a metaphor for the transformation of their character.” I say: There is no impediment to reconciling the two views, as we have explained; indeed, that is what immediately suggests itself from the two hadiths. And Allah knows best.
Some contemporary exegetes have claimed that the metamorphosis of some of the Jews into apes and swine was not a real physical metamorphosis, but rather a transformation of character. This contradicts the apparent meaning of the verses and hadiths concerning them. Therefore, do not pay attention to their view, for they have no proof for it beyond deeming it rationally unlikely—an attitude indicative of weak faith in the unseen. We ask Allah for safety.
Fourth: Then al-Ḥāfiẓ said:
“This hadith contains a severe warning against those who use stratagems to declare something prohibited lawful by changing its name. It also shows that a ruling follows its effective cause: the effective cause of the prohibition of khamr is intoxication. Whenever intoxication is present, prohibition is present, even if the name no longer remains. Ibn al-ʿArabī said: It is a fundamental principle that rulings are connected to the meanings of names, not to their labels, in refutation of those who interpreted it according to the literal wording.”
- “I am no more able to give that up for you than you are to kindle a flame for me from it”—that is, from the sun.
It was narrated by Abu Jaʿfar al-Bakhtari in The Hadith of Abu al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Mulāʿib (47/1–2), and by Ibn ʿAsākir (11/363/1; 19/44/201), through Abu Yaʿla and others, both narrating from Yunus ibn Bukayr, who said: Talḥah ibn Yaḥya informed us, from Musa ibn Talḥah, who said: ʿAqil ibn Abi Talib narrated to me:
“Quraysh came to Abu Talib and said: ‘What do you say about Ahmad? He is harming us in our assembly and in our mosque, so tell him to stop…’”