The response to the suspicion that the Sirat was borrowed from Zoroastrianism and the response to the orientalist missionary Tsdal
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
We read from Sahih Al-Bukhari, Book of Asceticism, Chapter of the Path, the Bridge to Hell
6204 Abu Al-Yaman narrated to us, Shu`ayb narrated to us, on the authority of Al-Zuhri, Sa`id and `Ata’ bin Yazid narrated to me, that Abu Hurairah narrated to them, on the authority of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. And Mahmud narrated to us, `Abd Al-Razzaq narrated to us, Mu`ammar narrated to us, on the authority of Al-Zuhri, on the authority of `Ata’ bin Yazid Al-Laithi, on the authority of Abu Hurairah, who said: Some people said: O Messenger of Allah, will we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection? He said: Do you find difficulty in seeing the sun when there are no clouds in front of it? They said: No, O Messenger of Allah. He said: Do you find difficulty in seeing the moon when it is full when there are no clouds in front of it? They said: No, O Messenger of Allah. He said: You will see Him on the Day of Resurrection. Thus Allah will gather the people and say: Whoever worshipped something, let him follow it. So he who worshipped the sun will follow him, and he who worshipped the moon will follow him, and he who worshipped the tyrants will follow him. And this nation will remain among its hypocrites, so Allah will come to them in a form other than that in which they recognize Him and He will say: I am your Lord. They will say: We seek refuge in Allah from you. This is our place until our Lord comes to us. So when our Lord comes to us, we will recognize Him. So Allah will come to them in The image that they know, he says, I am your Lord, they say, You are our Lord, they follow him, and he strikes the bridge of Hell. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said, I will be the first to cross, and the supplication of the messengers on that day is, O God, save, save, and in it are hooks like the thorns of the Saadan. Have you not seen the thorns of the Saadan? They said, Yes, O Messenger of God. He said, They are like the thorns of the Saadan, except that no one knows the extent of their greatness except God, so they snatch people by their deeds, some of them are doomed by their deeds and some of them are mustard green, then they are saved until God has finished judging between His servants.
The missionaries claimed that the concept of the path in Islam was taken from Zoroastrianism, and specifically from what is called the Gatha, which are poetic hymns attributed to Zoroaster in the Yasna chapter of the book of the Magi or Zoroastrianism called the Avesta.
The response to this doubt, God willing, is in the following points:
1. The oldest manuscript of the Avesta
dates back to Islam. 2. The Yasna chapter of the Avesta was severely distorted in the Sassanian era and possibly also in the post-Islamic era.
3. The Avesta and the Zoroastrian religion as a whole were subject to many distortions and changes and were influenced over the ages by other surrounding religions.
4. The illiteracy of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, as he did not know how to read or write Arabic, so how about Persian!!
5. The difference in the concept of the path between Islam and Zoroastrianism .
First: The oldest manuscript of the Avesta dates back to Islam :
The oldest manuscript of the Avesta dates back to the beginning of the fourteenth century AD, specifically the year 1323 AD, approximately 600 years after the time of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace .
We read from the book Textual Sources for the Study of Religion by Mary Boyce, page 12
(( All their religious works were handed down orally; it was not until probably the fifth century AC that they were last committed to writing in the Avestian alphabet, especially invented for the purpose. The oldest extant MS is dated to 1323 AC ))
https://archive.org/details/TextualSigion/page/n11
Rather, we find that the chapter of the Yasna (which contains the aforementioned Qatha) in the Avesta found in the manuscript mentioned above is based in its writing on a lost manuscript dating back to the ninth or tenth century AD, i.e. two or three centuries after Islam .
We read from the Iranian Encyclopedia:
((Of the history of the Avestan texts from the collapse of the Sasanian empire and the oldest manuscripts in our possession little is known. We know that the Muslim conquest and the dispersal of the Mazdean communities caused a weakening of the religious tradition and a decline of the liturgical elocution, which caused damage to the written transmission of the Avesta . Also, examination of the manuscripts reveals mistakes which prove that all of them derive from a single common ancestor, which K. Hoffmann (Aufsätze II, p. 515) calls the “base manuscript” and places in the ninth to tenth century AD alten Iran, p. 13) had assumed that all extant Avesta manuscripts derive from a single Sasanian archetype, and Morgenstierne (“Orthography and Sound-system,” p. 32 n. 6) had addeduced material from the Yasna, Yašts, and Vidēvdād in support of Nyberg's hypothesis.))
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avesta-holy-book
Second: The Yasna chapter of the Avesta was subject to many distortions and additions at the time of writing the Avesta in the Sasanian era and possibly also in post-Islamic eras .
It is known that the Yasna was subject to additions, distortions, and revisions, as it remained for a long time as an open book subject to modification and even errors, which makes it likely that the story of the Sirat in the Qatha was influenced by Islam and that it is one of the additions that occurred in post-Islamic eras .
We read from the Iranian Encyclopedia:
(( Date of composition. Obviously, the text could not have been composed until some time after the death of Zaraθuštra, as the majority of its composition is in the Standard (or Younger) Avestan dialect, in contradistinction to the Gāθic (or Old) Avestan dialect of the prophet’s Gāθās, of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti and of the sacred prayers.. But, when was the Yasna composed? This is a very difficult question to answer. To begin to frame an answer one must distinguish elements of the composition from the editorial work that produced the extended text. Further, one can imagine that the text was the product of a uniform editorial project drawing on inherited liturgical elements, completed at a particular time in history; or one can imagine some sort of agglutinative process whereby over a long period of time the text was gradually expanded; or, too, one can image a uniform editorial composition, but then subject to later accretions.... It may well be that, while the norm for the high ritual called for a full staff of eight priests, in popular practice two priests who assumed the functions of the others were tacitly allowed without being mentioned in Avestan texts. Since the Nērangistān, a mixed work of Avestan quotations bearing on ritual and long commentaries in Pahlavi, appears to date from the close of the Sasanian period, its recognition (Chap. 28) of the essential components of the Yasna as it is known today, would place the basic configuration of the Yasna within the same time frame (see Kotwal and Kreyenbroek, pp. 17 f.), although Islamic period accretions cannot be ruled out .))
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yasna
Third: The Avesta has been subject to radical distortion, as has the Zoroastrian religion and the influence of the various religions and environments surrounding them .
The oral transmission of the Avesta was the origin of its transmission from the third century BC (after Alexander the Great burned the Zoroastrian books, especially those in Estakhr) until the beginning of its re-writing in the Sassanid period (the third century AD). During that period and what followed, the Avesta and Zoroastrianism as a religion continued to change with the change in the environment surrounding the Zoroastrian religion, sometimes receiving some teachings and concepts from Christianity and sometimes from the Mandaeans, and thus it is not unlikely that it received the idea of the path from Islam and entered it into the Qatha .
We read from the Iranian Encyclopedia:
(( At the time of Alexander's conquest, the Avesta was destroyed or dispersed by the Greeks, who translated into their own language the scientific passages of which they could make use. The first attempt at restoring the Avesta was made under the Arsacids, when a king Valaxš had the fragments collected, both those which had been written down as well as those which had been transmitted only orally . This undertaken was carried on in four phases under the Sasanians: Ardašēr (226-41) ordered the high priest Tansar (or Tōsar) to complete the work of collecting the fragments that had begun under the Arsacids and gave official protection for this undertaking; Šāpūr II (309-79) Ādurbād ī Mahraspandān made the general revision of the canon and ensured its orthodox character against sectarian divergences by submitting himself successfully to the ordeal by fire at the time of a general controversy; Finally, a revision of the Pahlavi translation took place under Ḵosrow I (531-79)...
In the last ten years a general consensus has gradually emerged in favor of placing the Gāthās around 1000 BCE and assuming that the composition of the best texts of the recent Avesta is more or less contemporary with the Old Persian monuments. The Vidēvdād seems to be more recent than the Yašts or the Yasna and it has also been suggested that it belongs to a particular liturgical school; however, no linguistic or textual argument allows us to attain any degree of certainty in these matters. The earliest transmission of the Avesta must have been oral only, since no Iranian people seem to have used writing in early times. Only with the invention of the cuneiform Old Persian script (probably under Darius) would it have been possible to codify the religious texts. However, there is no evidence that the Achaemenids actually did this. Until the advent of the Sasanians, and even under their regime, Iran was a country in which written documents were conspicuously rare , so as far as the religious tradition is concerned, it faithfully carries on the old Indo-Iranian tradition which established the preeminence of a precise and careful oral textual transmission and made learning by heart of the sacred texts an essential element of an adequate cult.))
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avesta-holy-book
And we read from the book Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism, page 91-92:
(( But the catastrophe that befell them is the burning of the city of Estakhr, the spiritual capital of the country, by Alexander and the loss of most of the Zoroastrian heritage... It burned completely and no one was able to save anything from it, so most of the libraries and houses of knowledge were lost due to Alexander’s arrogance and his extreme disregard for human heritage, including the books of the Avesta with their explanations, commentaries and interpretations ...)) The writer continues, commenting on The Sassanian collection of the Avesta and the Zoroastrian laws and the influence of that collection on the surrounding religions and environments on page 93: (( In fact, the religion that was brought back to life and its teachings were imposed on people and its law was applied to them has no connection to the true religion of Zoroaster, but rather it is the distorted Zoroastrian religion that has lost many of its characteristics and its truth has been distorted and the manifestations of faith in it have been distorted. We would not be exaggerating if we said that the Zoroastrian religion in its new form is a strange and discordant mixture that combines the Zoroastrianism of ancient Mada and Persia, the paganism of Greece and distorted Zoroastrianism. Anyone who takes a close look at the Avesta circulating today among the Zoroastrians in Iran and India will be confronted with this unique collection on every page of it )) file:///Users/MacbookPro/Downloads/مكتبة نور - زراداست وزراداستية.pdf We read from the Encyclopedia Britannica what states that the completion of the collection of the Avesta was in the seventh century, coinciding with the emergence of Islam. It is possible that the collection was completed after the Islamic conquest of Persia, and thus we cannot rule out the Persians being influenced by Islam:
((Avesta, also called Zend-avesta, sacred book of Zoroastrianism containing its cosmogony, law, and liturgy, the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster (Zarathushtra). The extant Avesta is all that remains of a much larger body of scripture, apparently Zoroaster's transformation of a very ancient tradition. The voluminous manuscripts of the original are said to have been destroyed when Alexander the Great conquered Persia. The present Avesta was assembled from remnants and standardized under the Sāsānian kings (3rd–7th century AD ))
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ave...rian-scripture
Fourth: The illiteracy of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, rejects the claim of quotation .
It is proven from the Book and the authentic Sunnah that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, was illiterate and did not know how to read or write in Arabic. So how could an illiterate Arab from Mecca in the seventh century know - not only how to access but also - how to read Zoroastrian books in the Persian language, which only the Magian peasants had access to at that time!!
Allah the Almighty said: (( And you did not recite before it any scripture, nor did you inscribe it with your right hand. Then the falsifiers would have had doubts. (48) Rather, it is clear signs within the breasts of those who have been given knowledge. And none reject Our signs except the wrongdoers. (49)))
And we read in Sahih Al-Bukhari, Book of Fasting, Chapter on the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “We do not write nor do we calculate.
” 1814 Adam narrated to us, Shu’bah narrated to us, Al-Aswad bin Qais narrated to us, Sa’id bin Amr narrated to us that he heard Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he said, “We are an illiterate nation. We do not write nor do we calculate. The month is like this and like this,” meaning sometimes twenty-nine and sometimes thirty
. We read in Sahih Ibn Hibban, Book of Seerah, Chapter on Truce and Compromise, Hadith No.: 4982
(Hadith with a chain of transmission traceable to the Prophet): Al-Nadr Ibn Muhammad Ibn Al-Mubarak informed us, he said: Muhammad Ibn Uthman Al-Ijli informed us, he said: Ubaydullah Ibn Musa informed us, on the authority of Israel, on the authority of Abu Ishaq, on the authority of Al-Bara’, he said: “The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, performed Umrah in Dhul-Qa’dah, but the people of Mecca refused to let him enter.” Mecca until he decided that he would stay there for three days. When they wrote the document, they wrote: This is what Muhammad, the Messenger of God, has decided. They said: We do not acknowledge this. If we knew that you were the Messenger of God, we would not have prevented you from anything. But you are Muhammad ibn Abdullah. He said: I am the Messenger of God, and I am Muhammad ibn Abdullah. He said to Ali: Erase the Messenger of God. Allah, he said: By Allah, I will never erase you. So the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, took the book, but he was not good at writing.So he ordered, and he wrote in place of the Messenger of God, Muhammad, and he wrote: This is what Muhammad ibn Abdullah has decided, that he should not enter Mecca with weapons except the sword, and he should not leave it with anyone following him, and he should not prevent any of his companions if he wanted to stay in it. So when he entered it and the time had passed, they came to Ali
and we read in Sahih Muslim, Book of Jihad and Expeditions, Chapter of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
1783 Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Hanthali and Ahmad ibn Janab al-Masisi both narrated to us on the authority of Isa ibn Yunus and the wording is from Isaac. Isa bin Yunus told us. Zakariya told us, on the authority of Abu Ishaq, on the authority of Al-Baraa’, who said: When the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, was besieged at the House, the people of Mecca made peace with him on the condition that he would enter it and stay there for three days, and would not enter it except with the armor of his weapon, the sword and its sheath, and would not take anyone of its people with him with him, and would not prevent anyone of those who were with him from staying there. He said to Ali, “Write the condition between us: In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This is what Muhammad, the Messenger of God, has agreed upon.” The polytheists said to him, “If we knew that you were the Messenger of God, we would follow you, but write Muhammad bin Abdullah.” So he ordered Ali to erase it, but Ali said, “No, by God, I will not erase it.” So the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said, “ Show me its place.” So he showed him its place, so he erased it and wrote Ibn Abdullah.
We read in Al-Sunan Al-Kubra by Al-Bayhaqi, Book of Marriage,
12916, Chapter: He was not allowed to learn poetry or write. God Almighty said: (And We have not taught him poetry, nor is it befitting for him.)
And He said: (So believe in God and His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet.) Some of the commentators said: The unlettered is the one who does not read the book, nor write with his right hand. This is the statement of Muqatil bin Sulayman and other scholars of interpretation.
(And) Abu Hazim al-Hafiz informed us, Abu Bakr al-Ismaili informed us, Ali bin Siraj al-Masri informed us, Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman, the nephew of Husayn al-Ja`fi informed us, Abu Usamah informed us, on the authority of Idris al-Awdi, on the authority of al-Hakam bin Utaybah, on the authority of Mujahid, on the authority of Abdullah bin Abbas - may God be pleased with them both - regarding the words of God Almighty: (And you did not recite before it any book, nor did you inscribe it with your right hand), he said: The Messenger of God - may God bless him and grant him peace - did not read nor write . Note: Someone might say that the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - borrowed the story from Salman al-Farsi - may God be pleased with him . We say then: Salman al-Farsi, may God be pleased with him, did not convert to Islam except during the Medinan period and did not witness the Meccan period, but rather he only witnessed the prophetic period and the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, did not witness Badr or Uhud because he was enslaved by a Jew as proven in the authentic hadith : We read from Majma’ al-Zawa’id wa Manba’ al-Fawa’id, Book of Virtues 37 - 117 - (Chapter on what (came) about Salman al-Farsi - may God be pleased with him -)
15833 On the authority of Salman al-Farsi, who said: I was a Persian man from Isfahan, from a village called Ji. My father was the peasant of his village, and I was the most beloved of God’s creation to him. His love for me continued until he locked me in a house as one locks up a slave girl. I strove hard in Zoroastrianism until I was the fire-lighter who would not let it go out for an hour. My father had a large estate. He said: One day he was busy building it, so he said to me: O my son, I have been busy building it today and I have neglected my estate, so go and inspect it. He ordered me to do some of what he wanted in it. Then he said to me: Do not detain me, for if you detain me, you will be more burdensome to me than my estate and you will distract me from everything else in my life. So I went out, intending to go to his estate, and I passed by a church of the Christians, and when the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, saw me turning my back on him, he knew that I was investigating something that had been described to me. He said: So he threw his cloak from his back, and I looked at the ring and recognized it, so I fell upon it, kissing it and crying, and the Messenger of Allah - may Allah bless him and grant him peace - said to me: “Turn around.” So I turned around, and I narrated to him my story - as I told you, O Ibn Abbas - and the Messenger of Allah - may Allah bless him and grant him peace - was pleased that his companions heard that. Salman was busy with slavery until he missed Badr and Uhud with the Messenger of Allah - may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
He said: Then the Messenger of Allah - may Allah bless him and grant him peace - said to me: “Write a contract, O Salman.” So I wrote a contract with my companion for three hundred palm trees that I would revive for him in the dust, and for forty ounces. The Messenger of Allah - may Allah bless him and grant him peace - said to his companions: “Help your brother.” They helped me with the palm trees. He said: So I took them and weighed them for them from it, and by the One in Whose Hand is Salman’s soul, forty ounces, so I paid them their due and was freed. So I witnessed the Battle of the Trench with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and I did not miss any battle with him. Imam
Al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, classified it as good in the Sahihah Series, Part Two, Page 556, and he said: “ Its chain of transmission is good .”
The concept of the path was mentioned in Surah Maryam, which is a Meccan Surah, in the words of Allah the Most High: “And there is not one of you but will pass over it. This is upon your Lord an inevitability decreed (71) Then We will save those who feared Allah and leave the wrongdoers therein on their knees (72).”
We read from Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, Part Eight, Book of Interpretation of the Qur’an,
3159: Abd bin Hamid narrated to us, Ubaidullah bin Musa narrated to us, on the authority of Israel, on the authority of Al-Suddi. He said: I asked Al-Hamdani once about the statement of Allah the Almighty: “There is not one of you but will pass over it.” He told me that Abdullah bin Masoud told them that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: People will pass over the Fire, then they will emerge from it because of their deeds. The first of them will be like the flash of lightning, then like the wind, then like the speed of a horse, then like a rider in his saddle, then like a man’s gait, then like his walking. He said: This is a good hadith
authenticated by Imam Al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, in Sahih and Da’if Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith No. 3159, and he said: “ (Sahih)” and he mentioned it in As-Silsilah As-Sahihah, Hadith No. 311.
So it is not possible for Salman, may Allah be pleased with him, to be the source of the idea of the Sirat, Allah forbid, according to the claim of those who claimed that
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