Spoerl / The Levantine Review Volume 2 Number 1 (Spring 2013)
extinguish it, except for Abdullah b. Sallam and Mukhayriq [note omitted]” (p. 240).[1] Since Abdullah b. Sallam and Mukhayrik were converts to Islam (pp. 239-40), the message is clear: the only good rabbis are the ones who convert to Islam.
Ibn Ishaq recounts in detail the story of Abdullah bin Sallam’s conversion to Islam, quoting Abdullah as follows: “When I heard about the apostle I knew by his description, name, and the time at which he appeared that he was the one we were waiting for, and I rejoiced greatly thereat, though I kept silent about it until the apostle came to Medina” (p. 240). Abdullah kept his conversion a secret and went to Muhammad and said, “The Jews are a nation of liars and I wish you would take me into one of your houses and hide me from them. Then ask them about me so that they may tell you the position I hold among them before they know that I have become a Muslim.” Muhammad did just this, and the Jews confirmed that Abdullah was their respected leader and rabbi. Abdullah then jumped from his hiding place and exhorted the Jews as follows:
O Jews, fear God and accept what He has sent you. For by God you know that he is the apostle of God. You will find him described in your Torah and even named. I testify that he is the apostle of God, I believe in him, I hold him to be true, and I acknowledge him.’ They accused me of lying and reviled me. Then I reminded the apostle that I had said they would do this, for they were a treacherous, lying, and evil people. (p. 241)
The allegation that the Jews lie about and distort the contents of their scriptures is repeated over and over again in Ibn Ishaq. In his lengthy commentary on Sura 2 of the Koran, Ibn Ishaq tells us that “the first hundred verses of the Sura of the Cow came down in
- ↑ Maxime Rodinson makes an astute observation about the Jews of Medina: “Even if they had been well disposed towards the new movement, it was not easy for them to sanction what in their view were the incoherent ramblings of an illiterate, nor was it easy to avoid pointing out the way in which the Koran distorted the Old Testament stories and the errors and anachronisms of which it was full.” Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad, trans. Anne Carter (New York: The New Press, 1980), p. 161. W. Montgomery Watt makes a similar point: after the migration to Medina, “The Jews…became increasingly hostile, and used their knowledge of the Old Testament to criticize Muhammad’s claim that the Qur’an was the speech of God. In a largely illiterate environment it was easy for them to assert and appear to prove that the Qur’an was mistaken in various matters mentioned in the Old Testament. And the conclusion of the argument, of course, was that the Qur’an was not the speech of God and that therefore Muhammad was not a prophet. In view of the gravity of this matter it must have been one of Muhammad’s chief preoccupations during the early months.” W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 99. Indeed, Ibn Ishaq and Sura 2 of the Koran make it abundantly clear that this was a major preoccupation of Muhammad after the hijra. Cf. Tor Andrae, Mohammed: The Man and His Faith, trans. Theophil Menzel (New York: Scribner, 1936), p. 192.
