Muhammad's ring and what a disaster

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jun 29, 2014 at 06:56

Dr. Pipes

I do believe that the story of this ring and the inscription Allah RSL MHMD is no more than another qissa or story and it cannot be dated before the late 2nd or early third centuries of islam at the time when Muslims were inventing stories about the so called letters that Muhammad sent to the Negus of Ethiopia, al-Muqawqas of Egypt, Heraclius and Khusrau and as time goes by the tradition provides more information that the early ulama did not seem to know which makes me suspect that the whole story is bogus

Enter the ring and here is one form of the story (and yes there are many other forms of this fable)

قيل لرسول الله عندما أراد إرسال كتبه إلى الملوك يدعوهم فيها إلى الإسلام إنهم لا يقرأون الكتاب إلا إذا كان مختوما فاتخذ خاتما من فضة وكان نقشه ثلاثة أسطر: (محمد) سطر، (رسول) سطر، (الله) سطر، والأسطر الثلاثة تُقرأ من أسفل إلى فوق فمحمد آخر الأسطر، ورسول في الوسط والله فوق، وكانت الكتابة مقلوبة لتكون على الاستواء إذا ختم به فكان ذلك الخاتم في يده ثم في يد أبي بكر ثم في يد عمر ثم في يد عثمان رضي الله عنهم حتى وقع في بئر أريس في السنة التي قُتل فيها عثمان رضي الله عنه فالتمسوه ثلاثة أيام فلم يجدوه.

Or and I'm just paraphrasing:

It has been said that when the prophet wanted to write his letters to the kings (to invite them to Islam) he was told that the kings would not read his message unless there is a seal/stamp then he (Muhammad) found a ring made of silver and an inscription (was written on it) that is composed of three lines MHMD in one line and RSUL in one line and ALLH in one line

So far so good now here comes a class case of tabreer so this is what it says

And the three lines are read from below to above or MHMD RSUL ALLH and the writing is reversed because of al-istiwa' (the word al-Istiwa; really means the equator now you figure this one out)

And here comes the explanation

If he (Muhammad) stamps with it he would still be wearing the ring (et voila ALLH RSUL MHMD is read as MHMD RSUL ALLH)

I do believe that the Ulama early on realized that this story is a disaster because they must have realized that it could be read as ALLH RSUL MHMD and if Muhammad is wearing his ring then the name of Allah would be below the name of Muhammad

But like anything in Islam a qissa or story of fiction is invented then more stories will be invented in-order to justify the claims in the first story

So what are we left with? A ring that can be read as Allah is the prophet of Muhammad but we are supposed to read as MHMD RSUL ALLH

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