Response to: Aisha in the Bible

The following is a rebuttal to the article on RevisitingtheSalaf.org, published on the 28^th of February, 2012, which can be found here.

The RTS team, in this article, decides to use the Old Testament in order to attack Aisha. As if the Old Testament is an acceptable source of information for Muslims, but their hatred for the Prophet’s (pbuh) wives knows no bounds, RTS argues:

Job 9:9 in the Bible is usually translated as referring to three stars or constellations, but in fact there is not the slightest reference to heavenly bodies in the verse. The place in which God created the three figures of Job 9:9 is not the sky, but the southern reaches, that is, the land south of Palestine, or Arabia.

This place gives us a hint about the identity of these three figures that Job prophesies to be of God’s creation. When we examine the history of Arabia for three such figures, indeed three immediately appear. The first figure in Job 9:9 is named Aiysh, using the Hebrew letters ‘ayin, yod, and shin. These happen to be the three letters that also make up the name in Arabic of Aisha, the daughter of  Abu Bakar.

The text is careful to identify the first of the three figures by name. It can then use greater liberty in identifying the other two by characteristics rather than name, since it is obvious that the two figures to follow Aisha are the second Khalifah Umar and the third Khalifah Uthmaan. 

Job 9:9 refers to Umar (la) by the descriptive word k’sîyl, which literally means “fat”, but is used figuratively for stupid, silly, or foolish. This is in reference to Umar’s well-known ignorance of divine law, which contrasts with the epithet given him by his supporters, Al-Farooq, the one who can distinguish between truth and falsehood  as mentioned in our previous article as this term init self was given by none muslims. This is precisely what Umar was unable to do.

The third figure in Job 9:9 is characterized as kîyd, literally a crushing, that is, calamity or destruction. What Umar started by favouring the Umayyids and Ottoman brought to a crushing and destructive conclusion through his nepotism. He set all of the leading families of Mecca, the very ones who persecuted the first Muslims, in all of the ruling positions of the empire. Having done that, he compounded his sins by desecrating the Qur’aan, having dozens of copies of it burned in the sight of the faithful.

It has been brought to the twelvershia.net team, by brother “Swords of Sunnah”, from Islamic-forum.net, has already responded to the above by quoting Biblical scholars who have studied the linguistics of the aforementioned verses:

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

The Hebrew word rendered Arcturus, is עשׁ  ‛ayı̂sh.The word עשׁ  ‛ayı̂sh does not literally mean a bear, but is made by  aphaeresis from the Arabic nas, by the excision of the initial n – as is  common in Arabic; see Bochart, Hieroz. P. II. Lib. I. c. xvi. p. 113,  114. The word in Arabic means a bier, and is the name given to the  constellation which we denominate Ursa Major, “because,” says Bochart,  “the four stars, which are a square, are regarded as a bier, on which a  dead body is borne.

Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible

Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the  south – For this translation the original words are עשה עש כסיל וכימה  והדרי תמן  oseh ash, kesil, vechimah vehadrey theman

Parkhurst and Bate have given, perhaps, the best interpretation of the words, which is as follows: – “כימה  kimah, from כמה  camah, to be hot or warm, denotes genial heat or  warmth, as opposed to עש  ash, a parching, biting air, on the one side;  and כסיל  kesil, the rigid, contracting cold, on the other; and the  chambers (thick clouds) of the south.”

We at twelvershia.net add: It is also worthwhile to return to the actual verses to get a finer understanding of the context. The following is Job’s praise of the Lord, taken from the Old Testament:

9:4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength –who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

9:5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,

9:6 who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;

9:7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;

9:8 who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;

9:9 who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

9:10 who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.

English Standard Version

Now, with the verse finally in context, we realize that Job is simply praising the Creator. He praises his omniscience, omnipotence, his power over the mountains, the earth, the sun, the stars, the heavens, the sea, and the constellations.

Here, the objective reader must ask himself. If Job 9:9 was supposed to be a form of condemnation and warning, and that the names of the constellations should be substituted with the names of Aisha, Omar, and Uthman, would the verses be harmonious in meaning? Or would Job 9:9 be out of place and context? Would Job even refer to them as “great” and “marvellous things”, as wonders of the powers of the Lord, if he said those things as a warning? The answer is, without a doubt, crystal clear.

May Allah guide the ignorant deviants, their attempts to attack the pillars of the religion are truly sad…