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Tawatur Of The Incident Of First Revelation (Cave Of Hira)
Ghamidi sb in one of his talks said that to check Tawatur we see what is the most commonly held belief amongst the Muslim masses. And all Muslims today believe in all parts of the world that Prophet(pbuh) received his first revelation in the cave of Hira. This is the information that generations have passed on to their successive generations for ages. This is what is being taught at all levels from schools to madaris. How come it can be wrong? Why has it become so popular to an extent that it has formed a tawatur of its own? There is hardly a Muslim present today who thinks otherwise. I wanted to confirm if Tawatur is the scale we use to check if something is authentic or not then why this incident (that Ghamidi sb negates) has reached this level of Tawatur? JazakAllah. @UmerQureshi @Irfan76 @faisalharoon
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4 Replies
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Tawatur Of The Incident Of First Revelation (Cave Of Hira)
updated 5 months, 3 weeks ago
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Please someone clarify this. Would be greatful @UmerQureshi @Irfan76 @faisalharoon
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Mere tawatur is not a sufficient scale to check the authenticity of a belief or tradition. Blind following of baseless tawatur is condemned by Quran (2:270, 26:74, 43:22).
Tawatur has to be accompanied by a documentary proof to be convincing, otherwise it is hearsay. That’s how folklore and mythologies are created: through tawatur of generations.
Moreover, the fact that a belief is widely accepted or prevalent is also not sufficient on its own for establishing authenticity. In logic, it is called “appeal to majority” or “bandwagon effect” and it is considered a fallacy. For instance, most people believe that Pakistan was created on 14th Aug, but relatively fewer people know that the law that created partition was passed on 15th Aug, so it could not have been created on 14th Aug. Yet people continue to believe.
This type of acceptability of distorted facts is not unusual, especially religious beliefs are an easy prey to such distortions.
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I think the proof for the incident of first revelation is very convincing. From the moment, prophethood was announced by Prophet PBUH, the question how the prophethood actually began would have been widely discussed and passed down to succeeding generations. This Tawatur seems to be authentic as it was transferred from its source (companions of Prophet PBUH) by such a large number of people.
As for myths and folkore, they emerge out of nowhere and gain popularity. This is why one faces difficulty in ascertaining the source, which is not the case in this scenario. And the fact that Pakistan was created on 14th is indeed true, masses take the day Quaid took oath as the Governor General as the day of their freedom (which makes complete sense as it marks the creation of Pakistan physically and not on a piece of paper), not the day when its documentation was done by the British Parliament (many people wouldn’t have even known if such a law was present at all).
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The tawatur in historical incidents is referred as established history and it is something which is transmitted from a large number of people of one generation to another from the time of its inception (i.e. from the time of happening of an incident and transmitted by a large number of witnesses – such a large number that it becomes impossible to even assume that thet would collude on a lie while narrating that incident). There is another form of Tawatur which is usually confused with established history i.e. the kind of tawatur which starts getting reported by a large number of people at a later stage of the happening of an incident and not from the stage of its origin. This is a different kind of Tawatur and it still is classified as individual reporting, because it was individually reported at the time of its origination. The incident of Hira is not something which is witnessed by a large number of people to categorize it as Established History. Whatever reportings we have are orginating at a later stage and there are conflicting reportings of the incident and out of those conflicted reports, one particular reporting gained popularity at a later stage and is now being taught everywhere among Muslims. This is called Tawatur of an individual report and not established history.
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