THE BRITISH ISLAMIC CENTER DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE DIVINITY
THE MEETING OF COMPARATIVE DIVINITY THE ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL MEETING (20)
May, 21, 2002

The Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies
THE INTERPOSITIONS ON THE STUDY AND THE COMMENTS OF SAYYID AL-BADRI

Dr. Hazim al-Hilli

In the Name of God, the All-beneficent, the All-Merciful

As a matter of fact, the efforts of Sayyid Sami al-Badri have reminded me of the great efforts exerted by his eminence Shaykh Muhammad Jawad al-Balaghi. Before he wrote his famous books entitled ‘Al-Huda Ila Din al-Mustafa’ ‘al-Rihlah al-Madrasiyyah’ and ‘Tafsir Alaa al-Rahman’, Shaykh al-Balaghi had lived in a Jewish quarter in Baghdad and learnt Hebrew; therefore, he could debate with them through their language and texts. Similarly, the efforts of Sayyid al-Badri in learning the Hebrew and decoding its symbols must be appreciated. Everybody must follow this method.

I suggest that Shaykh al-Araki’s methodology, which is actually important, must be added to this lecture.

(1) In his lecture, Sayyid al-Badri has pointed out that one of the objectives of studying the Judaic and Christian texts and sources is to prove the Prophethood and Imamate of the Holy Prophet and Imams.

We may, in fact, dispense with proving the Prophethood and Imamate of the Holy Prophet and Imams through the texts of the Bible, for we have our own indisputable ways to prove such. However, had the objective been proving the references to the Holy Prophet and Imams in the Old and New testaments where one can find a very rich material, the matter would have been more constructive. The Letter of Saint Barnabas, which has been denied by the Christians to be within the Books of the New Testament although the other Books have referred to it, comprises lots of references to the Holy Prophet’s name. So long as we believe that such Books have been distorted entirely, it will be unconvincing to argue that the names of the Holy Prophet and Imams are mentioned therein. As a result, we have to believe that some of them were exposed to distortion.

(2) In his lecture, Sayyid al-Badri has argued that we, the Muslims, have only one highly and decisively authenticated text of the Holy Quran that is far above any sort of distortion, although some points have been aroused around this question. All Muslims believe that the Holy Quran is no more than the scripts found between the two covers of each and every Quranic copy without any addition or any imperfection. Nevertheless, the existence of more than one recitation for the Holy Quran cannot be denied. Some Orientalists have exceeded the limits when they declared that Muslims have seven Qurans. Moreover, Muslims have ten, fourteen and even more recitations some of which are unacceptable. In the eastern part of the Arab homeland, the recitation of Hafs on the authority of Assim is the current while in the North of Africa, the current recitation is that of Nafi’, the reciter of al-Madinah. All the same, these recitations whose originators are known to everybody have been treated thoroughly by the experts who divulged the reasons beyond their emergence and circulation the most important of which was the difference in the Arabic accents among the Arab provinces.

(3) The lecturer has brought up the existence of texts in the Old and New Testaments dealing with Imam al-Husayn. It would have been greatly pleasant if the lecturer had mentioned and explained the indications of such texts so as to save us from the accusation of exaggeration. Yet, he referred to some books that were written under the shadow of al-Mutawakkil, the Abbasid caliph, who dug out the tomb of Imam al-Husayn.

Finally, I hope the dear attendants will avoid saying ‘we, as Muslims’ for we, none else, are the Muslims.

Comment of Sayyid al-Badri

(1) Regarding the issue of proving the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad from the Books of the Old and New Testaments, this in fact has been aroused by some Quranic Verses, such as “Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them, (Surah of Al-A’raf 7:157)” and “Lo! I am the messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was (revealed) before me in the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose name is Ahmad. (Surah of al-Saff 61:6)” About the earlier Verse, it has been reported from the Holy Imams that they (the Jews and Christians) can find the Holy Prophet, Successor (i.e. Imam Ali) and Qa’im (i.e. Imam al-Mahdi) described in their Books.(1) In this issue, Muslims gather all their efforts in order to discover any biblical texts referring to the Mission of a Prophet named Ahmad whose Prophethood will be the sealing as well as the advent of Ali, al-Mahdi and the Ahl al-Bayt (the Holy Prophet’s Household) in general. The most famous text is this regard is that mentioned in the Epistle of Saint John (1:19-20) when they asked Prophet John, “Are you Hamshiha? Are you the prophet? Are you Elias?” ‘Hamshiha’ is a Hebrew word meaning Mahdi.(2)

(2) Since the Christians do not believe in the Letters of Saint Barnabas as one of the Books of the Bible, its texts cannot be regarded as essential material in our debates with them. Yet, its texts can act as a secondary material.

(3) The texts dealing with Imam al-Husayn are numerous. The Jews and the Christians have argued that such texts refer to a divine saint who will be slain aggressively and unjustly leaving a positive trace on the religion and the believers. The Jews believe that such a divine saint has not yet appeared, but the Christians have created the belief of the killing of Jesus Christ, which is the most famous in their doctrine, on the basis of such texts. Muslims have nothing other than applying such prophecies to Imam al-Husayn since they all agree that Prophet Jesus was not killed and that the Holy Prophet, Muhammad, predicted the killing of his son, al-Husayn, in a land called Karbala. According to the Book of Isaiah, chapter 53, the aggressively slain saint will leave a son who will live very long and God will achieve His Pleasure at his hand. Jesus Christ did not leave any progeny. As to the Shiite Muslim doctrine, Imam al-Mahdi, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Askari, was born in AH 255 and is still alive, yet concealed from sight, waiting for the commission of God due to which he will be permitted to reappear after his occultation and fill the earth with justice and equality after it has been filled with inequity and injustice. About the fulfillment of this divine promise, God says in the Holy Quran: “And verily, we have written in the Scripture, after the Reminder: My righteous slaves will inherit the earth. 21:105”

(4) All the various recitations of the Holy Quran have reached us through interrupted narrations while the Quranic texts have been reported uninterruptedly. Besides, some of the various recitations of the Holy Quran are no more than Arabic accents that were used in reciting the Holy Quran after the age of the Holy Prophet while the other recitations were explanations of the Verses that Muslims have reported from the Holy Prophet in a stage during which recitation stood for reading and interpretation.

I express my thanks to Mr. al-Hilli for these interpositions and points.

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(1) Refer to Shaykh al-Huwayzi: Tafsir (Exegesis of the Holy Quran) Nour al-Thaqalayn, vol. 2, pp. 83-99 where he quotes the narration from Usul al-Kafi as having been reported from Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq.

(2) See Qujman Arabic-Hebrew Dictionary.