Perseverance — Page xvii
xvi – the story of al-haj Rashid ahmad american went to the shameless extent of circumambulating the Ka‘bah naked. When circumambulating the Ka‘bah, the Quraysh would traditionally recite: By al-L ā t and al-‘Uzza, And Man ā t, the third idol besides. Verily they are the most exalted females [lit. Numidian cranes ] Whose intercession is to be sought. 2 Although the Meccan idolaters proudly assigned the three above goddesses as “the daughters of Allah,” they held a double standard of shame when they fathered daughters of their own. The humiliation drove some Arabs to female infanticide. The Holy Qur’ ā n boldly exposed their hypocrisy and condemned their evil: “And they ascribe daughters to Allah – Holy is He – while they themselves have what they desire. And when to one of them is conveyed the tidings of the birth of a female , his face darkens with inward suppressed grief; he hides himself from the people because of the bad news he has had. Shall he keep it in spite of disgrace or shall he bury it in the dust? Verily, evil is that which they judge” (16:58 to 60). 2 “Kit ā b-ul-A s n a m” [“Book of Idols”] written by Hishām ibn al-Kalb i (d. circa 204AH / 819CE). This also indicates that the so-called “Satanic verses” pre-existed Islam, supporting the theory forwarded by Hadrat Chaudhry Muhammad Zafrulla Kh a n ra , that someone (i. e. , a “satan”) was shouting these lines over the Holy Prophet sa to annoy the Muslims – a practice corroborated by the Holy Qur’an [41:27]. Kh a n ra in his book “Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets” credits this theory to Allāmah Qastalān i and Allāmah Zarqān i. [Writer]