not keep quiet, however, and a scandal ensues. Ever faithful, Allah steps in to smooth things over (Qur’an 66:1-5). He begins: “O Prophet! Why do you ban (for yourself) that which God has made lawful to you…” (Qur’an 66:1) and goes on to say that Muhammad is not bound by his oaths. The two ladies in question get a severe tongue lashing from Allah who tells them that they better shape up or that Muhammad may yet divorce all his wives and marry more obedient ones!
Allah Changes the Qur’an On-the-Spot in Response to a Question Posed to Muhammad.
In Sahih Bukhari, the most respected Sunni hadith collection, we read of the following exchange: “There was revealed: ‘Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and those who strive and fight in the Cause of Allah.’ (4.95) The Prophet said, “Call Zaid for me and let him bring the board, the inkpot and the scapula bone (or the scapula bone and the ink pot).”‘ Then he said, “Write: ‘Not equal are those Believers who sit..”, and at that time ‘Amr bin Um Maktum, the blind man, was sitting behind the Prophet . He said, “O Allah’s Apostle! What is your order For me (as regards the above Verse) as I am a blind man?” So, instead of the above Verse, the following Verse was revealed: “Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) except those who are disabled (by injury or are blind or lame etc.) and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah.” (4.95) (Sahih Bukhari 6:61:512) Here, we have an example of how Allah’s supposedly
eternal word is changed in a flash as a result of Muhammad wanting to accommodate one of his disabled followers. While his motivation may be praiseworthy, this playing loose-and-fast with Allah’s word to fit in with what Muhammad wants is quite instructive.
Muhammad Gets Irritated with some Diggers: Allah Tells Them to Keep Digging!
During the so-called Battle of the Trench, Muhammad ordered some of his followers to dig a deep trench around Medina. This was obviously very hard work, and some of the men went absent without leave. This greatly irritated Muhammad. Sure enough, Allah comes through and makes it clear that those who want to leave the work can only do so with Muhammad’s explicit permission (Qur’an 24:62).
It is worth stressing how remarkable these convenient revelations are. As already noted Allah could not find space in the Qur’an to instruct the faithful on key aspects of Islamic faith and practice such as how to pray, how to make the pilgrimage and how to confess your faith. On the other hand, the ‘Eternal Qur’an’ is filled with verses clearly aimed at smoothing things over for just one single person. Perhaps, the last word in this regard belongs to Aisha (Muhammad’s favorite wife) who responded as follows to the revelation that Muhammad can marry as many women as he wished: “I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires.” (Sahih Bukhari 6:60:311) Indeed!