be all the more estranged whenever it is mentioned, and to shy away (1) whenever they hear it. They have lied, for genuine tafsīr is only to say, “wajh—face,” and then to refrain from asking, “How?”; the question of “how” has no standing in this matter within Muslim discourse.
As for verbal rendering (2), Allah the Exalted has said:
“The Jews said, ‘Allah’s hand is shackled.’” (3)
In fact, they uttered it in Hebrew, while He quoted them in Arabic. The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to have his correspondence (5) written in Arabic, containing the Names and Attributes of Allah, after which it would be rendered into other tongues. He even wrote to certain people in Syriac, and Zayd ibn Thābit—may Allah be pleased with him—would translate it for him into Arabic (6). Allah, exalted be He, is invoked by His Names in every language and He responds; people swear by them and the oath becomes binding; they are recited in verse and that is permissible; He is described by them and thereby recognized.
Then they declared, “The very person of the Messenger is not alive (7)….”
(1) The term al-shumūs refers to wandering animals that scarcely settle. See Maʿjam Mīqāyīs al-Lughah by Ibn Fāris, 3:212–213 (s.v. shams). The sense here is that they flee and do not remain in one place.
(2) In the autograph it reads fa-inna al-ʿibārah (“for the phrase”). This reading is supported by the witnesses S, T, and the work Dhamm al-Kalām.
(3) Sūrat al-Māʾidah, 5:64.
(4) The text enclosed in quotation marks is an addition from Dhamm al-Kalām, as required by the context.
(5) The phrase kitābuhu (“his book”) is omitted in witness S.
(6) Imam Aḥmad and others transmit on a sound authority that Zayd ibn Thābit reported: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said to me, “You should master Syriac; will not books come to me in it?” I replied, “No,” and he said, “Then learn it.” I learned it in seventeen days. See al-Musnad (Imam Aḥmad), 5:182; al-Maʿrifah wa-l-Tārīkh (al-Fasawī), 1:483–484; al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā (Ibn Saʿd), 2:358.
(7) In Dhamm al-Kalām under the heading Bi-ḥujjah. Abu al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī, in his treatise titled Shikāyah Ahl al-Sunnah bi-Ḥikāyah mā Nāluhum min al-Miḥnah (“Complaint of the People of the Sunnah regarding the Narrative of the Trial That Befell Them”), addressed this issue, arguing that this narrative is a fabrication falsely attributed to Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī and his companions—none of whom ever voiced or included it in their works—and then presented proofs that the Prophet is alive in his grave.