Abdal Hakim Murad - The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology

184 Yahya Michot
kind is the most painful,’’ he recalled. ‘‘When it ceases, I retain what was
said.’’ 5 It could also be an angel speaking to him as a man whose words
he would retain. Or revelation would approach him in the form of a
young man handing it down to him. For people around the Prophet, it
was easy to become aware that something extraordinary was going on.
He could start shaking his head as if he tried to understand what was
said to him, or (until he was told not to do so by 75:16) he moved his lips
as soon as the revelation began. Even on very cold days, sweat dripped
from his forehead. Sometimes his colour grew livid or he fell into a
lethargy, swoon or trance. It was obvious that receiving revelation could
cause him great pain and suffering. When he received 4:97, his thigh
pressed so heavily upon that of the companion sitting next to him that
the latter feared it would break. On one occasion when the Qur’an came
down upon him while he was riding, the beast became unable to bear the
weight, so he had to descend from it.
The peculiarities of the qur’anic revelation process just depicted
triggered important theological and social developments.
A first question could have been phrased, ‘‘Who is speaking?’’ As
recorded by the Qur’an, the Prophet’s fellow Meccans accused him of
being majnun, a madman possessed by a jinn (15:6; 26:2; 37:36, etc.).
God Himself confirmed that this was not the case: ‘‘So, remind [people]:
by the grace of your Lord, you are neither an oracle nor possessed by
a jinn!’’ (52:29; also68:2; 81:22). And for the few scholars accepting the
historicity of the incident of the ‘‘satanic verses’’, as soon as the Devil
started interfering with the transmission of the revelation, the Prophet
was warned by God and thus protected (ma‘s _
um) frompersistencein
sinning. 6 For some theologians, al-H _
allaj, the controversial mystic executed
in Baghdad in 922 for saying, ‘‘I am God’’, had experienced satanic
states and was indeed possessed by a jinn. To claim – as people
favourable to him do – that it was God who was speaking for him when
he uttered his famous saying would be pure unbelief: God does not speak
for a man as jinns speak by possessing epileptics and using their tongues.
Similarly, when Pharaoh, as narrated in the Qur’an (79:24), said, ‘‘I am
your highest lord!’’, God was not speaking through his mouth. This
being so, could it ever be said that God is speaking through Muh _
ammad?
If what is meant thereby is that God inhabits His Prophet, absolutely
not! God does not dwell within humanity and does not speak for a man,
through his tongue. If, on the other hand, what is meant is that God
sends with His words messengers who say for Him what He orders them
to communicate, then this is the proper understanding of revelation
in Islam. God speaks through His messenger, through his mouth and
Cambridge Collections Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008