# Which scholars accepted the satanic verses story and which rejected it?

*Al-Albani's refutation, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Ibn Khuzayma and the zindiqs*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/18/
- Date: 2022-08-19 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Salman Rushdie & The Satanic Verses | Mufti Abu Layth (1:34:20–1:42:10)
- Status: latest answer on its topic; general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0pHQRNJjBY&t=5660s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/

**Topics:** Reports that disrespect the Prophet; False and fabricated hadith; Salafism and Wahhabism

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says al-Albani and Ibn Khuzayma rejected the story as a fabrication, while Ibn Taymiyya, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Hajar leaned towards giving it some basis.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the satanic verses story was fabricated by people unhappy with Islam, as Ibn Khuzayma said, and that Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab were wrong to incline towards accepting it.

**Evidence, his words at 1:40:57:** “who clearly said look this was people who weren't happy with islam just kind of built on that story that was about all the people prostrating” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0pHQRNJjBY&t=6057s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth shows pages from a book by al-Albani dedicated to refuting the story, Nasb al-Majaniq [?], which he says draws heavily on Qadi Iyad and Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi and also cites dissenting voices; the passages argue that the Quran's condemnation of stone idols makes the praise impossible, that even a sahih hadith clashing with the Quran would be weakened by it, and that the story contradicts the Prophet's whole struggle against Quraysh's requests to compromise. He then shows Ibn Taymiyya in his fatawa and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in a book of his, who he says incline to accepting the story, either that Satan put the words on the Prophet's tongue or that the Prophet was silent and Satan impersonated his voice, with Ibn Hajar inclining to the second. Against them he cites Ibn Khuzayma, a major hadith collector a generation or two after al-Bukhari, who said the story was fabricated by people unhappy with Islam. He explains that there were zindiqs, people who outwardly went along with Islam or brought in elements of their former Christian, Jewish or Zoroastrian cultures, and who transmitted reports innocently, through false memories or mishearing, or maliciously, noting that some people admitted to fabricating hadith for a cause.

## Sources and names cited

- al-Albani
- Nasb al-Majaniq li-Nasf Qissat al-Gharaniq [?]
- Qadi Iyad
- Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi
- Ibn Taymiyya
- Majmu' al-Fatawa (Ibn Taymiyya) [?]
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
- Ibn Khuzayma
- Imam al-Bukhari
- zindiq (pl. zanadiqa)

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:34:20–1:42:10)

[1:33:56] and he says well look why has this crept through then he says well people have mentioned it but like anything allah has given you an intellect and the tradition has reached you the quran has reached you read it don't blindly just follow and if you see this as a test then it is a test investigate it and see it

[1:34:26] so and we've got here some let me bring up some right okay this is uh from actually albani has a very interesting book uh dedicated to the ranik i think it's called uh manjani or something phil and he shows the whole fabrication but he brings many interesting he brings a lot of cardi because khadiyah is one of the most the maliki legend one of the most outspoken of wikileaks one of the most outspoken in fact uh just copies and pastes almost a lot of what even audrey had to say

[1:35:05] but albany does bring other people he brings these dissenting or these kind of weird voices and and here is um you can see this is uh citing uh now this on the right hand side um he says look at so he's mentioning look how certain verses of the quran then it doesn't make sense allah is saying this and he says look the quran is showing you that this couldn't be true like how could the prophet come from how could

[1:35:44] the prophet praise stone and at the same time be condemning stone as the these these statues are useless he says if there was something like that now you move to the second page the one on the left hand side these rewa if there was something that contradicted the quran he says hadith these verses would weaken the hadith law if they were sahih if the hadith was sahih and it clashed with the quran it would weaken the hadith see that's the the principle if the hadith was sahih and he contradicted the

[1:36:23] quran he says you can see there he says if the hadith had it been sahih it would have weakened it if it clashed with the verses so what do you think about something that isn't even sahih so and then he goes on mentions more verses of the quran and he says look uh that many of the people of quraysh and zakrif um they would say uh that look please do this for us please do that for it

[1:37:00] this this is antithetical to the entire message of islam and the whole struggle of the prophet what was the struggle then because clearly there was a struggle so it doesn't they're just showing the absurdity uh this is actually ibra tamir now this is the problem you see you've got ibn tamir here giving his discussion in his fata much more uh and i'll i'll just explain what this is this is muhammad ibn abdul wahab in his book says

[1:37:44] but he didn't mean to say it and um and allah corrected it so and and so you've got uh ibn samia saying the same thing except ibn tamir also is inclined to saying well the story is true the prophet um this was said the prophet either he said it the shaitaan put it on his tongue and he said it all the the the prophet was silent and the shaitaan impersonated the prophet's voice and people thought the prophet said it so if the tamiya is saying that

[1:38:23] that wheel that he's coming with that muhammad is just saying the shaitaan just put it on the prophet's tongue ibn hajjar is probably going to the fact that the shaitaan said it and impersonated but he's saying look there's some story it's got some truth to it because of the hadith project isn't investment look this is where it comes back and this is where once again you've got at the end the ibn huzzah one of the great who very early in islam who was just really just after the time of imam bukhari he just passes away in the 300s

[1:39:01] you know just a generation i believe he's yeah just a generation or two after the after imam bukhari so him at that stage saying that when he's a major hadith uh collector he has his sahih which is called saying he says look it's clearly people who look they were look there were issues as well it is true it's not always but they have look there's always been some people who will let's say go with the flow it's that

[1:39:39] in any given time are against the the the overarching uh authority so you will find many places where even in the past you'll find uh in muslim lands there will be certain people who let's say their father embraced islam they don't really like it but they just don't want to make a hoo-ha because maybe they worry in that day and age as you can imagine a bit of lawlessness here and there and people are afraid today of blasphemy so back then so you get these were people that they used to call zindiq that they weren't really muslim

[1:40:17] but they were just going with the flow and and just being muslim and some of them maybe they were muslim but brought in the other cultural stuff that was part of their baggage so let's say they were christian before so they bring a bit more christianity into islam some of them were jewish before they bring a bit more of that jewish element into islam some of them maybe don't like islam some of them were zoroastrian so they bring about a bit of that zoroastrianism into islam and they get a chance to transmit and they transmit it sometimes maybe innocently sometimes false memories sometimes they're mishearing sometimes maybe intentionally maliciously

[1:40:57] there have been several narrations where people own up to making up hadith several incidents where people say i uh to so many hadith i fabricated so many hadith because i thought it was good for such and such many people say that i mean not many but there's several people who have said that that i fabricated such and such hadith to defend such and such cause so very early on you had great hadith specialists of the caliber of imam buhari ibn khuzeiman just a generation two after him very early on in islam who clearly said look this was

[1:41:35] people who weren't happy with islam just kind of built on that story that was about all the people prostrating and people said why would you believe it because the prophet actually compromised for a few days and or the shaitaan deceived the prophet and then the prophet later on re learned oh oh my god this wasn't the jibril this was the the prophet the angel sorry this was the devil that told me this or the prophet went quiet and the devil spoke impersonated the prophet's voice and read utterly just ridiculously absurd and totally

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment T0pHQRNJjBY/s/18. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/18/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.