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Die Kranich-Aff are [Satanische Verse]

Wie berichtet wird, las der Prophet eines Tages in der N ahe der Kaaba einigen Qurais-

hiten die Sure 53 vor. Diese wunderschone Sure ist ein ausgezeichnetes Beispiel f

urseine spirituelle Leidenschaft und die uberzeugende Kraft seiner Rede. W ahrend er

uber seine Botschaft und die Wahrheit seines Anspruchs sprach, brachte ihm der En-gel Gabriel eine Offenbarung herab, und dann erw ahnte er die ber uhmten G otzen derAraber und fragte: Was denkt ihr denn wohl von Lat und Ozza und von Manat, deranderen, dritten G ottin? Die Verse 20 und 21 der Sure 53 weisen beinahe auf seineVerachtung und auf seine Meinung, da die G otzen nutzlos seien, hin.

Nach diesen Versen folgen zwei weitere, die aus den meisten Koran-Ausgabenentfernt wurden, weil man dachte, da Satan sie in des Propheten Mund ge ot h atteund da der Prophet ihre Auerung bedauern w urde. Die zwei Verse lauten wie folgt:

Dies sind die drei hochiegenden Kraniche, und ihre F ursprache werde erhofft.

Dann kniete er nieder. Die quraishitischen Zuh orer knieten auch nieder, nachdem siegesehen hatten, da Muhammad diese respektvolle Geste den drei G otzen gegen ubermachte und vernehmen konnten, da er ihre F ahigkeit zur F ursprache oder Vermittlunganerkannte.

Die Anh anger des Propheten, die an seine absolute Unfehlbarkeit glauben, be-streiten, da sich irgendein Vorfall ereignet haben k onnte, der im Widerspruch zumPrinzip der Unfehlbarkeit steht. Deswegen stuften sie die Geschichte als eine erfunde-ne Lugengeschichte ein und gingen sogar so weit, diese beiden S atze aus dem Koranzu streichen. Aber trotzdem, die Beweise, die in verb urgten Berichten gegeben werden,und die Deutungen bestimmter Korankommentatoren machen es wahrscheinlich, dadieses Ereignis stattgefunden hat. Die beiden unerreichten, gottesf urchtigen Autorendes Tafsir al-Jalalain halten es f ur den Anla der Offenbarung des Verses 53 der Sure22, den sie als eine Art g ottlichen Trost deuten, herabgesandt zu dem Propheten, umihn von den starken Gewissensbissen zu befreien, die er nach der Auerung der beidenSatze empfand. Dieser Vers beruhigt den Propheten wie folgt: Wir haben noch keinenGesandten oder Propheten vor dir geschickt, welchem nicht, wenn er vorlas, der Satanirgendeinen Irrtum in seine Vorlesung eingestreut h atte; aber Allah wird vernichten,was der Satan eingestreut hat. Allah wird seine Zeichen bekr aftigen; denn Allah istallwissend und allweise.

Der Koran enth alt noch weitere Passagen in dem gleichen Sinne, und an mehre-ren Stellen verdeutlicht er, da der Prophet nicht unfehlbar war. Manche der fr uhenIslamgelehrten hielten Muhammad nur bei der Verk undigung seiner prophetischen Bot-schaft f ur unfehlbar. Unter der Voraussetzung, da der Prophet nicht unfehlbar war,kann dieser Vorfall ohne Schwierigkeiten erkl art werden.

Ersch opft und m ude von dem hartn ackigen Widerstand seiner Gegner sah Muham-mad Zeichen f ur den Wunsch nach Toleranz und Wohlwollen in den Gesichtern seinerZuh orer und sagte daraufhin ein paar bes anftigende Worte zu ihnen. Sie waren zu-friedengestellt und knieten zusammen mit Muhammad nieder. Gleich danach, als dieMenge auseinandergelaufen und das Ereignis vor uber war, schrie jedenfalls eine Stim-me aus den Tiefen seiner Seele, um ihn vor so einer Beschwichtigung zu warnen und

, qis. s. at al ghar an q , the story of the cranes [Encyclopaedia of the Quran, vol. 4, Leiden2004, p. 531 s. v. Sanatic Verses].

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ihn daran zu erinnern, da er seit mehr als dreiig Jahren an den einen Gott geglaubtund sein Volk dazu angehalten hatte, sich von der Vielg otterei abzukehren. Dann ka-men nacheinander die Verse 74-76 der Sure 17 auf ihn hernieder. Sie best atigen diesehypothetische Interpretation vollkommen.

Die einzige andere annehmbare Hypothese w are die, da die ganze Angelegen-heit nur ein Schauspiel war, mit anderen Worten Muhammad wollte den heidnischenQuraishiten nur verst andlich machen, da er sehr wohl zu Vers ohnung und Freund-schaft bereit gewesen w are, aber Gott es ihm verboten hatte. Wenn man aber bedenkt,da Muhammad den Ruf besa, vertrauensw urdig und ehrlich zu sein, dann kann mandiese Hypothese wohl kaum glaubhaft machen.

Ali Dashti, 23 Jahre. Die Karriere des Propheten Muhammad, 22003, S.68 69.

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Satanic Verses

Name given by western scholarship to an incident known in the Muslim tradition asthe story of the cranes ( qis. s. at al-ghar an q) or the story of the maidens. According

to various versions, this is the assertion that the prophet Muh . ammad once mistook words suggested to him by Satan as divine revelation; that is to say, as verses of theQuran the words reportedly interpolated by Satan are called the satanic verses.The historicity of the satanic verses incident is strenuously rejected by modern Islamicorthodoxy, often on pain of takf r (being declared an unbeliever).

The satanic verses incident is reported in the tafs r (quranic exegesis) and the s ra-magh az literature (epic prophetic biography) dating from the rst two centuries of Islam. While the numerous reports on the incident differ in the construction and detailof the narrative, they may be broadly collated as follows. The incident is generally datedto the fth year of Muh . ammads mission, when the small Muslim community in Meccawas underpersecution by the leaders of Quraysh (the dominant tribe in Mecca), themostvulnerable of Muh . ammads followers having ed for safety to Abyssinia. The reportsindicate that in these circumstances, Muh . ammad hoped to achieve reconciliation withQuraysh. At this time, S urat al-Najm (Q 53, The Star), was revealed to Muh . ammad,who recited the chapter to a gathering of Quraysh. When Muh . ammad reached Q53:19 20, with their reference to the female deities worshipped by Quraysh Haveyou considered al-L at, al-Uzz a, and Man at, the third, the other? Satan was ableto cast two verses into Muh . ammads recitation which Muh . ammad took to be divinerevelation and duly recited; in some reports, Muh . ammad is portrayed as being drowsyand inattentive when he committed the error. These are the satanic verses: Indeedthey are the high cranes/the high maidens ( al-ghar an q/al-ghar an qa l-ul a ), and indeedtheir intercession is to be desired. (The precise wording of the satanic verses varieswith the different reports; a version of the satanic verses is also reported as a pre-Islamic talbiya or ritual invocation of Quraysh.) The Quraysh were greatly pleasedat Muh. ammads praise of their deities and at his having accorded them a place inthe theology of his revelation, to the point that when Muh . ammad recited the closingverse of the s ura, Q 53:62: So: prostrate yourselves to God and worship [him] the unbelievers present prostrated themselves alongside the Muslims. Later, however,Gabriel came to Muh . ammad and apprised him of his error; in some reports, Muh . ammadis depicted as realizing the error on his own. The Prophet was greatly distressed, soGod sent down to him Q 22:52 4, comforting him and explaining to him what had

happened:We have not sent before you a messenger or a prophet, but that when he de-sired/recited ( tamann a ; the verb means both to desire and to recite), Satancast into his desire/recitation ( umniyyatihi ), so God eliminates ( yansakh ) thatwhich Satan casts, then God establishes his own signs [ ay at ] clearly and God isall-knowing, all-wise to make that which Satan casts a trial for those in whosehearts is sickness and for those whose hearts are hardened truly the wrongdoersare in deep dissension and so that those who have been given knowledge mayknow that it is the truth from your lord, so that they might believe in it, and thattheir hearts may submit to it truly, God guides those who have faith to the

straight path.Muh. ammad then acknowledged his error and recanted the satanic verses, thereby

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provoking the renewed hostility and persecution of Quraysh. Some of the reports citeQ 53:21 2, Would you have sons, and for him daughters? That, indeed, would be acrooked division, as having been revealed in place of the satanic verses, while otherslink the incident with the revelation of Q 17:73, And they strove to tempt you away

from that [with] which we inspired you, that you might fabricate against us somethingother than it; ... and had we not made you rm, you would have inclined to them alittle. Generally, though, the incident is cited as the occasion of revelation ( sababal-nuz ul) for Q 22:52, although in some commentaries it appears in the exegesis on Q53:19. It is also widely reported that the news of the Quraysh prostrating themselvesalongside the Muslims made its way to Abyssinia , prompting some of the Muslimrefugees understanding Quraysh to have converted to Islam to return to Mecca,only to have to leave again.

The satanic verses incident is reported in the respective tafs r corpuses transmittedfrom almost every Quran commentator of note in the rst two centuries of the hijra .

Several of these relate the incident on the authority of Abdall ah b. Abb as (d. 68/687.The incident also appears in the respective s ra-magh az works transmitted in therst two centuries . Thus, the satanic verses incident seems to have constituted astandard element in the memory of the early Muslim community about the life of Muh. ammad. The incident continued to be cited and its historicity accepted by severalQuran commentators and authors of s ra-magh az works throughout the classicalperiod, including authors of important commentaries, such as Muh . ammad b. Jar ral-T. abar (d. 310/923), Ab u Ish. aq al-Thalab (d. 427/1035) and others.

Strong objections to the historicity of the satanic verses incident were, however,raised as early as the fourth/tenth century and continued to be raised in subsequent

centuries, to the point where the rejection of the historicity of the incident eventuallybecame the only acceptable orthodox position.Islamic modernity has been especially forceful and consistent in its rejection of the

historicity of the satanic verses incident. Orientalists, including the most widely-readbiographers of Muh . ammad such as William Muir,D. S. Margoliouth, W. MontgomeryWatt, Maxime Rodinson and F.E. Peters have tended (with few exceptions) just asforcefully to accept the historicity of the incident, the orientalist logic having beenepitomized by Peters: This is the indubitably authentic story it is impossible toimagine a Muslim inventing such an inauspicious tale. The widespread acceptance of the incident by early Muslims suggests, however, that they did not view the incident

as inauspicious and that they would presumably not have, on this basis at least, beenadverse to inventing it.The rejection or simple omission from tafs r and s ra works of the satanic verses

incident having become routine in modern Islamic thought, the incident was somewhatrudely re-introduced to the larger Muslim consciousness through the publication of Salman Rushdies novel The satanic verses in 1988. While the hostile Muslim reactionhad less to do with Rushdies adoption of the satanic verses incident for his titularphrase and central scene than with other offensive motifs in the novel, it is nonethelessnoteworthy that Rushdies publication did not re-open the debate among Muslimsover the historicity of the satanic verses incident. Its only result was reiteration of theorthodox view.

Shahab Ahmed in: Encyclopaedia of the Quran, vol. 4, 2004, pp. 532 536.