(1) This account, known as the “Story of the Cranes,” was mentioned by most exegetes without comment. Al-Tabari cited it in his Tafsir, 17:186-190, and Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir, 3:230-231, then remarked: “Muhammad ibn Ishaq also related something similar in the Sirah; all of its reports are mursal (with a missing link to the Prophet) and munqati (disconnected). And Allah knows best.” Whoever examines the chains of transmission of this account will find that all of them are either mursal, disconnected, defective, or contain unknown narrators. However numerous weak chains may be, they only increase a report in weakness. The principle that a hadith may be strengthened by numerous chains is not accepted without qualification; this was established by al-Hafiz Abu Amr ibn al-Salah in his Muqaddimah and by other critical hadith scholars. More than one critical scholar has examined this account and demonstrated the falsity and invalidity of the reports cited by some exegetes. Imam Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Shawkani states in his Tafsir, 3:462, regarding Allah's saying, “We did not send before you any messenger or prophet except that, when he recited, Satan cast something into his recitation; but Allah abolishes what Satan casts, then Allah makes His verses precise. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise”: “Nothing of this has been authentically established, nor has it been proven in any way. Besides being unauthentic, it is in fact false. The critical scholars have refuted it through the Book of Allah, exalted is He. Allah says: ‘Had he attributed to Us some sayings, We would have seized him by the right hand, then cut his aorta’; ‘Nor does he speak from his own desire’; and, ‘Had We not made you steadfast, you would almost have inclined toward them.’” Al-Bazzar said: “We know of no connected chain by which this hadith is narrated from the Prophet, peace be upon him.” Al-Bayhaqi said: “This account is not established through transmission,” and then discussed the criticism levelled against its narrators. Ibn Khuzaymah, the Imam of Imams, said: “This account was fabricated by the heretics,” and wrote a book on the matter. In al-Shifa, 2:750, Qadi Iyad also refutes this account, stating: “May Allah honor you. There are two approaches to addressing the difficulty posed by this hadith. The first is that it suffices to know that none of the authorities on authentic reports included it, nor did any trustworthy narrator transmit it through a sound, connected chain. Rather, exegetes and historians who are enamored of every strange report, and who gather from written pages everything sound and unsound, have been captivated by it and similar reports. The second approach is based on accepting the hadith, were it authentic; yet Allah has protected us from its being authentic. In any event, the imams of the Muslims answered it in various ways, some sound and some weak.” He then cited reports whose falsity he demonstrated, along with the scholars' responses to them. Imam al-Qurtubi says in his Tafsir, 12:84, concerning Allah's saying, “We did not send before you any messenger ...,” after citing some reports: “Another indication of its weakness and frailty from the Book is Allah's saying, ‘They almost tempted you ...,’ in the two verses. These verses refute the report they have narrated, for Allah mentions that they nearly tempted him into fabricating something, and that had Allah not made him steadfast, he would have almost inclined toward them. The meaning and implication of this is that Allah protected him from fabricating anything and made him steadfast, so that he did not incline toward them even slightly; how then could he have inclined greatly?” Such statements are unworthy of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him. The falsity of this account has been established both in its chain of transmission and its text. For further study, see the valuable work of Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, Nasb al-Majaniq li-Nasf Qissat al-Gharaniq (Setting Up Catapults to Demolish the Story of the Cranes), in which he collected all its narrations, demonstrated their weakness, and cited the statements of hadith scholars and critical scholars in refutation of this account. See also: Muhammad ibn Muhammad Abu Shahbah, al-Israiliyyat wa-al-Mawduat fi Kutub al-Tafsir, pp. 440-452; al-Alusi, Ruh al-Maani, 17:175-184; Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa, 2:750 ff.; al-Shawkani, Fath al-Qadir, 3:461; al-Qurtubi, Tafsir, 12:79 ff.; and Sayyid Qutb, Fi Zilal al-Quran, 5:611.