Not all the “revelations” found in the Quran were exclusively the product of Muhammad’s mind.
In this hadith, for example, we learn that Umar ibn Khattab managed to guide his “boss” Muhammad on no fewer than three occasions:
- Umar asks Muhammad to have it “revealed” that the stone on which Abraham was supposedly standing while building the Kaaba should be regarded as a place of prayer (Quran 2:125).
- Umar asks Muhammad to impose the veil on women through a “revelation” (Quran 24:31 and 33:59).
- When Muhammad’s wives joined forces against him because of his “affair” with the slave woman Mariam, Umar confronted them, saying that Muhammad might decide to divorce them and receive a “revelation” that could provide him with better replacements. As usual, the “divine” verse then arrives with obsessive precision (Quran 66:5), containing exactly the same warning expressed by Umar.
Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith no. 402 – Narrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab:
My Lord agreed with me in three things. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, I wish we would take the Station of Abraham (Maqam Ibrahim) as a place of prayer.” Then the divine revelation came down: “And take the Station of Abraham as a place of prayer” (Quran 2:125). I said, “O Messenger of Allah, it would be better if you ordered your wives to cover themselves.” Then the revelation came down: “O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their veils over themselves…” (Quran 33:59), as well as the verse about lowering the gaze. The Prophet’s wives united against him, and I said to them, “Perhaps, if he divorces you, his Lord will give him wives better than you in exchange.” Then the revelation came down: “Perhaps, if he divorces you…” (Quran 66:5).
The same pattern was repeated on other occasions, as in the case of verse 4:65, also “suggested” by Umar.
It is incredible that the most authoritative Islamic sources themselves declare that the entire Islamic ideological apparatus was the product of purely human schemes driven by motives that were anything but noble.
