Page 95 - Tafsir of surat at tawba repentance

© Islamic Online University Usool at-Tafseer

earlier prophets. There is no record of the Prophet (r) having studied with him,
and Waraqah died shortly after this incident. In Madeenah, the Christians and the
Jews used to debate with the Prophet (r) and ask him questions; many of the
Madeenan verses answered their questions. 31 They would ask him questions in
order to disprove his prophethood, and he would answer with the Qur’aan. There
is no historical record of anyone having taught the Prophet (r). Some, however,
claim that Haddaad, the Roman, was his teacher, but such a claim is quite
erroneous, because the Makkans did not consider Haddaad knowledgeable, nor
was he free to teach. He was known to be fully occupied as a blacksmith, and it
was known that he was a foreigner who could barely speak Arabic. 32 The Arabs
of the Prophet’s time were very anxious to discredit the Qur’aan, but they were
unable to do so. If there had been a secret teacher, he would surely have been
exposed at that time.

Recently, most of the Qur’aanic stories that do not occur in the Torah or
33
Gospels, or which contradict them, have been traced to apocryphal books of the
34
Christians and Jews. This has been cited as proof that the Prophet (r) studied
the books of the Christians and the Jews. However, the number of obscure books
to which the Qur’aanic stories have been traced is great, and the languages of
these books vary between Amharic, Syriac, Hebrew and Greek. 35 Consequently,
the Prophet (r), who could not read or write, would have had to spend most of his
time studying foreign languages, searching all over the Middle East for the books
and studying them in depth. Thus, even the most recent of critical research only
further confirms the divine origin of the Qur’aan.

31
See Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 6, pp. 63-4, no. 79, and p. 207, no. 245.
32
See Tafseer Ibn Katheer, vol. 2, p. 208, the commentary on 16:103.
33
The Apocrypha are fourteen books of the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament)
rejected in Protestantism and Judaism; eleven are in the Roman Catholic bible. Other ancient
Christian texts written by sects at odds with the Catholic church, such as those found at Nag
Hammadi, Egypt, have been discovered only in the last half century.
34
Introducing Islam, pp. 30-1.
35
See Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam, p. 229, and Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 22, p. 9.
Detailed charges can be found in Robert Morey’s book, Islamic Invasion, portions of which are
excerpted on the internet: http://members.aol.com/kingcome/cults/islam.htm. (A devastating
rebuttal of Morey’s Moon God theory, documenting his deceitful quotation of source material, has
been written by Shabbir Ali.)

http://www.islamiconlineuniversity.com 16