Early version. Transcripts and tags are labelled by accuracy tier. A position is shown only after two independent reviews have found it in his own words.
Mufti Abu Layth ArchiveBeta
Subscribe on YouTube Support on Patreon

Recordings › Salman Rushdie & The Satanic Verses | Mufti Abu Layth · 19 Aug 2022 › Segment 13 of 21

machineLatest on Reports that disrespect the Prophet

What are the satanic verses in Islamic history?

al-bukhari imam bukhari sahih al-bukhari sahih bukhari saheeh al-bukhari saheeh bukhari imam al-bukhari sajdah sajda muftis koran quraan al-quran sura soorah surat suwar soora chapter ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat tilawah tilawat tilaawah wahy wahi wahee mecca makka mekka ulema ulamaa scholars duaa duas duaas supplication

What the satanic verses were: Surah al-Najm, the three goddesses and the prostration

LessonRecorded 19 Aug 2022Segment 13 of 21 in the recording2022-08-19-S13

Play from 1:00:37 The video loads from YouTube only when you press play. Click a time in the transcript to seek.

Watch this part

Open on YouTube at 1:00:37

The player starts at 1:00:37, the beginning of this part.

This segment1:00:37 to 1:09:22 · 8 min 45 sGeneral teaching

What this part covers

machinesummary, machine-written

Mufti Abu Layth explains that the Prophet's recitation of Surah al-Najm and the prostration of everyone present are documented, but that the added story of him praising the three goddesses is false.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth sets out the incident: in Makkah, a few years into the Prophet's preaching, he recited Surah al-Najm, which opens with God's oath by the star that the Prophet has not strayed and does not speak from desire but from revelation, and reached verse 19, which names the three goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat, popular female deities of the pagans of Makkah. He says the report that everyone present, the pagans included, prostrated at the recitation is documented in Bukhari, Muslim and other books, but that these reports do not say why. He reviews explanations: that they were overwhelmed by the surah, that they momentarily saw the truth of the message, or, as some ulama said and as he finds quite plausible, that they prostrated out of respect because the names of their gods were mentioned. He says some later added narrations claiming the Prophet praised their gods with words calling them exalted beings whose intercession is hoped for, which are not a verse of the Quran and which he says are all false; these are what came to be called the satanic verses.

  • Some terms in this segment are uncertain

Position stated

correctedChecked by two independent reviews, not by the channel

Mufti Abu Layth says the prostration of everyone present when the Prophet recited Surah al-Najm is documented, possibly out of respect at the mention of their gods, but that the narrations claiming the Prophet praised the three goddesses are false.

In his words

“the people fall into sujud they go into such that this incident is documented it is in bukhari it is in muslim”

▶ 1:05:26Open on YouTube at 1:05:26

Category: historical claim

Report an error

Kind: general teaching

Transcript

machine1:00:37 to 1:09:22 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
1:00:02

grant a shift to people that carry this venom inside them a bitterness may allah heal their hearts seriously let's make dua i mean because there's many people and sometimes they maybe they felt they've been wronged for some reason but um yeah may allah heal these wounding hurt hearts because they just carry that hatred throughout their lives and they hurt so many people along the way sometimes people very close to them their own children their own spouses

1:00:42

their own friends their own family people at large society right let's move on i mean uh is there super chat uh no i answered that yeah no i answered that let's move on to the actual satanic verses and um what were they so what are the satanic verses

1:01:12

in arabic so right let's just bring this up the satanic verses so let me give you the incident and then play it back to you okay now we can go by certain statements okay in makkah

1:01:46

in relatively early islam relatively as in a few years had been the prophet is preaching the prophet sallam recites suratu now let me just bring that up for you here it is beautiful surah after quran very it just has such an effect on you it's words it's style the kind of

1:02:25

rhythm that it brings with it it's very it's undeniably formidable so the prophet is right reciting surah najim that allah takes an oath by the stars or the star as it settles that your companion your person the prophet is not misguided he hasn't missed the mark or lost his track

1:03:09

he does not speak out of some desire to get something or from his desires it is but revelation revealed unto him the prophet is reciting this aloud

1:03:36

he reaches the verses as you can see verse 19 do you not see these three goddesses allah calls out three goddesses as in specifies them amongst the many they were popular deities that the pagans of makkah were worshipping

1:04:15

there were others as well hubble and many others but these three goddesses they're all female allah now some people and you can see the other um if you google you you can find the correlates like some people say this might have been the corolla of a particular god is it ishtar or is it these or is it that whatever uh the point is these were three popular goddesses okay

1:04:54

alert um [Music] i think manat was for good fortune and was for military strength and a lot i think may have been for um bringing good luck so these were like uh titans like demigods so and goddesses so allah mentions the name as you can see in verse 19.

1:05:26

now the prophet is reciting this the people fall into sujud they go into such that this incident is documented it is in bukhari it is in muslim it's in other books as well in other books now it doesn't say what what happened it just says that they went into sujood when these things were right now people speculated why did they do that because the pagans did weren't accepting some people said that it could be

1:06:05

that they were overwhelmed by the or of the surah could have been but then they didn't do this for other cases some people say that it could have been that um [Music] they saw it that that this was that in the moment they saw the validity of the message of islam i'm not so sure really that makes that that stands its way another reason could have been some ulama have said

1:06:43

that they did this as a respect to the names of their gods that's very possible that because they saw the muslims obviously they used to prostrate as well they understood what prostrating was when allah says [Music]

1:07:11

do you see these that they prostrated because the name of their god is being mentioned and to glorify their gods it's possible that actually makes quite a bit of sense now this incident up to there is documented now some people claim that when these people were asked why did you prostrate

1:07:43

they said that the prophet glorified our gods so we prostrate now here some people added some narrations so they said that what how is it that the prophet prostrate uh glorified your god so they say that the prophet read this what you can see on the screen there is not a verse of the quran they some people say so some allegedly allegedly this is all false by the way but this is that that allegedly said that the prophet said

1:08:21

till gaurani these are lofty elevated entities titans huge tycoons huge entities

1:08:51

and indeed the intercession will be sought on the day of judgment now this is the alleged story that the prophet said this he praised the deities and said this is the satanic verses why the satanic verses this then finds its way into this finds its way into islamic transmission people start saying there's narrations about this

Paragraphs overlapping 1:00:37 to 1:09:22. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2022-08-19-S13, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/13/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7 
Mufti Abu Layth. (2022, August 19). What are the satanic verses in Islamic history? [Video, segment 2022-08-19-S13, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/13/
Chicago author-date 
Mufti Abu Layth. 2022. "What are the satanic verses in Islamic history?" Video, segment 2022-08-19-S13, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded August 19, 2022. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/13/
BibTeX 
@misc{abulayth-2022-08-19-S13,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{What are the satanic verses in Islamic history?}},
  year = {2022},
  month = {8},
  date = {2022-08-19},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/13/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/13/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2022-08-19-S13, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
Something wrong here?

Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.

Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.

No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.