Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 97
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 97 Qur’anic and historical data out of context to portray a less-than- perfect image of the character of the Holy Prophet(sa) in another of his books Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity : ‘Muhammad was held to be perfect in every way, and never to have been a pagan, despite the fact that the Qur’an (93. 7) speaks of him as ‘erring’ (dall), and other sources report that he had sacrificed to the local deities. This idealisation of Muhammad leads modern Muslims to reject the story of the ‘satanic verses’ although it is ac- cepted by the eminent historian and exegete at-Tabari and has some support from a verse in the Qur’an (22. 52). The story is that on one occasion, while Muhammad was hoping that he might receive a revelation which would bring over to his side the leaders of Quraysh hostile to him, Satan inserted verses into the revelation permitting intercession to three local goddesses. Muhammad thought these verses were part of the genuine revelation, proclaimed them pub- licly, and was joined by the Meccan leaders in an act of Islamic wor- ship. Later he realised that he had been mistaken about these verses and proclaimed a revised form, not allowing intercession, and thus caused the Meccans to turn away from him. ’ (pp. 17/18). Watt repeats this theme in greater detail in another of his books Muslim-Christian Encounters : ‘On one occasion, as Muhammad was sitting with pagan merchants and hoping he might have a revelation which would win them over, he began to receive a revelation with the words: Have you considered al-Lat and al-’Uzza, and Manat, the third, the other? ( 53:19f) Next came two (or in some versions three) verses allowing a worshiper to ask these pagan goddesses to intercede on his behalf with Allah, the high god. . . Later, however, he realised that the second group of verses had been intruded by Satan and were not genuine. ’ (p. 114).