Al-Bidayah wa an-Nihayah - Ibn Kathir - (3/111)

Al-Bidayah wa an-NihayahIbn Kathir

and of sacrifice.

When Quraysh heard of this they said, “What is he talking about?” Then, on another night, the spirit came to her again, swooped down beneath her and said:

“Tribes—ah, what tribes!
In them a Kaʿb shall be struck down to the south.”

When that report reached Quraysh they said, “What does he mean? Something is surely going to happen; find out what it is.” They did not grasp its import until the battles of Badr and of Uḥud took place in the mountain pass, and then they realised that it was the very thing the spirit had told his mistress.

Ibn Isḥāq said: ʿAlī ibn Nāfiʿ al-Jurashī related to me that the clan of Janb—a branch of Yemen—had a soothsayer in the pre-Islamic period. After news of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spread among the Arabs, the people of Janb said to their soothsayer, “Look into the affair of this man for us.” They gathered at the foot of his mountain, and at sunrise he came down to them, standing upright while leaning on his bow. He lifted his head to the sky for a long time and then began to leap about. Finally he said:

“O people, Allah has honoured Muhammad and chosen him, purified his heart and filled it with grace; and his stay among you, O people, will be brief.”

He then hurried back up the mountain the way he had come.

Ibn Isḥāq later mentioned the story of Sawād ibn Qārib, but we have postponed it to the chapter on the voices of the jinn.

Section

Ibn Isḥāq said: ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatāda told me, on the authority of men from his own people:

“Among the things that led us to embrace Islam—together with Allah’s mercy and His guidance—was that we used to hear certain Jews. We were polytheists, idol-worshippers; they were People of the Scripture and possessed knowledge we did not have, and there was continual hostility between us and them. Whenever we inflicted upon them something they disliked they would say, ‘The time is near when a prophet will be raised up; with him we shall kill you as ʿĀd and Iram were killed.’ We heard this from them often. Then, when Allah sent His Messenger ﷺ, we responded to him when he called us to Allah. We recognised what they had threatened us with and hastened to believe in him, while they rejected him. Concerning us and them Allah revealed:

‘When there came to them a Book from Allah confirming what they already had—and they had previously prayed for victory over those who disbelieved—yet when there came to them what they recognised, they disbelieved in it; so Allah’s curse is upon the disbelievers.’ (al-Baqarah 2:89)

Warqāʾ reported from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from ʿAlī al-Azdī: The Jews used to say, ‘O Allah, send us this Prophet who will judge between us and the people!’ They sought victory through him—that is, they sought help by means of him. This was narrated by al-Bayhaqī.

(1) In al-Rawd al-unūf fī Sharḥ al-Mufaṣṣal (vol. 1, p. 239), al-Suhaylī explains that Kaʿb here refers to Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy, and that those slain to the south at Badr and Uhud were chiefly among the Quraysh nobility, most of them from Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy. He adds that Shuʿūb (with a fatḥa on the shīn) is the name of Mina; if this is correct, the appropriate verbal form would be “to be slain in it.” (2) Sīra Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 209; al-Rawd al-unūf fī Sharḥ al-Mufaṣṣal, vol. 1, pp. 239–240. (3) In the Ḥ version: reads “qal” (he said). (4) In Sīra Ibn Hishām the reading is wa-asnad, which is preferable. Lisan al-Arab defines sanad as “a mountain slope” and asnad as “to ascend.” (5) The chapter on the whispers of the jinn appears on p. 148 of this volume. (6) Sīra Ibn Isḥāq, p. 63; Sīra Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 211; al-Rawd al-unūf fī Sharḥ al-Mufaṣṣal, vol. 1, p. 245. (7) al-Dalāʾil, vol. 2, pp. 75–76.

ونحْر. فقالت قريش حين بلغها ذلك: ما يريد؟ ثم جاءها ليلةً أخرى، فأنْقَضَ تحتها ثم قال: شعوب ما شعوب، تُصرع فيه كعبٌ لِجَنُوب (١) . فلما بلغ ذلك قريشًا قالوا: ماذا يريد؟ إن هذا لأمرٌ هو كائن فانظروا ما هو. فما عرفوه حتى كانت وقعةُ بدر وأحُد بالشِّعْب، فعرفوا أنه كان الذي جاء به إلى صاحبته. قال ابن إسحاق (٢) : وحدّثني علي بن نافع الجُرَشي أنَّ جَنْبًا -بَطْنًا من اليمن- كان لهم كاهنٌ في الجاهلية، فلما ذُكر أمر رسول الله ﷺ وانتشر في العرب، قالت (٣) له جَنْب: انظرْ لنا في أمر هذا الرجل. واجتمعوا له في أسفل جَبَله، فنزل إليهم حين طلعت الشمس، فوقف لهم قائمًا متكئًا على قوسٍ له، فرفع رأسَهُ إلى السماء طويلًا، ثم جعل ينزو، ثم قال: أيها الناس، إنَّ الله أكرم محمدًا واصطفاه، وطهَّر قلبه وحشاه، ومُكْثُه فيكم أيها الناس قليل. ثم اشتدَّ (٤) في جبله راجعًا من حيث جاء. ثم ذكر ابن إسحاق قصة سَوَاد بن قارِب، وقد أخَّرناها إلى هواتف الجان (٥) . [فصل] قال ابن إسحاق (٦) : وحدّثني عاصم بن عمر بن قتادة، عن رجالٍ من قومه قالوا: إنَّ مما دعانا إلى الإسلام -مع رحمة الله تعالى- وهداه لنا -أنْ كُنَّا نسمع من رجالٍ من يهود- وكنَّا أهلَ شِرْك، أصحابَ أوثان، وكانوا أهل كتاب، عندهم علمٌ ليس لنا، وكانت لا يزال بيننا وبينهم شرور، فإذا نِلْنا منهم بعضَ ما يكرهون قالوا لنا: إنه قد تقارب زمانُ نبيٍّ يُبعث الآن نقتلكم معه قتلَ عادٍ وإرَم. فكنا كثيرًا ما نسمع ذلك منهم، فلما بعث الله رسولَه ﷺ أجبناه حين دعانا إلى الله، وعرفنا ما كانوا يتوعَّدوننا به، فبادرناهم إليه، فآمنا به وكفروا به، ففينا وفيهم نزلت هذه الآية: ﴿وَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ كِتَابٌ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَهُمْ وَكَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُ يَسْتَفْتِحُونَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ مَا عَرَفُوا كَفَرُوا بِهِ فَلَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ﴾ [البقرة: ٨٩] . وقال ورقاء عن ابن أبي نَجيح، عن علي الأزدي: كانتِ اليهود تقول: اللهم ابعث لنا هذا النبيَّ يحكم بيننا وبين الناس يستفتحون به -أي يستنصرون به- رواه البيهقي (٧) .

(١) قال السهيلي في الروض (١/ ٢٣٩): كعب ها هنا هو كعب بن لؤي، والذين صرعوا لجنوبهم ببدر وأحُد من أشراف قريش، معظمهم من كعب بن لؤي، وشعوب ها هنا أحسبها: شعُوب بفتح الشين، وهم اسم للمنيَّة، فإن صح هذا فالوجه أن يقال: يصرع فيها. (٢) سيرة ابن هشام (١/ ٢٠٩) والروض (١/ ٢٣٩، ٢٤٠). (٣) في ح: قال. (٤) في سيرة ابن هشام: وأسند، وهي أجود، جاء في اللسان (سند): وسند في الجبل وأسْند: رَقِي. (٥) سيأتي باب هواتف الجان في (ص ١٤٨) من هذا الجزء. (٦) سيرة ابن إسحاق (ص ٦٣) وسيرة ابن هشام (١/ ٢١١) والروض (١/ ٢٤٥). (٧) الدلائل (٢/ ٧٥، ٧٦).