Some foolish people claimed that the Arabs did not know "al-Raḥmān" and that it was not in their language, (1) which is why the polytheists said to the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him: {And what is al-Raḥmān? Should we prostrate to whatever you order us?} [Sūrat al-Furqān: 60], out of rejection of this name—as if it were impossible in his view for the polytheists to reject that which they knew to be true, or as if he had not recited from the Book of Allah the statement of Allah: {Those to whom We gave the Book know him}—meaning Muḥammad—{as they know their own sons} [Sūrat al-Baqara: 146] while they nonetheless rejected him and denied his prophethood! Thus he would know that they used to resist the truth of what had been established as true to them and firmly known by them. Indeed, poetry has been recited for some ignorant pre-Islamic poet:
Would that this girl had struck her half-breed horse! ... May al-Raḥmān, my Lord, sever her right hand! (2)
And Salāma ibn Jandal al-Saʿdī said: (3)
You rushed against us, as we rushed against you ... and whatever al-Raḥmān wills, He binds and releases. (4)
Notes
- (1) The people of stupidity in our era still write it, and boastfully mention it in their lectures and books, quoting from those who track down discarded statements, and they are the non-Arabs who author works on what they do not master under the name of Orientalism. Al-Ṭabarī's refutation is silencing for anyone who has a deterrent from ignorance and error that prevents him from stubborn arrogance.
- (2) I did not find the author of the verse. Ibn Sīdah cited it as evidence in al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ (17/152), and Muḥammad Maḥmūd al-Tarkazī al-Shinqīṭī commented on the verse, claiming that the verse is fabricated, and that "some men who love to invent non-existent poetic evidences for their baseless claims fabricated and concocted it, and that the forgery and fabrication are as apparent in it as the mid-morning sun, and its poor quality loudly proclaims the authenticity of its forgery and fabrication, and the correct view, which is the unanimously agreed-upon truth, is that the pre-Islamic poet referred to is al-Shanfarā al-Azdī, and this verse is not in his poetry," and that it is concocted from the statement of al-Shanfarā: Would that I knew, and lamentation is an error ... with what the hand of the young woman struck her baseborn one
And al-Shinqīṭī, may Allah have mercy on him, was often overbearing, quick to boast of his knowledge and narration. What he said regarding the claim of fabrication does not hold up. The verse that follows it is sufficient evidence for the invalidity of his claim that the motive for its fabrication was: inventing non-existent poetic evidences for baseless claims. There is neither poor quality nor fabrication in the verse.
- (3) In the manuscript and the printed edition: "al-Ṭahawī" instead of al-Saʿdī, which is an error. Salāma is not a Ṭahawī.
- (4) His Dīwān: 19, and it came in Ṭabaqāt Fuḥūl al-Shuʿarāʾ (131) regarding the lineage of the poet: "Salāma b. Jandal b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān," and this is the narration of Ibn Sallām, while others say: "Ibn ʿAbd," so if the narration of Ibn Sallām is authentic, it is another strong evidence for the invalidity of al-Shinqīṭī's claim.
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