"...But God Cleared him of What They Said..." (Quran 33:69): About Lies and Falsehoods Invented by Hadiths-Fabricators about Moses

Published in January 1, 2019

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

 We have received this question via email; we intended at first to reply to it in the fatwas section, but the lengthy answer entailed being put in an article. We quote the question here followed by our reply.

 (... Dear Sir, ... The Lord God says the following in the Quran: "O you who believe! Do not be like those who harmed Moses; but God cleared him of what they said. He was distinguished with God." (33:69); what is the harm, insult, or rumor of which the Lord God has cleared Moses? Any ideas? ... Thank you ...).

OUR REPLY:

Firstly: we are never to guess or talk about things never mentioned in the Quran about the metaphysical realm of the past and the invisible:

1- Within the Quranic stories, there are details and aspects never mentioned by the Lord God; of course, the Quranic stories belong to the metaphysical realm of the past and the unseen; the Lord God has chosen to mention some details and to omit the rest. We are not to resort to guesses, conjectures, and surmises regarding the omitted details so as not to invent ridiculous myths and ascribe them to God's Religion, as this is a major sin and a blasphemy against Him. Real believers believe in the unseen/invisible and unknown as per the Quran only; Muhammad himself never knew/talked about the metaphysical realm of the past, the future, and the invisible. Those authors who invented countless myths regarding the metaphysical realm of the past are sinners who place themselves above Muhammad and attributed lies and falsehoods (i.e., hadiths and narratives) to God's Religion.  

2- In the verse 33:69, we are to focus on drawing the moral lesson. Some Israelites insulted Moses or spread rumors/slanders and leveled accusations against him; the Lord God cleared his name of such injustice. The moral lesson is that the Lord God has warned contemporaries of Muhammad (and believers in all eras) against ascribing lies to Muhammad and against insulting him; they are not to follow the footsteps of sinners among the Israelites who insulted Moses. This is mentioned in the context of the Quranic Chapter 33 about the harm/insults spread against Muhammad. More details about this are found in this article of ours, in English, found on this link: (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=14140). Thus, 33:69 mentions some facts and omits some details; we are not to guess what type of insults/accusations which harmed Moses and how the Lord God cleared him of such harm. We are to ponder 33:69 without adding details from or own imagination. This is the stance of Quran-believing, pious monotheists     

Secondly: orators, storytellers, and inventors/fabricators of hadiths are the ones who formulated the earthly/terrestrial religions of Satan:

1- The stance of Quran-hating polytheists is to deny and disbelieve in the Quran (i.e., the Celestial Religion) and to seek to undermine it by inventing myths, narratives, and tales which form the basis of their earthly/terrestrial religions. Such polytheistic fabricators of tales follow the footsteps of the misguided ones among the People of the Book; some of those who converted to 'Islam' (after the Arab conquest of their countries) from among the People of the Book invented their own stories/myths/narratives (i.e., hadiths) ascribed to Muhammad; this is how the earthly/terrestrial religions of Sunnites, Shiites, and Sufis have emerged; they are based on lies and falsehoods which include undermining and insulting Muhammad and other prophets/messengers.        

2- The Lord God has made the Quran as the endorsement of the Torah and the Gospel and urged the People of the Book to believe in the Quran as God's Word: "He sent down to you the Book with the Truth, confirming what came before it; and He sent down the Torah and the Gospel." (3:3); "And believe in what I revealed, confirming what is with you; and do not be the first to deny it; and do not exchange My Verses for a small price; and be conscious of Me within piety." (2:41).

3- This means that the true and undistorted Torah and Gospel existed in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad (but they disappeared mysteriously later on), as we infer from these verses: "But why do they come to you for judgment, when they have the Torah, in which is God's Law? Yet they turn away after that. These are not believers. We have revealed the Torah, wherein is guidance and light..." (5:43-44); "All food was permissible to the Israelites, except what Israel forbade for himself before the Torah was revealed. Say, "Bring the Torah, and read it, if you are truthful."" (3:93); "So let the people of the Gospel rule according to what God revealed in it. Those who do not rule according to what God revealed are the sinners. " (5:47).

4- Distortions occurred to the Torah and the Gospel by impious clergymen of the Byzantine empire; fabricators of narratives and tales inserted their falsehoods and lies, found now in what is known as the Bible, with its Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible contains little truths; most of it are distorted tales/stories and legislations; many historians and other experts in the West assert that the books of the Bible are collected and written by many unknown authors; distortions and contradictions in its text were inevitable.   

5- By the time when (1) Arab conquerors mingled with the People of the Book in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and North Africa, (2) the Arabian People of the Book were expelled from Arabia by the caliph Omar, and (3) Arabs and Byzantines fought one another, the true Torah and Gospel were lost; they disappeared mysteriously; most People of the Book later on followed the Old Testament only (i.e., the Jews) or the Bible with its Old Testament and the New Testament (i.e., the Christians).  

6- Thus, the Old Testament and the New Testament are based on lies/tales fabricated by unknown narrators and authors; the descendants of the People of the Book who converted to 'Islam' continued their old habit to fabrication by inventing lies/hadiths ascribed to Muhammad in order to please the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs in order to achieve political aims and to get wealthy; they had to amuse people (within councils and mosques) and gain fame by inventing strange and elaborate tales about the prophets/messengers of God. Such hadiths, ascribed to Muhammad and sometimes to God Himself, with their Isnad (i.e., series of narrators) are the basis of the earthly/terrestrial religions of Satan.   

7- Such wealth and fame gained by narrators/orators or fabricators led to the existence of fierce competition; they had to amuse and attract larger audience by narrating strange and mythical stories about prophets/messengers of God; for instance, the masses would ask such narrators about the verse 33:69, and this led to the invention of lies/myths/hadiths about Moses as fabricators added details never mentioned in the Quran. this sin is repeated by 'interpreters' of the Quran, such as Al-Qurtubi. We tackle below examples of the myths he mentions in his book of 'interpretation' of the Quran.     

Thirdly: examples of the balderdash of the interpretation of 33:69 by Al-Qurtubi – may the Lord God curse him:

1- (... As for the harm done to Moses, Ibn Abbas said that a series of narrators said that Abou Hurayrah said that the Holy Prophet Muhammad said that the Israelite men used to bathe stark naked in a nearby river, looking at one another's nakedness and genitals without feeling ashamed; Moses was bashful and never joined their communal bathing; he always bathed alone away from the prying eyes; this made some Israelites accuse him of being a leper or that his body was deformed, especially that they told him to join their daily bathing rituals in the river and he refused. At one time, Moses was alone when he took his clothes off to bathe in a lake; he put his clothes on a large rock; God made the rock move and runaway, carrying the clothes of Moses. Naked, Moses got out of the lake and hurriedly ran after the rock to get his clothes back; some of the Israelites men saw Moses running naked; they realized that he is not a leper and he had a beautiful body with no deforms. This is how God cleared Moses of what they said. When Moses retrieved his clothes, he rebuked and severely beat the rock six or seven times ... This hadith is narrated by Al-Bokhary and Moslem in their books of hadiths ...).

2- (...As for the harm done to Moses, Ibn Abbas said that a series of narrators said that the Holy Prophet Muhammad said that after the death of Aaron, the Israelites accused Moses of killing Aaron; this is because Moses and Aaron were alone at a mountain when Aaron died. When Moses told them that Aaron is dead and that he buried him, the Israelites were indignant and accused Moses of killing Aaron because they loved him more than they loved Moses because Aaron was more lenient and gentler. This accusation hurt Moses very much; God cleared him from such accusation by making angels carry the corpse of Aaron in the air; all the Israelites saw that the corpse showed no signs of being hit or stabbed; they knew at once that this miracle prove the innocence of Moses ... The Israelites never knew the burial place of Aaron and Moses; Aaron died before Moses, two months before the end of 40 years of wandering; some narrators assert that Ali Ibn Abou Talib said that the Holy Prophet Muhammad said that the miracle was that Aaron was revived and brought back to life for a few minutes to announce to the Israelites that Moses did not kill him and he died once more ...).

3- (... As for the harm done to Moses, many narrators assert that many of the wicked Israelites accused him of being a sorcerer and some others spread the news of his being a madman; narrators of hadiths assert the former accusation more than the rumor; maybe the Israelites leveled the accusation and spread the rumors simultaneously and God cleared him of all that ...).

Fourthly: our comments on the balderdash and nonsense of Al-Qurtubi:

1- Al-Qurtubi died in 671 A.H., within the early decades of the Mameluke Era whose main feature is to repeat and blindly follow what is written by the deified and sanctified ancient authors, imams, and scholars. This is manifested in the book of interpretation by Al-Qurtubi; i.e., he blindly copies ancient authors, as we notice in his 'interpretation' of 33:69 about the harm done to Moses.

2- Al-Qurtubi copies from the books of hadiths authored by Al-Bokhary and Moslem the silly, unbelievable story about a naked Moses whose clothes were stolen by a stone while he bathed. The unknown oral narrator who invented and made up this nonsensical story seemed to have desired to make his audience laugh at this narrative fabricated by him. It is a shame that such balderdash would turn into a religion (i.e., the Sunnite religion) as Al-Bokhary and Moslem turned it into a hadith. 

3- Al-Qurtubi copies another narrative, without making it a hadith ascribed to Muhammad, that Moses was accused of killing Aaron.

4- Al-Qurtubi was an ignoramus because he deemed all this nonsense as true; he never dared to criticize and correct anything.

Fifthly: does this balderdash exist in the Biblical story of Moses?:

 The story of Moses is mentioned within four books of the Old Testament: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We found an indication of the accusation leveled at Moses and how the Lord God cleared him of it; this indication is found in the book of Numbers. From the KJV, we quote the first fifteen verses from Chapter 12 of the book of Numbers, authored by anonymous writer(s) as the case with the whole chapters of the Bible.

 (And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out.And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed.And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb.And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.).

As for the book of Deuteronomy, its unknown author makes it end in the death of Moses. From the KJV, we quote entire Chapter 34 of the book of Deuteronomy, authored by anonymous writer(s) as the case with the whole chapters of the Bible.

 (And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan.And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea,And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses.And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,In all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.).