Islamic Tabrir and does the word الصلاة also mean الرحمة?

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Feb 4, 2021 at 07:03

Dr. Pipes,

I'm sure you must be aware of the activity in Islamic literature called التبرير or trying to find the way out of linguistic as well as theological disasters in the Qur'an and case in point is the very vast literature about the celebrated Quranic grammatical mistake In Hadhan la Sahiran (Q20:63)

This is how Ibn al-A'rabi defines (and preserved in Ibn Manzur dictionary) the word الصلاة or prayer and means: القيام والركوع والسجود والدعاء والتسبيح or: Standing, Kneeling, Prostrating, Supplication and Praising

However, the Islamic tradition had to find a way out of "Allah and his angels praying" and this is why we are told that Allah prays really means: الصلاة من الله رحمة or prayer from Allah is mercy.

This creates another problem: If true then why did the author of the Qur'an select the word يصلي instead of the word يرحم? And why would the angels have a similar power as Allah? We are also told that in the case of the angels the word Yusali means forgiveness! Why would the angels have the power of forgiveness when no other than Allah says in the Qur'an that he forgives Muhammad's past and future sins. It just does not make sense

Here is al-Tabari's Tabrir and it is very early: ( إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ ) يقول: يباركون على النبي. وقد يحتمل أن يقال: إن معنى ذلك: أن الله يرحم النبي

al-Tabari is providing this tabrir and he quotes the verse (Surat al-Ahzab 56) this can be rendered as: He says they (Allah and the angles) ARE BLESSING the prophet (Muhammad) and it is possible to say that the meaning of this (here comes the tabrir): Truly Allah has mercy for the prophet

So you can clearly see that in the late second early third century of Islam al-Tabari was trying to find a way out of this disaster and when al-Qurtubi wrote his tafsir it becomes a fact that Allah prays means he provides mercy.

More? and this is from an old post of mine
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Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jun 30, 2018 at 06:54

Here is the hadith in Arabic so no Muslim can say we kuffar make things up:

يا جبريل ، أيصلي ربك ؟ قَالَ : نعم . قلتُ : ما صلاته ؟ قَالَ : سبوح قدوس رب الملائكة والروح ، سبقت رحمتي غضبي "

This can be rendered as: (Muhammad is saying): O Gabriel does your Master (Allah) pray? He (Gabriel) said yes! I (Muhammad) said: and what is his prayer? He (Gabriel) said: Sabooh (I will explain this word below) Holy the Master of the angels and the Soul (also spirit) My compassion comes before my anger!

Allah prays! So who is the Allah of Allah?

Well to make things more interesting and spicy no one has a clue what the word Sabooh really means! However, here is what Muslims tell us that this word really means:

هو الذي سبَّح بحمدهِ المسبِّحون

Or: He who is praised/glorified with his praise those that praise!

Here is a link to the root S-B-H

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%AD

And here is a link to the root H-M-D

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF

Allah prays! Mash'allah

Oh there is more disasters in the same Hadith: Well guess what? The God of Moses (in Islam he is supposed to be Allah too) also prays:

قَالَ بنو إسرائيل لِموسى : " هَلْ يصلي ربك ؟ فتكايد مُوسَى لذلك ، فقال الله تعالى : ما قالوا لك يا مُوسَى ؟ فقال : الَّذِي سَمِعْتُ . قَالَ : فأخبرهم إني أصلي ، وإن صلاتي تطفئ غضبي

However, Moses' Allah prays to get rid of his anger! Anger management may be?

Here is a link to the Hadith

http://library.islamweb.net/hadith/display_hbook.php?bk_no=1002&hid=57&pid=164
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Again, this is not unlike the bogus claim that Allahu Akbar means God is Great

And in this case the bogus claim that the word الصلاة (and to quote al-Tabari) means blessing but could mean الرحمة

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