Prophecy and Power. Houria Abdelouahed

for you’; ‘I blessed Islam as a religion for you.’

      10 10 Qur’an: 3:110.

      11 11 ‘Some of the Jews pervert words from their meanings’: Qur’an 4:46.

      12 12 Qur’an 3:67: ‘Abraham in truth was not a Jew, neither a Christian; but he was a Muslim and one pure of faith.’

      13 13 Qur’an: 3:19.

      14 14 We prefer to talk of the shar‘ to emphasize its Muslim specificity, rather than of the law, meaning the whole set of rules and precepts of Islam.

      15 15 See note 7.

      16 16 Community.

      17 17 Abū Abdallah Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi’i was born in Palestine in 767, and died in Egypt in 820. He was a lawyer and Muslim scholar and founder of the school of Shafi’ite fiqh (Muslim law).

      18 18 Original, pure. See the Qur’an 2:135; 3:67, 395; 4:125; 6:79, 161; 10:105; 16:120, 123; 30:30; 22:31; 98:5.

      19 19 We pay tribute here to Muhammad Mahmūd’s courage and his meticulous work, Nubuwat Mohammad. At-tarīkh wa as-sina’a (The Prophecy of Mohammed. History and Construction), Centre for Critical Research on Religion, London, 2013.

      20 20 The tribe to which Muhammad belonged.

      21 21 Cited in Mahmūd, Nubuwat Mohammad, p. 89.

      22 22 The sum of so-called genuine precepts of Muhammad’s.

      23 23 Cf. Mahmūd, Nubuwat Mohammad, p. 89, note 3.

      24 24 Abū ‘Uthmān ‘Amru ibn Bahr was a Mu‘tazilite writer and encyclopédiste; he was born in Bassora (Iraq) in 776 and died in 867.

      25 25 ‘Did we not expand thy breast for thee and lift from thee thy burden, the burden that weighed down thy back? Did we not exalt thy fame?’: Qur’an 94:1–4.

      26 26 Ibn Muzāḥim al-Hilālī was a commentator on the Qur’an. He died in Balkh (Persia) in the year 102 or 105 or 106 Hijra.

      27 27 Qutāda ibn Da‘āma al-Sadūsī, who died in 736, was a commentator and reciter of ḥadīths.

      28 28 Cf. Mahmūd, Nubuwat Mohammad, p. 91.

      29 29 Qur’an 93:7.

      30 30 Cf. note 18.

      31 31 Ma‘rūf al-Ruṣāfī (1875–1945) was an Iraqi poet.

      32 32 ‘Hast thou not seen how thy Lord did with the Men of the Elephant? Did he not make their guile to go astray? And he loosed upon them birds in flights, hurling against them stones of baked clay and He made them like green blades devoured’: Qur’an 105:1–5.

      33 33 Two rival tribes in South Arabia that settled in Yathrib (which became Medina) probably around ad 300. The Khazraj were to form the future core of the Ansar (Muhammad’s followers).

      34 34 Cf. Qur’an 46:29, 72:1.

      35 35 The Book of Daniel, 8:16, 12:7. [The Holy Bible, King James edition. All biblical quotes are from this edition. Translator’s note.]

      36 36 In the Gospel of St Luke, Gabriel announces to Zachariah that his wife Elizabeth will have a son (John), and he also announces the birth of Jesus to Mary.

      37 37 Muhammad’s family.

      38 38 Ibn Sa‘d, Ṭabaqāt, I, Maktabat al-Khanjī, Cairo, 2001, p. 162.

      39 39 Qur’an 51:56.

      40 40 Ibn Manẓūr (b.1233), Lisān al-‘Arab, 9 vols, Dār al-Ma‘ārif, Cairo, root: s.l.m.

      41 41 Qur’an 54:2.

      42 42 Qur’an 51:52.

      43 43 Taqwīl is the act of making someone say what you want.