The Incident That A Jewish Old Woman Threw Garbage On The Beloved Prophet Is Fabricated Or Authentic?

By Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam

 21 July 2022

The Tradition That a Jewish Woman in Makkah Used To Throw Garbage on the Doorstep of the Prophet Is Fabricated On Several Grounds

Main points

1.       This incident is not supported by the Hadith collections or any trustworthy biographies of prophets.

2.       Some grounds demonstrate that this incident is entirely fictitious and baseless.

3.       This incident is unfounded since the chain of narration (sanad) is absent.

4.       There are obvious signs of fabrication in the text of this incident, which makes it unacceptable from the standpoints of both reason and narration.

5.       How is it that the Prophet consistently uses the same path even though he is aware that the elderly woman dumps trash there every day?

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The story of a Jewish woman in Makkah who routinely threw garbage on the Holy Prophet's doorstep in disobedience of his message is mostly related when addressing the attributes and morals of the Holy Prophet. She was unable to do so one day due to illness, therefore the Prophet (peace be upon him) went to see her. She was supposedly not only shocked by what she had done to the Prophet but also humiliated and ashamed of herself. She is said to have converted to Islam because she was so moved by how he had made up for her wrongdoing with good. The question is whether this story is historically accurate and whether it is mentioned in any trustworthy biographies or hadiths.

The response from the Muslim Ulama is that there is no support for this particular incident in the Hadith books or any trustworthy works of prophetic biography, and it appears that this story has spread throughout society without any supporting documentation. However, some Maulvis and preachers mention this incident in their sermons and speeches without citing the proper sources.

It should be noted that any incident attributed to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) must be reported in the reliable books of hadiths in order for it to be considered valid. As a result, any event that is not reported in the reliable books of hadiths is deemed unreliable in Islam and it is not permissible to describe it by attributing it to the Prophet (peace be upon him).

This story is fabricated. It is unnecessary to use such fabricated stories to explain the morality of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) because there is no such incident in the reliable hadith collections. It is neither necessary nor permitted to attribute the aforementioned incident to the Holy Prophet.

The following grounds illustrate how this incident is wholly fabricated and baseless:

First, the chain of narration (Sanad) of this incident is missing, which is why this is baseless. Fundamentally, Islam and other religions can be distinguished from one another as follows: In order to safeguard the foundations of their faith, Muslims created a scientific method based on unambiguous standards for gathering knowledge and verifying it that sets Islam apart from other world religions. Sayyiduna Abdullah b. Mubarak (may Allah be pleased with him) says, 'Isnad or documentation is part of Islamic religion, and if it had not been for Isnad, everybody would have said whatever he wanted.” (Muqaddima Sahih Muslim, 1/316, Dar al-Taaseel, Beirut)

Second, the text of this incident contains blatant indications of falsification, which is problematic from the perspectives of both reason and narration. First, how can Allah, the Exalted, who is Ghayyur (self-respecting), permit an elderly woman to throw garbage on the Prophet (peace be upon him) every day, since He made the body of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) without shade so that the foot of an unbeliever does not step on the shadow of the Prophet?

When Waleed bin Mugheera said the Holy Prophet was afflicted with madness (Ma’az Allah), Allah then listed several of his flaws in Surah Qalam of the Quran, including being a contemptible swearer (Hallaf-in-Maheen), fault-finder (Hammaaz), slanderer (Nameem), hinderer of good (Mannaa’-in-Lil Khair), transgressor (Mu’atad), sinful (Atheem), coarse-grained (‘utull-in), mean and ignoble (Zaneem) (see the Holy Quran, 68:10-16). Similarly, when Umm-e-Jameel and Abul Lahab insulted the beloved Prophet, Surah Lahab was revealed in condemnation of them.

When the delegation of Banu Tamim called upon the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) from outside his blessed room, they were condemned in Surah Al-Hujurat. Allah says in the Quran, “Indeed, most of those who call out to you ‘O Prophet’ from outside ˹your˺ private quarters have no understanding ˹of manners˺.” (49:4). How is it feasible that an elderly woman continued to throw garbage on the beloved Prophet every day yet neither the Qur'an nor the Hadith expressly forbade such behaviour? This is very shocking!

Thirdly, how could the companions, who would not let the water used by the Holy Prophet during ablution (Wuzu) spill on the ground and who would not tolerate the slightest insult against the holy prophet, have allowed the elderly woman to toss rubbish at the Messenger of Allah?

The Prophet himself had stated: "It is not allowed for a believer to subject himself to humiliation," (Jami’ Tirmidhi, Kitab al-Fitan, vol.3, p.327, Daar al-Taaseel, Beirut). Thus how is it possible that he would have travelled through the same path every day despite knowing that the elderly woman throws garbage here every day? This is the fourth reason why this incident is not correct.

For the reasons briefly outlined above, numerous Ulama and experts, both Arab and non-Arab, have issued a consensus fatwa stating that this incident is fabricated and baseless. It is therefore prohibited to recount and propagate this incidence.

Attributing a false narrative, story or event to the Prophet (peace be upon him) is a great evil and a serious sin, because a Mutawatir Hadith states that the beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

(إنَّ كَذِبًا عَلَيَّ ليسَ كَكَذِبٍ علَى أَحَدٍ، مَن كَذَبَ عَلَيَّ مُتَعَمِّدًا، فَلْيَتَبَوَّأْ مَقْعَدَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ)

“Telling lies about me is not like telling lies about anyone else. Whoever tells lies about me deliberately let him take his place in Hell.” (Sahih Bukhari, 1229).

It was also narrated by Imam Muslim in the Introduction to his Hadith book ‘Sahih Muslim’, without the phrase “Telling lies about me is not like telling lies about anyone else.”

In another hadith, the Prophet is reported to have said: “Do not tell lies about me, for whoever tells lies about me will enter Hell.” (Sahih Bukhari, 106) 

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A regular Columnist with NewAgeIslam.com, Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi Dehlvi is a Classical Islamic scholar with a Sufi background and English-Arabic-Urdu Translator.

URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/jewish-woman-prophet-fabricated-authentic/d/127529

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