Muhammad: The Hijra[202] Horovitz, Untersuchungen, p. 37, points out that Allah is referred to
in the first person plural in the vv. 9-10, but as third person singular in the
vv. 11f.
[203] A canonical tradition connects this passage with Muhammad's later
prohibition of nudity at the Ka`ba (Sahih Muslim, vol. 4, p. 1555),
however, Nöldeke and Schwally (GQ, vol. 1, p. 159) suggest that these
verses were composed during a pre-Hijra pilgrimage.
[204] See Appendix, D, p. 383.
[205] Muhammad probably confused this with Korah's destruction; cf.
Num. 16:23f.
[206] Nöldeke and Schwally, GQ, vol. 1, pp. 159f. See p. 209, below.
[207] The city the Jews are said to have entered was thought by some
Muslim scholars to be Jerusalem (!); Tabari, Tafsir, vol. 2, p. 704. The
word "hittatun" (="forgiveness") came from either Hebrew or Aramaic;
Jeffery, Vocabulary, p. 110.
[208] Cf. 2:55f, this passage seems to imply that the Jewish dietary laws
were self-imposed. According to Islamic sources, a group of the Jews is
said to have exchanged either the word "habbatun" (="grain"); Sahih
Bukhari, vol. 6, pp. 7 f, 131; or the word "hintatun" (="barley"); Tabari,
Tafsir, vol. 2, p. 705, (cf. also Guillaume, Muhammad, p. 250); for the
word "hittatun" (="forgiveness"). Geiger, WMJA, pp. 18 f, maintained that
the word "khati'yatun" (="sin") may have been meant as the exchanged
word, a form of which is found in both Qur'anic passages mentioning this
supposed event (cf. 7:161; 2:55). In itself, this story of the Jews entering a
city and being commanded to ask for forgiveness does not appear in any
Jewish sources, and was probably due to Muhammad himself (a very
similar story is also told in 4:153f about the Jews disobeying the Sabbath
commandment).
[209] See Appendix D, p. 383.