MY WRITINGS

16. ‘ABDULLAH IBN SABA’ THE JEW               ‘Abdullah ibn Saba’ was considered by Sunni Muslim historians “the Spiritual Father of the Rāfiḍah”. The term    rāfiḍah (pl. rawāfiḍ lit. “rejecters”) was originally given to dissenters, defectors, troops having deserted their leader, the Rawāfiḍ (Rafidites), a Shi’ah sect. They are those who reject the legitimacy of the appointment of Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, as well as ‘Uthmān as caliphs, for they believe that ‘Ali had been appointed by the Prophet ( ﷺ ) to replace him after his death.           It is said that Saba’ was not the name of Abdullah’s father, but the name from which he came from, Saba’ in Yemen, (probably to hide his identity as a son of a Jew). It is like calling an Egyptian “the son of the Nile.” There is a sūrah (chapter) in the Qur’ān called sūrat Saba’ (Sheba, Q. 34) mentioning the Sabaean people [1] .  ...

15. THE ISRĀ’ĪLIYYĀT IN THE COMMENTARY OF THE QUR’ĀN AND THE ḤADĪTH (4)           The isrā’iliyyāt (Jewish legends) could be genuine or weak, could be correspondent to Islamic law, or against it, or irrelevant to it; it could deal with beliefs, law, religious exhortation, or events which have no relevance to beliefs and laws. Some evidences prohibited Muslims from reporting them, and others allowed the reporting of them. Among the evidences prohibiting from reporting them are as follows:           Abū Hurayrah reported that when the Jews read the Torah in Hebrew and explained them in Arabic to the Muslims the Prophet ( ﷺ ) said, لَا تُصَدِّقُوا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ وَلَا تُكَذِّبُوهُمْ وَ قُولُوا آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْنَا... (رواه البخاري) Neither believe nor disbelieve the People of the Book, but say “we believe in Allah and in what is revealed to us…” (Reporte...