Monks to Muslims: A Topos in Early Islamic Literature

Transcription

1 Monks to Muslims: A Topos in Early Islamic Literature David Cook Certainly you will find that the closest of them in affection To the believers are those who say, We are Christians. That is because (there are) priests and monks among them, And because they are not arrogant. (Q 5:82) 1 1. Muqatil (d. 150/767), It was revealed concerning 40 men, from the believers of the Gospel, among them 32 who came from the land of Ethiopia with Ja`far b. Abi Talib, and 8 who came from Syria, among them Bahira the monk, Abraha, al-ashraf, Daris, Tammam, Qusaym, Durayd, and Ayman and the priests who shave the middle of their heads. It was when they heard the recitation (al-qur an) from the Prophet, they said: How much this is like what we speak of on the authority of Jesus! So they wept, and believed in Allah Al-Tabari (d. 310/923), The Najashi sent 12 men from Ethiopia to the Messenger of God, 7 priests and 5 monks, to consider and question him. When they met him, he recited to them what God had revealed, they wept and believed Al-Tabarani (d. 360/971), The Messenger of God that he said: There was a man called Jurayj (George) who was a monk, whose mother came to him, and called to him, O George, turn your face to me, so I might gaze upon it. But his prayer stopped him, saying: [Between] my mother and my prayer, I prefer my prayer over my mother. So she departed, then came a second time, and called out: O George, turn your face to me, so I might gaze upon it. But [prayer] stopped him, to pray, and he said the same to her, so she said: Since 1 A.J. Droge (trans), The Qur an: A New Annotated Translation (Sheffield: Equinox, 2013). 2 Muqatil b. Sulayman, Tafsir Muqatil b. Sulayman. Ed. Mahmud Shihata, Cairo: al-ha iya al-misriyya, 1983 (reprint: Beirut: Dar Ihya al-turath al-`arabi, 2003) (5 vols), i, pp Al-Tabari, Jami` al-bayan `an ta wil ayy al-qur an. Ed. Mahmud Shakir al-harastani, Beirut: Dar Ihya al-turath al- `Arabi, 2010 (16 vols), vii, p. 6..

2 you have refused to turn your face to me, God will not allow you to die until you gaze upon the faces of the city s prostitutes. So he knew that this [curse] afflicted him. A girl who used to herd sheep for her family close by his monastic cell became pregnant, so when she gave birth, people said: Who was it? She said: George the monk came down to me, and impregnated me. He was sent for, and came down, brought and sent to their king. When he passed they opened the gate of the prostitutes so they could come out and laugh at him, but he smiled. They said: Why are you laughing [=smiling] when you passed by the prostitutes? When he was brought before their king, George said: Where is the boy who was born? and so he was brought. George said: Who is your father? He said: My father is so-and-so, and named him, so God forgave George Al-Dani (d. 444/1052-3), When you are camped beneath it [Rome], then one of the monks, a learned man from among them, a possessor of books, will come out to you and enter your camp, asking: Who is your imam? It will be said: That one, and so he [the monk] will sit down with him ask him about the description of the Most Powerful (al-jabbar), the description of the angels, the descriptions of heaven and hell, and of Adam and the prophets until he reaches Moses and Jesus. Then he will say: I bear witness to you that your faith is the faith of God, and the faith of His prophets, and [that] no other faith is satisfactory. He will [then] ask: Do the people of heaven and hell eat and drink? He [the imam] will say: Yes, so the monk will fall bowing to the ground for a time, and then say: My faith is none other [than Islam], and this is the faith of Moses God revealed it to Moses, and Jesus, and that the description of your Prophet is, among us, the Paraclete in the Gospels, 5 the possessor of the red camel, and you [will be] masters of this city. Allow me to enter in to them [Rome], and invite them [to Islam], since [God s] punishment looms over them. So he will go in to the middle of the city, and shout: O people or Rome! The descendants of Ishmael son of Abraham have come to you those whom you find [their descriptions] in the Torah and the Gospels. Their prophet is the possessor of the red camel, so give in to them and obey them! Then they will fall upon him and slay him, and God will send down fire upon them from the heavens, as if it were a pillar, to the middle of the city, and the imam of the Muslims will say: O people, the monk has been martyred. Hudhayfa [b. al-yaman] said: The Messenger of God said: This monk will be raised as his own community (umma) alone. 6 4 Al-Tabarani, al-ahadith al-tiwal. Ed. Hamdi `Abd al-majid al-silfi, Beirut: al-maktab al-islami, 1998, pp John 15:23-16:1; see also Ibn Hisham, al-sira al-nabawiyya. Ed. Muhammad Muhyi al-din `Abd al-hamid, Beirut: Dar al-fikr, n.d. (4 vols), i, pp.. 6 Al-Dani, al-sunan al-warida fi al-fitan wa-ghawa iliha wa-l-sa`a wa-ashratiha. Ed. Riza allah b. Muhammad Idris al-mubarakfuri, Riyad: Dar al-`asima, 1995 (3 vols), iii, pp , reading in several places with al-sulami.

3 5. Abu al-faraj al-isfahani (d. 356/967): In Hajar there was a monk who became a Muslim and it was said to him: What attracted you to islam? He said: Three things that I feared God would metamorphose me afterwards [on the Day of Resurrection?] if I did not do them... a prayer I heard in their army camp in the air at dawn. They said: What was it? He said: Allahumma, You are the Merciful, the Compassionate, there is no god but You. You are the Inventor, before You there was nothing, You are the Continuous one without being heedless, the Living one who does not die, the Creator of what is seen and not seen. Every day You perform an action, and You know all things, allahumma, without being informed. So I knew that no one asks for the help of the angels without believing in the amr of God Abu Bakr Muhammad al-anbari: I departed from al-anbar on one of my trips to Amorium in the land of the Byzantines, and I knighted along the way at a monastery called Dayr al-anwar, close to Amorium. The head of the monastery, the leader of the monks in it, came out to me, whose name was `Abd al-masih. He caused me to enter the monastery, and I found in it 40 monks. They honored me that evening with good hospitality, but then I left them in the morning. I had seen in their spiritual exertions and worship that which I had never seen from anybody previously. I finished off my errand in Amorium and returned to al-anbar. When it was the following year, I performed the hajj, and while I was circumambulating at the Noble House, suddenly I saw `Abd al-masih the monk circumambulating also, and with him 5 of his fellow monks. When I had ascertained that it was him, I approached and said: Are you `Abd al-masih the monk? He said No, I am `Abdallah, the one who desires the clemency of God. So I began to kiss his gray hair and weep, and took his hand, turning to one side of the Sanctuary, saying: By the truth of the One who guided you, will you not tell me of the circumstances of your conversion to Islam? He said: It was an amazing experience. There was a group of Muslim ascetics and devotees, who passed by the village in which [I was], so they sent one of their youths to buy food for them, who saw a Christian girl in the market selling bread, who was the most beautiful and perfectly-formed of women. When he gazed upon her, he was tempted by her, fell down, and fainted. When he came to, he returned to his fellows, and told them of what had occurred, and said to them: Go on your way, I will not be going with you, so they reproved him and exhorted him, but he did not turn towards them, so they departed and left him. He entered the village, and sat at the entrance of that woman s shop (hanut), so she asked him about his need, 7 Abu al-faraj al-isfahani, Kitab al-aghani. Ed. `Abd al-`ali Mahanna, Beirut: Dar al-fikr, 1986 (25 vols); Beirut: Dar li-ihya al-turath al-`arabi, 1994 (24 vols) (2 copies), xv, p. 253.

4 and he told her that he was infatuated with her, but she turned away from him. So he stayed in his place 3 days, without eating food, while his eyes were fixed on her. When she saw that he had not departed from her, she went to her family and neighbors, and told them, so they set young boys on him to stone him. They stoned him until his head was crushed, his face was bruised, and his limbs were bleeding, but in spite of all that, he did not depart, so the people of the village decided to kill him. A man from among them came to me, and told me of his situation, so I went out to him, and saw him cast-aside, so I wiped the blood from his face, and carried him to the monastery, and healed his wounds. He stayed with me for 14 days, then when he was able to walk, he left the monastery, and went to the front of the woman s shop, and sat, gazing at her. When she saw him, she rose and said to him: By God, I have mercy on you, will you enter my religion so that I can marry you? He said: God forbid that I would strip off the religion of monotheism, and enter the religion of polytheism! So she said: Rise and come into my house, and fulfill your desire, then go well-guided. He said: I am not the sort to let go of12 years worship for the lust of one moment! She said: Then get out! He said: My heart will allow me to do that, so she turned away from him, whereupon the young boys perceived him, and approached him to stone him. So he fell upon his face, and said: The One who takes care of me is Allah, who caused the Book to be revealed, and He will take care of the righteous! So I came down from the monastery, and approached him, chasing away the young boys. I lifted his face from the ground, while I heard him say: O God Almighty! Join me and her in Paradise! so I took him toward the monastery, where he died before I could get him there. I took him away from the village, and dug a grave for him, and buried him. When the night came, when half of it was over, that woman screamed in her bed a mighty scream, so that all of the people of the village gathered to her, asking her about the story. She said: While I was sleeping, this Muslim man came into me, and took my hand, leading me to paradise. When he had brought me to its gate, the gate-keeper forbade me from entering, and he said that it is forbidden from the infidels. So I converted to Islam at his hand, and entered paradise together with him, so I saw palaces and trees in it which I cannot rightly describe to you. Then he took me to a palace of jewels, and said: This is my and your palace, but I will not enter it without you. In 5 more nights you will be with me in it, if God wills. Then he reached out his hand to a tree at the gate of the palace, and plucked two apples, and said: Eat this one, but save the other for when the monks see you. So I ate an apple never have I seen a better one, whereupon he took my hand, and caused me to leave until I came to my house. Then she took out the other apple from her

5 inner garment, so that it shone in the dark night like it was a twinkling star. They brought the woman to us in the monastery, together with the apple, but we had never seen anything like it from the fruits of paradise. I took a knife and divided it for a number of my fellows, but we had never had more pleasure than tasting it, nor a more pleasant smell. We said: Perhaps Satan appeared disguised for her to deceive her from her religion, but then her family took her and departed. Then she would not eat or drink, and when it was the 5 th night, she rose from her bed, and left her house to go to his grave. She threw herself on it and died, but no one from her family knew that. When it was morning, two Muslim shaykhs arrived at the village, wearing clothes of hair, with two women the same,, and they said: God has a female wali in your presence, who died as a Muslim, and we would like to take care of her without you. The people of the village sought that woman, and found her on the grave, dead. They said: This is the one, she died according to our religion, so we will take care of her. The disagreement heated up between them, so that one of the two shaykhs said: The sign of her conversion to Islam is that the 40 monks of the monastery will together try to pull her from the grave. If they succeed, then she is Christian, then one of us will approach and try to pull her from it. If she is pulled with him, then she is Muslim, so the people of the village were satisfied with that. The 40 monks of the monastery gathered together, and we all approached her to carry her, but we could not carry her. We tied a rough rope around her waist, and all of the 40 monks pulled on it together, but the rope snapped, and she did not move. The people of the village tried also, but she did not move from her place, and we were unable to carry her with everything we thought of. We said to the two shaykhs: Come and carry her. So they came and pulled her with her clothes, and said: In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, upon the community of the Messenger of God then he carried her clasped to him, and went to a cave there, and put her in it. The two women came and washed her [body] and wrapped it, then the two shaykhs approached her, and buried her in the grave of that ascetic. We departed having borne witness to all of this. When we were apart, we said among ourselves: Truth is more worthy that we should follow, and the truth has become clear to us by personal eye-to-eye witness. There is no proof more clear concerning the correctness of the Islamic religion than what we have seen so then I converted to Islam, and the 40 monks of the monastery converted to Islam, as well as all of the people of that village. Then we sent to the land of al-jazira asking for a knowledgeable jurisprudent to teach us the laws of Islam, and the rules of the religion.

6 So a man, a righteous jurisprudent, came to us, to teach us the essence of piety and the rules of Islam, so today we are doing well. 8 8 Al-Isfahani, al-diyarat. Ed. Jalil al-`atiyya, London: Riyad al-ra is, 1991, pp