Salam Rushdie and قصة الغرانيق (The Story of The Cranes) aka Satanic Verses

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Aug 13, 2022 at 09:06

Dr. Pipes,

Your review of Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" is outstanding.

The cowardly and despicable attack on Salman Rushdie is a serious attack on not just on Mr. Rushdie but also on free speech.

I urge your readers to check this link from wikiislam and it is an excellent review of قصة الغرانيق (notice al-Tabari calls them الغرانقة) of the revered Islamic sources including: The Qur'an, The Sira, Tarikh, al-Ahadith and al-Tafsir by the giants of Islam the likes of al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir and al-Jalalayin

https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Muhammad_and_the_Satanic_Verses

The story is as follows:

Muhammad recited from Surat al-Najm: أفرأيتم اللات والعزى . ومناة الثالثة الأخرى Or Did you see al-Lat and al-'Uza and Manat the third the other (these are the flying Cranes)

Then Satan "revealed" to Muhammad and Muhammad recited: تلك الغرانيق العلى . وإن شفاعتهن ترتجى or: These are the high (flying) Cranes and truly their intercession is desired.

Notice that these two sentences are transmitted in multiple recensions including:

وإن شفاعتها لترتجى . وإنها لمع الغرانيق العلى

As well as:

وإنهن لهن الغرانيق العلى . وإن شفاعتهن لهي التي ترتجى (very good 3rd century Arabic syntax)

تلك الغرانقة العلى, وإن شفاعتهنّ لترجى This is from Tafsir al-Tabari and notice that he calls the Cranes: الغرانقة and here a link to Lisan al-'Arab and the word الغرانقة (الغرانيق)

https://www.islamweb.net/ar/library/index.php?page=bookcontents&idfrom=5912&idto=5912&bk_no=122&ID=5923

Here is a link to Tafsir Ibn Kathir of Q22-52 and 22-53

https://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/katheer/sura22-aya52.html

I urge readers to use a "translation app" and avoid the Arabic to English translations because most of the story seems to disappear in translation because it must be embarrassing to those that translate such texts.

Here is Tafsir al-Tabari

https://quran.ksu.edu.sa/tafseer/tabary/sura22-aya52.html

This story is in their books. It must be that most Muslims have no clue about what in their books.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".