40. CHAPTER REGARDING THE PERMISSIBILITY OF NARRATING AND SPEAKING ABOUT THE STORIES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRA’EEL
Imam Ahmad narrated on the authority of Abu Sa‘eed Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) that he reported from the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) that he said, “Relate from me, but do not lie about me; and whoever lies about me, let him prepare his seat in the Fire. And relate (the stories) of the Children of Isra’eel, for there is no objection (to that).”
He (Imam Ahmad) also said, “It is reported on the authority of Abu Sa‘eed Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) that he reported from the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) that he said, “Do not write down anything that I say except the Qur’an; and if anyone has written down anything from me aside from the Qur’an, he should erase it.” And he said, “Relate (the stories) of the Children of Isra’eel, for there is no objection (to that). Relate from me and do not lie about me.” Hammam said, “I think he said, “…intentionally… then let him prepare his seat in the Fire.” This is how it was narrated by Muslim.
And Imam Ahmad narrated on the authority of Jabir Ibn ‘Abdullah that ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him) came to the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) with a book which he had obtained from one of the People of the Scripture and he read it to the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him). The Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) became angry and said, “O, Ibn Al-Khattab! Are you all going to fall into chaos? By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, I have brought it (Islam) to you clean and pure. Do not ask them about anything so that they will not tell you of something true which you might declare false, or something false which you might declare true. By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, if Moosa was alive, he would have no alternative but to follow me.” (Ahmad was alone in narrating this; and its chain of narrators conforms to the criteria for acceptance stipulated by Muslim). These ahadeeth are proof that they had altered, distorted and falsely interpreted the Divine Scriptures that were in their hands, and they omitted parts of it, especially those that were translated into Arabic – for they did not have comprehensive knowledge of them when they were in their own language, so how could they explain them in another language? Due to this, huge errors and baseless beliefs occurred in their translations, in addition to the fact that they had bad intentions and silly notions. This is apparent to anyone who reads the Scriptures that are in their hands and studies the bad interpretations, wicked substitutions and alterations therein. From Allah we seek help, and He is the Best Protector and the Best Helper.
And according to what they have said, the Tawrah, of which they reveal some and conceal much, contains distortions, substitutions, alterations and bad interpretations, which are clear to anyone who reads them and studies what they (the Jews) said, what they revealed and what they concealed and (one may see) how they permit explanations based on unsound foundations and constructions, which are false in meaning and wording. Ka‘b Al-Ahbar was one of the best of those who transmitted from them; he embraced Islam during the Caliphate of ‘Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) and he used to transmit things from the People of the Scripture. ‘Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) used to approve of some of what he transmitted, because it was in agreement with the truth and also, he wished to strengthen his faith. But many people enlarged on the information that he had and he, himself, overdid it in transmitting these things, many of which are not worth the ink with which they are written, while others are, without doubt, baseless. Others are correct, because they correspond with the truth which is in our hands. Al-Bukhari narrated on the authority of Humaid Ibn ‘Abdur-Rahman, who said that he heard Mu‘awiyah speaking to a group of Quraish in Al-Madinah and he mentioned Ka‘b Al-Ahbar. He said, “Though he is one of the most truthful of those who relate from the People of the Scripture, we found that some of what he said was lies (i.e. he transmitted these lies unintentionally).”
By Ibn Katheer
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