Letters Muhammad sent to Kings and Monarchs inviting them to Al-Islam (download)
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Salaam brothers/Sisters...
I am currently into hot debate with some salafis and while doing my research on the letters of the Prophet, I found this PDF file which contain all the letters as well as some hadiths elaborating on them... You can discard the hadiths, this is up to you... Hope that it will help you in your research.
http//navedz.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/the-letters-of-the-prophet-muhammad-to-the-kings-beyond-arabia.pdf
The reason why I wanted to investigate into the letters is because there are some people who claim that in these letters, the Messenger wrote the rules of zakah among others which is according to the Hadith books.... So far, I have not found these claims to be true... In all the letters, the monarchs are invited to submit themselves to the One and Only God...
The question arose while I was asking them for proof of hadith being written down at the time of the Prophet... That is also their claim.. We know Quran was written, fragments have been found... But so far, no fragment dated to the lifetime of the Prophet have been found... If you have more information on such issues and old manuscripts of the Quran, please share it, it will be helpful... I hope I will get some responses...
Also, I have not found any thread here which discuss on these letters of the Messenger, if they are around... kindly point me to them... Thank you
May Allah increase us in knowledge
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Peace WayFinder,
I am currently into hot debate with some salafis and while doing my research on the letters of the Prophet, I found this PDF file which contain all the letters as well as some hadiths elaborating on them... You can discard the hadiths, this is up to you... Hope that it will help you in your research.
http//navedz.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/the-letters-of-the-prophet-muhammad-to-the-kings-beyond-arabia.pdf
The reason why I wanted to investigate into the letters is because there are some people who claim that in these letters, the Messenger wrote the rules of zakah among others which is according to the Hadith books.... So far, I have not found these claims to be true... In all the letters, the monarchs are invited to submit themselves to the One and Only God...
The question arose while I was asking them for proof of hadith being written down at the time of the Prophet... That is also their claim.. We know Quran was written, fragments have been found... But so far, no fragment dated to the lifetime of the Prophet have been found... If you have more information on such issues and old manuscripts of the Quran, please share it, it will be helpful... I hope I will get some responses...
Also, I have not found any thread here which discuss on these letters of the Messenger, if they are around... kindly point me to them... Thank you
May Allah increase us in knowledge
Salafis bring up forgeries that no decent archeologist regards as authentic. Take the Muqauqis letters, for example. Both the alleged letter from the prophet and the reply from Muqauqis are provided by the Salafis. Anyone with a grain of logic can see that the two letters are later day forgeries. This is why even sectarian scholars don't dare refer to them as archeological evidence. It is only referenced on Internet forums and blogs by desperate ignorant Salafis.
The first obvious problem is the Islamacized language of the reply letter which was supposedly written by the leader of the Copts.
The second obvious problem is that the letter was supposedly sent in the year 628 CE. At the time, Egypt was under the rule of the Sassanids and Muqauqis did not become the See until 630 CE, after Heraclius had recaptured Egypt. This makes it impossible that he had sent such a letter.
There are many other issues such as why would a Christian bishop send two Christian ladies, belonging to noble Coptic families, as slaves to a non-Christian ruler? Why would a Christian bishop believe in the prophecy of a new prophet? Christians Copts believe in the Second Coming but not in the arrival of a new prophet.
All the above issues plus the fact that forging such letters between historical figures was common practice during the Abbasid era has led respected archeologists to conclude that such letters are forgeries. There is an abundance of forgeries such as letters and other supposed artifacts such as hair from the beard of the prophet and his footprint, etc. and only Sunnis believe in such things
http//fun4khyber.blogspot.com/2008/01/rare-pictures-related-to-life-of-hazrat_14.html
Peace,
Ayman
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The letter sent to Muqauqis by the messenger seem to be genuine and the content of the letter is the same as the other ones, and we also have the manuscripts surviving.... but as for the reply, this could be a forgery because as you pointed out, the content is islamicized and that is strange since it is written by a Christian ruler, and secondly, we do not have the manuscript to prove it and it is found just in the same unreliable sources as the hadith books...
Do we have any evidence of carbon dating of the letters? Any scientific studies done by archeologists on them? Or have it just been mere speculation from all these time...
Thanks for taking time to answer...
May Allah increase us in knowledge...
Salaam
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Peace WayFinder,
Anyone have been able to acquire scientific data on these letters yet?
No scientist, even a Sunni one, believes that the letters are genuine. This is based on both content and palaeographical basis. They are clearly forgeries, so no need to waste your time. Only Salafis believe them to be genuine. You acknowledged that the Muqauqis letter is a clear 100% foregery. The same applies to all the letters. Forging such letters was common place during the late Abassid era.
Peace,
Ayman
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Peace WayFinder,
No scientist, even a Sunni one, believes that the letters are genuine. This is based on both content and palaeographical basis. They are clearly forgeries, so no need to waste your time. Only Salafis believe them to be genuine. You acknowledged that the Muqauqis letter is a clear 100% foregery. The same applies to all the letters. Forging such letters was common place during the late Abassid era.
I agree. Furthermore they have the so-called "stamp-signature of Muhammad". Maybe they did that to propagate Islam and to "prove" that Muhammad was illiterate, since they claimed that Muhammad's scribes wrote them for him and he only signed them with his stamp. nope
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I agree. Furthermore they have the so-called "stamp-signature of Muhammad". Maybe they did that to propagate Islam and to "prove" that Muhammad was illiterate, since they claimed that Muhammad's scribes wrote them for him and he only signed them with his stamp. nope
Thanks for the insight... However, the Hadith which spoke about the famous stamp says that it was Muhammad himself who engraved this stamp... Not anyone else.
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Peace WayFinder,
No scientist, even a Sunni one, believes that the letters are genuine. This is based on both content and palaeographical basis. They are clearly forgeries, so no need to waste your time. Only Salafis believe them to be genuine. You acknowledged that the Muqauqis letter is a clear 100% foregery. The same applies to all the letters. Forging such letters was common place during the late Abassid era.
Peace,
Ayman
Thanks for the input ayman...
However, it is not about me wasting my time... People are using these to prove that hadith writings... It has come up during several of my discussions with hadith upholders... When they bring this as their proof... When I tell them that they are forgeries... They ask me what are my proof for my claims... You got the point?
Some scientific data on these letters would have reveal the whole truth about this issue...
Anyways, if you got ideas how to tackle this issue, do let me know.
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Thanks for the insight... However, the Hadith which spoke about the famous stamp says that it was Muhammad himself who engraved this stamp... Not anyone else.
Correct, "THE HADITH said..." (ie. not so reliable information)
Nevertheless it could be true, however it could as well have been forged because of the already mentioned reasons.