Produce your proof: Muslim exegesis, the Hadith, and the Jews

Judaism, Wntr-Spring, 2004 by Khaleel Mohammed

Long before Fazlur Rahman's approach, the ninth century belletrist, al-Jahiz (d. 869), had noted the rancorous relationship between Muslims and Jews. This, he posited, was based on the fact that whereas many Christians had adopted Muslim names, converted en masse, and/or had intermarried with Muslims to the point where many of the mothers of the Sultans had been Christians, the Jews had chosen to remain aloof, maintaining their Jewish identity and customs. (28) It ought to be noted too that these new Christian converts to Islam--especially from Syria--brought with them their own Judeophobic traditions that were nurtured and morphed with new virulence within Islam. (29)

Thus far, I have provided evidence from three classical exegeses, two modern English editions of the translated Qur'an and two traditions from the hadith literature. These proofs, however, while exceeding the objective of establishing an "iota" of proof do not get us to the 95% figure that I cited in the newspaper article. The fact of the matter is that I certainly could not have interviewed each of Islam's 1.5 billion adherents (an impossibility that some of my coreligionist detractors gleefully pointed out). But if the law of statistics is followed, I gave an estimate that was absolutely reliable according to the actuarial concept of the law of large numbers. (30)

Almost every single mosque or prayer center that I have attended subscribes to the authority of the sources that I have cited above. In addition to this experiential input, the math for my estimate is simple enough: 80% of the world's Muslims are said to be Sunnis, and, as noted earlier, my sources for this article are from Sunni works. The Shias constitute 15% percent of the Muslim population, and as established above, their literature subscribes to the same general idea of the Jew. Thus far, we have mentioned only the major sects of Islam. The minor sects, with the exception of the Ismailis, do not differ markedly in their negative portrayal of the Jew. The Ismailis number less than 1% of the Muslim population, and therefore the estimate I ought to have given in my interview should have been 99% percent. Quod erat demonstrandum.

NOTES

1. Akbar S. Ahmed, Islam Under Siege (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003), p. 35.

2. Lecture at San Diego State University by Professor Sa'ad al-din Ibrahim, April 15, 2004.

3. Stabroek News (Georgetown, Guyana), March 17, 2004.

4. Montreal Gazette, March 16, 2004: A8.

5. Montreal Gazette, March 16, 2004: A8.

6. Muhammad al-Burnu, al-Wajiz fi Idah Qawa'id al-Fiqh al-Kulliyah (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Ma'arif, 1990), p. 116.

7. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an: A New Translation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. ix.

8. Mahmoud Ayoub, The Qur'an and its Interpreters (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), I:49.

9. Nizam al-Din al-Hasan al-Nisaburi b. Muhammad b. al-Husayn al-Qummi, Ghara'ib al-Qur'an wa Ragha'ib al-Furqan (Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1962-1964), 1:113.

10. Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, Jami al-Bayan fi Ta'wil aay al Qur'an (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al'Ilmiyyah, 1999), 1:108-111. For an abridged translation, see W. F. Madelung et al., editors, The Commentary of the Qur'an (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 1:76. Unfortunately, the translation does not include all of the Hadith that Tabari used.