( lies rebuttal series ) was ‘uzayr (ezra) called the son of god

8/14/2019 ( Lies Rebuttal Series ) Was Uzayr (Ezra) Called the Son of God

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Was Ùzayr (Ezra) Called The Son Of God?

M S M Saifullah & Mustafa Ahmed

Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.

Last Modified: 1st September 1999

Assalamu-àlaikum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

Ùzayr, who was exalted by a community of Jews, is identified as Ezra by Muslim

commentators. The Qur'an says:

The Jews call Ùzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah.

That is the saying from their mouth; (In this) they are intimate; what the Unbelievers

of the old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the

truth. [Qur'an 9:30]

Before we take care of the origin of the issue of exalting Ezra to son of God by some

Jews, let us first discuss the life of the man himself.

Ezra (5th-4th century BC, Babylon and Jerusalem) was a religious leader of the Jews

who returned from exile in Babylon, and a reformer who reconstituted the Jewish

community on the basis of the Torah (Law, or the regulations of the first five books of

the Old Testament). This monumental work of Ezra helped to make Judaism a

religion in which law was central, that enabled the Jews to survive as a community

when they were dispersed all over the world. Ezra has with some justice been called

the father of Judaism since his efforts did much to give Jewish religion the form that


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was to characterize it for centuries after the specific form the Jewish religion took

after the Babylonian Exile. So important was he in the eyes of his people that later

tradition regarded him as no less than a second Moses

(P)

. Regarding the tomb of EzraEncyclopaedia Judaica says:

There are number of traditions concerning the site of

Ezra's tomb. According to Josephus it is in Jerusalem;

other hold that he was buried in Urta or in Zunzumu on

the Tigris; but the general accepted version is that his

tomb is situated in Uzer, a village near Basra. This

tradition is mentioned by Benjamin of Tuleda, Pethahiah

of Regensburg, Judah Alharizi, and other travelers,

Jewish and non-Jewish who visited Babylonia.[1]

It is to be kept in mind that the knowledge about Ezra is derived from the Biblical

books of Ezra and Nehemiah, supplemented by the Apocryphal (not included in the

Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament but present in Roman Catholic and

Greek Orthodox Churchs' canon) book of I Esdras (Latin Vulgate form of the name

Ezra), which preserves the Greek text of Ezra and a part of Nehemiah.

It is interesting to note that the Jews in Arabia, during the advent of Islam, were

involved in mystical speculation as well as anthromorphizing and worshipping an

angel that functions as the substitute creator of the universe. That angel is usually

identified as Metatron[2]. Newby notes that:

...we can deduce that the inhabitants of Hijaz during

Muhammad's time knew portions, at least, of 3 Enoch in

association with the Jews. The angels over which Metatron

becomes chief are identified in the Enoch traditions as

the sons of God, the Bene Elohim, the Watchers, the

fallen ones as the causer of the flood. In 1 Enoch, and 4

Ezra, the term Son of God can be applied to the Messiah,

but most often it is applied to the righteous men, of

whom Jewish tradition holds there to be no more righteous

than the ones God elected to translate to heaven alive.

It is easy, then, to imagine that among the Jews of theHijaz who were apparently involved in mystical

speculations associated with the merkabah, Ezra, because

of the traditions of his translation, because of his

piety, and particularly because he was equated with Enoch

as the Scribe of God, could be termed one of the Bene

Elohim. And, of course, he would fit the description of

religious leader (one of the ahbar of the Qur'an 9:31)

whom the Jews had exalted.[3]


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The Islamic exegetes have mentioned that there existed a community of Jews in

Yemen who considered Ezra as son of God. Hirschberg says inEncyclopaedia

Judaica:

H. Z. Hirschberg proposed another assumption, based on

the words of Ibn Hazm, namely, that the 'righteous who

live in Yemen believed that 'Uzayr was indeed the son of

Allah.' According to other Muslim sources, there were

some Yemenite Jews who had converted to Islam who

believed that Ezra was the messiah. For Muhammad, Ezra,

the apostle (!) of messiah, can be seen in the same light

as the Christian saw Jesus, the messiah, the son of

Allah.[4]

George Sale makes an interesting comment concerning the Muslim as well as Judeo-

Christian opinion on this issue.

This grievous charge against the Jews, the commentators

endeavour to support by telling us, that it is meant of

some ancient heterdox Jews, or else of some Jews of

Medina; who said so for no other reason, than for that

the law being utterly lost and forgotten during the

Babylonish captivity, Ezra having been raised to life

after he had been dead one hundred years, dictated the

whole anew unto the scribes, out of his own memory; atwhich they greatly marvelled, and declared that he could

not have done it, unless he were the son of God. Al-

Beidawi adds, that the imputation must be true, because

this verse was read to the Jews and they did not

contradict it; which they were ready enough to do in

other instances.

That Ezra did restore not only the Pentateuch, but also

the other books of the Old Testament, by divine

revelation, was the opinion of several of the Christian

fathers, who are quoted by Dr.Prideaux, and of some otherwriters; which they seem to have first borrowed from a

passage in that very ancient apocryphal book, called in

our English Bible, the second book of Esdras. Dr.

Prideaux tells us, that herein the Fathers attributed

more to Ezra, than the Jews themselves, which he laboured

much in, and went a great way in the perfecting of it. It

is not improbable however, that the fiction came

originally from the Jews, though they be now of another

opinion, and I cannot fix it upon them by any direct

proof. For, not to insist upon the testimony of the


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Mohammedans (which yet I cannot but think of some little

weight in a point of this nature,) it is allowed by the

most sagacious critics, that the second book of Ezra was

written by a Chrisitian indeed, but yet one who had been

bred a Jew, and was intimately acquainted with the fables

of the Rabbins; and the story itself is perfectly in the

taste and was of thinking of those men.[5]

Last but not the least, a Christian writer also proposed that Muhammad(P) got the

information of Jews exalting Ezra to son of God from the Samaritans who said the

Ezra had acted presumptuously and had changed the old divine alphabetical character

of the holy Books of the Law - a character still used and revered to this day by rapidly

dwindling Samaritan community.[6] This author concludes in a rather unchristian way

that:

But it is not at all unlikely that the source of

Mohammed's indictment of the Jews is to be found among

the Samaritans or amongst Arab tribesmen of Samaritan

strain. If we found in Samaritan literature the opposite

belief that Ezra (or Uzair) was the son of Satan, we

would be well-nigh sure of having settled the matter.[7]

And Allah knows best!

Other Articles Related To The Historical Errors

Historical Errors Of The Qur'an: Pharaoh & Haman

The 'Samaritan' Error In The Qur'an

Al-`Aziz & Potiphar

Qur'anic Accuracy Vs. Biblical Error: The Kings & Pharaohs Of Egypt

References

[1]Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 6, Encylopedia Judaica Jerusalem, p. 1108.

[2] G. D. Newby,A History Of The Jews Of Arabia, 1988, University Of South

Carolina Press, p. 59.

[3]Ibid, p. 61.


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[4]Encyclopaedia Judaica,Ibid., p. 1108.

[5] George Sale, The Koran, IX Edition of 1923, London, p. 152.

[6] J. Walker, "Who Is 'Uzair?", The Moslem World, Volume XIX, No. 3, 1939, pp.

305-306.

[7]Ibid, p. 306.

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( lies rebuttal series ) was ‘uzayr (ezra) called the son of god

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