by
Further possible confirmation that the Prophet
Mohammed, a non-historical character, is a biblical composite.
The
biography of the Prophet Mohammed has borrowed so many of its bits and pieces
from the Bible (Old and New Testaments) that it is no wonder that Mohammed has
been portrayed as a most remarkable kind of man (verging on a superman), having
such a breathtaking career.
The
real miracle is that scholars down through the ages have been able to compile a
coherent life of the man. The downside of it is - apart from religious
implications - that it is historically a complete shambles. Better to view the
whole thing as a marvellous work of fiction. Now, a Turkish writer, Ercan
Celik, believes that he has traced the so-called “uncle” of Mohammed, to the
biblical king Omri of Israel (https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/celik_abu-lahab-jezebel/):
Who were Abu Lahab and His Wife? A View from the Hebrew Bible
by
Ercan Celik*
In The Qur’an and Its Biblical Subtext, G.
S. Reynolds observes that
…scholars of the Qur’an accept the basic premise of
the medieval Islamic sources that the Qur’an is to be explained in light of the
life of the Prophet Muhammad…
However, he proposes that critical Qur’anic
scholarship not depend on prophetic biography (sīrah) or traditional
Qur’anic exegesis (tafsīr), but rather,
…the Qur’an should be appreciated in light of
its conversation with earlier literature, in particular Biblical
literature…This argument necessarily involves an examination of both the
relationship of Muslim exegetical literature to the Qur’an and the relationship
of the Qur’an to Biblical literature.
Sūrat al-Masad
(Q 111) offers a valuable example for how a Biblical perspective can augment
our understanding of the Qur’anic text. The text of the sūrah names its
main character Abu Lahab, and mentions that he has a wife, but does not provide
any further identifying information. Only extra-Qur’anic literature can give us
more details about who he was. In this blog post, I compare how he may be
identified through the Islamic literary sources and through the Hebrew Bible.
Abu Lahab In
Islamic Literature
Abu Lahab,
meaning “the father of flame,” is identified as the uncle of the prophet
Muhammad, ʿAbd al-ʿUzza ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, nicknamed Abu Lahab on account of
his reddish complexion. He is said to have been a rich and proud man, and he
and his wife Umm Jamil, sister of Abu Sufyan, are depicted as fierce enemies of
Muhammad and the early Muslim community. There are many anecdotes in the
Islamic literary sources about their verbal and physical attacks on the
prophet. Some Qur’an commentators say that Umm Jamil used to litter Muhammad’s
path with harmful thorns of twisted palm leaf fibres, and that this is the
historical context for the final verse of Sūrat al-Masad: “Will have upon her
neck a halter of palm-fibre” (Q 111:5).
Abu’l-Ahab in
Biblical Literature
In searching the
Hebrew Bible for a wicked man whose name resembles Abu Lahab, one finds Ahab
(Hebrew: אַחְאָב), the seventh kings of ancient Israel (r. ca. 885-874 BCE),
son of King Omri and husband of Jezebel of Sidon. We could read “Abu Lahab”
alternatively, and without substantial change, as “Abu’l-Ahab,” father of Ahab.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the father of Ahab is Omri, who is described in
1 Kings 16:25 as having acted “more wickedly than all who were before him.” His
son Ahab, in his own time, “married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the
Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him . . . Thus Ahab did more to
provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before
him” (1 Kings 16:31-33).
As for Jezebel,
it is said that she ordered the killing of prophets (1 Kings 18:4). The prophet
Elijah escaped her persecution and with God’s command confronted Ahab with a
challenge to the priests of Baal: “You call on the name of your god and I will
call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God”
(18:24). The supporters of Baal called upon their god to send fire to consume
their sacrifice, but nothing happened. When Elijah called upon the name of the
Lord, fire came down from heaven immediately and consumed their offering.
Eventually Ahab
in killed in battle, and when Elisha, successor to the prophet Elijah, anoints
Jehu king of Israel, the latter had the house of Ahab killed. Jezebel was
captured by her enemies, thrown out of a window, trampled by a horse, and her
flesh eaten by dogs.
A Comparison of
the Qur’anic and Biblical Characters
There are some
significant parallels between the qur’anic character of Abu Lahab and the
biblical character of Abu’l-Ahab. To illustrate these, let us evaluate Sūrat
al-Masad in light of the biblical account:
§ May the hands of
Abu Lahab [Abu’l-Ahab] be ruined and ruined is he. The biblical story of Ahab
fits well with this verse, in both linguistic and narrative/thematic terms. The
father is invoked for ruin. Omri was the first person to introduce the worship
of Baal in Israel, for which his progeny are to be ruined. In Qur’anic Arabic
terminology, hands (here, yadā) are symbolic of power and of progeny.
The fate of Omri’s progeny is pronounced not so much in the tafsir literature
as in the biblical texts.
§ His wealth will
not avail him or that which he gained. The Ahab of the Bible seems to have had greater
wealth than the Abu Lahab of Islamic tradition; his great wealth failed to
prevent his demise by God’s command.
§ He will [enter
to] burn in a Fire of [blazing] flame. Hellfire is an eschatalogical concept associated
with unbelief, especially with the sort of idolatry instituted by Omri and
Ahab.
§ And his wife [as
well]—the carrier of firewood. The feature of firewood (ḥaṭab) is key.
The challenge at Mount Carmel consisted of sacrificing bulls on firewood in
order. We can imagine Jezebel supporting the Baalist priests by collecting the
best woods to burn the sacrifice easily. The image of Jezebel carrying firewood
makes more sense of this verse than that of Umm Jamil dumping thorns.
§ Around her neck
is a rope of [twisted] fiber. Traditional exegetes struggle to explain the
meaning of the rope of palm-fiber (masad). It may be better understood
in light of the Jezebel story. The term masad appears to be a hapax
legomenon in the Qur’an that might have a Hebrew root and be related to
Jezebel’s violent death. This term begs for further examination along these
lines.
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