Microsoft Word When the Moon Split Final

 

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44 
Diversions 
Not content with slandering and humiliating the Prophet , 
the pagans also attempted to keep others from hearing the 
Prophet’s message. Whenever he tried to preach to a group of 
people, the pagans would disperse the crowd before he had a 
chance to convey his message. The first opportunity to preach in 
public came in Ramadan of the fifth year of the Prophet’s 
mission. It was then that he recited Surah Al-Najm before a large 
gathering. 
Whenever the Prophet recited the Qur’an (which was 
usually during the latter part of the night in voluntary prayer), the 
polytheists would make profane remarks about the Qur’an, the 
One Who had revealed it and the one who brought it to the 
people. Hence, Allah ordered the Prophet to lower his voice 
when reciting: “Recite your prayers neither in a very loud voice 
nor silently: follow a middle course.” (17: 10) 
To divert people’s attention away from the Qur’an, Nadir bin 
Harith went to Hira and Syria and came back with the legends of 
Dara (Darius), Sikandar, (Alexander) and Isfandyar (a Persian 
king). Whenever he learned that the Prophet was addressing an 
assembly, he would rush there and begin narrating these tales. He 
would then ask listeners how the orations of Muhammad could 
possibly be superior to his. 
Allah, then revealed the following verse: “There are, among 
men, those who ignorantly purchase meaningless tales to mislead 
men from the path of Allah, and they take the Words of Allah as 
a mockery. They will certainly endure a humiliating punishment.” 
(31:6) 
Propaganda 
When the pagans did not succeed in stamping out Islam by 
mocking the Prophet or by diverting people’s attention from 
the teachings, they then attempted to discredit him. 

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45 
First, they claimed that the Qur’an was nothing but a bundle 
of confused dreams which Muhammad had at night and then 
recited during the day. Next, they claimed that he had concocted 
the Qur’an line for line all by himself, while at other times they 
said that a certain man composed the Qur’an for him, and 
Muhammad then simply memorised and recited the verses. 
On other occasions the pagans said that the Qur’an was all 
lies he had fabricated with the help of others. They also asserted 
that the Qur’an was a collection of folk tales and ancient stories 
which Muhammad recited morning and evening. They even 
went so far as to say that an evil jinn or demon taught the verses 
of the Qur’an to Muhammad . Thereupon Allah said: “Shall I 
inform you about those upon whom demons descend? They 
descend upon every sinful liar!” (26: 221-222) 
The pagans also spread the rumour that the Prophet
suffered from fits and seizures. These frenzied fits, the pagans 
claimed, were the source of Muhammad’s poetic inspiration! In 
reply to this claim, Allah said: “As for poets, only those who are 
astray follow them. They ramble aimlessly about every subject, 
claiming to have done things that they have not done.”
(26: 224-225) 
In this verse, Allah challenges the pagans’ claim that 
Muhammad was a poet. Three characteristics of poets are 
mentioned: their followers are deviants; they expound about 
subjects without direction; and they boast about deeds they did 
not perform. When we scrutinise the Prophet’s character and 
those of his followers, however, we find that they were upright; 
Muhammad’s teachings focused calling people to worship Allah, 
the One God; and that Muhammad put his teachings into 
action and lived by the precepts he taught his followers.