Islamic view of Ezra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series on Islam
Beliefs
Allah · Oneness of God Muhammad · Prophets of Islam
Practices
Profession of Faith · Prayer Fasting · Charity · Pilgrimage
History · Leaders
Timeline of Muslim history Ahl al-Bayt · Sahaba Rashidun Caliphs · Shi'a Imams
Texts · Laws
Qur'an · Sunnah · Hadith Fiqh · Sharia Kalam · Tasawwuf (Sufism)
Major branches
Sunni · Shi'a
Culture · Society
Academics · Animals · Art Calendar · Children · Demographics Festivals · Mosques · Philosophy Politics · Science · Women
Islam and other religions
Christianity · Hinduism · Jainism Judaism · Sikhism
See also
Criticism of Islam · Islamophobia Glossary of Islamic terms
Islam Portal  v • d • e

Ezra (Arabic: '‎عزير, 'Uzair, Turkish: 'Üzeyir) is a biblical priest who is usually believed by Muslim commentators to be the figure mentioned in the Qur'anic verse 9:30 and worshiped by Jews as "the son of God".^[1] Although not explicitly mentioned in Quran among the prophets, Ezra is considered as one of the prophets by some Muslim scholars, based on Islamic traditions. Ezra lived between the times of King Solomon and the time of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist.^[2][3] On the other hand, Muslim scholars such as Mutahhar al-Maqdisi and Djuwayni and notably Ibn Hazm and al-Samaw'al accused Ezra (or one of his disciples) of falsification of the Scriptures. ^[1]

Contents 1 In the Qur'an 2 In Islamic tradition 3 Quranic statements about perceived Jewish exaltation 3.1 Jewish tradition and literature 4 Accusations of falsification 5 References

[edit] In the Qur'an

One Qur'anic verse (Qur'an 9:30) refers to a certain Uzayr (Arabic: عزير) worshiped by Jews as "the son of God". Uzayr is usually identified by Muslim commentators with the biblical Ezra, or sometimes with a man who slept for three hundred years. Modern scholars have also suggested the Biblical Enoch, Azazel and Osiris.^[1]

[edit] In Islamic tradition

He is mentioned in Sahih Muslim in The Book of Faith as:

…Then the Jews would be summoned, and it would be said to them: What did you worship? They will say: We worshipped 'Uzair, son of Allah. It would be said to them: You tell a lie; Allah had never had a spouse or a son…1:352

Also, according to Ibn 'Abbas and Al-Hassan Al-Basri, the prophet mentioned in the following tradition is Uzair ^[2]:

Abu Haraira said that he heard Muhammad say, "An ant bit a prophet amongst the prophets, and that he ordered that the place of the ants be burnt. So, God inspired to him, 'Is it because one ant bit you that you burnt a nations amongst the nations that glorify God?

In some Islamic narrations, Ezra is the person mentioned in the following Qur'anic verse ^[3]:

Or (take) the similitude of one who passed by a hamlet, all in ruins to its roofs. He said: "Oh! how shall Allah bring it (ever) to life, after (this) its death?" but Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him up (again). He said: "How long didst thou tarry (thus)?" He said: (Perhaps) a day or part of a day." He said: "Nay, thou hast tarried thus a hundred years; but look at thy food and thy drink; they show no signs of age; and look at thy donkey: And that We may make of thee a sign unto the people, Look further at the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with flesh." When this was shown clearly to him, he said: "I know that Allah hath power over all things." (Qur'an 2:259)

After resurrection, he rode on his donkey and entered his native place. But the people did not recognize him, nor did his household, except the maid, who was now an old blind woman. He prayed to God to cure her blindness and she could see again. He meets his son who recognized him by a mole between his shoulders and was older than him. Ezra then led the people to locate the only surviving copy of Torah as the remaining were burnt by Nebuchadnezzar. He thus renovated the Torah to the Children of Israel. Ibn Kathir mentions that the sign in the phrase "And that We may make of thee a sign unto the people" was that he was younger than his children ^[3].

[edit] Quranic statements about perceived Jewish exaltation

The Quran says that Jews exalted Ezra as a "son of God."

The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! (Qur'an 9:30)

They take their priests (Ahbar) and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but One Allah: there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him: (Far is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him).(Qur'an 9:31)

No Jewish or extra-Qur'anic sources available to us mention worshiping of Ezra as the “son of God” by Jews.^[4] The Qur'an, David Waines holds, is mirroring the contemporary popular beliefs many of which probably bordered on heresy. ^[5] John Kaltner, however, says that there is no solid evidence to support the claim that the Jews of Medina viewed Ezra as a son of God.^[6] Indeed, the main difficulty in the quest for historical Muhammad in western academic circles is the uncertainty and the lack of knowledge about pre-Islamic Arabia.^[7]

According to John Kaltner, the Qur'anic verse on Ezra is the only place where the Qur'an accuses Jews of polytheism and that this reference is obscure and remains a mystery.^[6] G. D. Newby, pointing out to the books that were in circulation among the Jewish population in Hijaz, states that “It is easy, then, to imagine that among the Jews of the Hijaz who were apparently involved in mystical speculations associated with the merkabah, Ezra, because of the traditions of his translation, because of his piety, and particularly because he was equated with Enoch as the Scribe of God, could be termed one of the Bene Elohim [son of God]. And, of course, he would fit the description of religious leader (one of the ahbar of the Qur'an Qur'an 9:31) whom the Jews had exalted.”^[8] H. Z. Hirschberg holds that according to muslim sources there was some group of Yemenite Jews who believed that 'Uzayr was indeed the son of Allah' ^[9]. According to Charles Cutler Torrey, Muhammad made this assertion so as to claim pure monotheism for the Muslims alone, in his day.^[10]

Edward Henry Palmer states that “there is no Jewish tradition whatever in support of this accusation of Mohammed's, which probably was entirely due to his own invention or to misinformation.”^[11] According to Horovitz, “Muhammad could have heard about Jewish or Judeo-Christian sects that venerated Ezra in the way other sects venerated Melchizedek.”^[12] According to Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi, the relevant qur'anic text should in any case be understood in the context of the Muslim-Jewish relations that was replete with theological arguments between the nascent Muslim community and the well-established Jewish community in Medina. Rabi states that for the Qur'an, even a minute association of a creature with God is not acceptable and that this verse aims to distinguish the Muslim community from the existing Christian and the Jewish community. Even so, Rabi says, this would not explain why Ezra should be considered the son of God; Is Uzayr really Ezra, Rabi questions.^[12] Some modern scholars have suggested that Uzayr might actually refer to the Biblical Enoch, Azazel or Osiris.^[1]

According to Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, later Muslim authors who heard from their contemporary Jews and Christians that the accusation of sonship had no basis mentioned three types of explanation: al-Tabari said that only one Jew (Finhas) viewed Uzra as the son of God, Ibn Hazm said that only a small group of Jews worshipped ʿUzayr as a son of God in some past period. And others like Qurtubi said that the verse refers to the extreme admiration of Jews for their doctors of law.^[1]

Ibn Kathir, in his Qur'anic commentary, narrates a tradition on the authority of Abdullah Ibn Abbas saying that the Jews exalted Ezra because he could write down the Torah out of his memory; Moses could receive the Torah in the form of a book while Uzair got it without a book.^[3] According to Islamic scholar Al Baidawi, when Jews returned from Babylonish captivity, no one remembered the Tawrat and it was lost, hence God raised Ezra from the dead. Upon seeing him being raised from the dead, Jews exalted him to be the Son of God.^[13] Moreover, the Quran further adds that despite Jews and christians were "commanded to worship but One Allah" through scriptures, yet they exalted their clergy as Lords.^[14]

[edit] Jewish tradition and literature

A fundamental tenet of Judaism is that God is not bound by any limitations of time, matter, or space, and that the idea of any person being God, a part of God, or a mediator to God, is heresy.^[15] The Book of Ezra, which Judaism accepts as a chronicle of the life of Ezra and which predates Muhammad and the Qur'an by around 1000 years, gives Ezra's human lineage as being the son of Seraiah and a direct descendant of Aaron (Ezra 7:1–Ezra 7:5). Tractate Ta'anit of the Jerusalem Talmud, which predates Muhammad by two to three hundred years, states explicitly that “if a man claims to be God, he is a liar.”^[16]

The Qur'anic verse on Ezra appears in one of Maimonides's discussions about the relationship between Judaism and Islam where he says “…they [Muslims] lie about us [Jews], and falsely attribute to us the statement that God has a son.”^[17]

Abraham Geiger remarked the following concerning the claim that Jews believed Ezra to be the son of God: “According to the assertion of Muhammad the Jews held Ezra to be the Son of God. This is certainly a mere misunderstanding which arose from the great esteem in which Ezra was undoubtedly held. This esteem is expressed in the following passage ‘Ezra would have been worthy to have made known the law if Moses had not come before him.’ Truly Muhammad sought to cast suspicion on the Jews’ faith in the unity of God, and thought he had here found a good opportunity of so doing.” ^[18]

In Karaite Judaism, mourners use the word "meharef" to represent a whole range of Muslim anti-Jewish polemic including the notion that Jews considered Ezra to be the son of God. Salmon b. Yeruhim said: “A meharef is one who reviles [us] for sins we have committed and others which we have not. The former includes our worshipping the calves, killing the prophets and the like. The latter, our assertion that 'Uzayr [Ezra] was the son [of God]…”^[19]

[edit] Accusations of falsification

Ibn Hazm, an Andalusian Muslim scholar, explicitly accused Ezra of being a liar and a heretic who falsified and added interpolations into the Biblical text. Ibn Hazm provided a polemical list of what he considered "chronological and geographical inaccuracies and contradictions; theological impossibilities (anthropomorphic expressions, stories of fornication and whoredom, and the attributing of sins to prophets), as well as lack of reliable transmission (tawatur) of the text", Hava Lazarus-Yafeh states. ^[1][20] In response to attacks on the personality of Ezra, the Byzantine Emperor Leo III defended Ezra as a pious, reliable person.^[20]The Jewish convert to Islam al-Samaw'al (d. 1175) accused Ezra of interpolating stories such as Gen. 19:30-8 in the Bible in order to sully David’s origins and to prevent the rule of the Davidic dynasty during the second Temple.^[1] The writings of Ibn Hazm and al-Samaw'al was adopted and updated only slightly by later Muslim authors up to contemporary times.^[1][20]

According to Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, the early writers seem to have been influenced with the idea of falsification of the scriptures already present in the pre-Islamic sources and well-known among Christians and Jews, who had written in their refutation.^[1]

[edit] References