The Jewish Sages Who Infiltrate Muhammad’s Community: the Problematic of Prophecy and Precedent with newly Emergent Religion

• In Event: Religious Authority in Precedence & Prophethood between Judaism & Islam

Abstract

Muslim, Jewish and Christian sources dating from the first Islamic centuries depict, among other stories, two categories of tales about the emergence of Islam. One is that of prognostication. Jews, Christians and Arabian soothsayers expect the emergence of a new prophet coming from Arabia. The other is that of “the test.” True monotheists, Christian and Jewish, assess the young prophet Muhammad to determine whether he is indeed a prophet or apostle of God. The veracity of the prognostications and the outcome of the tests of course vary depending on which community tells the tale. The themes of prognostication and test reflect Deuteronomy 18:15-22, which treats the divine promise that God will send a new prophet. If he is a true prophet he must be followed, but if not he must be killed. Among the test legends is one, found in Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources alike, in which Jewish sages join up with Muhammad but only feign their conversion and loyalty to the new faith. As with the other tales, the outcome of this story differs between the tellers of the tale, but they all expresses a deep anxiety among all three expressions of monotheism over the meaning of prophethood and the validity of religious institution. Established scriptural religions canonize revelation into an official writing and then declare an end to prophecy, yet they also await a divinely sent emissary to announce a message of divine salvation. As a result, each religion maintains a delicate balance between its own religious hierarchy and establishment on the one hand and the redemption that will transcend it and thus “put it out of business” on the other. Emergence of a new prophet destabilizes the equilibrium and calls established religion into question. This paper will consider how the stories of Jewish sages who infiltrate Muhammad’s community reflect anxiety over the destabilization of the traditional balance between institution and redemption caused by the emergence of a new religious movement.

author

• Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion