize it.

The Enemies Of Islam Take Advantage:

In the present era, Christian missionaries, Jewish and Christian Orientalists and Communists have written and published many discussions on the study of Islams various aspects the most important and lengthy of these being the set "Encyclopedia of Islam". 383

These articles which deal with giving an understanding of Islams' beliefs, laws, history and nations, the evolution of the Muslims way of thinking, their politics and beliefs and also a study of the Quran and its history and the Prophet and all aspects of his life, all or most of them followed a single, spiteful motive; the destruction and obliteration of Islam. These sorts of persons used the fabricated, false "Gharaniq Fable" in a special way, and in addition to presenting it to the people of the world they added to it and furbished and varnished it to a great extent with analyses and assimilations so that they could obtain a new angle for their motive with regard to Islam, the Quran, and the Prophet. These Orientalists and Christian missionaries did not travel to the east and world of Islam on an academic mission in search of the truth for them to refer to Imam Sadeqhs' student Hesham ibn Hakam or other renowned men of this school. Since they could not obtain their colonialist ambitions in the students of Ahlul Bait (a.s) they had no choice but to turn away from this school and face the direction in which they could find proof for their motive.

The narrative presented in the Gharaniq Fable brought the esteemed personage of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w) down to a level lower than the average intelligent person, and in addition opens up a way for creating doubt in the Holy Quran just as we have seen accomplished in the deeds of the Orientalists.

Thanks be to God who bestowed upon us the Grace to discover and reveal this enormous lie.

383. This encyclopedia which we have mentioned frequently in these discussions, was begun under the supervision of the International association of Academies and with the help of the Royal Academy of Holland. Its' first printing was published in the years 1913-1936 in English, German and French under the supervision of a group of famous Orientalists. In 1953 a condensed version of it was published and the first volume of new printing was published in 1960.