Jews As Apes and Swine
This is the second post in the “Problematic Quranic Verses series where I look at verses being misapplied by Muslims. The first was on the “Slayer Verse” Quran 9:5. I obviously understand that I’ve gotten in trouble when writing about the Quran (and its virgins) before. No Virgins this time; just Jews and Apes. Get my posts via email here.
When I was a child in Pakistan my mother and I hired a religious tutor, a “maulvi,” to come to our house and help us do exegesis (tafsir) of the entire Quran. I was nine. It was fun being a student alongside my mom because she did all the work and knew all the answers and I could zone out. The maulvi would come on his bicycle, guzzle down a gallon of butter-milk and shove down the requisite two or three potato-filled parathas and then proceed to go through the Quran with us, verse by verse, and reference the works of exegetes like Mawdudi and Ibn Kathir to tell us what each verse meant. It was an enjoyable experience until my mother told my dad that the maulvi hit on her. My mother dropped out and I had to go to the maulvi at his dingy mosque in the commercial section. A week into my solitary lessons we were discussing Moses and his people that the maulvi told me the astounding fact that once upon a time the Jews were turned into monkeys. Of course at first I didn’t believe this, but he told me it was right there in the Quran. As I was leaving he told me that some of the Jews were actually pigs (the word he used was the Urdu word “khanzeer” which is closer to “swine.”) A few days later I too stopped going to the maulvi because I found I could use the money my father gave me to pay the maulvi and instead spend it in the toy market. The whole idea of Jews as apes and pigs was forgotten.
Many years later in America, I started noticing, especially in light of the rhetoric coming out of Palestine, that an astounding number of Muslims ascribed to the notion that Jews were the descendants of apes and pigs. On the grapevine I heard that Shaykh Tantawi, head of the Al-Azhar University, the purported fount of Sunni learning, had made public statements about the Jews being descendents of apes and pigs. I then found confirmation that other leading Muslim scholars were propounding this view, including none other than the designated Imam of the Holy Kaba in Mecca: Shaykh Sudais (who strangely weeps through his entire prayers). An uneducated, sexually frustrated maulvi in Pakistan was one thing; heads of the house of learning (Azhar) and worship (Mecca) in Islam ascribing to such ideas were quite another. I decided it was time to see for myself what was going on. I told myself, surely this is not Islam. We cannot really believe that people are descendents of animals. So I turned to the Quran, hoping that those three words “Jews,” “apes,” and “swine” were not in the same paragraph.
Much to my disappointment, they were. Verses 5:60, 2:65, and 7:166. [Following are the Yusuf Ali interpretations].
5:60
Say: “Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil;- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!”
2:65
And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”
7:166
When in their insolence they transgressed (all) prohibitions, We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”
They were right there, staring me in the face. I was deflated. After a long-standing stand-off against God due to fashionable collegiate atheism, I had only recently affirmed Allah in my heart. Upon seeing the verses I felt how I felt when I saw the second plane hit the tower (because the second one confirmed premeditation). I remembered a particular scene from Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” where Gibril and Chamcha see a group of snakes, lizards and reptiles in a jail and they wonder what has happened to them, and the reptiles reply something to the effect of, “they [jailers] described us.” Rushdie’s point is that language can dehumanize, and if language is our primary tool for knowledge, then a person described as less than a human might as well be turned into what he has been described as. There is power in words, to put it mildly.
I have a lot of respect for the Jewish tradition (whatever that is). To me, it is Moses and Maimonides and Spinoza and Marx and Levinas and Buber and Brandeis and Derrida. I have taken in as much Bellow in my life as I have Bukhari (the hadith scholar). As much Itzhak Perlman as I have Rumi. These verses represented something more than just a bump on the road to reconciliation with Islam and thus I found myself faced up against an edifice of Islamic tradition I never intended to be opposed to. Much of the tradition, on the authority of Ibn Kathir, believed that when the Quran said the Jews turned into apes and swine, that, in fact, is what happened. Literally. This view, taken to its logical conclusion led other commentators such as Qurtubi (though memory fails me at the moment), to wonder how those turned into apes and swine could have off-spring. Even the monist mystic Ibn ‘Arabi got in on the debate and concluded that those turned into animals are what gave us the animals of today.
My mother tried to give the verses a spin but when I showed her the translations cited above, she shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. A friend tried to point out that at least the animals the Jews were turned into (apes and pigs) were those with whom humans had the most genetic similarity. I appreciated his effort but this was not enough for me. It became compulsion and I decided that it was time that I stopped looking around for answers and read the Quran myself. So, instead of looking on the web for translations I went and purchased a copy of the translation of the Quran as performed by Leopold Weiss, a man who had been a Jew and then converted to Islam, eventually becoming the first citizen of Pakistan and the close friend of the late Kind Saud. Not only that, but I recalled that Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad as he was later called) stated in his biography that the biggest hurdle in his acceptance of Islam had been that he could not accept that Muhammad was divinely inspired. Until a few months ago, this had been my particular problem as well, and so I thought, surely a man who had the chutzpah to state openly his doubts in the Prophet and then found a way to resolve them, could be considered a serious scholar.
I started with verse 5:60 in his translation.
Say: “Shall I tell you who, in the sight of God, deserves a yet worse retribution than these? They whom God has rejected and whom He has condemned, and whom He has turned into apes and swine because they worshipped the powers of evil:” these are yet worse in station, and farther astray from the right path [than the mockers].
The first thing I noted, that I had missed the first time around when looking at this verse, was the fact that there was no mention of Jews. “They whom God has rejected and whom He has condemned” were the ones turned into apes and swine “because they worshipped the powers of evil.” Of course, that did not mean this verse didn’t refer to Jews; oh no, it did refer to them. Except, it turned out, that this verse not only referred to Jews, but also to Christians. A subsequent pharse refers to “Men of God” and “Rabbis” - with the Men of God being a reference to Christians (especially in light of the fact that in verse 66 the Gospel is mentioned explicitly). My headache wasn’t gone, but I felt a little better. A book that did not discriminate in its epithets seemed a lot more palatable than a book that seemed to single out the most persecuted group in the history of mankind. Of course, it was not exactly a relief because now I was confronted with the fact that even more people were being referred to as descendants of apes and swine!
The other two ape and swine verses were limited to Jews, but thankfully they offered a way of resolving the issue.
Here is how Asad had rendered the two verses:
7:166
and then, when they disdainfully persisted in doing what they had been forbidden to do, We said unto them: “Be as apes despicable!”"‘
2:65
for you are well aware of those from among you who profaned the Sabbath, whereupon We said unto them, “Be as apes despicable!”
That “as” I knew quite well: “So am I as the rich, whose blessed key can bring him to his sweet locked up treasure” said Shakespeare. It was the “as” — the blessed “as” — of metaphor! I rejoiced a hundred times over. A metaphor means that the finality of language is absent. Being “as” something is not the same as being something. Could it be that the Quran was engaged in metaphor-making? If references to apes and swines were metaphors, it meant that the people being referred to had expressed the qualities of an “ape” and the qualities of a “pig.” Given the fact that in classical Arabic an ape was someone impulsive and a pig was someone stubborn, the metaphors seemed almost innocous (Especially since in all languages animals are used as referrants for certain qualities. Once we could learn what qualities classical Arabic invoked when referring to those animals, we could understand what the metaphor was referring to.
Before I got too excited I wanted to be certain this “as” was not a mere blip on the radar. I had too many feelings hurt to risk hurting them again. So I went and consulted another translation, this one by Shakir.
7:166
Therefore when they revoltingly persisted in what they had been forbidden, We said to them: Be (as) apes, despised and hated.
2:65
And certainly you have known those among you who exceeded the limits of the Sabbath, so We said to them: Be (as) apes, despised and hated.
Granted that the other two famous English translations (Yusuf Ali and Pickthall), did not have the metaphorical “as” in them the presence of the “as” in two of the more famous translations was enough to get my mind churning, and this time I was not reliant upon any authority except that of my God given reason. Suddenly I started to see patterns in the Quran that further cast light on these questionable (and certainly questionably used) verses.
First, I noticed that 2:65 was part of a flashback sequence beginning at 2:47 where the Quran was addressing the Jewish and Christian communities in the time of Muhammad and asking them to revisit their own theological histories and their relationship with God. In other words, the addressees were the Jews and Christians of that time (those alive in the life of Muhammad). This is an important distinction because the Quran treats the time during which Muhammad was alive, different than all other times. Things that were allowed, or done, during the life of Muhammad, were often not allowed, or done, after his passing. Consider: Muhammad was allowed to have nine wives, but all other Muslims can, at most, have up to four (and even there the Quran question whether one can act favorably). Muhammad was required to stay up and pray all night; all later Muslims are not so required. Muhammad was the one allowed to exact jizya from the dhimmis; after his passing the distinction was to be abolished (but sadly was not — more on this some other day). Thus, the fact that the Quran directly addressed only those Jews and Christians alive in Muhammad’s time, was significant.
Then, far more astoundingly, I noticed that the sequence starting at 2:47 actually opened with the incredible assertion:
“O children of Israel! Remember those blessings of Mine with which I graced you, and how I favoured you above all other people.”
Pardon? This seemed to me like the clearest case of the Quran picking favorites, and the presence of verses that spoke favorably of Jews and Christians at the opening of the passage soothed me somewhat further. It more firmly established the conversational nature of the discussion in the Quran. I also recalled the hadith of the Prophet which stated that of all the Prophets, Moses was God’s favorite.
At this point, I wondered whether there were other cases of “animalization” in the Quran. Whether one could truly conclude that the verses that bothered me were metaphors. While others may be aware of more, I found a couple of astounding ones.
In Surah Fil, the Chapter of Elephant, in reference to an attack made upon Mecca before the birth of Muhammad, the Quran says, referring to those that fought the invading army from Yemen:
105:3
let loose upon them great swarms of flying creatures
Some Muslim commentators, the same ones that thought that ape and pig were references to literal transformation, have interpreted this verse to mean that a swarm of flying creatures, literally, were let loose upon the invaders. However, when considered in light of classical Arabic, we realize that the idea of a “great swarm of flying creatures” was a metaphor popular among the poets in the day to refer to the state of utter decimation wrought by a group of brave warriors (the metaphor was likely popular because birds (kites and vultures) often hung out near battle-fields).
Another metaphor about animals was popular among poets of pre-Islamic Arabia. Although not in the Quran, this was the notion of the hamstrung camel, which was a metaphor for exile and loneliness. While the hamstrung camel does not appear in the Quran, the pregnant, kneeling, camel does (in the thirtieth Juz), and refers to a feeling of alienation.
In any case, in the Chapter of the Elephant, in a non-Jewish/Christian context, the Quran had animalized a group of people (namely, the Quraysh which included the Prophet’s grandfather). This gave me further proof that the reference to apes and swines was a metaphorical representation of the qualities that certain group of historical people exhibited which were like the qualities exhibited by certain animals familiar to the Arabs and was not a suggestion that Jews or Christians were the descendants of such animals, nor was it meant to read that they were animals to this day. Under classical Arabic, anyone could be an ape (if they were stubborn) just as anyone could be a hamstrung or pregnant camel (if they were lonely).
However, we must not stop here. We must not make theoretical arguments and then be satisfied. Anti-semitism is rife in the Muslim world. It is rife in European Muslim youth. In Iran and Pakistan. Muslims have to take accountability for this. They have to excavate and upturn their tradition to rid it of the strangehold of the maulvis who do not have the intellectual facility, or interest, to assure that Islam conforms to its humanistic impulse. Free it from those who turn metaphors into literalism. The Jews are the most persecuted race on the face of the earth. Yet, that has not stopped the Jews from extending a helpful and supportive hand to all other races. I freely admit that part of the impetus in writing this article has been the friendship of Jewish people such as Annie. In my opinion, no people have had more moral clarity than the Jews. While Muslims are free to disagree with Jews upon matters of politics and policy, they must not compromise their integrity, nor compromise the humanity of the Jews. As I have demonstrated, a little use of one’s mind, will show one a clear path out of the stultification of the intellectual night. The fact that the interpretation of the verses I have set forth is not popular is not an indictment of the Quran; it is an indictment of all Muslims everywhere who have perpetuated dangerous literalism. There are men and women in the tradition who have read these verses as I have. The jurists Mujahid, Asad and Ghamidi being some of them. But it is insufficient for a handful of scholars to believe such things. Our aunts and uncles, neighbors and maulvis, must be taught better.
God gave reason to the Muslim; it is the Muslim who has forgotten what he possesses. Almost seems at times that some magician has said to the Muslim “Be you stone.”
———–
The older comments thread (34) appears here. If you have to share something, say it here please.
God bless you. Sometimes I read the press and there is so much negative press about Islam. I hope that intelligent, critical but ultimately reverent analysis of your holy text can become more widespread.
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[...] From Eteraz: When I was a child in Pakistan my mother and I hired a religious tutor, a “maulvi,” to come to our house and help us do exegesis (tafsir) of the entire Quran. I was nine. It was fun being a student alongside my mom because she did all the work and knew all the answers and I could zone out. The maulvi would come on his bicycle, guzzle down a gallon of butter-milk and shove down the requisite two or three potato-filled parathas and then proceed to go through the Quran with us, verse by verse, and reference the works of exegetes like Mawdudi and Ibn Kathir to tell us what each verse meant. It was an enjoyable experience until my mother told my dad that the maulvi hit on her. My mother dropped out and I had to go to the maulvi at his dingy mosque in the commercial section. A week into my solitary lessons we were discussing Moses and his people that the maulvi told me the astounding fact that once upon a time the Jews were turned into monkeys. Of course at first I didn’t believe this, but he told me it was right there in the Quran. As I was leaving he told me that some of the Jews were actually pigs (the word he used was the Urdu word “khanzeer” which is closer to “swine.”) A few days later I too stopped going to the maulvi because I found I could use the money my father gave me to pay the maulvi and instead spend it in the toy market. The whole idea of Jews as apes and pigs was forgotten. [...]
Huzza! A muslim who gets it.
I was in a class once and the subject was Balaam’s donkey, who talked to him.
Of course we all know that, absent a miracle, a donkey will not talk. The class was divided between those who thought the donkey had talked, or that it was a metaphor.
The other notion not represented among our class: What if it was all made up?
I have no opinion.
thats such an interesting study. very nicely written. is that the difference between a blind orthodox believer of what the priests say and a true seeker of God?
have you also read the jewish scriptures alongside the quran?
whats your take on messianic prophecies of the old testament and the idea/claim that religion/God’s word has been completed on or by muhammed?
Taquiya, nothing more. Typical
Humans are always looking for a way to hold power over another, whether by religion or education or money or privilege. But the greatest power and what holds the mind gripped is what you referred to early in your post: the power of words. They can both give and take life, offer healing or insult. All religious texts and the scholars who interpret them would do well to realize that we each possess within us a similar human dna, that we are more alike than different, and that no god/God/Allah worth serving would pit one against another. Be righteous in your religion, but be generous in serving your fellow creations.
What a bunge of sickos God help you all
When reading this I realize how little I, as a Christian, really know about Islam. Fascinating. Perhaps that’s the key to this world’s impasse concerning religeon. Thanks again.
It is said that the Jewish Rabbis who lived in Christian Europe knew that Christianity was not an idolatrous religion, to be condemned–but Islam was.
It is said that the Jewish Rabbis who lived in Muslim lands such as Egypt knew that Islam was not an idolatrous religion to be condemned–but Christianity was.
Your analysis is excellent, and based on the doubt that arose because you lived among Jews and studied Jewish authors. So many Americans, Europeans, and people in Muslim countries regrettably do not have your gifts and opportunities–yet keep writing, and they may also come to doubt.
http://doctortwo.wordpress.com/
Nicely done. When I saw this post heading I was worried it was another mindless retread of media stories from a few months ago about Saudi textbooks. Instead I am delighted to read the thoughts of an intelligent individual who applies said intelligence and humanity to spiritual reawakening. I don’t share your spiritual beliefs but I share your desire for intelligent discourse.
Hmm. Interesting take on things, and obviously you care much about the jewish race, as the impassioned tone in your writing implies, and for that the intention of your essay is noble. However, on one key point, I think your reasoning may suffer from a factual inaccuracy - According to Tafsir al-Jalalayn (regarded as the most competent tafaseer in Arabic), and many other Tafaseer - The Sura you mentioned, Sura al-Fil - Verse 3, has no real controversy in the world of Quranic tafseer. The ‘flying creatures’ are actually mentioning the “ababil”, a specific race of birds, sent to drop stones (of baked clay) on the elephant as God’s army: - “thus making them like devoured blades, like the leaves of crops which have been consumed, trampled and destroyed by animals. God destroyed each one of them with his own stone, inscribed with his name, larger than a lentil [in size] but smaller than a chick-pea, able to pierce through an egg, a man, or an elephant and go through the ground. This took place in the year of the Prophet’s birth (s).” - Al Jalalayn.
The account of Tafsir Ibn Kathir, and Ibn Abbas (two of the most dependable mutafassirs in Qur’anic history) as well as many other early Quranic scholars is described here - feel free to read:
http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/archives/a_quranic_journal/000233.php
The word Ababil, specifically, has no equal in the Arabic language - It is a word without a singular and recorded as a collective proper noun by the Quranic Mutafassirs. Abd’ul Mutallib, the Prophet’s grandfather, was shown in a dream “not” to protect the Kaaba from Abraha, the Christian King/Tyrant, when he threatened to destroy it. Abraha asked Abdul Mutallib if he was mad, and would he just stand there while he destroys the House of his God, but Abdul Mutallib gave Abraha the answer(as per the dream) that it wasn’t ‘his’ house that he should protect it, it was God’s. God would protect it - and so He did, the account of which is mentioned in the sura.
It’s easy to editorialize God’s words when it serves your purpose, however, it ceases being the Holy Qur’an and mutates into an interpretation, one based on smug speculation, faulty reasoning, and forced logic, no matter how sincere the intention may be.
Avicenna,
Thanks for telling me nice stories that remind me of childhood. You are overlooking a lot of things, though.
I’ll tell you what on Friday. Look for it.
Is this not the reason for keeping halal? That eating the meat of apes and swine is tantamount to cannibalism?
The same outdated pre-scientific mindset is used to enforce circumcision, on people who have modern hygeine available and don’t need to traumatize boy babies any longer.
Human cultures are astoundingly diverse, but fundamentalism, in any religion, is astoundingly illogical.
And of course I personally, am vastly superior in morals to the rest of my species.ROFL!
I was worried a bit too before I read the post, but I must give kudos on the analysis. I think for me, it’s important to not necessarily view religious texts in the literal sense, whether it’s the Quran or the Bible or whatever, but as metaphors on how to live. Some instructions are literal, and were the best ideas that could be understood for the time. Does it mean they’re still valid today? Perhaps not. But the underlying need to keep the spirit connected with God is. Bless everyone, may we someday learn to live with the other. InshallaH.
Interesting.
I have been looking for a progressive Islamic website for a long time. I read your diary on DailyKos. This world needs dialogue not bombs. As a species we face such great obstacles anything short of some grand mutualism will likely render us extinct. It is great to find a place where Islam takes its place as one of the world’s great intellectual traditions rather than as a cartoon-like fundamentalism. Bravo for an intelligent and inspiring website. The ultimate blasphemy is hate.
I suggest you read two books about Judaism before you continue thinking everything is perfect about Judaism. There is “Judaism’s strange Gods” by Michael Hoffman and “Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years” by Professor Israel Shahak. You can get a sample of these books at these websites http://www.revisionisthistory.org/talmudtruth.html and http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/jewhis2.htm
Here is a quote from the second website that gives Maimonides point of view
“Some of the Turks [i.e., the Mongol race] and the nomads in the North, and the Blacks and the nomads in the South, and those who resemble them in our climates. And their nature is like the nature of mute animals, and according to my opinion they are not on the level of human beings, and their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey, because they have the image and the resemblance of a man more than a monkey does.”
In response to Randal Jones: Israel Shahak’s views have been widely discredited, and do not represent any part of Jewish belief or practice. More on him is available on wikipedia.
Eteraz, if you’re interested in Jewish religious texts (for comparitive reasons), take a look at the works of Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy and Biblical Literacy are both excellent and accessable.
Hi there,
I got the link through Normblog. It seems a lot of Muslims are keen to scotch unfounded rumours about Jews at the moment - I have got into trouble at home for acting on one of the stories I’ve heard about a certain Jewish-run British chain of department stores. Anyway, the apes and pigs story refers to a particular group of Jews, who are nowhere said to be the ancestors (at least, not while they were apes and pigs!) of the Jews of today (particularly if - as many Muslims believe to be fact despite its sole source being one essay by Arthur Koestler - the Jews are descended from the Turkic Khazars and are not the real Bani Isra’il). Bikhair/Taqiyya posted on my blog some time ago that according to her sources, the creatures in question only lived for a short time after their metamorphoses and did not reproduce.
So, the modern day insult “sons of apes and pigs” is just that - an insult - a bit like calling people sons of dogs, bitches, whatever, which is what a lot of Arabs would call the Israelis if the apes and pigs incident was not available to throw at them.
(Please use this second version, MD) The idea that Qur’anic Arabic contains metaphorical and idiomatic connotations that have been lost to later generations of grammarians and exegesists (including canonical Medieval Mutafssirs and modern translators) has some validity.
Nevertheless, the facts of grammar cannot be denied. In II: 65 and VII: 166 we find no particle such as “ka” (”like”, “as”) governing “qiradah” (”apes”), which would indicate a simile or a metaphor.
What we have is “kounou”, the plural imperative of the verb “to be”, and the noun “apes” in the indefinite, plural accusative, “qiradatan”, “be ye apes”, as Abdullah Yusuf Ali translates it. It could be argued that in Qur’anic Arabic a metaphor may implied in the construction, which is why some translators add “as” in brackets. However when God creates the world ex nihilo with the words “kun [verb "to be", singular imperative] fa-yakoun”, “Be! And it is” (II: 117), nobody suggests that there is a metaphor at work. Similarly, the idea that there is a metaphor hidden in the “to be”/accusative construction is contrary to contemporary Arabic usage. For example, if I were to say “kuntu musliman” I would mean “I was once a Muslim”, not “I was once as a Muslim” or “I was once (as) a Muslim”.
[...] Someone who blogged about this and discussed it in an even better way is Ali Eteraz. He’s a Pakistani-American scholar of Islam and his blog is fast becoming one of my favourites. Check out what he has to say. [...]
The problem for this interpretation of the Quran is that it is contradicted by Mohammad’s own words. He wasnt being metaphorical when he abused the Jews of Khaybar for example with similar words(coincidence with the Quran, I think not) I admire the spin but spin is not truth.
<< he abused the Jews of Khaybar for example with similar words.>
I am not aware of this. Reference please? What were his exact words?
Oh yes. I forgot to mention the pig is seen as unclean by Muslims ,so you can see the level of vitriol involved in using this term of abuse.A bit like the loathing jews had for Samaritans, but Jesus exploded the pattern of hate for those who wish to follow the true God with his parable of the Good Samaritan: A modern equivalent would be the parable of the Good American- meditate on that and learn….
Helklo Eteraz - Sorry I meant the Jewish tribe of B Qurayza.Look at Ishaq ed Guillaume(Oxford Univ Press 1955) at page 461: the reference is to ‘brothers of monkeys’- I havent checked the hadiths but will for interests sake.
I figured it’d be the Sirah.
I don’t have a copy handy. Does he cite a hadith for “brothers of monkeys” or is it a stand-alone reference?
No he doesn’t. I think the point is that it was an insult, Perhaps the abuse went both ways.There is apparently a Bukhari hadith 4 ch 32 (628) but I cant find it. I did however find a reference in Bukhari(4.524) to Mohammad calling Jews rats. Interestingly Mohammad listed rats as being one of the animals that should always be killed so we can possibly infer the status of the Jew or “troublesome” Jews ( meaning those opposing Mohammad) in that hadith, that is, worse then monkeys and apes?! Let us outlaw hate through love is my reponse - to the insult game.
Eteraz,
I think you are missing the point because of your excessively judeophilic outlook.
Your line of reasoning seems to be:
1. The Jews are the measure of all goodness.
2. Accordingly, any person or ideology that expresses a negative view about Jews must be in opposition to goodness, ie it must be bad.
3. If Muhammad as a person, or Islam as an ideology, expresses negative views about Jews, they must therefore be bad.
4. Accordingly, if I, Eteraz, am to preserve my feelings of self-worth as a Muslim, I must strive to prove that neither Muhammad nor Islam expresses any negative views about Jews.
But your premiss that the Jews as an entity are beyond criticism is faulty. No human group is beyond criticism; any human group must be criticised when it offends against another human group.
The essential issue is not whether Muhammad said that a particular group of Jews was literally transformed into apes, or whether he said that they acted like apes.
It is the message that Muhammad was trying to convey to his listeners, the moral that he was trying to teach, namely that disobedience to the law given by God will result in divine punishment in one form or another.
In this particular case, Muhammad is addressing the Jews, and adjuring them to obey the Law revealed to them through the prophet Moses. He makes a very fleeting reference to a story about a group of Jews who disobeyed the Law of Moses, specifically the laws relating to keeping the Sabbath holy, and suffered divine punishment by losing their human status through transformation into apes.
Later Muslim commentators elucidated that fleeting reference by Muhammad by telling the whole story, which must have been a fairly well-known folktale among the Arab peoples at the time these verses were spoken and recorded.
The story concerned a Jewish community living in Eilat by the Red Sea, whose livelihood was derived from fishing. Some of the Jews contrived to go fishing on the Sabbath by various stratagems, such as preparing their tackle on the previous day. On doing so, they were consistently transgressing the law against doing any work on the Sabbath, and were warned by the rest of the community to desist from their sinful ways. However, the breakers of the Sabbath continued in their transgression, and one day the virtuous Jews found that the Sabbath-breakers had all been turned into apes.
The whole nature of the story, with its contrast between “good” Jews who obey the Law of Moses and keep the Sabbath and “bad” Jews who disobey the Law and transgress the Sabbath, and the divine punishment visited upon the latter, indicates that it has a Jewish origin. It is an example of “aggada”, Jewish folk-tales that had a moral purpose, a way of teaching the less-educated common people about the Law of Moses and why it must be obeyed.
Like many stories of Jewish origin, that particular tale must have been transmitted to the Arab tribes, most probably through the Jewish tribes living in the Arabian peninsula, such as those of Madina. Much of Muhammad’s recorded teaching incorporated into the Qur’an is based on material derived from Jewish sources.
It is quite obvious that Muhammad regarded the Law of Moses as a divine law that had been revealed to the Jews, in the same way as he regarded the Christian teaching as a divine law that had been revealed through the prophet Jesus, although he considered that both Jews and Christians had distorted the divine law given to them, and were to be condemned for that.
Thus, these particular utterances by Muhammad had a dual purpose. On the one hand, they were addressed to the Jews, warning them to obey the divine law revealed to them through the prophet Moses, or else suffer divine punishment, such as that which had been visited upon the Sabbath-breakers in the moral tale to which he fleetingly referred. On the other hand, they were addressed to his own followers, warning them to obey the divine law that was now being revealed to them through him, as the last of the prophets, with the implication that disobedience would bring divine punishment in the same way as it was visited upon Jews who disobeyed their own law.
Thanks for that post. I am currently coming out of my collegiate atheism phase, and rediscovering the many facets of Islam. This post has helped me along my way.
Interesting post… I am inclined towards that it is somewhat between both your opinion (Eteraz) and that of Michael a couple of comments up.
Michael: Is there any reference available for that particular story? It would become interesting if there was.
Ramaḍān Karīm everyone!
Inspired exegesis. Thanks for reaffirming my belief that there’s a religious reformation about to be born in Islam.
Reply to Dezhen:
The background to the story about Jews being turned into apes as a punishment for breaking the Sabbath, to which Muhammad was referring, can be found at this site:
http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/facultyforum.cgi?ID=865
That is a pro-Israeli propaganda site, but it nevertheless provides some good background information.
[...] An excellent post by Eteraz from some months ago on Jews As Apes and Swine (or are they? - read the article). Part of the reason I’m linking to it is due to a brief e-mail conversation I had with someone recently on this same topic. [...]
[...] The post from which I will present an excerpt was brought to my attention by Proggiemuslima and I’m grateful for her pointing it out. It’s by Eteraz. Anti-semitism is rife in the Muslim world. It is rife in European Muslim youth. In Iran and Pakistan. Muslims have to take accountability for this. They have to excavate and upturn their tradition to rid it of the strangehold of the maulvis who do not have the intellectual facility, or interest, to assure that Islam conforms to its humanistic impulse. Free it from those who turn metaphors into literalism. The Jews are the most persecuted race on the face of the earth. Yet, that has not stopped the Jews from extending a helpful and supportive hand to all other races. … In my opinion, no people have had more moral clarity than the Jews. While Muslims are free to disagree with Jews upon matters of politics and policy, they must not compromise their integrity, nor compromise the humanity of the Jews. As I have demonstrated, a little use of one’s mind, will show one a clear path out of the stultification of the intellectual night. The fact that the interpretation of the verses I have set forth is not popular is not an indictment of the Quran; it is an indictment of all Muslims everywhere who have perpetuated dangerous literalism. There are men and women in the tradition who have read these verses as I have. The jurists Mujahid, Asad and Ghamidi being some of them. But it is insufficient for a handful of scholars to believe such things. Our aunts and uncles, neighbors and maulvis, must be taught better. [...]
i don’t see this verse or any other in the Quran as condemning all Jews, rather it condemns those who strayed from God’s message. Other verses condem a particular community of Jews who broke a treaty of alliance with the new Muslims. The Old testament has many such condemnatory statements against Jewish communities at particular times (like when the golden calf was constructed, etc.).
Some Muslims may use these verses to put down Jews, especially considering the contemporary problems, but these verses are not meant for “The Jews” of all time.
http://www.jews-for-allah.org/Why-Believe-in-Allah/jewish_bible_or_quran_anti-semitic.htm
Ali, I read this years ago, and as I am a Muslim convert who is of a Jewish ethnic background, I also found it helpful.
peace
Thanks for your post. The Muslims I know personally do not resemble the fanatics I see in the media, but I am often troubled by the apparent scarcity of progressive voices in the blogosphere, the papers, etc.
I hope that I don’t resemble _my_ fanatics in turn!
Ali, Before you pronounce your final verdict, should you not look at the whole episode from all possible angles. For instance Michael mills mentions that such a ’story’ already existed among the jews themselves and what Quran mentions was the group(and not all) who circumvented the divine order and they could have been actually converted into apes as a punishment. Yes, it is absurd to infer that preseent day jews are the progeny of the said ‘apes’. At the same time, the possibility of a particular group being punished for their transgression can not be totally discounted.
I would like to listen to your views on the ‘ababeel’ which seem to be contrary to your ‘childhood stories’
I think that to say that any group either ‘acts like apes’ or ‘becomes apes’ because they do not adhere to imaginery commandments given from en high is highly offensive to me.
There is no excuse for Mohammed’s words. None. Zero. I see how you are making excuses, but I read the Koran and was gagging throughout at his moral pronouncements he made against others without even knowing Judaic or Christian law.
How does he know what a good Jew is to do or a good Christian to do? And yet he says they are horrible for not being good Jews or good Christians.
I would never proclaim a Muslim who does not keep Halal or who does not pray five times a day a bad Muslim. It is not for me to say. What gave Mohammed or anyone the right to make a pronouncement on the laws of another group, when he was a self professed illiterate who had only a base understanding of Judaism and Christianity?
This is intolerance personified. It is not excusable. And it is rife throughout the Koran. You know this to be true. On page three of the Koran, he spoke of the Infidels. It is one of the most intolerant documents I have read. And where is the tolerance for other faiths? Through the ‘dhimmi’ laws? That is hardly tolerance. Maybe seventh century tolerance, but hardly 21st century tolerance.
That does not mean that Islam cannot be reformed, but it will require excising or ignoring whole sections of the Koran. This is just a fact. This is a very difficult task for any reformer to make.
Now, I know you are a tolerant person who clearly does not view Jews as apes or pigs. So how can you justify these words?
Heya Red,
Muslims must believe the Torah and the bible have been played with for without this claim Islam is a farce. As Jews practice their religion and pretend to speak in the name of God (and lying) they are an enemy of Islam.
Mo says Jews and Christians are bad because they perverted and altered their scripts; they really should be Muslims because only Islam has not been twisted by men, because Islam is supposed to the word of God and Muslims are the only people who are actually practicing God’s commandments.
The only Christian or Jew that is acceptable is one who is submissive to Islam, a humiliated Dhimmi. A second class citizen in place for the sole purpose to be degraded and mocked for their insolence in failing to accept the true revelation in Islam.
/Muslim off
Feel free to correct me Ali.
Torah and Bible do not remain in the original form and were interpolated is a historical fact as is the fact that Quran to this date remains the same. If you are a seeker of truth, you are at liberty to verify the same. Well, if you are not intersted, that’s your previlage.
Eteraz,
Not only that. if you means anything at this late date. Ilm always does right. If you read the tafsir of Ibn Kathir of these versus it tells you that Ibn Abbas explaination was that these beast didnt live for very long, didnt eat, procreate. So if you dont procreate you cant have descendants. What a shame for Muslims that they forget to reflect on these ayat. Those Jews are an example for the believers that we shouldnt neglect, forget, ignore, reject, because the punishment is still there. Instead we use it against a people already lost and not as a guidance for us. Shame Shame Shame on the believers. Yikes.
Great post. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to reading more of your blog. In order for there to be oeace, there has to be real understanding, by all cultures of each other. The differences are not nearly as great as the extremists would have us believe.
michael mills (Coment #29),
good points!!
I was discussing this verse with someone at http://www.muslimwakeup.com and he was saying that the Quran was not calling Jews Apes and swines, it was merely reminding the Jews what there religious scripture says would happen to them if they stray from the path of rightousness.
ALso comment #23 on this website http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2007/02/tuesday_6_february_2007.html
says “the story was known to the jews in Arabia of the time, and I suspect the story can also be found in Torah and more importantly the verse can never be interpreted as meaning jews/Christians in general.”
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[...] into confrontation with countless Muslims as well. While some of my admonitions were essential, and far from superficial, some of them were altogether unnecessary (and I believe, contrary to my very own [...]
The gist of Michael Mills’ post is that Muhammed (pbuh) wrote the Quraan by learning Jewish tradition. No he did not. The Quraan started to be revealed even before he had gone to Medina where the Jews were.
It is irrelevent whether the Jews who violated Sabbath were physically converted to animals or not. What is relevent is that those Jews who did not violate Sabbath were not punished. Therefore, the punishment is not about being Jews, it is about violating God’s laws.
Though the Darwinians would love those who say people desceded from apes, (perhaps Humanoids were the Sabbath transgressors), it is stupid and small minded to say that any human being is the descedant of animals.
It is obvious that ekeni is trying to bluff when he says that MUhammed (pbuh) called Jews names on the day of Khaiber. If he had done so, would not that have been quoted extensively by Arabs in the books of Hadeeth?
Muhammed actually married Safia the daughter of Huiyyi, one of the leaders of the Jews of Khaiber. He even defended her against any anti-Semitic attacks made by people against Safia at that time. Why would he do so if he thought she desceded from monkeys or pigs?
I was going to cite Ibn Kathir, but I realized that other posters already got to it first.
As a law student, I am glad that lawyers are being commissioned to review Islam and its role today (reform is not a word I’m particularly fond of). But any such academic study would require a thorough background in Islamic theology.
This is not to say that even esteemed institutions such as al-Azhar have undertaken such rigorous academic scrutiny, as evidenced by your post.
The general consensus throughout Islamic history has been that these were people of the distant past, who have nothing to do with modern Jewry. Such inflammatory and blatantly racist statements are more motivated by political situations in the region than any solid theological foundations, and definitely have no place in statements by religious leaders. But then even the most basic of Islamic scholars easily picks this off as rhetoric, and I’m surprised you got diverted even this far.
So although I generally commend the intent, I would suggest building a team of qualified academics for any review you undertake in the future to avoid future misunderstandings.
Oh, and as for other comments, such as those by Eretz, they are just as distorted as those coming from Al-Azhar.
Review of the original text of the hadith in question clearly distinguish the groups in question from any contemporary community.
“…Sudais (who strangely weeps through his entire prayers)….”
First, he doesn’t weep through all of his prayers. Second, many people including non-Muslim scholars, have been known to do this due to the nature of certain parts of the Qur’anic use of words.
You should have been paid well!! And you seem to be able to sell your wares to a large number of, misguided ones. But the bargain, I am afraid is very unwise, for somebody to loose the hereafter completely, for the sake of a few ‘cents’, is astonishing.
But coming to think of it… after all you might be a dupe, having a ‘Muslim name’, a pattern emerges.
By the way none of your ‘blogs’ are intelligent or worthy of a ‘referance’. Grow up fast. The world is more intelligent these days. Even your customers might see through the folly in buying your wares sooner than later.
[...] Lord, destroy the sons of pigs and apes. They’re nothing but Weapons of Mass [...]
One day, Eteraz, maybe you will face that this book contains contents that are incompatible with your moral values, which come from your Humanity. *Some* of its contents are simply abominable. And your heart knows this. You may contort your reason into a pretzel your whole life to evade it. As if your selective interpretation of one (1) little manifestation of the bigotry of Islam changes anything.
Where I come from, facing something like this, however initially traumatic it was, is called being a man.
And you can and should do better.
One day.
One day!
One day maybe we will dance again
Under fiery skies
One day maybe you will love again
Love that never dies
One day maybe you will see the land
Touch skin with sand
You’ve been swimming in the lonely sea
With no company
Oh, don’t you want to find?
Can’t you hear this beauty in life?
The roads, the highs, breaking up your mind
Can’t you hear this beauty in life?
One day maybe you will cry again
Just like a child
You’ve gotta tie yourself to the mast my friend
And the storm will end
Oh, don’t you want to find?
Can’t you hear this beauty in life?
The times, the highs, breaking up your mind
Can’t you hear this beauty in life?
Oh, you’re too afraid to touch
Too afraid you’ll like it too much
The roads, the times, breaking up your mind
Can’t you hear this beauty in life?
One day maybe I will dance again
One day maybe I will love again
One day maybe we will dance again
You know you’ve gotta
Tie yourself to the mast my friends
And the storm will end
One day maybe you will love again
You’ve gotta tie yourself to the mast my friend
And the storm will end
The Verve
eteraz,
If you want to justice to your columns about interpretation of religious scripture, you should learn the original language the scripture.
While you are learning Arabic you can invite guest columnists to write about interpreting Quran and Hadith.
It would would also help to learn Hebrew to know what the Jewish scripture says about other religions.
Does any one have any information about what I have written in my previous comment about how the Qaran mentions Jews turning to Apes and Swine because this is what Jewish scripture mentions is what happens to Jews who sway from the righteous path?
Doesn’t this whole Jew abuse make your God look helpless? Either you believe that he is a God and above petty abuse or he is like any human that’s been crossed. Either he is all forgiving and patient and again above petty abuse or he’s like any other human, impatient and abusive.
And most of all, doesn’t it seem insulting to God, as you define him, when you say that he waited till 1400 years back to send us all a ‘perfect tamperproof guide’? He didn’t have the foresight at the beginning of time?
Their god has hated the Jews since the beginning and he will hate them until the end.
According to the religion of their god:
Bukhari:V4B52N176 “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘You Muslims will fight the Jews till some of them hide behind stones. The stones will betray them saying, “O Abdullah (slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.”‘”
Bukhari:V4B52N177 “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”‘”
I wouldn’t get a hard-on over the apocalypse hadith and there’s more than a few questionable hadith in Bukhari, such as the one that says that the side of Satan’s head will come out of Arabia. Bukhari :: Book 2 :: Volume 17 :: Hadith 147
doctortwo said, on July 23rd, 2006 at 9:45 pm
It is said that the Jewish Rabbis who lived in Christian Europe knew that Christianity was not an idolatrous religion, to be condemned–but Islam was.
It is said that the Jewish Rabbis who lived in Muslim lands such as Egypt knew that Islam was not an idolatrous religion to be condemned–but Christianity was.
Your analysis is excellent, and based on the doubt that arose because you lived among Jews and studied Jewish authors. So many Americans, Europeans, and people in Muslim countries regrettably do not have your gifts and opportunities–yet keep writing, and they may also come to doubt.
————————-
this is nonsense … and a vicious one …
the standard view held by the mainstream rabbis is that christianity is indeed an idolatrous religion … this is because judaism is very strict about monotheism … this view was widespread in jewish european communities too and may have even contributed to the animosity between jews and christians …
islam is generally held to be truly monotheistic … the muslims pray to one god .. they dont pray to muhammad or jesus … they dont worship images … everything is ok with them as far as judaism is concerned …
as to muslim belief in muhammad as a prophet, judaism does not care for what people say or believe …muslims can believe that the world has a shape of suitcase .. it does not bother judaism …
i remember it right it was rambam who stated that jews are permitted to pray at mosques …. i am not sure how big a role geography plays here … rambam has spent his life among muslims .. that’s true .. yet it’s also true that his family had to leave cordoba and flee al andalus because of the almahodean persecution …
Your explanation is good to say the least. I am happy to tell you that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community agrees with your views to a large extent.
I am Startled. I mean WoW. I am inspired by this, believe me you have opened my eyes. I just wish that every single muslim as well as others reads it and learns from it. Thank you very much. Short but in depth analysis. I wish all those Maulvis, you and I have been to teach themselves and thier students to do this sort of a thing to remove doubts. Thanks a lot. May Allah bless you.
I think you people are really missing the entire point of what the qu’ran actually says.
It is a story in the Qu’ran. It is not there as an Insult. If you read every verse, relating to the matter you’d see that it is speaking of an Incident that occured, during the time of Moses - when God had ordered the Children of Israel, to honour the sabbath and not to fish on that day.
There was a group amongst them, that deliberately violated the sabbath by deciding to go and fish, this group were, turned into Apes & swine as a punishment for this act of disobedience.
If you read the tafsir of Ibn Kathir, you will read that it is written that those that were transformed this way, died a few days later. There is no basis for the claim that pigs of today are those that were transformed back then.
Verses relating to what i write:
002.065
And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”
Ask them concerning the town standing close by the sea. Behold! they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath. For on the day of their Sabbath their fish did come to them, openly holding up their heads, but on the day they had no Sabbath, they came not: thus did We make a trial of them, for they were given to transgression.
7.163
7.164
When some of them said: “Why do ye preach to a people whom Allah will destroy or visit with a terrible punishment?”- said the preachers:” To discharge our duty to your Lord, and perchance they may fear Him.”
7.165
When they disregarded the warnings that had been given them, We rescued those who forbade Evil; but We visited the wrong-doers with a grievous punishment because they were given to transgression.
7.166
When in their insolence they transgressed (all) prohibitions, We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”
002.066
So We made it an example to their own time and to their posterity, and a lesson to those who fear Allah.
So do understand, that this is not meant to Insult Jews &Christians. It is merely relating a story as a reminder to those that understand. This story has been twisted & misrepresented by those that seek to malign the Islamic faith, to prove it hates jews.
Further reading:
Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Ibn `Abbas said, “Those who violated the sanctity of the Sabbath were turned into monkeys, then they perished without offspring.” Ad-Dahhak said that Ibn `Abbas said, “Allah turned them into monkeys because of their sins. They only lived on the earth for three days, for no transformed person ever lives more than three days. They did not eat, drink or have offspring. Allah transformed their shapes into monkeys, and He does what He wills, with whom He wills and He changes the shape of whomever He wills. On the other hand, Allah created the monkeys, swines and the rest of the creation in the six days (of creation) that He mentioned in His Book.” (Tafsir of Ibn Kathir, Source)
http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=7&tid=18976