Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 95
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 95 M A X I M E RODI NSON Let us first examine how Rodinson relates the above-mentioned incident. In his book Mohammed, Rodinson describes the incident as ‘reasonably true because the makers of Muslim tradition would never have invented a story with such damaging implications for the revelation as a whole. ’ (p. 106) He quotes Tabiri, the renowned fabricator of events : ‘When the Messenger of God saw his people draw away from him, it gave him great pain to see what a distance separated them from the word of Allah which he brought to them. Then he longed in his heart to receive a word from Allah which would bring him closer to his people. . . . . It was then that Allah revealed to him the ‘surah’ of the Star. . . . When he came to the verse : Have you considered Allat and al-’Uzza And Manat, the third, the other?. . . (Koran liii, 19-20) the demon put upon his tongue what he had been saying to himself and would have liked to hand on to his people : They are the Exalted Birds And their intercession is desired indeed. . . . . It was only later that the archangel revealed to Muhammad that he had been deceived by the Devil - although, he added as consolation, that was no wonder because the earlier prophets had experienced similar difficulties and for the same reasons. The additional verses were taken out and replaced by others rejecting the cult of the ‘three great aquatic birds’. . . . Obviously (Tabari’s account as good as says so in fairly clear words) Muhammad’s unconscious had suggested to him a formula which provided a practical road to unanimity. ’ (pp. 106-7). Maxime Rodinson has obviously copied almost word for word the fantastic story concocted by earlier orientalists and has also