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Refutation of the Alleged ‘Satanic Verses’
Intro
Christian missionaries and anti-Islamics over the years have tainted the image of Islam, fabricating lies against Prophet Muhammad (sa) and completeley defiling his character. One such lie hold against the prophet (sa) is the lie of the ‘Satanic Verses’ , which they call Muhammad’s (sa) compromise with idolatry (nauzubillah). The absurd story goes as follows:
One day while the Holy Prophet (sa) while praying in a mixed party of the Meccan idolotors and the Muslims was reciting Surah an-Najm and under Satanic inspiration (nauzubillah) added two verses to Surah an-Najm , which are as follows [in brackets]:
[Qur'an 53:19]
Have ye seen Lat and 'Uzza, And another, the third (goddess), Manat? [These are the high-flying ones, whose intercession is to be hoped for!]
The Prophet (sa), it is alleged, recited these along with other verses of Surah an-Najm in the prayer. The idolators of Makkah who were present in the Ka'bah at that time joined him in the prayer because he praised their deities and thus won their hearts. The story afterwards reached Abyssinia where the Muslims, persecuted by the Makkan infidels, had earlier migrated and many of them returned to Makkah under the impression that the disbelievers no longer opposed the Prophet (sa) and the Islamic movement. The story also says that the angel Gabriel came to the Prophet (sa) the same evening and told him about the mistake he had committed by reciting verses which were never revealed to him. This naturally worried the Prophet (sa) and made him apprehensive. 'Admonishing' the Prophet (sa), God revealed the following verses of Surah al-Isra' which read:
And their purpose was to tempt thee away from that which We had revealed unto thee, to substitute in our name something quite different; (in that case), behold! they would certainly have made thee (their) friend! And had We not given thee strength, thou wouldst nearly have inclined to them a little. In that case We should have made thee taste an equal portion (of punishment) in this life, and an equal portion in death: and moreover thou wouldst have found none to help thee against Us! [Qur'an 17:73-75]
This made the Prophet (sa) feel very guilty until God revealed the following consoling verse of Surah al-Hajj:
Never did We send a messenger or a prophet before thee, but, when he framed a desire, Satan threw some (vanity) into his desire: but Allah will cancel anything (vain) that Satan throws in, and Allah will confirm (and establish) His Signs: for Allah is full of Knowledge and Wisdom. [Qur'an 22:52]
They call this the ‘lapse’ of Muhammad (sa) (nauzubillah). This refutation will explore the sources of the missionary argument and find out if the story holds water.
Sources of the Missionary argument
The missionaries have two major sources:
(1) Ibn Sa'd
(2) Ibn Jarir al-Tabari
It is worthy to note that the alleged story was transmitted from al-Waqidi ( Muhammad Ibn Umar ) to Ibn Sa'd who was a known fabricator of events, Imam Al-Shafi'i who was a comtemporary of al-Waqidi and knew him personally has this to say :
“Al-Waqidi is a liar.”
and also:
“In Madeenah there were seven people who used to forge chains of narration. One of them was al-Waqidi.”
Imam Ibn Hanbal says thus about al-Waqidi:
“Al-Waqidi is a liar”
Imam Bukhari who collectted and compiled the most authentic book of ahadith, Shahih Bukhari said he didn't write a single letter by Al-Waqidi. So the credibility of of the story transmitted by al-Waqidi to Ibn Sa'd is zero. Now we'll turn to al-Tabari:
Al-Tabari mentions the so-called 'Satanic verses' story in his Tarikh as well as an important set of statements in the introduction of his book, which states:
Let him who examines this book of mine know that I have relied, as regards everything I mention therein which I stipulate to be described by me, solely upon what has been transmitted to me by way of reports which I cite therein and traditions which I ascribe to their narrators, to the exclusion of what may be apprehended by rational argument or deduced by the human mind, except in very few cases. This is because knowledge of the reports of men of the past and of contemporaneous views of men of the present do not reach the one who has not witnessed them nor lived in their times except through the accounts of reporters and the transmission of transmitters, to the exclusion of rational deduction and mental inference. Hence, if I mention in this book a report about some men of the past, which the reader of listener finds objectionable or worthy of censure because he can see no aspect of truth nor any factual substance therein, let him know that this is not to be attributed to us but to those who transmitted it to us and we have merely passed this on as it has been passed on to us( Tarikh al-Tabari: Tarikh al-Umam wal-Muluk p. 550.)
So what Al-Tabari is basically saying is that don't blame him if what he records sounds fishy, which makes this story unreal. Another element in why the story is not credible from al-Tabari is because , Karen Armstrong in her book Muahmmad [sa] devotes a whole chapter to this subject. In it she says Al-Tabari:
‘In his history Tabari preserves a tradition which gives a very different version of the story ’ (p.113)
Thus both transmitters of this story are unreliable.
Other Problems with the Story
Other than the reliability of the transmitters there are also many other problems with this story;
It is mentioned in the story that after reciting the so called 'Satanic Verses' verse 52 of Surah al-Hajj were revealed in connection with the story, but in reality Surah al-Hajj was revealed 7 or 8 years later which completeley shreads this story to piecies. It is obvious to any rational person that this story is pure fantasy and furthermore, Ibn Hisham who wrote an exahaustive biography of the prophet (sa) never mentiones this story at all.
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REFRENCES:
* Islamic-Awareness
* Karen Armstrong
* Wikipedia
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Originally Posted by AvarAllahNoor 
Re: Alleged Satanic Verses
