In
the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful
Salutations
of prayers and peace upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad; and upon his family,
progeny and companions
It
is foundational principle of our faith Islam that we respect and honor our
beloved Prophet Muhammadﷺ
and regard him as the epitome of human perfection, virtue, and piety.
لَّقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ
فِي رَسُولِ اللَّـهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ
There is for you in the Apostle
of Allah a beautiful example
(Sura 33:21)
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ
خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ
And verily you (My beloved Prophetﷺ) are on an exalted standard
of character
(Sura 68:4)
The enemies of Islam, inspired by their devils and demons,
seek to harm this faith and break the hearts of the faithful by assaulting the
character and moral integrity of our beloved Prophetﷺ. Regrettably, they may get an
opportunity for such satanic activity due to the ignorance of ordinary Muslims
concerning the technical sciences of the Hadith. This is why it is said that it
is easier for Satan to beguile a devoted worshiper who is engrossed in his
worship than it is for him to beguile and deceive a person grounded in
knowledge. Getting to the specific matter, the enemies of Islam allege that our
beloved Prophetﷺ, during the
initial phase of his Revelations from Allah, attempted suicide several times
معاذ الله. Before we
refute this false accusation, let us quote the narration that forms the basis
for this misunderstanding and deliberate deception by the enemies of God:
Narrated `AishaRA: The commencement of the
Divine Inspiration to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) was in the form of good righteous (true) dreams in his sleep.
He never had a dream but that it came true like bright day light. He used to go
in seclusion (the cave of) Hira where he used to worship(Allah Alone)
continuously for many (days) nights. He used to take with him the journey food
for that (stay) and then come back to (his wife) Khadija to take his food
like-wise again for another period to stay, till suddenly the Truth descended
upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him in it and
asked him to read. The Prophet (ﷺ) replied,
"I do not know how to read." (The Prophet (ﷺ) added), "The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me
so hard that I could not bear it anymore. He then released me and again asked
me to read, and I replied, "I do not know how to read," whereupon he
caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it anymore.
He then released me and asked me again to read, but again I replied, "I do
not know how to read (or, what shall I read?)." Thereupon he caught me for
the third time and pressed me and then released me and said, "Read: In the
Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists). Has created man from a
clot. Read and Your Lord is Most Generous...up to..... ..that which he knew not."
(96.15) Then Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) returned with
the Inspiration, his neck muscles twitching with terror till he entered upon
Khadija and said, "Cover me! Cover me!" They covered him till his
fear was over and then he said, "O Khadija, what is wrong with me?"
Then he told her everything that had happened and said, 'I fear that something
may happen to me." Khadija said, 'Never! But have the glad tidings, for by
Allah, Allah will never disgrace you as you keep good reactions with your Kith
and kin, speak the truth, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guest
generously and assist the deserving, calamityafflicted ones." Khadija then
accompanied him to (her cousin) Waraqa bin Naufal bin Asad bin `Abdul `Uzza bin
Qusai. Waraqa was the son of her paternal uncle, i.e., her father's brother,
who during the Pre-Islamic Period became a Christian and used to write the
Arabic writing and used to write of the Gospels in Arabic as much as Allah
wished him to write. He was an old man and had lost his eyesight. Khadija said
to him, "O my cousin! Listen to the story of your nephew." Waraqa
asked, "O my nephew! What have you seen?" The Prophet (ﷺ) described whatever he had seen. Waraqa said, "This is the
same Namus (i.e., Gabriel, the Angel who keeps the secrets) whom Allah had sent
to Moses. I wish I were young and could live up to the time when your people
would turn you out." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) asked, "Will they turn me out?" Waraqa replied in
the affirmative and said: "Never did a man come with something similar to
what you have brought but was treated with hostility. If I should remain alive
till the day when you will be turned out then I would support you
strongly." But after a few days Waraqa died and the Divine Inspiration was
also paused for a while and the Prophet (ﷺ) became so sad
*Note: Whatever has been quoted above is an authentic
Hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari, narrated by the Prophet’s wife A’isha (Allah be
pleased with her). What proceeds in this text then forms the basis for the
false accusation that the Prophetﷺ had attempted suicide several times:
“It has reached us that he intended several times to
throw himself from the tops of high mountains and every time he went up the top
of a mountain in order to throw himself down, Gabriel would appear before him
and say, "O Muhammad! You are indeed Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) in truth" whereupon his heart would become quiet and he
would calm down and would return home. And whenever the period of the coming of
the inspiration used to become long, he would do as before, but when he used to
reach the top of a mountain, Gabriel would appear before him and say to him
what he had said before.”
To someone unfamiliar with the technical sciences of
Hadith, they can easily and understandably misinterpret the above quoted text
as a continuation of the narration of A’ishaRA. However, the truth
is that the word بَلَغَنَا “it has reached us” is being uttered by the narrator ibn Shihab al-Zuhri.
Now it is obvious that Imam al-Zuhri doesn’t specify the source through which
this narration reached him or anyone else. Hence, this is considered Irsal
in the Hadith terminology, and generally speaking, a narration that is Mursal
cannot be considered authentic or sound. This fact has been clarified by
the great Muhaddith, Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani in his explanation of Sahih
al-Bukhari known as FatH al-Bari:
ثم إن القائل
" فيما بَلَغَنا " هو الزهري ، ومعنى الكلام : أن في جملة ما وصل إلينا من
خبر رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم في هذه القصة . وهو من بلاغات الزهري وليس موصولاً
، وقال الكرماني : هذا هو الظاهر .
" فتح الباري
" ( 12 / 359 )
Some may
mistakenly think that every Hadith in the Sahih of Imam al-Bukhari is
authentic. However, those who hold this view based on rigourous research know
that the claimed authenticity for every Hadith in the Sahih of Imam al-Bukhari
is restricted to the Mustanad (possessing a chain) and Marfu’ (attributed to
the Prophetﷺ through one of his companions)
narrations in that book.
While it is true that there was a considerable pause in
the divine Revelation to the Prophetﷺ, but the story of him intending to throw himself from the top
of a high mountain not only contradicts the well known and praiseworthy
character of the Prophetﷺ, but is simply
not authentically established from any Hadith. Other, authentic Hadith
establish the fact that the continuation of the visitation of the Angel to the
Prophetﷺ during this
period of pause in the Revelation did not occur when he climbed upon a mountain
intending to throw himself from it (God forbid):
Narrated Jabir bin `AbdullahRA: That he heard
Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying. "Then there was a
pause in the revelation of the Divine Inspiration to me. Then while I was
walking all of a sudden I heard a voice from the sky, and I raised my sight
towards the sky and saw the same angel who had visited me in the cave of Hira,'
sitting on a chair between the sky and the earth." (Sahih al-Bukhari)
So this narration of the companion Jabir b. Abdullah
(Allah be pleased with him) is authentic and clearly contradicts the Mursal narration
of Imam al-Zuhri. In conclusion, there is no basis to accept the idea that the
Prophetﷺ intended to do
what the satanic enemies of Islam accuse him of attempting to have done.
*Note: It appears that this fabricated story must have seeped in from the famous story of Satan's temptation of Christ. The two stories are remarkably similar, both are during the period just before the two set off for the respective ministries. In the temptation of Christ, when Jesus was in the desert for forty days: The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ (Luke ch.4 with Satan quoting from Psalm 91)
ReplyDeleteIt is therefore perhaps in the similar vein that such a false story was attributed to the Prophet Muhammad intending to show that he believed that by throwing himself off of the cliff God would come to his rescue. This is why mention of the Angel appearing at the cliff is mentioned as having occurred several times whenever the Prophet climbed up that mountain intending to throw himself from it.