Waraqa ibn Naufal

Waraqa ibn Naufal , actually Waraqa ibn Naufal ibn Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn al-Qusaiy Quraschī ( Arabic ورقه بن نوفل بن أسد بن عبد العزى بن قصي القرشي) was an Ebionite priest according to the Islamic tradition and one of the first people to believe in the legation of Muhammad.

He was a first cousin in the paternal line of Khadijas bint Chuwailids , the first wife of the Prophet Mohammed . He was also distantly related to Mohammed himself: Waraqa's grandfather Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā was the nephew of ʿAbd Manāf ibn Qusaiy , an ancestor of Mohammed.

Life

Waraqa is considered to be one of the few Arabs who had fallen away from paganism in pre-Islamic times, but, unlike the Hanīfs , with whom he is often mentioned in a row, was of Christian faith. In the biography of the prophet , his life story remains vague and legendary, despite its importance for confirming the legitimacy of Muhammad's prophetic mission: According to this, he found Christianity during his travels through Syria and learned Hebrew as well as written Arabic. In Mecca he was often close to the Kaaba ; his contemporaries considered him an extremely learned man.

Shortly after the birth of Muhammad, he appeared for the first time as his savior and brought the lost baby back to his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muttalib . When he finally heard of Muhammad's first revelation, he honored this with the words:

“With him in whose hand my soul lies! You are the prophet of this people. The angel Gabriel came to you as he came to Moses. You will be called a liar, insulted, driven away and tried to kill. Verily, when I see that day, I will help God as He knows. "

- Gernot Rotter (translator): Ibn Isḥāq. The life of the prophet . Spohr, Kandern, 2004, p. 47.

How long Waraqa, who is said to have been old and blind at the time of the first revelation, lived afterwards is a matter of dispute in Islamic tradition; either he died before the beginning of Muhammad's public appearance as a prophet, or possibly not until after the hijra . According to the hadith , Mohammed explicitly forbade the abuse of Waraqa and saw him walking in paradise in a dream. In the Muslim reception of history as well as in Western Islamic research, there has been much controversy about whether and to what extent Waraqa could have influenced the thought of Muhammad.

literature

• Chase F. Robinson : Waraḳa b. Nawfal. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Second edition. Vol. 11, 2002, pp. 124f.
• William Montgomery Watt : Muhammad at Mecca . Oxford, 1953, pp. 39ff., 50ff.
• Uri Rubin: The Eye of the Beholder. The Life of Muḥammad as viewed by the Early Muslims. Princeton, 1995, pp. 103ff.