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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Message Chapter 19: The Fiction of Gharaniq It is possible that some of the readers may like to know the origin of the myth of 'Gharaniq', which has been quoted by some Sunni historians, and may incidentally become aware of the hands which have been busy in inventing and propagating falsehoods. The Jews, and especially their religious leaders, have been and are sworn enemies of Islam.

A group of theirs like Ka'b Ahbar who had ostensibly embraced Islam was continuously busy in concealing the realities of Islam by coining falsehoods and publicizing baseless things by ascribing them to the Prophet, and some of the Muslim writers, reposing confidence in all their co-religionists, accepted most of their forgeries without proper scrutiny and compiled them in the shape of tradition and history.

Nowadays, however, more opportunities are available to the scholars for scrutinizing such matters and particularly a set of rules and methods has come into existence as a result of the efforts of the Muslim research scholars for distinguishing historical facts from myths. In the circumstances it is not at all proper for a writer, who is well-versed in religious matters, to accept as final whatever he comes across in a book and to quote it without verification. What is the Fiction of 'Ghayraniq'?

It is said that the chiefs of Quraysh like Walid, 'As, Aswad and Umayyah met the Prophet and proposed that, in order to remove their mutual differences, both the parties should acknowledge the gods of each other.

At that moment 'Surah al-Kafirun' was revealed in reply to their proposal and the Prophet was ordered to speak thus: "I do not worship that which you worship, nor do you worship Him whom I worship." Nevertheless, the Prophet was fiery keen to reconcile with his people and wished that an order might be revealed which should lessen the gap between him and his kinsmen. One day he was sitting near the Ka'bah and reciting Surah al-Najm in a sonorous tone. When he reached these two verses.

"Have you thought on al-Lat and al-Uzza and thirdly on Manat?" Satan suddenly made him utter another two sentences viz. "These are 'Gharaniq' [^1] who are high in position and their intercession is acceptable", and then he recited the remaining verses.