Zamakhshari’s criterion, that the Messenger is the recipient of a public revelation, which separates Muhammad from Jeremiah or Isaiah, for example, and brackets him with Moses and Jesus, was not the only distinction possible. In the passage that follows, the comparison is straightforward, detailed, and obviously popular. The context is said to be a meeting between Muhammad, who is accompanied by Umar, and the Jews of Medina. When Umar praises Muhammad, the Jews retort that he must be talking about Moses. Umar turns to Muhammad and asks, “Alas for my soul, was Moses better than you?
Then the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “Moses is my brother, but I am better than he, and I was given something more excellent than he was.” The Jews said: “This is what we wanted!” “What is that?” he asked. They said: “Adam was better than you; Noah was better than you; Moses was better than you; Jesus was better than you; Solomon was better than you.” He said: “That is false. I am better than all these and superior to them.” “You are?” they asked. “I am,” he said. They said, “Then bring a proof of that from the Torah.”
Muhammad agrees but must invoke the assistance of one of his Jewish converts, Abdullah ibn Salam, to check the Torah, presumably because this latter could read Hebrew, while Muhammad was, as the Muslim tradition maintained, “unlettered.” The discussion continues: “Now why,” Muhammad asked, “is Adam better than I?“ “Because,” they answered, “God created him with His own hand and breathed into him of His spirit.” “Adam,” he then replied, “is my father, but I have been given something better than anything he has, namely, that every day a herald calls five times from the East to the West: ‘I bear witness that there is no god but the God and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.’ No one has ever said that Adam was the Messenger of God. Moreover, on the Day of Resurrection the Banner of Praise will be in my hand and not in that of Adam.” “You speak but the truth,” they replied, “that is so written in the Torah.” “That,” he said, “is one.”
Said the Jews: “Moses is better than you.” “And why?” he inquired. “Because,” they said, “God spoke to him four thousand four hundred and forty words, but never did He speak a thing to you.” “But I,” he responded, “was given something superior to that.” “And what was that?” they asked. Said he: “Glory be to Him who took His servant by night (Quran 17:1), for He bore me up on Gabriel’s wing until He brought me to the seventh heaven, and I passed beyond the Sidra tree of the Boundary at the Garden of Resort (Quran 53:14–15) till I caught hold of a leg of the Throne, and from above the Throne came a voice: ‘O Muhammad, I am God. Beside me there is no other god.’ Then with all my heart I saw my Lord. This is more excellent than that (given to Moses).” “You speak but the truth,” they replied, “that is so written in the Torah.” “That,” he said, “makes two.”
Noah is then similarly disposed of. “Well,” said Muhammad, “that is three.” They said: “Abraham is better than you . . . God Most High took him as a friend.” He answered, “Abraham was indeed the friend of God, but I am His beloved. Do you know why my name is Muhammad? It is because He derived it from His name. He is Al-Hamid, the Praiseworthy, and my name is Muhammad, the Praised, while my community are the Hamidun, those who give praise.” “You speak but truly,” they replied, “this is greater than that.” “That is four.” “But Jesus,” they said, “is better than you . . . because he mounted up to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem, where the satans came to bear him away, but God gave command to Gabrielwho with his right wing smote them in their faces and cast them into the fire.” “Nevertheless,” he said, “I was given something better than that. I returned from fighting with the polytheists on the day of Badr exceedingly hungry, when there met me a Jewish woman with a basket on her head. In the basket there was a roasted kid, and in her sleeve some sugar. She said: ‘Praise be to God who has kept you safe. I made a vow to God that if you returned safely from this warlike expedition I would not fail to sacrifice this kid for you to eat.’ Then she set it down and I put my hand to it, which caused the kid to speak, standing upright on its four feet, and saying, ‘Eat not of me, for I am poisoned.’ ” “You speak but true,” they said. “That is five, but there remains one more, for we claim that Solomon was better than you.”
Why?” he asked. “Because,” they said, “God subjected to him satans, jinn, men and winds, and taught him the language of the birds and insects.” “Yet,” he replied, “I have been given something superior to that. God subjected to me Buraq (the miraculous beast that bore Muhammad on the Night Journey), who is more precious than all the world. He is one of the riding-beasts of Paradise. . . . Between his eyes is written ‘There is no god but the God. Muhammad is the Messenger of God.’ ” “You speak truly,” they said, “we bear witness that there is no god but the God and that you are His servant and Messenger.” Finally, in the course of his Night Journey and Ascension to Heaven, Muhammad was given sight of his fellow Prophets, whose physical appearance is relayed, on his authority, in his standard biography. Al-Zuhri alleged as from Sa‹id al-Musayyab that the Messenger described to his companions Abraham, Moses and Jesus as he saw them that night, saying: “I have never seen a man more like myself than Abraham. Moses was a ruddy faced man, tall, thinly fleshed, curly haired with a hooked nose as if he were of the Shanu›a. Jesus Son of Mary was a reddish man of medium height with lank hair and with many freckles on his face as though he had just come from a bath. One would suppose that his head was dripping with water, though there was no water on it. The man most like him among you is Urwa ibn Masud al-Thaqafi.”
Nonviolence Muslim Activists in South Asia
