Islamic Traditionhim. But since Heraclius was indeed succeeded (by many genera^25 tions of
Byzantine emperors), this tradition must have at least predated Heraclius'
death, which was in 641 AD. Other prophecies of Muhammad are also
given in the canonical traditions.^26
Unfortunately, however, many Islamic traditions have proven themselves to
be so unreliable that more than a few Western scholars have co^27 nsidered
practically all of them to be later fabrications.^28
Indeed, even in cases where Islamic scholars could not have helped but
known that the traditions they were using were not accurate, some appear to
have thought a greater good would come by propagating them. One
example of this is a famous tradition in which Umar is said to have brought Hisham b. Hakim to Muhammad because Hisham had been reciting Qur'an 25 differently than he (Umar) had learned it. Muhammad then
reportedly listened to both recite the passage in dispute, replied that both
versions were correct and said that the Qur'an had been revealed in seven
different "letters" (modes, ways). Although some Muslim sch^29 olars later
determined that Muhammad's reply could not have meant seven dialects,^30
many evidently had problems with trying to figure out exactly what was
meant by the term for "letters." Whatever differences may ha^31 ve been
involved though, it is almost certain that Uthman's standardization made them uniform. Nevertheless, the gradual evolution of vario^32 us readings for his text seems to have introduced new discrepancies, and Ibn Mujahid (d. 935 AD) then used this tradition as a justification for the declaration that only seven readings ofUthman's text were legitmate.^33
Although there are Islamic hadith to discourage Muslims from consulting
the People of the Book in religious questions, other hadith do exist which
carry on the tradition of either borrowing from the structure of a Bible
passage or of even modifying Biblical expressions and then claiming them
for Islam. Perhaps the epitome of this process can be seen i^34 n a tradition
which has Muhammad recite an altered version of the Lord's Prayer.^35